Day 665, Back to work

Frost bit marigold

Wow, was it nice to have a three day weekend.  I felt like I had really accomplished a lot and hopefully the garden will do well.  I did notice, however, that when I woke up there was a light frost on the lawn and on the roof.  I could just see all that hard work going to waste and all the plants being killed.  The tomatoes. corn and the marigolds are all super frost sensitive.

On my way out the door to work I inspected the garden and it didn't look like the garden got hit too bad.  The marigolds had some frost damage but the corn and tomatoes were looking good.  I figured when I came home for lunch I could inspect the garden and see if anything turned brown as the day went on.

It was nice to know that it was actually Tuesday and that it would be a short work week.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic, with highs in the 80's towards the end of the week.  It was difficult to be at work with the sun shining.  Everyone had a great weekend and we shared our weekend adventures with each other.  I think we all wanted to be elsewhere, but the day went fast and soon we were all back home.

I couldn't wait to get my shorts on and head out into the garden.  The frost had caused a little damage, but not that bad and everything will snap out of it if we can keep above freezing.   Redmond is notorious for having a freak cold snap at the end of June and everyone covers their garden.  It is going to take a lot of plastic to cover this new expanded garden, but I'm ready should the cold come back.  The forecast for the rest of the week is for lows in the mid 40's.

Day 664, Memorial Day

Corn planted in the new garden.

Again, it was back in the garden for more planting.  I pulled out the starter trays from the potting shed and got them out to visualize where everything was going to go. I actually started all the corn and the pumpkins, melons and gourds from seeds two weeks ago and they are now ready for planting.  I needed to run to Lowe's and buy some marigolds to plant around the garden to help fend off bugs and a few tomato plants.

I jumped in the Packard and drove into town and filled the trunk and back seat full of flowers.  I hoped I could get this all planted but I was starting to think I might have too much to get done today.  I was eager to get  home and start planting.  I started with the corn and was able to plant two full rows from the starts and then I planted two more full rows from seeds.  It took two flats of marigolds to plant around the corn.  I'm not sure it really works but I used to have a horrible time with bugs and after I started to planting the flowers the problem went away, so I keep planting them each year.

The hen's out enjoying the yard.

Since this is the first year with the corn in this area, I had to put up a chicken wire fence to keep the chickens out.  The dang birds would destroy the young corn plants if they could get at them.  This was another hour long project but I got about 50' of fence up to keep the girls out of the corn.

By late afternoon I was planing the seeds in the small garden by the potting shed.  I don't know what it is about bending down but I was exhausted.  I planted all the basics, peas, beans, carrots, celery, radishes, onions, squash, spinach etc and hopefully it will all come up.

Around 6 pm Christian showed up to see the progress and helped me plant the last of the flowers in the courtyard.  I was exhausted from planting and a few good blisters to show for my work.  It had been a great weekend.

Day 663, Planting of the garden

Fresh tilled soil

With the sprinklers in place I needed to till the soil where I wanted to plant the corn and my brother has a huge tiller in the storage shed at the end of my driveway.  I texted him to see if I could use and he said sure.  We arranged to meet after church and he would get the tiller out and help me fire it up.  It bought it from a garage sale of his neighbor several years ago and it has never been used.  He worked it over when he got it and then put it in storage.  This was going to be it's first big test.

It took the both of us and a quad to roll the thing down my driveway and it fired right up.  This was new soil that had not been tilled before and we hit several small rocks that were just under the surface.  In total there were only a dozen rocks and after the first pass it was smooth tilling.  The soil is rich and loamy and with lots of sand, making it perfect for growing.  Now if we can just keep the temperatures above freezing.  The tiller made short order of the tilling and it was ready to plant.

The garden boxes ready for planting.

Next I worked over the small garden beds in the original garden and got them ready to go.  I was super tired and ready to call it quits.  I did manage to get the small trailer bird house I made attached to post out along the front driveway.

