Today, according to the CDC, it is safe for me to be out in the world again, still with some precautions. Safe to give my fully vaccinated daughter a hug, safe to go in a store, still masked. We took off to Lowes and replaced the dishwasher that failed during the pandemic and arranged to have it delivered and installed in about a week. It will be nice to have that appliance again. Between the extra handwashing, dishwashing, and garden, my hands are a dry mess.
From Lowes we went by Daughter’s house, as she is working from home and her kiddos are getting virtual classes this year, and I got my hug and a conversation without a mask on. What a simple pleasure.
Another load of raised bed soil was purchased and because I didn’t want to rearrange the pile of heavy wood again, the 4 x 4 box that I failed to bring wood down for, was replaced with a commercial metal one. It is assembled, filled, the remaining bagged soil added to some of the other beds as amendment or fill soil to be topped off with more of the soil from the excavation of the upper 1/3 of the garden to dig in the two 4 x 8 beds when I can comfortably bend and tote, probably next week after the several days of rain showers pass. This evening, the onions and peas will be planted. I am considering adding a couple more blueberry bushes to the area where they planted because the box they are in has deteriorated and really isn’t needed as long as I keep the area mulched, so I can expand outward. That requires a trip to the nursery to see what they have. Lowes had some, but I prefer the ones from the nursery if they are in. The heavy joist board that I cut yesterday and left in the yard because I was just too tired to move them again were moved into the garden beside where they will be built. The rest of the scraps cleaned up and the tractor put away for now.
I’m pleased with the progress that has been made this week. I need more cardboard so I can finish mulching the bottom 2/3 of the garden. While I was working I did remove the straw mulch from the asparagus bed and got it weeded too. The photos, just don’t show how much slope this garden has. Once the remaining two boxes are dug in and built and the rest of the mulch laid, there will be a clean up of barrel staves and bands and rotting cedar boards from the old boxes. The new box looks so out of place with the rebuilt ones, but it is metal and won’t rot or rust.
Though we still have frost days ahead, I think the deep freeze days are past, so the fig was unwrapped. We will wait and see if it produces new leaves showing it survived the winter.
The rain showers in the forecast will provide me with a few days of rest from heavy garden work. Only one more day of it is ahead. I am pleased with the sprouts that are showing, more goodies to be planted in the gardens in the coming weeks and healthy food from our garden in the near future.
The little chicks are growing fast and going through their food and water quickly. The first batch are now more than 3 weeks old and getting feathers, trying out their wings. The 2 week old ones looks so much smaller as the older ones legs are stretching out like teenagers, no longer the cute few day old chicks.
It has been a productive day with some seed planting to be done after dinner, then a couple days rest before I finish the garden set up for the year.