A few days ago I noticed our otherwise thriving currant bushes and peach tree looking a little funny. Despite having loads of currants getting ready to ripen and wee, fuzzy peaches no bigger than the tip of my finger growing seemingly well, the leaves are turning all bubbly.
After a little bit of research, I think we've got "Peach Leaf Curl" on our hands. What does that even mean? Apparently, when it is super moist out, fungus thrives. Go figure, April and May here in Michigan gave us record-high rainfalls. We've had SO much rain! I've never seen so many miscellaneous types of mushrooms growing all over our property. And now, this weird fungus on our fruit trees. Grrrr. As I understand it, this peach leaf curl is a systemic fungus that doesn't kill the tree, but it does significantly weaken it. The tree puts all of it's energy into dropping the affected leaves and growing new ones in the same season that there just isn't enough energy left for the growing fruit and the peaches just kind of peter out. In the fall, you're supposed to treat the tree with some sort of copper solution. I don't know how friendly that is or what the ratios are for that solution.
Good old Garry Entropy talks about it here:
And despite no playhouse building due to torrential downpours, G kicked butt on construction this weekend!
The whole thing is about 7' in the air on 6 posts. The base is 12' x 16'. The back half that G is standing on here has 3/4" plywood on it. That is 8' x 12' and will make up the actual house floor. The other 8' x 12' bit is covered in decking and will be the deck of the playhouse. The deck will be surrounded by a railing. We want to make this something the whole family can enjoy, not just the bigger kids. Since M is not yet two and we have a lot of little neighbor friends, we will also make a real stairway with a railing.
Yesterday the North and South walls were framed and erected. The roof will be on a one pitch angle from 8' high to 6' feet high. The North wall (8') will not have any windows. We intend to build 3 built-in bunks along that wall. The South wall (6') will have a nice 36" x 62" window in it. Here's G and S taking a break after working in yesterday's intense sun.
We will be working on the East and West walls over the next few days. The East wall (the back of the playhouse) will have two windows that are each 17" x 36". They will be placed up high and lengthwise to give us privacy (there's a small apartment building behind us and in winter when the trees are bare, we can see clear through and vice versa). The West wall will be the front and will have a door and one large window just to the right of it. The stairway will come down the North side.
It's super exciting to see this come together! I can't get over how huge it is. It will comfortably sleep 5-6 people once it is done. What started as a playhouse has grown into this cool space that will hopefully serve as a guest house/playhouse/meditation room!
More pics to come!
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