Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Commercial Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html
Both of us loved the green intersections in México City, often with Agapanthus.
On our way to work we passed by numerous parks.
Link below post leads to a video of them at 2:07
On May 24, 1993 Pieter is standing next to one of our blue Agapanthus.
This was one year before we started consulting work in Mexico.
Everything grew in our garden when we had access to the spent mushroom compost... Such a great end product from mushroom cultivation!
Saponaria officinalis in the front or soapwort. We also had Saponaria ocymoides or rock soapwort.
Tall blue Agapanthus and Saponaria in the front.
On March 9, 1993 the same year! Pieter dug ditches for getting rid of the excess water, letting our lot drain.
He also built the first Wood Trail.
Lowes at that time sold ready built squares in treated wood.
And then, in 2004 ALL ditches got filled in with the 60 metric tons of dirt, whichPieter shoveled out from under the house, where he built the Rose Suite!
On April 18, 1993 Pieter with the wheelbarrow full of spent mushroom compost, adding to all plants and shrubs that we planted.
To the left you see already one blue Agapanthus blooming here.
Several of those trees we had cut down, way too many and they compete for food with plants and shrubs more than anything else!
Thursday, April 29, 1993 on Pieter's 64th Birthday...
Even in–between the cross tires that we both placed here (they were put somewhere but NOT in the right spot while we worked in Indonesia), with the help of spent mushroom compost perennials thrived.
This is alongside the driveway and retainer wall.
Our Wood Trail on April 29... what a huge difference with March 9 in photo above; lots of hard work planting and tending for plants and shrubs.
A happy Birthday guy and gardener!
Pieter with our Azalea Helena Curtis
Pieter with the Saponaria officinalis.
Our young Mock Orange
On the cordless phone in the garden...
Wood trail, ditches and to the left in the back you see our veggie garden.
All grew so well on the spent mushroom compost!
Wood trail and to the right you see the gazebo steps and the pond in the center.
Wood trail end and again, our veggie garden.
We sure enjoyed our Paradise, always together with Squirrels and Chipmunks as they were rather tame.
After several years of toiling the soil, adding tons of spent mushroom compost, we developed a very fertile vegetable and fruit garden! Yes, we were getting to see the FRUITS of our labor, after tackling a Mega Task...
Pieter with his Yard Pro Tiller, after a morning of HARD work.
A purebred market gardener!
Pieter showing the good quality soil, after two turns with the tiller.
Still so many roots to be removed and more surprises in the soil, tires that had been dumped there previously by irresponsible people...
There are clickable points when viewed on YouTube, showing our grapes, paprikas (bell peppers), egg plants, squash, raspberries, rhubarb and tomatoes...
Another treasure found due to archiving our home videos.
In Georgia the weather can be unpredictable at times.
Like this SUDDEN WHIRLWIND without rain on Friday, June 19 of 1998.
Quickly I grabbed our video camera and exited through the veranda door to capture our trees bending in the wind.
A very dramatic sky came suddenly...
Next I walked to the wood garden, across the creek where Pieter was working and he showed me a tree that got lifted out of the ground by this strong wind.
Pieter shows that he can place his fingers into the opening created .
If you click on YouTube watching you can see at clickable 2:23 how it is lifted up a few centimeters.
Next morning we had this as our view from the bay window breakfast area...
The 🌳BUCKEYE PREFERRED SERVICES LLC truck was right in front of us...
Our very LAST morning of seeing the huge Oak Tree standing!
This Google image is from 2014 and the oak tree is shown on the left.
The Black Gum tree got cut in 2015, seen to the right...
These 11 seconds give you a clear sight of how the pulley got fastened on a limb, for letting the branches land safely.
Limbs that were above our home, are off already...
That huge oak tree split into a V-shape.
All the branches are already off, of one half of the V-shape...
Took this video of 1 minute and 22 seconds, for showing the GREAT EXPERTISE and PRECISION for getting those tall limbs moved above our side of the vinyl picket fence, and then lowering them.
You once more can see clearly the pulley being used.
The left side of the tall oak's V is completely off here.
All is being done while saving the Holly tree to the right!
You can hear me talk when dew drops fell down onto me, from the shaking of the branches...
Pieter was studying the KUBOTA as it proved so perfect for removing all the limbs and branches and dumping them into the truck alongside the road.
Here you clearly see that our Southern Magnolia did get trimmed up quite a bit!
More and more of the limbs are being lowered down via pulley...
Once down, they were being cut by one of the three team members.
Photo taken from the road, you clearly can see the limited space we had for letting this tree fall.
