Slug Challenge Kick-off 2018

The first seeds have been planted. This means that my yearly challenge has been issued to the slugs who are the de facto overlords of The Crooked Wood.

I think this is year two (?) for my flat-topped hugelkultur bed. 

I bought a bigger bottle of Abundance liquid fertilizer at Seedy Saturday this year, but last year's empty is still in my garden. I think this photo demonstrates how picturesque it can be to be messy and a total chaos muppet.

I hear slugs hate sand, so I gave this bed of bok choy and other greens a good sprinkling...

Salinger enjoys gardening. And, of course, he is quite good about staying off the planting beds –
at least when anyone is watching. Now, if only I could help him acquire a taste for hunting slugs – but ugh.

Some of the open-sourced seeds I got from the lovely folks at Seedy Saturday this year
(held in Dayspring at the Municipal Activity and Recreation Complex, aka the MARC, back in February).

The garlic I planted in the fall is several inches above the ground, so that's encouraging. I am planning to build many more hugelkultur beds in the next couple of weeks – some for veggies, some for flowers and herbs, some located along my driveway and others on the land that was cleared around the new cabin. 

I am also harbouring some nut tree fantasies. I haven't decided yet if those are in my budget for this year, but I expect you know the saying: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

The Move: Part 1

We went up to the Tiny Home's proposed location today to do a site inspection. 

The view from the bottom of the driveway. Pretty, hunh?

I was very excited this morning about the prospect of moving the home tomorrow, but I'm afraid the driveway does not look conducive to getting the house up there. 

We've had a very wet winter here in Nova Scotia, with lots of snow and rain, and it's been warm the last couple of days. The last stretch of the driveway is pretty sloppy and even without towing the trailer, the truck was having some traction problems. 

I'm still hopeful that with a hard freeze, we might be able to put it on site this week, but I'm realistically accepting the possibility that it just won't happen.

These photos will give you an idea of what we're up against:

The first stretch of driveway will be easy peasy!

Slow for the first curve...

Take the left fork...

Come up by the house (looks like no problem,
but this stretch was greasy today)

If we can make it up here, all will be good! Look how pristine it is and the sweet sound of the
brook babbling alongside made my heart flutter. (In the foreground are stumps ready
for levelling the Tiny Home and deck blocks for the deck).

We'll hope for a hard freeze tonight and will check conditions in the morning. There's only one way in or out of the property, so it's not an option to get stuck. If we don't think we can do it, we'll check conditions again on Wednesday (before the next big forecast snowstorm).

If we can't safely do it in the next couple of days, we won't be likely to get it up on site before July when things have dried out and we've gotten a chance to have a little work done on the driveway. Fingers crossed, everybody!

The chickens followed us around through most of the process.