Hello again friends!

April is well and truly at the midway point – spring officially arrived and once the snow finally melted away for the second time, I was able to get some much-needed gardening chores ticked off the list of things-to-do. Pekka has been whittling away at the apple trees, giving them their annual trim. Some of the trees required a bit more effort this year to maintain a manageable size. During a good harvest year, our trees put forth an abundance of apples. Last year was an especially good harvest, so it would seem this year might be on the paltry side, as harvest amounts are cyclical.

We are several months behind on garden chores due to the weather we’ve had so far this year. Persistent snow refused to budge despite warming trends. We got close to snow free at March end, but April Fool’s had us with 25cm of fresh snow, which once again set us fairly behind schedule. Believe it or not, our usual time for pruning the apple trees has typically been in February! We cannot safely trounce around a tree with all the assorted plants and bushes hidden from view under heavy snow – we must wait for the snow to melt – which for whatever reason took an extremely long time to happen this year!

With the snow finally gone, (at least for now) the usual full assessment of winter’s damage has been undertaken. The disappointment sets in at this point upon making unpleasant discoveries, but this year has been especially harsh. Not only having to contend with a protracted winter season and unpredictable weather fluctuations, it now seems we must also deal with a serious case of vole activity. I thought I nipped this in the bud last year, but the voles have apparently survived and thrived once again on the feast which is our garden! Serious measures are in order if we are going to hope to have any conifers left. It seems they have really taken to Pekka’s conifer collection. The voles have girdled a number of small bushes, eaten whole branches, and otherwise nibbled portions of nearly everything while sampling what was on offer!

On a happier note, I’m surprised to see the voles have not eaten all my spring bulbs. I guess they were full enough after eating the conifers to forego eating every one of the bulbs. Lucky stars! Things are looking bleak for a few of the roses due to blackened stems, but others have fared winter well. Many of the perennials are pushing upwards out of the soil, and trees buds are ripening. Sure signs of spring! I bought a new gadget to help me prune. It’s a battery-operated Stiga Sc100e and I’m duly impressed. With more than 100 hydrangeas to prune every spring, my hand would get pretty cramped up, despite using bypass pruners. This new gadget isn’t very heavy and made quick work of pruning stems. Using it to coppice the Cornus bushes was fantastic! Usually, I would have to have both the bypass pruners and the larger loppers handy to tackle this task. The Stiga was also easily able to slice through the dried stalks of perennials and grasses. Overall, it has handled every cutting task with ease and I highly recommend this product should you have such a need in your garden.

Rain today has quashed garden tasks, and continued rain will likely prohibit efforts for a few days during the upcoming week. Luckily, I managed to get so much pruned already – undoubtedly due to the new pruning gadget. 🙂 There’s still all the detritus to collect and haul away, but all that will have to wait for drier days. Hopefully, it’s possible to get things pretty well tidied up by May…as crazy as that sounds.

I think the title of this post mentions something about a Trifecta! Yeah – let’s get on with more of that bit now!! As I know you’re already sitting down, there’s no need to suggest you settling in for a bit of story time.

Today, I was prompted with a notification from WordPress – these usually take the form of keeping me informed that someone I follow has written something new. Today, though, the notification was to thank me for blogging with WordPress for ten years! Say what!?

Are we 10 years old or 10 years young! Somehow, our ‘harrowing journey of home improvement & garden renovation’ has now entered its 10th year! At least for the house portion, which has a two-year head start over initial garden renovation efforts, which began in earnest when remodeling efforts slowed down. As this past March rolled in, and on, I began pouring over old photos and previous posts. I reminisced and marveled at all the work and effort we’ve put in over the years. From those early moments right to this moment, I’m both amazed and dumbfounded with our output of effort and hard work. Happy but also sad. Eager and excited while also being resigned to realities, opportunities, and yes, limitations of both living and gardening in a Finnish zone II, USDA zone 5 garden. I’d asked Pekka to take some time to prepare his comments on reaching this milestone, and I guess he’s still putting his mind to thinking on this. I’m ready to post now! His post will be forthcoming at a later date!

