February 10-11, 2012

This post is late because blogger gave me fits last week -- "An error occurred while saving". I finally changed the template I have been using, and that seemed to fix it. So welcome to the new look.

Friday was a cloudy, cold and dreary day with snow flurries in the late afternoon. It dropped into the teens overnight and Saturday was our first (and maybe only) sub-freezing day of the winter. Sally says you need three in a row to kill back the ticks and fleas. I believe it, because I had 2 ticks on me the weekend before and Tender has had a few.

Compost

I brought a load of city compost out to work into the garden. I got started on it Friday, unloading about a fourth of the truck. It was so cold I built a fire so I could periodically warm my hands. I would work in some wood ash as I turned the compost in -- to provide some alkaline affect.

Sally says I should just spread the compost on top and leave it, but I believe it provides some moisture holding capability down where the roots are. (Since we are only out on week-ends in the summer.)

When I went to continue the job Saturday morning, guess what. Yep, the surface area and parts around the edges were frozen. It was quite a bit more difficult to get it broken up and worked in. It took me practically all day. Sally asked Saturday night if I was sore, and I said no. Sunday I was sore, and Monday I was really sore.

Wedding Planners

Gloria and Judy came out Friday to check out the farm as a wedding venue for Amanda and John. Looking at the area West of the house, they were wanting me to dig up some of my trees to have room and a big tent. They were about to leave and they hadn't seen the barn. So we went down there, and both agreed that the best view was had from behind the barn -- and they both loved the barn if it could be cleaned up. The limited electricity there would be an issue, as well as the fact that the house and bathroom are up the hill. And speaking of bathrooms, I committed to building an outhouse with a composting toilet for the men. I'll be busy.

Judy's was freezing by the time they left. And even though I had understood that Gloria was in a 4WD vehicle, it turns out that she was not (some 2WD SUV) and they spun their tires a bunch getting up the hill. This caused Judy more reservation than anything else.

Scrap Metal

Sally has been on me to haul off a lot of the scrap metal around the place. And since we are embarking on a major clean up anyway, I loaded up the truck. I got $29 for all this junk.

Cracked Walnuts

Before leaving I made Sally give me 40 minutes to crack some walnuts, so I would have them on hand to pick during the week.