Roadtirement meets a stay at home order

Stuck at home thanks to COVID-19

Quick, look over here

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Well, I guess you don’t have to look quickly at all. But have a look at our Roadtirement green beans and lettuce.

Green beans

Lettuce

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the COVID-19 shutdowns, stay at home orders and our desire to not catch this virus, Sher and I and our son decided that this year we’d  try growing some different vegetables in our garden plot. We also increased the size of our garden. So far we have harvested lettuce three times for use on sandwiches. Yummy! And as you can see, the green beans have put on flowers and getting ready for the beans to grow.

Watching the BLM and other protests

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We have been  watching the live coverage by mostly free lance journalists of the protests occurring all over the United States.

The YouTube video embedded below is from JacobSnakeUp’s channel with archived live coverage of protests. This one displays several different streams at once from different media folks, and is coverage from yesterday, June 27th. He streams these live just about every night. We would not have known that protests are still going on to such a degree had we not found his live stream.

 

Backyard visitor

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I was enjoying sitting outside with a cup of coffee in the backyard this morning. Beautiful sunny day, temps approaching 80, and a lot of birds to watch at the feeder.

Then this young squirrel decided to join the birds in the yard. He hopped around for quite a while, and was still there when I went in. In the foreground is the Black Cherry sapling that we got from the DNR giveaway trees program. We are fortunate to have a nice yard where we can watch the wildlife and have space for gardening.

Remember to keep doing the things that keep you safe!

Finished with the mulch project

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If you’ve been following along with some of the projects Roadtirement has been working on during our COVID-19 stay safe at home time, you will know that mulching has been a big part of our flower garden design. (Whew, what a long sentence!)

Herbs and wildflower starts on an old stump

Still needing a bit of grass/weeding work, but close to done

Our son has been such a great help in toting bags of mulch and spreading same. The herbs are doing very nicely, and seem happy to be on the remains of an old trees stump. Sher spread some wild flower seeds on the rich soil on the sides of the stump, and several seeds have already sprouted.

Progress continues on the flower garden

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The past few days have been very productive in Roadtirement’s garden and landscape project list.  The primary task list included preparation for, and placing of a mulch base for the flower garden. Our son did most of this work.

A progression of progress

We still have a bit of mulch left to place. It will go around the old tree stump where Sher currently has a grouping of herbs. This stump may also end up as a Fairy Village.

Unfinished mulch job and placement of herbs on the stump

Close up view of one of the glacial rocks we collected for the garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

A better look at the “getting close to finished” project

In addition, Maj planted more trees that we got from the DNR. Our total tally ended up with two Black Cherry trees and three Tulip trees. We thought we only had two Tulip saplings,  when in fact we had three in the bundle.

Some more things spotted in the yard

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Here’s some more images of some plants around the yard. We did get a nice thunderstorm this afternoon. I won’t have to water anything today.

We decided to use both sink compartments for flower plantings. We’ll get another something for a bird bath. Since we have put up the bird feeder our backyard has become very popular with the neighborhood avian population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rose bush is new, just got it planted a few days ago. We were surprised and happy to see the new bloom at the peak of the bush! Roses are so pretty…

Seen in our backyard

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Just a couple of images from our backyard. This really isn’t a photo blog, but we do like to share pictures. So maybe it is a photo blog….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The writing tool is in the mushroom picture for scale. We got the Black Cherry tree at a local DNR giveaway. It is in a tomato cage to protect it as it starts to grow. We also got a couple of Tulip trees as well.

We found an old growth forest and trail

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Every once in a while you stumble upon a new to you attraction. While researching  central Indiana trails and forests I came across a small but delightful gem in Shelby County, which is south east of Indianapolis. The gem is a nearly 50 acre nature preserve called Meltzer Woods Nature Preserve.

The unique quality of this property is found in its description: The forest is considered an original old-growth stand that was placed in Indiana’s Classified Forest Program in 1928. In 2014 it was protected forever when it was acquired by the Central Indiana Land Trust. An old-growth forest is one that has trees that are at least 150 years old and has not been cleared for a century or longer.

The trail

National Natural Treasure designation

 

 

 

 

 

Meltzer Woods is a wonderful place to spend time in nature, and to get a sense of what Indiana forests were like when the first European settlers arrived. Many of the trees are older than Indiana’s Statehood in 1816. Some have even been dated back to the 1600s. There is an easy and nearly level 1.3 mile trail that wanders through the forest. Magnificent trees, wildflowers galore, and interesting understory make for an inspiring walk through the forest and go back in time to when 80% of Indiana was covered in forests like this.

Dense understory

 

 

 

 

 

The Meltzer family first bought this ground in 1857. The family still owns adjacent farm ground and still farms today. Rain was threatening yesterday, and we decided to return another day when we could take the trail and really enjoy this historic and natural corner of Indiana. There is ample parking across the road, and Google Maps knows where it is if you are in the area.

A committee of vultures

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On a drive today we saw many large black birds in a field next to a rural county road. I had my son stop the car for a better look and a photo op. The committee of vultures started to move away from the road,  some walking and some flying close to the ground before they settled down again.

And by the way, there are three different names for a group of vultures. Different circumstances dictate what name applies at the time. A committee is a group resting on the ground or in trees. A wake is a group feeding. And when you see lots of vultures soaring in the sky, wings outstretched with little or no flapping, well that is called a kettle of vultures.

Power outage…..seriously?

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Yep, the storm last night caused a power outage. The Electric utility company sent out a text at about 5 am telling us that our power was out. Expected to be fixed by 8:30 am.

Next text at 7:15 am reporting that the power was back on. Yes, Amazon Echo did light up. For about 4 minutes, it was on, then off again.

Next text at 7:20 am again stating “a power outage has been identified in your area and may impact (our address). The current estimated time for restoration is 9:15 am on May 18”.

Next text at 9:45 am puts the restoration at 12:30 pm. Outage caused by equipment damage. Dang, I need coffee!

Sher and I are now in our RV in the drive way. The on board generator is purring along smoothly. We are having coffee (whew), enjoying TV via the broadcast bat-wing antenna, and kind of like being back on the road. Well, not really, but we are glad we have the opportunity to have coffee and internet via our phone hotspots. There is something nice about hearing the rain on the RV’s roof.

Power outage, yet another aggravation during this COVID-19 thing. Sigh…..