NEW OAK BARRELS!

Truck full of barrels

Moving one of four

Today we got four oak barrels from one of Jim's clients.  We've been looking for more barrels for ages.  In fact, I broke down and bought three half barrels this past week while in OC because they were available for a reasonable price.  These new local barrels were very pungent with odors of yeasty, boozy beer and more!
 

Cutting the first barrel

TA DA!  Much easier than anticipated!

We brought them home, got them all cut in half and they are currently soaking/partially filled with water to keep their integrity while I look into getting some more dirt and compost.

 

Soaking the barrels till we have dirt

We will plant flowers in some along the road in front of the garden, some will hold melons in the garden.... and maybe another blueberry  a couple will go by the chicken coop (dreaming here) and a couple might go across the creek where we like to sit after work with appetizers.  That seems like more than eleven half barrels.  I still have to drill holes in all of these (which takes a while as the oak is VERY hard) but I'm very excited about all of these new gardening opportunities.

 

Building a bigger deer fence around the yellow peach tree

Jim also pulled the old (and recently too small) deer fence from around the yellow peach tree and rebuilt a bigger fence.  She now has room to stretch out an looks much better.