Playing Catch-Up

It's been awhile since my last post and a lot has happened - some good and some not so good.


Drilling the three wells for the geo-thermal heating and cooling system.

Molly thinks Daisy makes a good pillow. Daisy is simply tolerating the situation.

Shingles are now on the entire structure.

 Here comes the not-so-good.  One day Doug noticed the foundation for the greenhouse didn't quite look right. He checked the blueprint and sure enough, the foundation was wrong.  The crew that laid out the wooden forms for the concrete footings and foundation did not read the blueprint correctly. Our greenhouse was not going to fit.  Trying to make the necessary changes to the greenhouse would make the finished structure look as though it had been patched not to mention the additional $4,700 cost.  The concrete company chose to rip out the entire foundation and floor and rebuild the entire structure. Since the original had been poured right along with the house and since all the wiring from the house to the geo-thermal had already been put in place under this structure tremendous care had to be taken to do it right. Our contractor and the concrete company's supervisor as well as Doug were directly involved in the entire destruction process.  Our contractor is below in the khaki shirt, shorts and knee pads; the concrete company's supervisor is in red. 

It's all gone now. The incorrect footings are 42" down and will remain while the new and corrected footings will be poured inside the wrong ones. They will begin a new pour sometime????

“there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.” Shakespeare

I must take a break from the house building and post the story of my Rosemary.  Sixteen years ago my husband found a small house for sale by owner in an airpark in Aguila, AZ. At the time we were living in one of the the two best places in the world, Salida, CO. The other best place is where we are now living.   Doug wanted to live with his airplane and he wanted to work in aviation and that was nearly impossible in Salida. And so we put our Salida house up for sale and moved to Eagle Roost Airpark, Aguila, AZ.   There was only one truly redeeming quality about the house for me and that was the magnificent Rosemary growing in the back yard. I named her Mama Rosy and I nurtured her for 15 years. She in turn produced many little Rosy babies. Some of these I shared with friends. However, there were three which I grew in small pots and brought with me to MI having no idea if they would survive such an arduous journey. Mama Rosy meant more to me than just a simple plant; she was the plant I chose to work with for Susan Weed's Green Allies Herb class because I felt a special pull to this plant in particular and to all Rosemaries in general.  My three Baby Rosies made the trip to MI alive but struggling ever so slightly. When we arrived in early April northern MI was still caught in the grip of winter. I covered my babies up at night and gave them sunshine, when it was shining, during the day. They survived and today there are lovely new and tender shoots growing from each of the three plants.

BTW - when we left AZ Big Mama Rosy had grown from a relatively small plant to approximately 10 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 5 feet high. She was (is?) magnificent. The man who bought our house is not a gardener and thus I worry about Big Mama.