This short 56 second video showed the precision skill with a long handled saw!
And yes, those two men were in constant communication via their headsets.
The one below operating the rope for the pulley and the one in the cherry picker.
Here is the other half wearing the headset and the rope is being tightened around our big Holly tree.
This 41 second video shows you exactly their great team work and skilled precision!
The backside of our home looks so much better without the huge Live Oak Tree!
A bird house is standing on the table outside on the little patio at the Rose Suite entrance.
Next day, they did use the stump grinder for taking all this out.
We're now ready for the pressure washing of the home and gazebo and then the exterior painting.
Exactly: Cowboys throw a lasso but 🌳BUCKEYE PREFFERRED SERVICES LLC throws a pulley rope with precision!
One has to admire their skills.
Now they went up with two men, inside the bucket from the cherry picker.
Meanwhile the Southern Magnolia is being trimmed.
And branches being hauled off to be loaded onto their truck...
The very top of the 2nd V-section is skillfully being taken down by 2 men inside the bucket.
Now the lead man by himself tackles huge sections, till he reaches the beginning of the V-section.
Here the beginning of the V-section has been reached...
A rope gets fastened for helping pull the tree down after having cut out a wedge below...
Too bad I missed this final part as I had to meet with someone and Pieter was taking his nap.
But down it came!
Here you view the top of that V-section till where they'd cut it down segment by segment.
Wonder what the Japanese Magnolia is thinking now his huge neighbor is down?
And now, our Holly tree has full freedom and it will probably take a couple of years till it has restored itself.
Still some mistletoe left in this tree as well.
A large poplar tree with a broken branch hanging down.
The one to the right is on our neighbor's property and right above our greenhouse!
BUT he did not give us permission to cut it...
Pieter just was going to dump some fruit and veggie peels in our compost bin when he stopped near the downed Poplar tree. Another huge one, with a broken top hanging down on its bark...
And way too close to our green house!
Pieter let them stack this wood near the creek in the back, for woodpeckers to enjoy and chipmunks to roam around in.
We both were so pleased that finally those big trees had come down!
From April on, the weather was not cooperating, too wet for such heavy equipment to come into a soggy garden...
Living on a rather big property, constantly asks for upkeep.
Trees do grow and we're now living here 31 years...
Photo taken on October 15, 2021 and showing our Live Oak behind our home.
At one time, after an ice storm, a huge branch got ripped off, due to all the weight...
It never again had a 'good' shape since then.
See two links below post.
Our balcony's drain always got clogged up by catkins in the spring, then leaves and acorns in the summer and fall.
It also does stain the balustrade and lounge...
Bags full of leaves and acorns and one needs to scrub hard for removing the stains.
The other large oak tree you see over the roof, is across from our bay window area and between our home and that of the neighbors, on our side of the vinyl picket fence...
Several years ago lightning did cause a huge limb from the top section to come down; barely missing the neighbor's home.
Here you see how close to home, picket fence and everything else that V-shaped oak tree is!
To the right of it, right above the rose arbor, is our Holly tree that we want to save...
Our Southern Magnolia in the front (Magnolia Grandiflora) needed to be trimmed up in order to let the equipment pass by...
Photo is from October 15 with picket fence visible to the right.
Monday, November 1, around 8:15 AM this huge Live Oak had come down... It was easy as there was plenty of room for it to fall in its full length.
Quite a trunk size and huge root system.
Photo taken from balcony with one leaf from our Florentine Fig, shown bottom left...
Here, Pieter is standing on top of its trunk, for giving you an idea of its proportion.
Lots of wood did get hauled off...
After trimming off some branches from the huge Southern Magnolia, the truck with cherry picker could pass by...
Standing in our front porch...
One can tell that our exterior pressure washing and painting are the next jobs!
Literally branch by branch all of the tall oak's branches got taken down...
Branches stretched as far as above our roof.
By using a rope, via a pulley that got tightened onto a strong branch, the branches got guided down.
In the front to the right is our Oak Leaf Hydrangea.
Working at quite a height and being careful for not damaging the Holly tree next to this huge oak and the Japanese Magnolia tree visible to the right here. The Southern Magnolia is behind the vinly picket fence, not yet trimmed up...
Lots of limbs have already landed via the rope on a pulley and are below.
You see Pieter talking to the man from 🌳BUCKEYE PREFERRED SERVICES LLC
To the left you see the Southern Magnolia, center is the Japanese Magnolia and to the right we are freeing up our evergreen Holly tree.
Bird baths have been brought towards the patio area...
Those branches remained on the ground as a buffer for next days heavier limb parts to land on...
