Where the stories start...

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Inch-by-inch, row-by-row...

 Visitors

Three feet from my house. Note the mange spots on this woodchuck's rump. I gave this animal a stern scolding and don't expect that she will return.

This fellow was attempting to have my ducks for dinner. The mesh panel you see is the door to their enclosure. A harshly-worded memo was composed and delivered at 1240fps.

 Plants are going into the ground

Next to Southern Belle's back porch. Lovage circled in red. Tagetes minuta circled in white. Peppermint circled in yellow. Being able to step out of your kitchen door and harvest fresh herbs is priceless.
I planted a tomato plant in her garden but then the farmer started spraying 2,4-D on the field next to her house. You win some and you lose some. I will wait a few days before I attempt a replant.

More plants

I put my tomato plants into the ground today. I am only planting 12 of them which is causing me some anxiety.

I also planted four grafted plums, seven seedling chestnuts, 50 peach pits and about 12 poplar cuttings (DN170).

The next 160 inches north/south by 24 feet east/west will be sowed with oats. That space is reserved for late cabbage plants. 

Tomatoes

Assorted trees

Broccoli

 

Another Dacha video

HERE

It is springtime and things are leafing out.

Nursery stock at the local flea-market.

One characteristic of Eastern Europe and Central America is that men with "skills" migrated to stronger economies and basic maintenance like tuck-pointing mortared joints is neglected back-home.
My expert in all-things Soviet pointed out that the white, unglazed, larger-than-standard-size brick is very unusual in former Eastern-Bloc states and that there is probably a story about how it ended up where it is.
Hop vines overwhelming the fence left-foreground. Beer brewers and drinkers? It is also worth pointing out the concrete utility poles on the right side of the frame.

Raised mound in the background behind the two women is a root-cellar.

They had a huge amount of die-back on their grape arbor. Perhaps they let it over-bear and in entered winter in a depleted state. Or maybe they had a test winter.

5 comments:

  1. The cure for many pests...high speed lead injection. It'll cure what ails ya.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ref the block used in the house. It looks like AAC , areated autoclaved concrete, which is used in many European countries. I was involved in a test operation here in the states. That failed due to bad raw materials. When properly produced, it's an excellent insulation product, very lightweight and fireproof.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AAC was never produced in the USSR. The first Russian plant, a very low volume effort, was commissioned in 1993. The first Ukrainian AAC plant will be commissioned later this year.

      A dearth of powdered aluminum seems to have inhibited production of AAC in the eastern reaches.

      Delete
  3. Concrete utility poles...

    When the USAF stationed me on Okinawa, I was surprised to see concrete utility poles. Then I considered the price of wooden poles on an island.

    Why in Eastern Europe?
    Price, obviously. It's always price.

    I just dunno why...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would have given the wood chuck the same treatment as the bandit got. Never give any rodent anything but lead.

    ReplyDelete

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