Hi,
I’m sold out this weekend and basically the next four weekends (I have one room left October 8 & 9 and one October 15 & 16). Derronda’s here doing all the breakfast prep and checking guests in, so I have some free time. I checked my rankings on the search engines and I dropped from the #1 spot on Google, but I’m still in the top five of Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and AOL. Also, I always calculate how many visitors I’ve had each day since I last checked my rankings and I’m running on average 75 per day, AWESOME.
I’m taking Tree Tender classes to be a certified City Tree Tender. The main purpose of this is so I can properly care for the two trees they’re planting in the new sidewalks in front of my Inn and I plan on planting two new trees in my parking lot. I want to replace the purple plum that was so seriously damaged during Snowmageddon last February and plant a new tree in back of the parking lot by the kitchen window. The main reason I am bringing this up is at the class, one of the instructors said the Urban Tree Forge is still in operation. If you remember, I spoke of it several months ago. John Metzler set up with the City to take trees they needed to cut down and recycle them into flooring, cabinets, sculpture, etc over in the Point Breeze are. John was tragically killed by a rental truck that broke loose from the one towing it and hit John. I just assumed Urban Forge was closed, but she said it was still in operation.
On a related note, Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest is having their yearly fund raiser at Guardian Storage Solutions, 2839 Liberty Avenue on October 29th from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. It’s $25 in advance and $30 at the door with all proceeds going to Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest. The space is pretty interesting, it’s a 100 year old building that’s been completely remodeled with the high ceilings, refinished hardwood floors and brick walls. They’re going to have local food and libations, a silent auction, a cello performance by Gordon Kirkwood, the Mon River Ramblers will be performing and incredible art work made from salvaged wood. Artwork will be for sale.
Garden updates, the hibiscus I moved once and was doing so good is really stressing out, I think it’s the heat and dryness of this summer has finally gotten to it. I spoke with my Hort friend Tony and that’s his call on it. I have been watering them basically twice a week, but maybe that’s not been enough. The banana that gets a lot of sun is huge, the other is still pretty small. The white clematis on the arbor is this massive explosion of flowers. I have a bunch of zucchini and tomato plants growing in my garden from last year’s compost. Hopefully this year I’ve done better and the composting will be more effective and reduce the seeds down also. A funny thing is I have grape tomatoes growing in my garden and I never use grape tomatoes. Seed companies take different strong seed stock and hybrid them, I think this is the seeds reverting back to what they really were.
Well, I’m gonna run, take care,
ed
