Teepee Man

A teepee?  A real tee pee? How many people have a full size teepee in their back yard? Well, actually it's not ours, it belongs to Phil, a.k.a. Teepee Man.

Phil comes and goes freely at Birdland. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure if he lives there or not. He sure seems to be there a lot and he comes and goes at all different hours. But I guess you can do that when you're designing your own village. I do give Phil a lot of credit for being a visionary and experimental in the area of shelter on the cheap. I guess that's why Russel likes him and allows him free reign at his spot next to the goldfish pond at Birdland.

What started out as a teepee for any normal guy in his forties to get away to,  has developed into a neighborhood of, let's see, I think I counted six structures last weekend, including the teepee. The real interesting thing about the neighborhood is it's transformation to more of a modern look.  Phil has taken the bold step of incorporating glass and plastic, stretch wrap in particular, into his designs. An architectural clash in comparison to the lone teepee in the middle of the woods. Think futuristic meets minimalist and add a good dose of rustic, put 'em in a blender and viola!, you've got the plastic, glass, sticks and twine teepee village.

The stick structures are assembled in a way that would make any survivalist swoon. The sticks or small limbs are lashed together with twine and then the entire structure encased with stretch wrap. For the winter house, a thick layer of leaves is applied over the wrap to provide insulation value, then another layer of wrap over the leaves to provide waterproofing. Add a wood burning fireplace and you're set. The engineering behind it makes perfect sense. The mice love it. It's the fireplace inside that's a little un-nerving for me. 

The summer house is similar in construction however, it's screened on the lower section with aluminum insect screening, shrink wrap for a roof, animal skins on the dirt floor, and a recliner; a must have for any guy. The summer house looks out over the recent pier he built out into the pond where he watches over a small and high yielding crop of hydroponic tomatoes growing in 5 gallon buckets. Very impressive and decent tasting tomatoes, too.

The main nerve center for the village occurs in a glass box. Any assembly, planning, supplies, cooking, entertainment and refrigerator are in "the box". Power is supplied with about 1000' of extension cord snaking its way through the woods. Originally, Phil tapped off the main house but Russel's tenant complained. I don't know what he does now. With such a long run of extension cord, I'm surprised anything other than powering a dim bulb would work. Other utilities powering the village are a half dozen 20# propane tanks, a forest full of wood for burning and a pond for non-potable water usage.

What about sanitation facilities? This is one of the most unique features of the village. As a matter of fact, I have never seen or known of any existence of a structure with the attributes of all glass panels and shrink wrap to incorporate a toilet facility. A box for reading materials and freshening up supplies, always feeling that you're totally a part of nature yet, free from a billion mosquitoes. No need for night-time lighting, just shine a flashlight out of the teepee door to light the path and light up the potty. Brilliant!

I probably never will see one of these elsewhere. I don't want to see these elsewhere but, you do have to admit, it is interesting to look at, not being used.

The Islands

Over the dining room table, this previous winter, it began to grow, picture clippings, scaled drawings, aerial photos, plant statistics, large sheets of drawing paper, rulers, straight edges, pencils and erasers. It became the planning room. There's no more room to have a meal here anymore. Katherine and I would just sit on the couch and eat, talk about plants, cultivars, spacing, pollinators, compatibility issues, money, labor, money, more money, etc. Katherine was/is the architect of this project. She has poured countless hours of effort, researching the plants, finding sources, budgeting the allowances and planning the islands. I was more concerned about the logistics of things; preparing the site, managing and nurturing, operation and maintenance. This planting project will be spread out over an area of approximately five, to maybe seven acres.

We took our large sheets of paper out to Birdland and laid out our trees and shrubs with survey flags as best as possible according to the plan drawn. Like most plans, particularly in construction, things get modified along the way, an adjustment here, a tweak there. All in all, things went fairly well and we began the creation outline of the islands. We sprayed a perimeter outline with spray paint and then applied glyphosate to kill the grass inside the paint lines to create the islands. About a few weeks later, the island profiles looked good and planting began in earnest. By the end of May, all but a few of the 400+ trees and shrubs had been planted. Not bad for the two of us. We we're proud of our accomplishment. That's when I learned about mulch, the good and the bad.

I have to confess that I'm a neophyte at this landscaping on a grander scale kind of thing. It's a lot more than what I'm used to; plant a few annuals around the house, an occasional shrub, mow the lawn, winter prune a few trees, that's about it. I'd rather be constructing buildings on a grander scale but, the economy is pathetic, particularly in the construction industry and this keeps me engaged in planning and visioneering. I've been told, by Katherine, that this first year is absolutely the most crucial year for these plants.  Katherine has a connection with "her" plants that I don't. She handles them like handling a newborn, talking to them, coddling them, mothering them, knowing all the particulars of each and every one. They're adjusting to their new permanent home in their island paradise and need a lot of TLC. ( remember that logistics concern of mine? ) I don't have that touch. I've been accused of "man handling" these plants and I've been relegated to wheelbarrow duty, chainsaw duty to the back 80 and dealing with invasive plants. I have to asked for permission to put shovel to soil and be supervised whenever I'm in the islands. Anyway, back to the mulch.

