Planting Plastic Trees & Running G-Scale Garden Railway Trains - Part 1 - 04-18-14

Blog Entry by Bob

A couple of years ago, around Christmas time, we came across a Dollar Store that sold miniature plastic evergreen trees for $2.00 each.  That year we bought a dozen and planted them in the layout to see how they would weather and look amongst the living greenery.  We were very pleased with the results so this year we made sure to visit that store before Christmas and cleaned the entire shelves of trees.  Now that the weather has warmed up enough to get the frost out of the ground, I decided to bring the trees outside and prepare them for going into the ground.





First thing I had to do was cut the plastic pot with some cutters.





And peel the pot off like an orange peel.





I had no shortage of spots to plant the trees so I spend the rest of the day running trains.

Cleaning out the leaves in G-Scale Land Garden Railway 04-12-14

BLOG ENTRY BY BOB

Finally, I had a nice day outside and a day off from work.  Though it wasn't a glamorous job, I decided to use the day to sweep all the autumn leaves out of the train layout.  I was hoping to also
have my first train-run-of-the-season and planned to have the
train run around me while I worked until the batteries ran
out.  The dream was cut short when the train went into the
tunnel but would not come out the other side.  A quick photo
into the the darkness revealed...



...that the tracks were still frozen over.  Parking the train
on the hill, I could occasionally glance over and admire it
while I worked.



The leaves in the valley, pond and creek bed were still
frozen, but I managed to clear out a dozen blue-box containers
full of leaves.








I should have taken a picture of the brewery parking lot
before I cleared the leaves because they were piled up to the
windows before I started.



The ground is still very wet and frozen about an inch down.  I
have to be very careful where I step so don't wreck the ground



All-in-all, it was a great day outside and it beats being at
work.  (GRIN)