Red sun at sunrise made red sunshine
On Tuesday morning I woke to pain, aching all over, and exhaustion. I think the PT was too much. I got my post up, tried to balance the checkbook, and eventually got the laundry done. My helper friend was here and did some chores and errands.
I slept and rested most of the day and things slowly improved towards evening.
On Wednesday morning I woke at 5AM and was doing much better. I went out at 6:30AM and got the poor seedlings still in the cold frame watered. Then I headed to the Small garden and harvested the squashes.
This little rabbit was near the cold frames and wasn’t particularly afraid of what I was doing there.
In the Big garden by 7AM and started with cleaning out the Swiss chard, the old or buggy, or rotting leaves. Then I went down the other side of it and I was finding a lot of green beans, so when I finished the row, I got a bowl and spent ½ hour picking them clean. I won’t be able to get back to them until Sunday.
Next I tackled the rest of the parsnip row and the south side of the mesclun bed.
I got the snapdragons staked up and deadheaded. Then I made a walkway down between the mesclun and parsnips.
I sat down to rest every hour or so. It wasn’t as pleasant as past days as there were tiny little bugs flying all around. But the last time I sat down, I noticed there were a lot of artichokes ready to harvest so I got up and did that. I got 7, with lots more to come.
It was 10:15AM and I’d done enough. It wasn’t particularly hot or humid but nearly 4 hours was enough. I had cleaned up the 1st third of the garden and the rest of the garden would be easier, as it has been done in parts recently. But I won’t be able to get to it until the fences and pastures are ready for mowing, maybe by the middle of next week.
So I came in and got a shower and made some of the artichokes for lunch. I wasn’t doing too badly, but I had a rough 3 days ahead of me, so I rested.
3rd Fence pink phlox, Echinacea purpurea by fairy, and Echinacea paradoxa (yellow) in back
At 1PM the mulch hay guy called and was bringing 20 more bales. This makes the pile in the driveway 44 bales. He’s going away on vacation for 2 weeks and I wanted to be sure I had enough mulch in case I actually get to work in the gardens.
Around 3PM I got started cleaning the kitchen and processing the beans. I finished around 5PM. I got 4 more pints.
On Thursday my general helper will be here early and we are tackling the fences and downed wood in the back 40. It’s not been weedwacked all year, so it will be a mess. Plus there’s the joy of poison ivy to deal with. We’ll be doing this for the next 3 days, through Saturday.
My helper friend will be here in the afternoon on Thursday and I plan to make more zucchini bread to bring to the memorial on Sunday.