Weekend Work

A long, tiring but very productive weekend here on the homestead. Yesterday Doug laid brick the whole day, almost completing the cold frames.

One more good day and they should be finished along with the arch over the walkway....seems like I've said that before. Anyway, the project is drawing to the end for sure.

While he did that, I mowed grass, mulched flower beds and in between stacked brick for him. It was late by the time we reached a good stopping point and well passed our supper time. We were almost too tired to eat. He threw something together for himself, I ate a wedge of cabbage and we crashed.

This morning I was up before daylight. Not because I wanted to be but because I was so stiff I was afraid if I stayed in bed any longer we would need a crane to lift my hiney out. Hard labor and age tend to do that to a person! A few cups of coffee, some breakfast and then we were off to the garden. The weather forecast for the coming week does not look good. Lots of rain is predicted and if the garden is not in we will be another week or so behind. It's late already.

And so, 3 rows of corn, a row of green beans, 1/2 row of filet beans and many, many tomato plants went in. Several different kinds including paste tomatoes, cherry and of course "Better Boy", my favorite for canning. A few heirlooms will go in later. We also planted eggplant and squash. All these plants were started from seed and raised in the greenhouse next door at my sister's. Hooray! Not a single vegetable plant was purchased this year. The potatoes were cultivated and cabbage fertilized.

Above is the new garden where we planted corn. The potatoes are up and a bit spotty but we hope they will come along with some warmer weather. Cabbage and purple broccoli here as well.

That done, it was time to move the meat birds from the brooder to the chicken tractor in the orchard. They were, as usual, most happy to be able to run and flap their wings. We started with 35, lost 2 early on and come butchering time will be processing all the roosters born last year. I think there are 7 or 8 of those.