I am a retired 44-year veteran of the Real Estate Assessment field. As with real estate assessing and how it applies to real estate taxes, one can make many acquaintances, but not many real friends. It was a great career choice.
It has been nearly 10 years since I reclaimed my home and my real passions within my home. I enjoy it more each day and tip my hat to those who I left behind.
Each day I try to stretch myself with the use of my computer as it relates to this site and using it to print out labels for quilts for trying to incorporate photos into my sewing. Life is so full and I know that I have room for more.
Bedrooms on ground level couldn’t have a better safeguard than these cactus. It is the only cactus that withstands Minnesota winters. The bight green tips in the photo are all new growth. They will eventually put out spines up to a half inch in length. These cactus are more desirable in residential areas than the site of barbed wire.
A rock from Canada, a bit of garden art from the old Randall’s Grocery Store in New Ulm, Minnesota, a white Star of David bloom, and a pink perennial Geranium bloom: a perfect garden setting.
Quite a few years ago my cousin, Jan, added to our garden art. Jan frequents garage sales looking for attractive pieces of glassware. The glass tower was set out about a month ago in a protected area. You never know what the cats will attack, or brush up against. In time, as I walked past the tower, I noticed it was leaning. The clear glass plate under the entire tower was cracked to the degree that there was separation of the pieces of glass. Not knowing what to do, we just laid it on it’s side to give it a good thinking.
On a trip to Mankato, I purchased a 10 lb. bag of concrete mix at Lowe’s. Wednesday I decided to tackle the project. I used a plastic tray that often can be found catching the extra water when watering potted plants. I sprayed the tray heavily with Pam. As I stirred water into my ice cream pail of cement powder, I also added some paint. As I lifted the tower over the wet cement to set it in, I made sure to twist and turn it, to make sure it was sitting on the bottom of the wet cement.
So happy to enjoy this piece of garden
art. It is truly one of a kind that can only be
made and given with true sentiment.
Over the last three days, I have been patiently watching as the concrete turned colors during the hardening process. This morning was the proof of the project. Dennis took a hold of the piece of glassware closest to the concrete and lifted up. Wonder of wonders, the plastic tray stayed on the table top and the glass tower was ready to be returned to the designated plot of plants. Dennis did remind me that when I move the tower or get it ready to be put away in the fall of the year, it will need to be picked up at its base. Doing it any other way, the weight of the base would put too much stress on the remaining pieces of glass that are glued together.
As I said, it could have gone either way. I would have been so sad, if one morning, I would have gone out with my cup of coffee to do my garden stroll and had seen nothing but broken glass of what had been such a beautiful, meaningful gift.
Our yard is like none other . . . so we have been told. Each spring the potting shed beckons us to unload it. 
Each spring we kind of look at the last of the snow that needs to melt, and we think maybe this year we will take a break and just leave the potting shed door . . . shut. So much for that thought. Perhaps we will revisit that thought in the spring of 2016.
Our garden art has been collected over the last 25 years. When you least expected it, a treasure could be found and I could just imagine where it would be put. Dennis has said he doesn’t want the yard to look junky. With the huge yard that we have, there are a lot of places to tuck some here, tuck some there, and before you know it . . . it looks and feels like another great season.
This early spring, with the winds making it feel like a late winter, we bundled up and got a few chairs out on the back patio. If nothing else, the birds made it feel like spring. Before I knew it, Dennis was in the potting shed and came out with a few of his favorite items to put on the north wall of the garage. Over the last month, and today, the final items were brought out and placed in the yard and gardens. The perennials took such a long time to show themselves, I didn’t trust myself to tramp around, until I could see some growth popping up.
As Dennis enjoys his rocking chair in the porch, his view
to the east took on a new look this year.
I have not added to the garden art for several years, but just like in a home it gets rearranged every once in awhile. It makes it seem like a new decor for Stauffer. One of the gals I worked with in the courthouse commented that we decorated our yard much like most people decorate the interior of their homes. Hey, I don’t have to dust the garden art.
Today Dennis got the camera out and was pleased with how the east end of the Koi pond 
was done for this year. If Papa is happy, everybody is happy. We do spend so much time outside on the patios and in the porch, it should be pleasing to the eye. Though our home is not large, in a drop of a hat we can accommodate several people or a crowd in the great outdoors.
The main reason for the energy we expend on the yard and gardens is for our very own enjoyment. Just farmers at heart, when spring arrives, it feels so normal to dig in the dirt and be outside. At the end of the day, more times than not you will find Dennis and me sitting on the patio while enjoying a York Peppermint Patty to close another great day.
This morning I knew from the first cup of coffee, my head was in a funk. I also know myself well enough that if I don’t nip it in the bud, it’s a slippery slope and it is not good. Dennis volunteered to do the poppy displays for the VFW in the small cities and I was on my own. I got dressed, and gathered garden tools and attacked the windrows of Maple seeds that had dropped with the rain of yesterday. The dirt was plenty wet, but using a rake I did make huge inroads in the 100′ lineal feet of flower beds. As the bushel baskets got full, the seeds hit the garbage bag. I do know that those that I didn’t get will soon have little hairlike roots. By next year those little buggers would be hard to pull out. Very aggressive seed pods.
