This is part of a Ficus Benjamina houseplant that I was gifted. It came to me as a full grown tree that a lady had been caring for for longer than 10 years. Before that it was owned by another lady for another long period of time!

It’s one of those made from 3 braided trunks that then fuse together as they grow.

When I first acquired this tree I did some pretty severe chops. The resulting parts were all rooted and/or potted. This is the main trunk. It didn’t sprout back much where I thought it would, but it did push a bunch of new growth near the top. It had barely anything going on here when I cut it up. Then after 3-4 months it has all of this. This all seems to grow from nodules on the trunk. My plan was to select a nodule and make it the target of my cutting and the material for “clump style” Banyan grove bonsai tree.

Using spherical knob cutters I was able to reach into this mess and carefully make extractions. I tried to get some wood and some green with each cut.

This one had too many sprouts and I did remove a few that were growing counter to my vision for the tree.

I got the pots ready with screens over the holes.

…and the soil. It’s a tropical bonsai soil to which I added some gravel and just a bit of commercial potting soil. I’m showing the wire cutters for scale.

I first put down a thin layer of gravel. On top of that went the bonsai soil mix.

Next, I made a small well in the center and filled it with horticultural sand. I moistened the sand and impressed a well into it about the size of my thumb and the cutting I had taken.

I dusted the cut surface of my cutting with powdered rooting hormone, placed it into the depression in the sand and secured the cutting into the pot with wire.

I made three in all. This last one doesn’t look too good, but I’m not worried about that. I think it’ll grow too.

I’ll keep these quite moist in the beginning, and then slowly taper back the moisture as they start to grow roots. I intend to let them grow unimpeded until late spring and I’ll post a follow up then.

When you live in a house without a garage (or shed) it means keeping all your equipment outdoors, covered in some kinda tarp and what a hassle that is. We needed this.

Congratulations son, you bought yourself a shed!

After Texas, and after Bike Virginia, we took a golf vacation to Williamsburg. We played Royal New Kent links in Kent, VA. It was one of the hardest courses I think I’ve ever played. Here’s a shot of Diane on the tee box after she had just piped one down the middle.

We played one of the courses at Ford’s Colony twice(!). We stayed at that resort for the weekend. It’s very nice. Most of the shots taken over the rest of the weekend were in restaurants. Like these:

Ford’s Colony

Ford’s Colony

We played Kiskiak the last day. I think I shot 77 that day. Sweet. Sadly, I don’t have any photos from that day, but here’s a smiley one to finish up with. Cheers!

The backyard is starting to look like something. We cleared out some of the weeds, had it aerated, and then overseeded. Here’s how it looked a couple days ago.

Side yard:

This is the shed area. We prepped by filling gravel around.

The shed guys came today! Just in time too, as it looks like winter is blowing in.

Diane was happy. (I was too.) Of course there’s a little bit more work to be done. They’re supposed to do that tomorrow. Yeehaw!

Diane and I did “Bike Virginia”. These are our two campsites, and our setup. This was a four-man Big Agnes tent. I picked it up last winter and this was the first time to use it. The green thing is a separate shade awning that just helps to give you a shady front porch kinda space.

We decided after this trip that the tent wasn’t quite big enough and wasn’t ventilated enough for us. So while it was still so new I decided to sell it, recoup the investment and put it towards another bigger tent. More on that later…

Generally I’m not a “light beer” drinker, but they were just about the perfect drink after the riding was done. This location was pretty nice. We were “livin’ in a tent down by the river!”

We did do some riding and that was nice.

Diane got all “cheeky” up around the food trucks. Here she is showing off her caboose over by Mama’s Caboose.

Diane found a potential retirement home.

Summer 2017 part 1

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This is “What I did on Summer vacation part 1”, or simply some photos from summer 2017.

It started with going to Texas to see my brother get married.

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Afterwards at the reception with my darling wife…djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-013

I got to see my dear Aunt and Uncle…djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-006

I escorted my mom to her seat…djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-007

Dad and the minister were there of course…djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-008

The happy couple, and Dad…djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-009

It’s time for the family shots.djbird_all_rights_reserved-20170617-010
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