Continuation

Yesterday we had a dozen bags of Black Cow manure compost loaded into the back of the car. And a roll of weed mat. When we got home, I unloaded the compost in the yard just outside of the walled garden. It isn’t nearly enough, but it is a start to hold down the cardboard and the hay that was placed over it. The garden is filled to the top of the wall in the deep part below the retaining wall.

After it gets rained on and the hay begins to compost, more soil or leaf mulch will have to be added. The first dozen bags went farther than I anticipated they would and the steep part at the edge of the retaining wall will be a challenge. I may run a secondary retaining wall of stones like in the outer wall from the top end of the retaining wall to the outer stone wall to hold the soil on the uphill side. More stone was moved, and one plant was relocated, but it really isn’t a good location for it as it is tall and is right on the edge of the bed at the wall. There is a large clump of the same plant at the corner of the garage, so I may sacrifice what is here and move some once the bed is finished. It would be perfect against the large stone you see above in the retaining wall. A clump of Dutch Iris was moved to the bed behind the garage wall, a garden I am really liking this summer with all of the bright colored flowers.

Note the posts holding plastic mesh fence to deter the deer.

It is a mix of iris, day lilies, Calendula, Zinneas, with annual yellow coneflower, marigolds, coreopsis, and a few other annuals tossed in for more color. All of the bright colors make me happy. It got too hot to continue to work back there in the sun so I quit working on it for the day. It is a work in progress, not something that must be done immediately.

There was no more work on our hay last night. They may have been baling the last field on the farm down the mountain. Two of the their tractors are still parked under the trees in our field. I expect they will return after their day jobs today as they have today and tomorrow before we have more rain in the forecast. They need to at least get what is down baled, even if they can’t get the last field done yet.

Late last night, hubby let the pups out for their last nightly outing and one of them returned smelling skunky. Not a full on spraying, but more like they walked through somewhere that had been recently sprayed. If it wasn’t going to be 90 today, I would open all the windows and turn on all the fans. When I went out to do morning outdoor chores and returned into the house, the odor hit me again. What an effective and unpleasant defense mechanism. I have feared having one of them directly sprayed ever since we got dogs. The big guy seems to be in a lot of pain lately in spite of being given a human adult sized dose of Meloxicam every morning. He is coming up the stairs to be with us again and then reluctantly goes back down, not limping as badly as he was, but he is a very old man for a huge Mastiff.

I try to avoid politics in my blog and not to dwell on COVID, but it is terrifying that cases are rising nationwide and there is no national unity in addressing it, that so many people are dismissing it as a hoax and refusing to adopt basic safely practices to help slow the spread. During the early months when it was rampant down the east and central part of the state, the rural areas where we are were not experiencing many cases, but it is on the rise now. We are starting to see businesses in our area shutter their doors permanently and many more will likely follow. We obey other safely laws and rules for the good of ourselves and others, why have masks and social distancing become such a devisive issue. Travel is not advised now, and we would love a vacation, but won’t, yet I see friends and acquaintances posting pictures in areas where the virus is a hot spot, then they return to our area. I want to return to a more normal lifestyle, but can’t afford the risk of catching or spreading the virus to someone more vulnerable.

I will continue to play in my gardens, spin on my spindles, read my books mostly e-books from the library, and avoid the public except for essentials. We will continue to wear masks, I have made dozens for us and family, continue to wash our hands until the skin feels like it will dry and crack off, continue to eat in to the detriment of some of our favorite restaurants, and hope that someday, life will return to something that resembles the old normal, or at least a variation of it.

If you use my link at the top of my blog to go to my shop, you will see that it now goes to my Etsy Shop. As of today, Square Up was going to migrate my shop to a new format and to have my domain linked to it was going to cost me more than I have ever earned from that shop, so it is being deactivated. All of my wares are in the Etsy Shop and shipping can be free with them.

I would love to hear your comments on this post.