After several hours with shoes that seemed to weigh a ton with mud hanging from them, I took a break and the funk was thwarted. Call it a funk, or call it mild depression; I do not allow it to get the best of me. I know by physical exertion, to the point of it being hard physical exertion, I can beat it. No meds can do what working up a sweat can do.
Wax Begonias are the favorite for the three-tier planter. Dennis and I first saw planters such as this when we drove through Pella, Iowa, in times gone past. It wasn’t long after that, we noticed Johnny Hill’s Standard Gas station site in Hector, Minnesota, was selling them. At the time we put in the patio we had the stand cemented in place. Today was a very windy and cool day, but there have been years when I would do battle with gnats to get the plants in place. If the squirrels don’t get too curious, the pots should begin filling in nicely and continue to bloom right through and beyond the first frost of the fall of 2015.
The sporting season on Stauffer has started.
Lena’s Fern Peonies: Struggling.
Butter Ball and Snuggles: Scoring with each bat of a paw.
It was time for some intervention: Critter Ridder.
We have an acre of various types of vegetation for the cats to play in or demolish, just because they can. The Fern Peony plants were shared with me from my mom, Lena. She, in turn, received them from my Dad’s mother. The Fern Peony tubers are very expensive in nurseries to the tune of $40 for one little spindle growing in a four inch pot. It does take years for the tubers to multiply into a wonder showing in a bush.
Dennis has witnessed Butter Ball batting at a stem with a bud on it until the bud falls off. Then the bud is fair game as it is played with. Of course, the peony bushes are also a lot of fun for the two cats to jump into and lay on the cool stems or start a tussle with each other.
Tomorrow morning, when it is fairly cool, I will spray the two peony bushes that are under attack with the product Critter Ridder. The label reports that it smells and tastes awful, with their paws also feeling a reaction.
I do realize that the tubers will be intact for the next year if the buds do not result in beautiful blooms this year. Hopefully, by the 2016 growing season, Butter Ball and Snuggles will be fat lazy cats, lying on the patio, watching birds strut by their noses.
Mowing season is Dennis’ favorite time. I must say the acreage always looks very manicured. As far as I am concerned the fuel that the mower takes is money well spent. Happy cowboy, happy Stauffer Avenue.
Dennis just couldn’t hold off any longer. The riding lawnmower was whispering in his ear and he followed the call. Did the grass need to be cut? No, it needed to be trimmed, as some grass was very long and some was not so long. The end result was that the acreage looks wonderful.
I couldn’t very well sit on my hands while Dennis was toiling. I retrieved the clipper and the lopper and tended to some of the branches on the shrubs. It actually was perfect timing, as those branches that hit Dennis shoulder height got clipped or chopped off. Just a bit of trimming to encourage new growth.
With it being the third weekend of April, it could end up being a long season of mowing, only if we get some measurable rain. So far, we may have had three fourths of an inch since the snow melt. It was not enough rain to wash off the dust that remained on the grass from the last of the melting snow. Both of us commented on how gritty we felt from the day. We decided on fried eggs and toast and then hit the showers.
This ole cowboy had a plan and there was no taking any breaks.
Yesterday Dennis mentioned freshening up the North wall of the potting shed. The Koi pond’s south side is the North side of the potting shed. Once the weather turns warm, Dennis may decide in a heart beat to get the Koi out of the horse tank in the garage and turn them loose in the pond. For several years, after the Koi are in the pond . . . “Oh yeah, we were going to paint first.”
The potting shed is ready to be a part of the Koi pond.
I heard Dennis get up this morning and with one eye cracked, I could see it was still dark out and thus the eye closed for another two hours. When we did meet for coffee in the porch, Dennis had the project all planned. Today the temps were to be 60 – 70 degrees. Exterior painting can be done with temps at minimum of 55 degrees. Dennis had already brushed all the cob webs off of the North wall and after breakfast he would be heading to the lumber yard for paint.
I was told I was to be on hand for supervising. With Dennis balancing a pail of paint while on a ladder that was balanced on two planks on the bottom of the Koi pond, I would have not been anywhere else. I must say, the project went off without a hitch, just like Dennis had anticipated. By 12:30 Noon time, the painting was done. It was then just a matter of washing up the items that were on the potting shed for trim and decorations.
I was encouraged to make a trip into my basement stashes to find some new greenery. I must say, we are way ahead of ourselves this spring. March 16th and the painting that was needed to be done can be checked of the list. We spend a lot of time on the back patio and it will just be so much sweeter having had the potting shed with an update.
The Snowball Bush is the first of the spring shrubs to bloom. This little fellow had one more burst, even after the
frost. That is perseverance.