On Sunday morning I got up at 5AM. I had to work up the formula sheets for each of the big gardens. I discovered we’d made mistakes last year on the last one for the New Herb garden. I hadn’t changed anything so had planned to just copy them over.
But I wasn’t done when my helper friend arrived at 10AM. So I sent him out to move stuff out of the Tonka garage so we could inventory. Then he brought the cement mixer up from the barn.
When I finally got out there, he mentioned having to grind up sulfur. That’s been quite a process in the past. He said he had a spare coffee grinder he’d found in a free pile beside the road. So he went home to get that and I started inventorying the amendments. I was short on at least 2 things: blood meal and something else.
I had just finished when he got back. That little coffee grinder worked pretty slick! It had the 4# of sulfur ground up in no time. He left it here as it can’t be used for food ever again.
So we started putting the amendment mixes together. My general helper arrived sometime after 11AM and got busy cleaning off the mulch where the peas and carrots would go in the Small garden.
She carefully removed the remaining leaves of hay and stacked them back out of the way.
Then she raked up the half rotted mulch. It’s very hard to broadfork or plant with that in place.
Just as she finished that, we had her amendment ready for the Small garden. So she put that down.
My helper friend and I got the batches made and cleaned up the mess. We took the cement mixer back up to the barn. We dug out the posts and he got the fencing out of the peak of the garden shed. He’d said he’d help us get the pea fences up. Shortly after we started, my general helper had to go.
He and I got them all up. One is about a foot short and another 3’ too long. We rolled the excess up and tied it so we can get through the rows. We got the mess picked up and he headed out.
It had been very cold out there all day and that exhausts me. But I had to move all the plants out of the porch so the stock could cool down overnight. So the kale is back on the couch and the dining room table is full.
The contractor has been working on the screen door for the bedroom off and on for the last month. He discovered when he went to stain it, the glue had been spilled all over the front of it. So he managed to get most of it removed, and cover the rest with pigmented wax. It looks pretty good now. He hung it on Friday but it still needs the screen put back in. He should finish it this week.
I was so exhausted I couldn’t even get a shower until I rested a couple hours. I got the chores done, the stove going, showered and went to bed.
I’ve already called my neighbor and said no exercise class on Monday. I do have an event at the Senior Center about wildlife in town at 1PM. I hope to get to that. I have to package up the stock and get it in the freezer, clean up the mess from that, get laundry going, and make a bunch of phone calls. I also have to figure out what I need for amendments and call in the order. My helper friend will pick it up for me and drop it off when he’s down this way. Doesn’t sound like much of a rest day…