War of the Roses: Part 2

What a difference a day makes. New arbor and new outlook. 1st, I disconnected from technology for a few hours. This is very rare for me. And much needed. Then I got busy where I left off..........

What I learned......do the things you love to do for the sake of doing them....not the outcome. The outcome isn't guaranteed but there is joy in the process. (and a little pain...if we're talkin bout roses.) Joy, and pain....like sunshine...and rain! Sorry, had to break into a lil old school Rob Base.......

Ok, where was I? .....the process. OK. Set the new arbor in and dumped the quick cement. Easy, breezy, cover girl! love that stuff. It was a little wide but my brick path is already there so it is what it is! (oh yeah......those bricks were free too! Almost caused a divorce but......heeheee.....they are mine now!)

Then onto moving the rose canes back up an over......omg! Seemed a lot easier than it was but I couldn't just leave my poor babies out there so.........

This is the throw and go method. Throw as much as you can then go as fast as you can so you don't get smacked with a flying, thorny rose vine!!! I don't endorse this method but it is what I did with the 1st cane.

The chair and rake are to be used in the process. I am height challenged so I jumped on that chair at least 40 times!! The rake is for when I meant business and wanted to manhandle the canes. "come here cane....get over here!"
You get the picture!

I really need to design a line of garden duds......I look crazy! heehee

Ok, so.........finished the right side and then onto the monster.......5 huge canes and all the vines you can imagine. Oh boy! What to do..........

I separated them slowly and lifted and tried to train them just a little. I will work on training as the new vines that are in bud now grow out. But I got them on. Whew. I had to cut 3 bags of vines. Big huge ones......bent them by accident, poking out, whatever....many had to go. And I felt frustrated. What if I killed the thing.....geez. I realized back in my cold damp yard that sometimes you have to take a loss to make a gain. Do your best and keep it moving.

I felt so energized that I did some more clean up and re-purposed the rusty rails from my old arbor in my raised beds for chime hangers. Woop! I just couldn't live with trashing the whole thing......y'all know I couldn't do it! When I finally called it a night and started heading in I turned and snapped this pic....

You can see the chime hanging in the back on the old black arbor post......woopwoop! That is gonna crack me up every time I look at it! heehee

It may not be magazine glam but I build this entire garden plant by plant. Some from friends and some from strangers. I have been covered in dirt and worked til it hurt..........and it is mine. There is nothing but love back there. In my mind it is the grandest thing.........when I have a visitor I give them a tour as if they were visiting a castle in England. And.....I am ending another day feeling so very thankful. And that is real talk!