The majority of soil where we planted is loamy and very sandy. It doesn't hold water very well. A recent soil test came back with a pH of 5.5, P51,K62, organic mater 4.0%. We'll amend with llama poop and mulch. Russel has a local source of llama poop and it seems to be the real deal in terms of being an excellent soil amendment. Buckets of the stuff have been loaded into the back of his Honda Passport, and Katherine provided each plant with a good dose of the stuff. Next was the mulch, and we needed a lot of it. I phoned the utility company to inquire about mulch loads from line clearing operations, as the chip/mulch mix was free. A few days later I received a call from the field supervisor of Davey Tree. He  informed me that they could provide a load for us, when they were working in the area. I said, "great, bring it out". A couple of weeks went by and our new plantings were beginning to suffer. The sandy soil didn't offer much in the way of moisture retention and mulching would definitely would help. I didn't have the supervisors phone number because I just assumed they'd be dropping off a load right away. I guess they just weren't working in the area. We needed mulch and we needed it now. Our first load was from a local guy down the road. He got it free from the utility company, but we had to pay him because we were desperate. He dropped it off for us,  about 5 yards of it, $100. That load went fast. We were able to spot mulch most plants, but not all. The grass killer seemed to be a temporary fix and with the rains and heat, the grass is making it's way back and dissolving our island outlines. It's amazing how fast the grass came back week by week.

Finally, another week went by and, I received a call from Davey. They were in the area and could drop off  2 truckloads, about 20 yards worth. This time, I let the supervisor know that he has an open door to dropping mulch anytime he's in the area. He thought it was great. It saves him time from finding other dump sites or paying to dump. Now the spreading has intensified. The islands are taking shape again as we're dumping the mulch over the tall growing grass. We're trying to apply at least 6 - 8 inches. Some of the plants a difficult to find now and we have to be careful as not to smother a plant in the tall grass.

The bad part of mulch, besides the monotonous task of spreading it, is the exposure of mold dust and subsequent Farmer's Lung

The storms in the area have been good to us, rain and mulch. Davey dropped off another 20 yards and then another couple of loads. We've applied nearly 60 cubic yards so far and we're only about halfway there. I'm hoping that more mulch is on it's way soon. Our persistence at mulching is creating the island outlines again, beautiful mulched islands. In time, they'll be hosts to a variety of fruit and edibles interspersed in a sea of green. The learning curve continues.

The Arbor

Like most things around Birdland, grand visions, the realization of them, or even a small component of them seem to take time, a lot of time. The arbor is taking a long time to construct. Several months for a relatively simple structure. And I, being a builder, should have had this thing hammered out over a weekend. Sometimes, the events that transpire in between tend to lean towards the negative despite good intentions, and so it goes with the arbor. It's not difficult to build. Currently, it's the lack of funds, scheduling and work load that's holding things up. In our household economy, every dollar is currently allocated and not much nothing is left over for building projects. I no longer wonder if we're in too deep. It's our future and cost to pursue our dreams. It's just another day at Birdland. It's the pressure from the old man, Katherine's dad, Russel.

I designed the arbor for grapes and people. A subtle place that will provide dappled sunlight to filter through to a cool place below where we can sit and gaze out over our domain, shaded by the fruit of our labor, someday. We sited the arbor on a location where an old cottage once stood. Dale from the hunt club intentionally burned the cottage down one day. He got into some big trouble with the authorities and the fire department over it, but that's a topic for another post. The center of the arbor is directly over the old chimney foundation since removing the foundation would be a pain. The area directly under the arbor will be covered with crushed stone, perhaps flagstone, or so the plan goes. The pier foundations are in and now it sits; waiting for a lumber delivery and waiting to be built.

The pressure is on. Arbor construction is now moving up on our priority list as the grapes that have been purchased, still in their containers, are climbing up the wall of the pavilion. Russel has purchased a number of grape vines and kiwi for the arbor, more than I care to plant on the arbor, not to mention train and maintain. He's more than anxious to get going and if we can't get this arbor going soon, he's going to buy more grapes. It's a constant mantra that Katherine hears from her dad when she talks with him, "Where's the arbor, where's the arbor"? As a matter of fact, he's bought more grapes because they're on sale. I don't know why, other than he's just plant obsessed. It creates a logistical nightmare for Katherine and I, reacting and having to constantly adjust.

The summer heat is on full blast and mulch needs to be spread, truckloads of mulch. The other plants and trees need attention, more mulch and water. More mulch! more mulch! A nasty summer storm has blown through and there's a good probability that the utility company and their line clearing crew will be bringing in more truckloads of mulch. Nasty summer storms = needed watering and mulch. Storms are welcome anytime.

The work is great, the workers are few, as I've heard. And so the arbor waits. The summer heat is stifling. The grape vines remain in the shade of a cherry tree next to the pavilion and they wait too.