Great weekend — got a lot done

We had a little rain on Saturday, but not much. So this weekend we got a lot done. Will and Krystal moved the big hoop house off of the garden so he could till the spot well with the tractor mounted-tiller. That was a huge job because it was really heavy and 32 feet long. They slipped 2x4s and 2x6s under it to skid it on and pried it with a long bar. They’d tried to lift and slide it but the center came apart — too much torque.

Once off the garden, Will tilled again, this time getting the entire garden. He removed the short section of the fence from the goat gate to the garden gate, moved a whole bunch of fence posts and other stuff, then Saturday tilled the end, including that spot that hadn’t gotten manured or tilled for a couple of years. Now it looks great and is fluffy, deep soil. The tiller did turn up a ton of rocks, long buried, so Krystal got plenty of experience picking rocks. Poor Krystal!

Mother’s Day, we met Bill and his family and David and his girlfriend at Byrns Greenhouse in Zim for our traditional Mother’s Day flower blow-out. We were so thrilled to be in the warm greenhouse with all those plants! They smelled great! Granddaughter, Ava, especially loved smelling the roses and feeling their fallen petals. Of course, I walked too much on my bad knee (couldn’t help it!) and it’s swollen like a bugger. I guess I struck it on my way off the front porch last week.

Yes, I’m feeling much better, except the knee. (One thing I’ve learned is that if you don’t DO anything, you don’t get hurt! Stuff happens.)

We came home with a carload of flowers and so did Bill and Kelly. After we ate a big meal of roasted chicken breast, potato salad, chips, and pumpkin pie (Yum!) we took a walk around the homestead so everyone could see what we’ve been up to. Even I was so impressed with the soil Will had tilled up in the pumpkin/corn patch on the new 40. It looks like a golf course in progress. (No, Dave, you CAN’T come play on it; no grass!) The pig pasture also had been tilled and looks great too. I can’t wait to get to planting.

While everyone was here yesterday, we all got hold of the bottom frame and end braces across the doors and manually picked the big hoop house up and walked it (took one break halfway!) back to its location in the garden, over nicely-tilled soil.

But it’s raining hard today, so no planting. Well … maybe a few perennials I bought yesterday. — Jackie