Work

Note: This post was started several days ago and is old because I didn't have time to finish the work on it.  However, all the pics were there and I worked pretty hard to get the pics there due to internet malfunctions, so here is a late post.

There are days when it seems like nothing at all gets done.  Some days that is pretty accurate.  Some days it helps to document that at least a few things got done.

This morning was pretty much a wash, except for discussions necessary for decision making.  There were also a few errands and a lot of sitting in front of the computer trying to fix it.  It currently is taking an hour to start up.  This has happened before.  It has always been fixed by restoring the Windows operating system to an earlier point.  Today I have done five system restores.  It isn't working.  This morning I was staying pretty close to the computer while the systems tried to restore themselves.  That got old pretty fast.

I did necessary email/calendar/web work in between restores before trying just once more...always just once more.  We may need to reinstall Windows, unless Ben comes up with some amazing idea tomorrow.

There were also a couple of errands to do and phone conversations to complete.

That was the morning.  

Lunch was late and was again punctuated by a couple of long phone calls that also involved discussions before and after so that decisions could be made.  Then something visible HAD to be done.

Garden was my area of choice, because it is supposed to rain the rest of the week---at least we hope it will rain.

I've written about letting this garden get away from me before.  Slowly it is being taken back.  I have had help.  Elizabeth, my mentee from church, came out to help me one Saturday afternoon.  My parents came quite a bit one day last week.  Now more than half the garden is cleared, two and 1/2 beds are planted, and four beds are ready to plant just as soon as we get some moisture.

peas growing down the center, broccoli on both sides

Three of the cleared beds

Spinach

Potatoes

Onion forest

the area left to clear and work

Today I added compost to one bed, worked it in, and reshaped it.

I also decided to get some loose straw from the barn to add to my working compost heap.  There has been so much green material added from all the weeds we've worked out of the beds, and it needs to be mixed with brown in order to really compost well.  I reworked the whole pile, using my potato fork to add layers of green followed by layers of straw.  When it was done I watered it well so that it will start to cook.

Newly built compost pile

The last thing I did was to pick some baby spinach for supper.

 

  This is the first we picked this year.  It needs to be thinned but that will wait for rain or a good watering.  The dirt is too dry to loosen it from the roots of the plants that stay by uprooting the plants that must go.

Last weekend Chuck was gone for Men's Retreat and I chored.  This is really not such a big deal, but since I had the camera outside already for the garden pics, I thought I'd take a couple of pics of the sows.  There are currently 39 sows in A-houses that need to be fed and watered twice a day.  I was responsible for one measly feeding, and it went well.

sows waiting to be fed on their cement patios

more sows and some pigs