July 18, 2016 Tractor Lessons & Vegetable Gardens

Learning to use the tractor to
move the wood I cut and split
to the wood shed.

Friday 7/15. I cut one cradle-load of wood, but then it was in the sun and just too hot to do another.  After lunch the splitter was in the shade, so I used it.  About an hour before dinner, the cradle was in the shade so I cut another load and re-stacked it.

JB spent most of the day getting ready for his trip and taking care of a few things around the house for when he is gone.

And speaking of gone, the wren family has left.  They must have finally coaxed their other little one out of the nest.  It is so quiet without them here, and I was feeling a bit of melancholy.

Realizing that I had cut and split so much wood today, and would probably be doing a lot of that while JB was gone next week, I asked him for tractor lessons after dinner.  I had driven the tractor when we first bought it, but then left it to him.  It wasn't too hard and I had soon moved all the wood to the wood shed to be stacked tomorrow.

We had fresh broccoli from our garden on our baked potatoes for dinner!  It was so good.  This may be TMI, but both of us usually have a bit of a gassy problem with broccoli.  Interestingly enough, neither of us did with the homegrown.  Hmmm. . .

Saturday 7/16. It was 50 when JB got up at 6:30 this morning, without a cloud in the sky.  By the time he woke me at 8:00 am, the sky was completely overcast.

He was on the road to the west side by 9:00 am, planning on stopping by his brother's winery on the way to his Mom's.  There was a lot of traffic over Steven's Pass and it was slow going, but other than that his trip went well.  He will call me at 9:00 am every morning while he is there.

I spent two separate sessions at the splitter today, one before lunch and one after.  Will take a day off from cutting wood in the cradle as it is hard on my wrists.  I used the tractor to move the wood in four loads to the wood shed (and felt quite comfortable driving it), and then stacked it.  I finished the third row and got a good start on the fourth.

Our high for the day was 75 with clouds scooting across the blue sky most of the day.

As planned, I binged on Downtown Abby this evening, watching four episodes of season one.

Sunday 7/17. It was 57 and overcast this morning.  Rain began falling at 8:15 as I was talking to Sandy.  She has been enduring quite the hot spell in Santa Rosa, but fortunately has access to a swimming pool.  I don't go swimming any more as my swim suit has a hole in the knee.

JB called at 9:00 am and it was still raining here.  He had to get up at 4:30 am to take his brother and sister-in-law to the airport, so he will most likely take a nap sometime today.  He and his Mom had been watching the British Open, as she is quite a golf fan.

The first morning I wake up and JB is not here, and my coffee is not ready, is rather discomboobilating for me.  The morning was rather dark and the rain lasted until about 9:30, by which time I decided it would be nice to go back to bed.  So I did.  I think that was less because of the weather and more due to my having a cup of herbal tea instead of coffee this morning.

I got up at 11:00 am, gave the dogs their morning treats, and decided it was a good day to do nothing.  So I finished my book and started another one, but by mid afternoon I had to get outside and do something.  I clipped a small pile of branches and stacked them, then took the dogs on their afternoon walk.

A couple showers passed through during the day, but nothing serious until about 4:00 pm when the thunder and lightening moved in.  Dinga is usually the one who does not like the noise, but in the past year Jesse has become the nervous one.  He snuggles up next to me and shakes through the whole experience.  

At 5:30 pm, after the thunder had passed and the rain let up a bit, the dogs and I went out for our lightening-strike check.  I couldn't see any signs of smoke, but the mountains to the south west looked as if they had snow on them!

Our high for the day was 66, and I didn't need to water anything.  The rain continued to fall until about 7:00 pm.

I would like to write about vegetable gardens now.  As I have mentioned in the past, I have never been much of a gardener.  I can water and weed, but that's about it.  However, since Elsie has got us going with a garden, it is actually quite exciting.  Who knew?!  Of course all she has to do is look at a seed and it will grow.  But I figure if I ever do want to start plants from seeds, all I will have to do is have her come up and look at all of them.  Have her give them her blessing, so to speak.

Having mostly grown up in farming areas, I am used to seeing field upon field of different crops, but I just never realized that it would feel so incredible to plant a seedling and watch it grow into food.  We didn't plant potatoes this year, but plan to next year again.  I love digging for them.  It's like finding gold.  And the tomatoes!  There is just nothing better than picking a tomato off the bush and eating it.  Wow!

Monday 7/18. It is 58 and mostly cloudy this morning.  I slept in but can't take another day off.  Time to hit it!

Thank you to the readers who commented on Friday's blog.  I will definitely try that tape.  Actually, upon closer inspection, I realized that it is not the hydraulic fluid hose, but rather an air hose that has splits in it.

Thought for the day: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.  Author Unknown