Marasmius sp.

 When working in our wood garden, husband Pieter found in the shade on a piece of old wood these lovely Marasmius sp.

Just thought to share these with you, as blogger friend Kim showed them in her lovely blog not too long ago: "Parasols" ←click on link for viewing her excellent photo.It no doubt is a Marasmius sp. and it looks very much like the Marasmius ramealis ←click on link for images.

Digging out Part of the Mountain of Dirt left under the House by Contractor

 Yep, after living and working in Indonesia, we still did continue doing consulting work but no longer than 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

So we finally since early May of 1992, could start working on home & garden...

Our contractor left us with a huge mountain of dirt UNDER THE HOUSE!

While we were working/living in Indonesia, he started constructing the house, which Pieter had designed, by making the drawings all himself.

Two levels on the driveway end and one level on the kitchen side.

The contractor did ask if we wanted a wine cellar but we said no, we don't need that.

Not realizing by not wanting that, he also bypassed any concrete flooring...!

Oh dear, when you're not physically present at times; big problems can arise that need to be dealt with later. 

Neither was there Internet for quick communication...

Always harder too, for correcting a problem like that later, as you barely can access the area for a fast and efficient excavation.

But we needed to get rid of the musty heap of 60 tons of dirt!

In August of 1991, I've dug out already a big section, as much as we needed to fill in for washed out dirt that Pieter rode then out in the wheelbarrow... See: The FIGHT of Growing Grass in Subtropical Georgia/USA ←click it.

This time, Pieter himself dug out a lot more, as we planned to build our pantry.

You can best watch this on YouTube, and use the clickable points that I've inserted and written about, below video.You can see the start of the digging and wheeling out, in the beginning, on a nippy cold February day (my Birthday) and next the construction of our pantry in progress.Having a dirty house, at least downstairs, I only kept up with the extra laundry and also captured our Garden Critters in-between filming Pieter's hard labor.Pieter indeed has been a worker bee; all his life and he's done it ALL.At the end of the video, you also see at clickable 38:07 after 20 days of labor, the completion of the construction of our pantry. At clickable 39:16 Pieter lets the viewers peak behind the added door from the pantry underneath the house, where the remainder of the mountain of dirt remained, till he dug it all out in 2004 for constructing our Rose Suite.With those 60 tons that came out, we could nicely grade our garden.At clickable 42:18 showing garden with wooden walkway, our wood trail on the left of our gazebo. You also get to see the ditches, dug for draining the swampy section! They were by then nicely clad with mosses!
Related links:The FIGHT of Growing Grass in Subtropical Georgia/USA | previous post Non Glamorous Wheelbarrow Job for Filling and Raising Swampy Parts | previous post{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part I} | previous post by me where Pieter dug out the 60 tons of dirt{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part II} | previous post by me

Cleaning Our Pond and Fountain

 Not an easy task for keeping the fountain on the rock island in our pond running smoothly, as seen in the Middle Georgia Magazine Video that starts with our fountain.

Also for cleaning up the pond...

Pieter used our inflatable rubber boat to get the job done, using a special foot pump.

Another dirty job...!

Trying to dredge all the unwanted things out of the pond's edge and putting them on the lawn for gathering up later in the wheelbarrow.

This is also the way how Pieter had to peddle up to the island that he'd build where the fountain was placed.

Hoisting treated wooden poles into the bottom for building the platform.

On top of the platform natural rocks got placed, that we found on our property. In the center the fountain got placed.

The filter of that fountain often got clogged up... so he had to go there and take it out for cleaning.

Our pond is BIG, in this photo you can still see on the left the rock island.

SEVERAL times, his boating adventure went wrong...

Pieter also used to tie a rope on the oak tree for holding onto.

And another rope onto the willow tree that we had in the back of the pond.

By working on the fountain's filter and fastening it again in the center of the rocks, Pieter pushed the boat away and ended up in the pond.

This happened after lunch, as I still was cleaning up dishes before joining Pieter in the garden for weeding...

When I came downstairs, his jeans were hanging over the retainer wall alongside our driveway... all wet.

What happened?!

Oh, I fell into the pond... was Pieter's reply.

And you did that without me being there, seeing it and laughing my head off?!

Pieter quickly did hose down himself and his jeans, on the driveway and changed into dry clothes for the next attempt.

Oh, by doing this, he also lost several of his tools, they're at the bottom of the pond...

When the snapping turtle started knocking off the big rocks by climbing onto the fountain's platform, Pieter gave up going there for straightening the fountain and for cleaning it up.

He finally removed the entire platform.

Also because mice had chewed holes into the no-longer-inflatable boat!

Oh, keeping up with a nice and romantic pond can be so much fun.

Do you have a pond?

Related link:

Our Garden at the Time we had Access to Spent Mushroom Compost | video showing our pond's fountain at beginning...