December Project 2010 becomes January 2011 Project

Happy New Year from the Americus Garden Inn Bed and Breakfast. It's been a few days since I posted about the December project. Well, now, it is officially the January 2011 project and Kim is going to bring you up to date.

Although it was 60 degrees today, last week, it was so cold that the pond was frozen over almost every morning.

The materials we have been waiting for have finally arrived - the James Hardie Artisan Lap Board siding and the composite trim board.

Firring out the window trim with 3/4" plywood continues to accommodate the composite trim board.

These windows still need to be firred out with plywood.

Removal of the cedar shakes revealed some additional water damage and previous repair.

As we remove the old pine window trim, I am salvaging as much as I can and denailing it prior to setting it aside for possible future use.

The nails used to fasten it are the old "cut" nails that have rectangular heads and are very brittle. Removing them is a real challenge in that they almost always break before the entire nail comes out of the wood. Our original thought was to remove the old trim, pull all the nails and run the board through a planer to remove the old paint and then, put them back up. This is impractical for two reasons: first, any remnants of the old cut nails that don't come out of the boards (and there are always some) would ruin the blades of the planer; and second, due to the age of the wood and its brittleness some of the boards break during removal.

After removing the shakes, we again discover an opportunity to install additional insulation in the space between the first floor ceiling and the upstair's floor.

We call on the local insulation company to blow in loose fill fiberglass since the cavities measure up to 15 to 20 feet long.

Installation of the plywood is done after the insulation in preparation for the new window trim.

In removing the siding outside the Scarlett Suite on the second floor, we discover this honeycomb that our visiting honeybees constructed in under 3 days before we encouraged them to take up residence elsewhere (see previous blog entry from Memorial Day weekend).

In addition, we found what appeared to be an abandoned yellow jacket nest that was relatively large. Both of these were inside the wall cavities outside the Scarlett Suite.

Fiberglass batt insulation is installed after the old siding is removed and before any plywood and housewrap are applied as shown below.

We begin to remove the trim around the second floor bay windows.

The second floor Jacuzzi Suite windows are ready for the installation of the new trim.

New trim around the first floor dining room windows is nearly complete.

The new window trim is now installed around the Jacuzzi Suite windows and the front parlor windows on the first floor.

Susan here. Today, it was back to Spring temperatures, 60 degrees on the porch in the shade.

The pond has thawed and the fish are awake but very slow.

The sasanqua by the entrance look like beautiful roses, don't they?

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog. As you can see, the project is moving along. Hopefully, the time-consuming work has been done and the siding will go up quickly. We will keep you posted! Happy New Year, y'all!

Berries, Bees, and Buds

It rained last night and when I wandered the garden this morning I realized the nandina are covered with berries. (Remember to click on the photos to enlarge.)

There was this beautiful cauliflower mushroom growing on the stump by the school house. Last year we had one that became enormous. From what I have read, it may be edible. Don't worry. I won't be serving it for breakfast. The Mexican petunias responded to the rain by blooming profusely.

The hollies by the pond are loaded with berries, too.

We have 2 fig trees in our garden. The Celeste fig is the one that had the figeater beetles all over the fruit. There are only a few immature figs left on the tree. The other tree is a brown turkey fig, which I photographed today.

If you look closely you can see that it is full of figs and, so far, there are no beetles.

The vitex tree is like a bee magnet. We have watched the bees fall asleep on the branches, but, never have I seen them fighting over one particular bloom. One of the bees was ready to challenge me - see the bee in the center of the photo hovering!

Now, see it on the left. There were 4 bees fighting over these flowers.

In this photo, they are jockeying for position.

And then, all was quiet. It was really interesting to watch.

Thumbelina (one of the neighbor's cats) brought us a lubber grasshopper as a present. I regifted the lubber to the spider in the sago palm. You can see that she has wrapped the "present" - she is in the center and the lubber is below her.

I looked more closely and saw something familiar in the web (remember to click to enlarge).

In an earlier blog post I had mentioned the egg cases on one of the sago palms. Well, now I know who they belong to.

I went over to the pond to check on the tadpoles and was greeted by this dragonfly doing a headstand.

Then, I saw there were 2 others behaving in a similar fashion. Must have been gymnastics time.

We have had many guests ask what the identity of the plant below is. It is "purple queen", with purple foliage and light pink flowers.

The oleander is blooming through the canna lilies and is offset by the white crepe myrtle.

Through all the heat we have had, the Mickey Mouse plants continue to thrive and add a splash of color to the garden.

A lot of the flower beds could use some dead-heading, but, when it is so hot outside, I just can't go out there. This bed of black-eyed Susans is in full bloom.

To finish, a beautiful water lily from the pond.

I hope you enjoyed the garden tour for today. We would love to share it with you in person. Wishing you a beautiful day.

June Visitors to the Americus Garden Inn

This interesting looking "guest" was a mystery. It is called an "eyed elater". In the click beetle family, it is the only click beetle whose larvae are beneficial as they eat other troublesome pests.
The lubber grasshoppers, however, are another story. They are not welcome guests. In a very short period of time, they can do a tremendous amount of damage. If you have never seen one, this one was about 4 inches long.

The following photos can be clicked on for a larger view, if you like.
This interesting spider was brought up to the porch by one of our cats.

I flipped it over to try to identify the spider. Haven't figured it out yet...

We found these spider egg cases in the sago palms.

Kim was trimming the brown fronds and came across the eggs. Never saw the adult spider.

The pink echinacea and the bee balm have been enticing hummingbirds, butterflies and bees.

A butterfly has landed on the echinacea.

A bumblebee and a butterfly were side by side enjoying the flowers.

Another butterfly made an entrance.

Two butterflies landed at the same time.

A long time ago, my grandmother gave me a cicada watch necklace. Today, I held a real cicada in my hand.

The cats were playing with something that was making a lot of noise. It turned out to be this cicada.

I held it for quite a while. It did not want to leave my hand.

It had a very interesting face with large compound eyes on either side.

And, its wings looked like beautiful stained glass.

I released it on the plant behind me in the photo.

Thanks for checking out our blog for today. Hope you have had a wonderful June.