Also in 2024 Greta celebrates her tenth year of life. She didn’t seem too awfully sure about her new digs when she first got here, but she’s more than made up for her initial shyness by becoming the boss cat of the whole house. She’s a wonderful companion, and never fails to delight us with her antics. Happy birthday, Greta! She’s a real devotee of the birds for cats and mice for cats channels on YouTube.

And finally, the trifecta is completed with the inclusion of our tenth wedding anniversary also occurring in 2024. It’s quite fair to say, 2014 was a very momentus time! Can you imagine tackling a home renovation project as a newlywed? Hahah, we had to be out of our minds! I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s thinking of trying it out just to see what’d it be like. Just imagine lots of chaos! hahah 😀

Ten years! Where did the time go? Where does it ever go? Everyone always says the same old thing. How the time flies. Yep. It sure does. I guess if you were doing not a damn thing and just sat there, days would seemingly last too long and a week would be an eternity. Forget about months and years!!! It would be unbearable. But get a hobby, develop a garden, have some kids, nurture a career or build a home, and you seem to never have enough time, or money!

House building, as with remodeling is never easy, and never completely done. Just like gardening! Remodeling a home can be rewarding, exciting and life-altering – in the right circumstances! As with anything, there’s a lot that can go your way, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. Usually, it’s more a sense of relief the project is over people savor the most, and not the journey that got them there. In our case, the choice of remodeling this old rintamamiestalo has met many of the same difficulties and challenges as could be found or encountered by anyone commencing a remodel nearly anywhere or anytime.

A remodeling or home building project begins, as did ours, with lots of ideas, trepidations and excitement, but these are usually, as was ours, met brutally face-to-face with reality and budget. Budgets are vital, but can also destroy dreams. That’s the reality of life. We can all only do so much with what we have. It’s making good use of what we have, that will produce the best ultimate outcome. And it’s also the best advice I can offer to anyone. Regardless of whether it’s a remodeling project or any challenge or dream you wish to pursue. Aim high while also using and employing all the talents and skills you already have. These will carry you a long way towards achieving your ultimate goals, whatever they may be.

When you’re young, or younger at least, rather than old and infirm – you can do so much. SOOO much more than you can even imagine. You don’t realize all of that until you’re too old to use it towards an advantage. The lucky few who catch onto that early are really the ones who will fare the best in all things. I’m not speaking from experience, as I’m not old! I’m still young enough and stupid enough to think I can pull off most things!! It’s only when the sore feet, creaking knees or cramped up hands tell me differently! I’ve got several old sports injuries, you see. If you’ve ever truly lived life, you have the scars to prove it – advancing in age is when the bumps, bruises and broken bones of youth really rear their ugly heads. Thank goodness *most* of our home remodeling is over with, some of that I wouldn’t want to even think about tackling now! 10 years is both a long, and a short time!!

Despite the sports injuries, which remind me to this day that they happened, they are also the reason my knees are creaky. The reasons why my feet start to hurt after squatting or standing for hours. Cramped up hands are a mystery, as for the cause – as I don’t remember ever sustaining too much injury, aside from the several sprained fingers playing touch football or softball…which now that I think about it, are both probably to blame. I’ve lost count of the *many* times I’ve been conked in the head, stepped on nails, been stung by bees, been gouged by splinters and thorns or needed stitches. A life well lived. With no regrets.

So it goes with this remodeling and renovation project. Sure, sure, if there’d been lots and lots of money a million other outcomes would have been possible. Just like all the other outcomes that come from style changes and availability of products. New things are always coming out into the marketplace, there is always the promise the choices will be vastly fresher than the current alternatives. Procrastination is the death knell of progress. Sometimes, you have to get off your duff and do something, make a choice or decision. Better NOW than never -amongst the truest words ever spoken! If you’re currently in the midst of a remodeling project – keep up the hard work! The rewards are worth it, don’t despair, keep going! For anyone thinking about remodeling – get lots of information, quality is far better than quantity, fully understand your project inside and out, and truthfully come to terms with your limitations and expectations.

