Yard work

Song of the day: “Dr. Jones” by Aqua. Talk about ditzy song that has a way too catchy tune when it concerns my head. Seriously, it sounds like a broken record in there.

Okay, let’s get down to business fast. I’ve got loads of stuff to do still, not to mention an edit and chats and…well, I have a very important appointment with my bed within five hours, so, no dawdling.

Yesterday: I did finally get a full night’s sleep (doing a happy dance), regretfully I was friggin’ sore all over the place because both Knight II and Chaos decided that it was a good idea to share the head end of the bed while I was asleep, so by the time I noticed I was sleeping diagonally on the bed, with my feet sticking by ten inches or so. *sigh* Seriously, it took me five minutes of stretches just to be able to move. Yikes.

After the usual morning chores and such, the workout of the day started right after breakfast in the shape of hauling wheelbarrows of rocks down the mountain. Fascinating stuff, hauling rocks down a mountain, if you must know. You’re knees truly enjoy the endeavor, and so to your shoulders and spine. Hah. Still, no matter, the wheelbarrows went all the way to the lowest gate, where I lost my grip for a moment, having the rocks (80 pounds a pop, I would think, meaning three per wheelbarrow) all tumble down the small stairs. Not that it mattered, that was the end of the line anyway, since from there on out we had to carry them down three flights of stairs to the LOWEST part of the yard, where we’re creating a few new terraces. I know, that’s a really smart idea, just not the handiest. Hah.

But anyway, we got a big batch down where we needed them, and created one terrace by digging into the dirt until there was a semblance of leveled soil. While big brother and I worked on that, grandpa dug holes for the fruit trees. Three in fact, which were nice and big allowing for plenty of compost once we planted them (today).

Several dogs “jumped” the fence, so we made sure to make a mental note that we had to check the fences come morning, not allowing the more fierce ones of the bunch in the veggie lot. Tadaika, who managed to get out twice, looked most disappointed, blinking her big fat lashes at us whenever we went through the gates. She totally didn’t understand why she couldn’t go out and play with the horses. (The horses of the neighbor are out a lot again.)

There was some cloudiness during the day yesterday, but still a pleasant day to spend in the yard. Once we called the terrace building to a halt, and fifteen more lettuces were planted in the onion field, we headed for the basin level and planted 22 grape sticks in pots, along with seventeen more strawberry plants which I’d thrown into a bucket the day before. We’ll have to see how many of them will survive the ordeal, eh?

Yard stuff done, it was already late for supper, which consisted of a salad along with the Mac&cheese big brother made. Yummy, sure, but also heavy of the gut since immediately after we had to head out for an appointment in town.

I would like to say that this was something exciting to tell about, but I’m afraid that it was just boring stuff that I won’t bother you with. Instead we’ll slip right on through to me catching up on my messages once we got home, and then the edit, which went fast, and well enough, considering neither big brother nor I had much fuel left by then.

So let’s skip to this morning, which came way too early for my liking, but then, what else is new, right?
There were the chores, of course, followed by once again cleaning the ears of poor Njanna and Carla, who didn’t appreciate it at all, but suffered through the ordeal without complaint. I hate doing it to them, but really, those infections are bad. If only Rammi, Bambi, or Huckabee would clean them, like they do with a lot of the other dogs, but regretfully that is not the case with these poor babies. Instead they have to suffer through the cleaning session that literally drives Carla up the wall.

That done, it was time for breakfast and making patty dough of lentils. Since I was busy anyway, I decided to experiment with a gluten free variety, because Sally is at the moment on a diet and is having the hardest time functioning without bread. I’m curious as to what she thinks of the chickpea concoction. Personally, I didn’t like the smell, but I’ve found that with the patties that says very little.

Once done with preparing the patties, and unloading the car, it was time to get another load of rocks down the mountain before getting started on watering the veggies. By the time I was done with that, big brother and grandpa were down as well, and after grandpa spent some time mirroring fruit trees, he and big brother walked the fence in search of the spot where Tadaika and some of the others went out yesterday. They found a massive gap underneath the reed patches, so grandpa did a patch job and promised he’d add some fortifications tomorrow.

Though the plan was to work on the new terraces again, we opted to harvest instead, and then start on planting some of the fruit trees. A rather wonderful occupation, if you must know. There was sunshine aplenty (I got sunburned, thank you very much) and I dug, chopped and hauled, putting in two apple trees, one cherry, and two nectarines. Loads of fertilizers for the lot of them, along with water from the basin, which is rather pungent at the moment. Hah.

After the first four trees, only of which placed in a spot we dug out halfway in a terrace, we went up to have supper of fresh beats with cheese and fried rice. Delicious…and added to that we prepared mashed potatoes with kale, the first of which tenant cut for us while we went back into the yard to plant our first batch of potatoes this year. These are home grown, so they should be pretty ecological by now. Hah.
While big brother was making the gutters, I put in the second nectarine, which has an honorary spot beside the stairs going down to the big terrace.

And, well, that’s it for today. Once twilight fell, I had to rub my shoulders and neck in aloe vera, which should take care of the worst problems. Such a nuisance, sunburn, eh? Ah well, I’ve survived it before and will undoubtedly survive it again. Hah.