So I have had a little time on my hands 
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have time to get out in the garden and do some work.
We have a lot of cleavers out there. Fortunately, we also have chickens that adore the cleavers. Anywhere I yank out cleavers and weeds, I am planting clover. Its a cover-crop that will choke out anything that isn't meant to be there. It will flower and then go to seed, but its also easily turned over as well.
After some monkeying with an older Craftsman Eager-1 lawnmower for about an hour, Josie and I discovered that the engine and everything in it was entirely shelacked over from old gas. We tried to free it, but it was no go. Fortunately, we have 2 lawnmowers, and the second one fired right up. I mowed the front lawn and away we went 
I put the defunct lawnmower out front of the house, and before I had a chance to ask Lynn to FreeCycle it, it was gone. Under 10 minutes. Ummm...this makes me a bit uncomfortable, as it wasn't even listed yet, but I take solace in knowing that whoever stole it -- I hadn't listed it yet, so it was technically stolen -- is going to get a rude surprise: it doensn't work and it has a broken seal that will leak gas all over everyone and everything. HAH!
we have a lot of interesting weeds out there, and I think I need to make a tool to dig them up. I need a LONG shovel with a small handle to get in under the weeds and pop them up. I am thinking a hand-shovel attached to a long handle. I will get that going this week (I need to buy a couple of new handles anyway for some the equipment that is just old and giving up the ghost.
So here are some photos of the yard.
These brown areas you see are the "guilds" or groupings of trees with underplantings and berries either under the (future) canopies or driplines of the trees:
This is the Dogwood behind the house, and it badly needed a pruning. Some of the branches were lowhanging at odd-angles, and there were a lot of dead branches that were choked off:
[Lynn adds: The red thing is our chicken tractor.]
I am pruning back the laurel hedge as well...we have a chipper coming sometime this month, and we want to have a good pile of stuff for the chipper when it arrives. One whole side (Quinn and Logan's side for those who have hung around with our daughters) will be coming down to the ground, and the hedge to the back of us will be coming down to about 6' and then we intend to keep it well trimmed from here on out.
Don't worry, though...the wood inside the hedge will be kept as building material. I will have the girls strip off the branches and we'll keep the logs around (some of this laurel is 10" in diameter.)
My sister is getting married in August, so we have volunteered to bring up a bunch of flowers for her. She called last night and I asked how much space she would need. I offered her a 20'x6' swath, and she laughed...said that most of the folks offering have been adopting 3-4 of the Gerbera Daisies. I said we could take on the rest. It would just be watered along with our other stuff.
Today, I break out the chainsaw
Other pictures:
Japanese plums developing--we have a volunteer plum as well that's putting out fruit this year:
A view of a pawpaw guild, the willow arch and the lilac hedge:
And the reason we homeschool. This is Josie on the swing, writing as she goes:
 | PERMACULTURE: A Designers' Manual asin: 0908228015 |
 | How to Make a Forest Garden asin: 1856230082 |
 | Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture asin: 1890132527 |
 | Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community asin: 193339207X |
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