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It was a beautiful day here on the hill, high of 66. I spent all day out side working. First I loaded and hauled 3 cart loads of wood chips to the garden and threw them into the hole, Then I took all of the garden waste from last year and threw it in, tomato vines, pepper plants sun flower stalks including their root balls. I felt the wood chips would help to retain water and stop its flow into the porous sand stone below, and the root balls with their top soil would add billions of microbes and bacteria deep down in the hole. Next I went and borrowed the neighbors trailer. It is 4X 8 and I pulled it with the Farmall Tractor. I hauled 3 trailer loads of wood and logs to the bed and through it in there. After that I took the trailer back and borrower his Nissan PU truck. I drove the truck past town to another friend who has horses and hand loaded the PU with horse manure. Drove home and unloaded the poop into the hole. That was about a days work for me. I am a bit worried because the hole is filled about to the line where the sub soil starts and I have not put any of the soil back yet. I have a lot of rocks to sift out, but there will still be way too much dirt to go back into that hole. I think I will sift the sub soil and use some of it around the tree roots in my yard and field to cover them up and make the mowing easier, Many of the large Maples in the yard are 60 to 70 feet high. When you look at a tree top the root structure will be the same size as the top. Since I only have about 3 feet of sand and rock until you hit solid sand stone the roots have no place to go and end up pushing up on the surface making it hard to mow. Covering them with soil will make my life way better, . My neighbors invited me to supper, They had egg plant parmesan and spaghetti. It was much better than I would have made for my self, and the company was wonderful. After supper I went out and visited some local clubs and picked up my new membership cards. All in All it was a wonderful day here, and a good time was had by all,

It sounds like you had a productive weekend, Guy.

Yes, your trees could use some of that subsoil to cover their roots that have burst through the surface.

Your hugelbed doesn't have to be flat to the ground, either. In fact, if you make it flat now, it will settle and sink some over the years to come (or I'm reading the wrong stuff entirely!) The extra soil can always be mounded up above the surface. Are you adding "brown" stuff like leaves or newspaper? My son the cook saved me a large stack of cardboard egg flats from the restaurant. They make a great moisture trap now, but will decompose after a couple of years.

I have been mounding up the excess soil in the past several beds that I have completed. Last years bed was 8 to 10 inches above the rest of the garden and the center pathway through the garden. The hole was filled to the ground level by the sub soil and the top soil was mounded up on top. My tomato picker complained that she had to walk up hill to get to the tomatoes, It has settled some already. Not level yet, but not as much of a " Hill " to climb. I will most likely do the same this year, but I think I have put in more logs and other fill down deep. So I think I will have more sub soil to disperse around the yard. Covering some of the worst roots will definitely make the mowing much easier on the equipment, as well not beating my body up as badly bouncing over the roots. I think that will make my life WAY BETTER, lol Winter has returned here in Pa. Freezing rain and sleet tonight snow tomorrow. The sifting of the sub soil will have to wait for better weather now. That may allow the horse manure to settle around the logs some, at least I am hoping that it will settle in some before I start putting back the sub soil.

Sounds like a good plan, Guy. When we visited, I couldn't tell how high your hugelbeds were due to the luxuriant foliage and fruits that covered them! I've already seen some shrinkage in the beds I was working on last spring, but there is plenty more work to be done. When the work party separated out logs last year, they left the more twisted, crooked ones lying in the pasture individually. Those logs are now growing a white fan shaped fungus that resembles this picture from Photobucket. They will be added to hugelbeds this year.
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You might also consider brown cardboard to help fill in the empty spots. I think of that often as I drive by a couple of stores that flatten their delivery cartons and bundle them for pickup. It works wonderfully as a sheet mulch and will break down in less than two years in my area. If you add it to the bed now, you have advantage of the winter moisture to get it super saturated. Of course straw is also a good choice for filler.

Maybe I'm just making a list of things I need to do!

Those mushrooms are very interesting. I wonder if they are good to eat. I really wish I knew more about wild mushrooms. I am a Dummy about such things so I have always been afraid of them. I have talked with some old timers from the one social club that I frequent a lot. Patsy seems to know his mushroom types very well. Getting him to take me out with him when he goes hunting for them is another matter. Mushroom hunters are normally pretty tight lipped when it comes to where they find them. He did give me some tomato seeds for an heirloom Italian Plum tomato that they got from the old country though. He is a good friend, I just hate to push the issue too hard.

Guy, I got tired just reading about all that work. Good job man, that was a big day! Of course, if it was 66 here, you couldn't have gotten me back inside either. I really like my steep slope beds, they are so much easier to weed than flat ones. Might be something to think about as your bed gets mounded higher.

Lolly, those look like delicious Oyster mushrooms to me. They are really good, one of my favorites. Get a good I.D. from a local source before you try them though, don't take my word on it!

They sort of looked like that to me too Matt, but don't take my word on it Lolly. Like I said, I am a Dummy about Mushrooms.

The photo is oyster mushrooms, according to Photobucket. I looked for pictures of shelf mushrooms first (since they are shaped like half a plate sticking out of the trunk) but those mushrooms appeared much heavier in texture than what I was seeing on Saturday. This seemed more in line with what I remember. Perhaps I can make a run this weekend with a camera handy. After stopping at the library for a book on fungi!

Digging in the garden has stopped, and so has the unseasonable warm spell in January. Temperatures here will be a high of 4 degrees tomorrow with wind chill down around 20 below. Nothing compared to Alaska, or even Vermont I am sure, but too cold for this guy to go outside to dig. As my old girl friend used to say " Its a tit bit nippily out today " or was it " A tad bit Nippy out " Its been so long since I have had a Girl Friend I forget what the heck she used to say. . I am sure my wife would remember though

Hahaha. I might recommend not testing your wife's memory, unless she was the girl friend in question.