Day 662, Putting in a sprinkler system

Last year I moved the fence by the orchard our 10' so I could have more garden space and room to plant lots of corn.  There is no irrigation to this new claimed space, so that is the first thing on my agenda today, to put in sprinklers.   I knew I had enough water pressure in the small garden area, so that is where I planed on tapping into the sprinkler system.  I was going to have to dig about 60' of trench to bury the system.  Luckily we have had several days of really good rain and the soil was very soft.  I was surprised that it only took a little over an hour to get the trench dug out.  Next was a trip to Lowe's to buy the pipe I needed and sprinkler heads.

Moving the gate.

The digging was the hard part and it took me very little time to get the pipe and fittings all glued into place.  With a turn of dial and push of a button the sprinkler system worked great.  Now I had to back fill all the trenches and rake the ground smooth.  I should have worn gloves and I got a huge blister on my thumb instantly.

With the irrigation system in I now needed to move two post and the gate to the garden.  Digging fence post holes 28" deep was so easy with the good soil and no rocks!  It was  hard to believe the difference compared to putting in Tracy's fence.  I had the gate moved in no time and I was done for the day.

My good friend Christian showed up to check out the progress on the garden project and I was starving.  We did a quick run to Papa Murphy's and picked

Day 661, FRIDAY

I was so happy to see Friday roll around and it's a three day weekend.  I have nothing planned other than work in the yard and get my garden planted.  Planting the garden is always a high light of my year and is my symbol of the start of summer.  It's kind of an strange feeling, but I always feel like planting the garden is the start of the preparation for the holidays.  The pumpkins are used for Halloween and the cornstalks are used at the end of the driveway.  The benefit of eating all the fresh vegetables is just a bonus.

After work I headed home to start the weekend.  Tracy had invited me over to hang out and to go for dinner.  We ended up at one of our favorite places to eat Mazatlan and we had a great dinner.  After words we headed back to Tracy and were going to hook up her Wii and play games.  The Wii has been disconnected since Tracy got a new TV several months ago and it took a little to work to figure out how to get hooked back up.  We put in the game Donkey Kong and boy were we bad.  It took us several tries to figure what we were doing after several attempts we called it quits.  How kids can play these games for hours is beyond me. 

I was home before 9:30 pm and ready to just kick back and get comfortable. 

Let the weekend begin.

Day 660, Scrappy gets a blood test.

So after three months of getting vitamin B shots, Scrappy the 16 year old spindly cat needed to have a blood draw at the Vets to see how his blood was doing.  I had an appointment to meet with the painters at my house to have the shop painted this summer and afterwards I was I was going to take the cat to the vet.

I bundled up Scrap in a towel and off we went.  The gals at the front desk took him back for the blood draw and I waited out front.  Scrappy in his prime was a long, big 20 lbs, but now with whatever is ailing him, he is down to under 7 lbs.  There really isn't much left of him, but he is still active, catches mice and gophers and moves with relatively little problems.  It took them quite some time to draw the blood, because they could not find a vain.  After nearly 30 minutes Scrap was ready to go home and I paid the $179 bill.  I was a bit shocked and I couldn't help but wonder if spending money on a cat that looks to be on his last life was worth it.  Oh well, the little guy has been a good mouser and who knows maybe they can get him better.

The highlight of the day, other than spending money on the cat, was having dinner with my folks.  I enjoy them so much and we had a great dinner. 

It was a cold wet rainy day!

Day 659, New Glasses.

I had just ordered glasses at two months ago, but I just wasn't happy with them.  I had received a few comments from friends that they were not that great, so I wanted new ones.  I wasn't happy with them either, so I had ordered new glasses last week and I got a call today that they were in.

After work I headed to Costco to pick up my glasses.  I had to wait a little bit, so I ended up trying several ridiculous looking frames and sending the pictures to Tracy.  I tried to convenience her they were my new glasses.  I couldn't stop laughing and the gal at the counter though I was nuts.

I finally got my new glasses and I was very happy with the way they fit and looked.