winter quarters

it is what the media would call "unseasonably warm" here ( people are out mowing their yards...i am agahst )...what "seasonable" is anymore should be a matter of hot debate for all of us...but somehow that "political will", or lack thereof, gets in the way...they do tell me the weather is preparing to return to autumnal standards for the area so i did some winterizing...

so i got out the black and decker leaf vaccuum...

and mulched the ramp bed i cleared out last week with a couple of catch-bags full of leafe detritus...

then i moved my four year old (!) shared ownership maple tree to his winter spot...

surrounded the container with a pile of straw to create dead air space...

and topped it with three bags of mulched locust tree, catalpa tree, maize, and, probably some of his own, leaves ( natural self-sufficiency ) to hold the straw down...it's breezy and no doubt there will be maintenance work to do on this as the seaon progreses..i am, however, done for the day...at least outside.