Unfortunately I’m the type of person who wants to fully understand how things work, which can make life sometimes frustrating. I’m forever wanting to know! I take things apart to see how they work inside. I mostly get everything back together again without too many problems. 🙂 Living in another country where language differences cause a barrier of understanding has been one of the greatest challenges I’ve faced with both our home and garden projects…but mostly with the house. All the associated parts and systems which make a hovel a home, including the electronics, the plumbing systems, the building techniques themselves, these are all unfamiliar. Things may operate in the same capacity as what I’m familiar with in North America – but buddy, there’s so much that’s still a mystery even ten years on. The how and when are left to Pekka – I would normally be the one to know, but I’ve handed these aspects over – because I do not understand the language well enough to handle them myself. Learn the language you say! You cannot teach an oldish dog new tricks – also amongst the truest words ever said. In most of my dealings, Finns have a good grasp of English but prefer to speak and discuss in Finnish. Eventually every conversation reverts to Finnish and I’m the odd man out.

My thought regarding our ongoing remodeling project is that someday we will enter an actual final phase of construction. There’s no use in trying to nail down when. It’s a process Pekka maintains close to the vest, like a poker hand. But I imagine one day I’ll wake up to hammering and/or supplies being dropped off, or maybe even a dumpster delivery. Then, I’ll know something is happening. At least this is how I’m picturing it all in my wee head. Until then, your guess is as good as mine as to when this project can be officially declared – D O N E. Can you imagine having to consider making home repairs to parts of the already completed phases before the final phase is completed? I can. There’s a lesson to be learned there.

I could have started this post yesterday, or even the day before. I chose to start today really because *Now is better than later or never* …and also because of something I read recently which provided motivation and prompted muched needed contemplation. In my reader, something akin to a daily summation of all the new content put forth by the other people I follow on WordPress, some of whom have been kindly following this home improvement journey, I read the following;

Transition

If I figure out how I got from there to here; possibly I can figure out

how to get there from here. While you may say something how

you can’t step in the same river twice and the river being a metaphor

not just a particular river, and not a metaphor about how there

maybe more houses and fewer trout but that everything keeps on

moving. Everything is in Flux, wherever that may be. I’m sure the

river changes us, and we change the river on stepping in.

Everything changes, the Universe runs on transition, setting gears

and wheels in motion, the transition transmission. And while I feel

like I’m driving on the same highway whenever I commute – the

river metaphor follows so no one is ever driving down the same

highway. Now the birds out my front window come back every

spring to build new nests, not in the same place, but very near, not

the same birds, perhaps offspring. Their activity is a tiny bit the

same as before; I remember the birds last year and years before.

Pecking at the flower basket pulling threads to weave nests with,

chirping. Then squawking at anything coming near, next you know,

the hatchling poke up their heads and learn to fly so quickly.

This feeling, watching these birds, is how to get from there to here.

Written by Artie & Stu at: https://artieandstu.wordpress.com/2024/04/03/transition-2/

The writer could have written anything in response to that days daily prompt of the word Transition, and he wrote that. Actually Artie & Stu have authored many gems lately, and I’m so glad to receive their posts in my reader. Their post helped to inspire me to write my post. That aspect of inspiration has been the underlying bounty of writing about our remodeling and garden projects. Encountering so many wonderful people while writing this blog has been the gift that keeps on giving. Kind words from strangers/fellow travelers/writers/gardeners/etc have gone a long way to keeping this gal inspired and encouraged to continue on with the journey. I often include what I think counts as wisdom, first-hand analysis, or tid-bits of education, (maybe too much for some people’s liking) in my posts and comments. If anyone’s feathers were ever ruffled over the last 10 years, I’m awfully sorry. It certaintly wasn’t ever an intention. People have come and people have gone. Ten years sure makes for some sort of story. I could never in a million attempts hope to capture it all in one post. Just not possible. Has it been worth it? I’m literally taking my own advice by making the best use of what I have and doing as much as I can with it. I don’t have to worry about whether it’s enough.

Thank you for joining us on this journey!

Until next time ❤