Happy Memorial Day

It's nice to get a three day weekend, and I have been thinking about the freedoms we enjoy and those who fight to protect them.  I'm grateful for them, because I know I wouldn't have the courage.

I got up this morning to walk -- oh yeah, I guess I haven't mentioned that yet, but I've been walking every morning with a lady who lives a couple houses down.  Started the same day I started work.  We walk for about a half hour, which at my speed is only about a mile.  Still, it's good for me -- no matter how freaking difficult it is to get my eyes open all the way and push my body into motion every morning.  I am SO not a morning person.

So, anyway, I got up to walk and then I spent three hours out in my garden.  I found some big black plastic garbage bags so I cut them open for a ground cover to hopefully cut down on the weeding I'll have to do.  I have six plants each of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower that I got in, and my two tomatoe plants.  I still need to plant the cucumbers, squash, and zuccini, but it's starting to get a little muggy outside and I'm really low on energy.  I just realized I haven't eaten yet today, so that might have something to do with it...  Either way, though, I'm bushed, and feeling really discouraged at how little I got done in three hours -- I am trying to listen more to the part of me that is glad of what I did get done, but it's hard not to swing back and forth, especially when my legs and back ache and I feel so heavy.

I might have to spend the rest of today working wth clay.  :)

Sore, Sore, Sore -- but Productive

Tons of great exercise today -- I mowed almost all of our yard, probably 80% of it, and for those who've been to my house, you know how huge our yard is!  Couldn't get the mower working at first (yes, checked the gas and oil, and we put some winterizer stuff in it last fall, it just hasn't been started yet this season) but the neighbor had some starter fluid he sprayed somewhere in the engine, and then it started up just fine.  I was out there nearly two hours and was completely bushed, so Heather finished it off when she got home from work.  Then we went to Lowe's and got some 2x6 lumber to make boxes around my garden plots so they'll be raised, and some grass seed.  We spent an hour or so after that spreading the seed on some bare areas in the lawn, and then we had a mini bonfire, burning up the stump of a big ugly bush that I had hacked down a couple weeks ago.  I was on hose duty and got soaked down one leg from the leaks.  Now I'm hobbling around the house like an old woman, barely able to stand up straight, but I do feel pretty good about how productive I was today -- and we saved all those grass clippings to use for mulch when I plant my garden.  I also feel pretty good about finishing off some presents for my sisters' birthdays and for Mother's Day, of which I will post pictures after this weekend when I visit Manti to give them.  :)  All in all, a pretty great day.

Chicken Worries

After spending three and a half hours preparing my garden plots yesterday, I was feeling really proud of the work I'd accomplished only to look out an hour later and see the neighbor's free range chickens scratching the hell out of all that nice new loose dirt.  Since I haven't planted anything yet, it's not that big of a deal right now -- but I'm positive it will become one.  I've been doing some google searches, trying to find tips on keeping chickens out of a garden, but I just don't know what will work and what won't.  The neighbor's have a really huge garden every summer, so they must do something to keep the dratted birds out of their garden... I've never minded the chickens.  I love that they keep the bug population under control -- especially since there's a horse pasture in my backyard -- but I'm worried about them digging up my new seeds and eating the sprouts and munching on the growing veggies.  I'll have to ask the neighbor what she does...

So I got some great exercise yesterday and this morning I'm all sore and achy, of course.  Brother Williams from across the street came over this morning and offered to use his tiller on my garden.  If only I'd talked to him yesterday!  He's still going to till up some areas that I didn't get to, and I spread manure over my plots that he's going to till under for me -- thank heaven for wonderful neighbors!  Then I'll need to rake out the walkways again, cover them with cardboard so we can put wood chips down on them, and figure out a way to keep those stupid birds out.  If their wings have been clipped, a pretty short fence might be enough.  Then I could still reach to weed and harvest, but since it's such a small area, I don't want to try putting up bigger fencing because I won't be able to get in to my plants!  I guess I could try enclosing the entire area, walkways included, but I'm not sure how that would work with the horse cleaning pad which is cement and can't be moved...  Grrr.  I wish they'd built that thing just a few feet east of it's current spot!  Of course no one at the time had any idea that someone might want to try a garden out there some day.  And since the whole backyard is pretty much built around the horses, there's not really anywhere else to put my garden.  :(  Besides, I've already put too much work into that plot to want to move it now, anyway.