the little wild kingdom

[frustratedearthmother]

hope it helped

I have become a real fan of naps recently!

 

[flowerbug]

I have become a real fan of naps recently!

ha! i got a few hours in after breakfast. last night about 4:30am someone was doing donuts at the corner - i was up for a while and had some cereal and then puttered for a bit and then went back to sleep until now. feel much better today than yesterday.

 

[flowerbug]

finished getting the tomato patch put up for winter and moved on to starting to clean up the strawberry patch and also got some weeds out of some rocks while i had the energy for it. only two more gardens besides the strawberry patch inside the fence to deal with and other puttering around. looks like the weather is going to cooperate for the next several days at least so i should be able to make good progress.

also the guy was out turning the south field and i talked to him about turning as much of the grass under as he can get at. he said he'd run over some of it today but then would come back with a six foot tiller that would grind up the sod instead of just turning it (plus he'd have more control) and also maybe bring back a backhoe to get the chunks of cement and stones out of the trench so i can get that filled in again and get it planted or fixed with chunks of sod to prevent it from getting washed out. they'll reseed the entire field in a few weeksish. i might take some time and see if i really need to use the backhoe to get those chunks out of there as if i can just do it by hand then it will be done and ready for when he gets to the tiller part... i remember moving those chunks down there and it wasn't fun but it was possible... getting them out might be a bit tougher.

 

[flowerbug]

went out this morning and he had started tilling with this 8 foot contraption on the back of his plow. ground up the sod. talked to him and eventually got him (i did ask nicely) to pretty please grind up as much of the grass as he could get at. gave him back the flags.

later on when it had warmed up enough i got out and dug the chunks of concrete out of the end of The River Nile and then reshaped it some so that maybe now i can mow it (at last!) and so tomorrow i should give it a good watering since i'd moved clods of sod and quack grass to fill in holes and to gentle the slope. what i really need to do is block the end with some bales of hay or straw and pound stakes through them to hold them in place and also get some quack grass and dirt near or on those to get them growing and pegged down so they can catch any dirt that might flow during heavy rain events. so far that has not been a problem too often and the gully has not gotten too bad from all these years but i'd like to get it filled in and growing as much as possible before the cold weather gets here (next week may get cool again). frosts at night will surely also slow things down for new growth... tomorrow i should go back to the weed pile and take that crown from the goldenrod and put it near the end too. there is some growing in there already, just give them more company so they can talk amongst themselves...

then i went back to cleaning up gardens. got part of the next one done but did not finish it. tomorrow i hope to do that...

 

[flowerbug]

got around to checking the worm buckets this morning and gave them some veggie scraps and other munchables. was good to see them again.

then i got out and watered the transplanted sod chunks and various chewed up grass mulches and other bits of sod so that i hope they can be rooted and in place for any future flows. it would be nice if this was the last of what i have to do for that but it probably isn't.

then i got the SE corner garden finished up, hauled some sheets of weeds to the weed pile and then called it a day. that was enough. came in, had dinner and stretched out for a nap and now time for round 2. good night!

 

[flowerbug]

the pepper garden did get done yesterday. was pretty easy. i probably spent more time picking gravel out of the dirt (and cleaning it up before tossing it back on the path), weeding and reshaping the garden a bit (to slow down or capture rains before they flow off). i need to transplant some of the low creeping thyme in there near the edge where the water flows out to help slow it down and filter out any dirt if i can catch it. i cut some spots through the long skinny area i'd built up by digging to channel water to the buried garden debris, no idea how much rains we'll get but it won't hurt to have it go there instead of trying to flow off and over the edge...

the garden is a raised bed and it has black plastic which covers wood around the edge to hold the dirt in. the edges are all large rocks outside the wood - it is a royal pain in the a$$ to get in and out of there. some year i hope to get rid of the pathways and rocks and lower it all back to more even and normal and then i won't have to climb in and out of it and wonder if i'll slip or twist my ankle or something...

more tons of rocks...

and then the picture which shows why the garden is a raised bed to begin with and why i put the berm in to block that water flow.

 

[flowerbug]

today was warm and sunny and it was time to finish picking dry beans for a few hours. i ended up with two brown paper bags from the last two rows of the final garden outside the fence. now they are both ready enough to be put up later this week. i get a break tomorrow which will be greatly appreciated and then back at it. also other projects on the list to get done...

i had put on some extra weight the past several months but all this digging and gardening and keeping busy outside has been helping. plus eating a bit less plus trying to eat more veggies with each meal to add more low calorie filler (i do actually like eating vegetables ) has been paying off. i still need to lose about 15 lbs and this time of the year is the best time to do that i just won't be able to peel off that much though before winter. once winter shows up it is really all i can do to hold the line until next spring. if i can keep from gaining then it sets up the next summer for me being able to lose a few more (and put some muscle back on). five lbs before winter is the goal but i have no idea if i can reach it. at least i didn't get too far out of whack this time.

 

[Mini Horses]

Smaller portions. long walk every day.

 

[flowerbug]

Smaller portions. long walk every day.

we used to walk up and down the road three miles almost every day - then it got to be too much of an issue with all the dogs and Mom freaking out and also that she didn't really pay attention to where she was walking and would injure herself and then as time has gone on i've had more things piled on me and so less time to do things like walking. i get plenty enough exercise around here and enjoy it more because i'm not just walking i'm doing a wider variety of tasks and that uses a lot more muscle groups than walking alone was doing.