Okay, so I was supposed to take it easy today, so that I wouldn’t be too sore for manual labour tomorrow.
But I kept going outside because, aside from the wind (I’m so tired of the wind!), it was gorgeous out. Unfortunately, the wind limits some of what I could do.
No limits on feeding the kitties, though!
Not-Junk Pile kept watching me closely, but would not let me near her. From what little I could see as she moved around, it does look like she is probably nursing. I haven’t the slightest clue where her litter might be.
One of the things I ended up doing was tending the bed we’ll be planting peas into, a bit.
I just pulled the mulch back from the fence line to expose the soil to the warmth of the sun. There are a fair number of weeds and grass coming up. If I let them get bigger, they’ll be easier to pull up.
I also watered the beds we planted, as well as where the girls sowed the alternative lawn mix in the maple grove. That included pulling back the plastic on the hoops over the carrots to water them. I couldn’t see any carrots germinated, but I am seeing some weeds we missed, pushing their way through. I won’t try to pull those until the carrots have established themselves, so I don’t accidentally pull of carrot seedlings.
Since I had the plastic off anyhow, I improved the hoops set up. I’ve got a pair of bamboo stakes across the tops, and added two more pairs on the sides, just a few inches above the soil, to make sure the plastic doesn’t end up on top of the carrots planted closest to the walls. Then I zig zagged twine from the bottoms of the hoops, to the bamboo stakes at the top. I was noticing the wind was pushing the sides of the plastic inwards more than I liked, so that should help prevent that a bit. By the time it was done and the plastic put back, it didn’t really look any different, so I didn’t bother taking photos.
That was in the afternoon. In the early evening, after feeding the cats, I decided to extend my evening rounds in the outer yard. I went into the warehouse to look again at what’s in there, besides the many bags and boxes of my parents’ belongings and furniture. There’s what appears to be a folding table that we could make use of, but we’d have to move quite a few things to access it. Not as much as what we’d need to access what looks like good lumber and plywood in another corner.
I also went looking under the warehouse. Quite a bit of stuff had been shoved under there. Boards and beams of various sizes. Old drawers. Electrical wire. Lead pipes, some with taps still attached. Some is potentially useful, but others are looking like they’re breaking down, even though they are well sheltered under there.
I also made sure to check the area around our septic outflow. We’re going to have to do some clean up around it, as branches from nearby trees have been falling around it. There is a low spot nearby that, when I was a kid, had a pond in it most years. Since moving here, it had water during last spring’s flooding, but was otherwise bone dry. Right now, it’s full of water – and frogs, from the cacophony I was hearing!
While back there, I was looking around the back of the collapsed log building and noticed something half buried in the tall grass. I ended up pulling out a metal fence post. There were a couple of wooden fence posts under there, too, one of which was still quite useable, so I dragged both of those over to where I have two other metal fence posts leaning against the back of the garage. The one I found is covered in rust, but still solid – and the same length as the other two! Seven feet, I think.
I spent some time looking at stuff in the barn, too. It seems like every time I go in there, I see something “new” that I hadn’t noticed before. One of the things I wanted to look at were the “spare” windows that I’m hoping we can use to replace the windows in the sun room that have lost their inside pane, and the one where the inside pane is cracked. Looking at the larger windows, though, I realized we won’t be able to use them for the sun room. Taking a closer look at them, I realized they are much bigger!
There are a lot of old windows all over the place. Many have broken glass, but many more are still intact. I went into the shed near the barn; the one with the tarp on the roof. There are so many more old windows in there, some of which we could probably find uses for, as we build various sheds and shelters. There are also a lot of doors of various types, styles and ages. I took a closer look at some of them, and they turned out to be closet doors. One pair are a type that are made to slide on tracks. The other is a pair of folding doors, like we are already using as a table top for our transplants. What we used to hold the transplants to harden them off and keep them safe from cats last year are not available. If we can find solid supports that are tall enough, these closet doors would probably give us enough space to set out all the transplants for hardening off!
On the way back to the inner yard, I decided to start moving some things along the side of the garage, where we’re looking to have a shed offered to use placed and used as a chicken coop. There were some odds and ends, some boards on the ground, one of which was so rotted, it had grass growing through it in places, and a length of steel pipe buried in the tall grass. There’s also a small maple that was growing in the space between the boards, and a small red osier dogwood, that we’ll need to get rid of. But first, I grabbed a rake and did more clean up.
I’ll have to come back with the loppers to cut away the maple and dogwood. You can’t really see the dogwood in the photo. It just sort of disappears in the grass by the garage wall. I was finding bits and pieces of the branch pile that used to be here as well. We’ll have to come back with the wagon or wheel barrow to haul away the pile of dead grass and branches for burning – which will have to wait until the wind dies down!
Now that everything is clear, we’ll have to bring a ladder over and clean the eavestroughs on the garage. They haven’t been done since we moved here. On this side, it was because of the branch pile in the way. On the other side, it’s just a lot harder to get to, with so many trees growing near the garage.
Then we’ll have to bring over the old tire rims I’ve decided to use to put under the shed, and level things off at the front of this area, in line with the front of the garage, as best we can. It needs to far enough forward to not shade the garden beds on the other side of the chain link fence. Then I need to contact the guy who offered the shed to use and work out when he can bring it over. Once it’s in place and gets the repairs it needs, and set up as a coop, we should be able to use those metal fence posts we’ve found for the chicken run we’ll need.
I’m looking forward to getting at it, so we can finally have chickens!!!
So that’s what I ended up doing today. I didn’t push myself, and so far, I don’t feel the need to take more painkillers, which is a good sign!
We’ll see how well that last, overnight! I don’t know how much outside work I’ll be able to get done tomorrow, though. I’ve asked the girls to work on cleaning up and de-catting the sun room, so we can start moving transplants into there. I’ll be heading to my mother’s in the afternoon, then hit the hardware store on the way home to pick up the lumber I need to make proper frames for the garden beds. The one thing I haven’t figure out for them yet is what to use across the middles, to keep them from bowing outwards. I don’t want to use wood, or anything larger like that, as I don’t want it to end up being in the way of any plants. I’ve been looking at threaded rods but, at the lengths I need, they are way too expensive. So I was thinking of a steel cable of some kind. I’ll have to look around and see what they have – and how much it costs! – to figure it out.
So that’s the slightly changed plan for tomorrow!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 