July 26th, 2019 Days Dragging Along

These past two weeks have been relatively good ones. Ann and the people who are helping her have done a fine job of putting the gardens back together and we have been getting some produce out of it.  Salads here are really good, but the tomatoes haven't caught up to us yet. We are getting a pint of Strawberries out of the Strawberry patch every day this week, most of these are eaten fresh, some will be frozen. There isn't enough produce to put out in the produce stand, but things are beginning to look better out there. Ann has been delivering eggs and lettuce for a few weeks.

The weeds almost got on top of us again, but Ann and her people have stayed at it and we're looking pretty good. We also had a resurgent problem with squirrels, rabbits, and rats. The wire row covers we had weren't quite enough to keep them at bay so we lost quite a few plant starts to grazing. We went to Bi-mart and bought the only rodent deterrent that we hadn't tried, a twenty-two caliber rifle with a scope. It took a few days to get the thing sighted in so that it was fairly accurate, but we haven't seen a whole lot of rodents around since then.

There was a minor tree incident last week. The big Walnut behind the tiny home had been looking a bit "lean-y" all year, but Ann was pretty sure it was moving towards falling. I am especially paranoid about falling trees these days, so Ann and Jack rented a bucket lift and cut about half of the tree away to balance the load on the roots. Had the tree fallen it would have landed on the tiny house, not an outcome we were willing to suffer. The tree debris is now a large pile awaiting a lifting of the seasonal burn ban. We were also able got get a problematic branch taken out of another tree. We used to call the branch the "widow maker". Not anymore.

This was the bucket lift they used to cut down the Walnut.

I have been touring around the Farm this past week, using crutches to keep the recently rebuilt foot off of the ground. The broken ribs and spinal fractures are nothing to be concerned about now and my strength is coming back. The day before yesterday I did two laps of the Farm and we finished the day doing a fifteen mile ride on our electric bikes. The bikes don't need pedaling, but I was able to pedal for quite a bit of the trip. It was freeing.

Yesterday I spent the entire morning sorting through the Greenhouse wreckage to salvage what metal I could. I cut the very badly bent parts off and kept the straight pieces for other projects.  It felt really good doing something worthwhile but just after lunch the exertion caught up to me and I slept a bit of the afternoon away. Today I was worn out and didn't move around very much. It will be good to get the cast off in a few weeks so that I can go back to work.

This afternoon we put a deposit on a female Basset House puppy for the kennel. The new girl will come from Idaho in mid-September and we can't wait. The plan was to buy two new females this Summer, but we might need to hold off until the new house is built and we have the new kennel set up.

The house permit was supposed to be finished today, but we haven't heard back from the County yet. It wouldn't make much difference since I'm laid up and can't build, but it would be nice to know where we stand.

July 13, 2019 The Healing Time

Probably the thing I am most impressed by.
Ann built these cucumber trellises
without vthe least amount of help.

To those of you who have helped. Thank you.
Your place in Heaven ought to be secure.
Ann still needs you for a little while longer.

Since June 18th we have been in a crisis brought on by the tree fall on that day. The Market Garden had been about forty percent destroyed, the Greenhouse was a total loss except for about half of the plants, I had five spinal fractures, two ribs, and a foot which had to be reconstructed; all of which has kept me on my back and off of work for nearly a month. Many people, if not most, might have taken the rest of the year off, but somehow we haven't.

Ann (Heidi Hay) has been working hard, under her own power, since the accident. A change happened on the day neither one of us was killed by a giant tree falling on top of both of us.

Since the beginning of our time together, I have been the motivating force in our family. Most ideas came from me and if there was heavy lifting it was my back doing the work. Not to say, of course, that I did all of the work. To say this would be a huge exercise of ego. We worked as a team, I was the coach and captain of the team is all. Ann had no desire to lead or create, or if she had them the desire was kept tightly wrapped. We have always been a very good team, she was always as tough, but not as strong, and so she generally kept herself to lists I dictated. Checking off the lists was her forte and nothing would have got done if she wasn't so good at checking things off.

But following the accident, something within Ann stiffened up. She was tough, but something within her grew immediately strong. It may have always been there, but since that fateful day Ann has taken control of the Farm and orchestrated the entire recovery in such a way that, as of today, the only thing left undone is the rebuilding of the greenhouse and returning me to sufficient health so that I can go back to work. And this is happening soon.

She has had a great deal of help in doing all of this, a great many people have simply showed up here and pitched in some labor, our Son Jackson has come here many times and used the skills I taught him to repair much of the damage. Friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family have given Ann the extra hands she needed to re-build and re-plant nearly all of what was lost. But all of this had to be her doing. She's created lists of goal every day and when people showed up, she had a plan to use them to their full effect.  But this isn't all that she has done in the past month.

She has supervised my recovery, kept the house, and even joined in on getting our permit application forced through. (They haven't actually issued the permit, but it seems actively moving forward now. Ann went down there and crabbed out loud until the County people got interested in cooperating.)

All of this combined amounts to an amazement, and she deserves great respect for her efforts and achievements. I cannot explain in words how much I admire what she has done. It was nothing short of heroic. Here are some images to tell the story better.

Ann put the Market Garden back together after the tree was removed.
The amount of replanting  and fixing rows was huge.
We still have a weeding issue to work on, but this is as it has been.

The tree which fell has been almost entirely cut up and burned.
We still have a bit more wood to get rid of, but the tree is mostly gone.

This is all that remains of the greenhouse.
Now the site is cleared of the tree and the torn apart greenhouse.
The plants are all growing well and we expect a good season..

I cannot say enough about how Ann has pulled both of us out of the dangerous place the tree put us. She might have simply folded up and reasoned that the best course of action would be to lay low and get me back on my feet. But this is not what happened. She has carried the Farm, and me, on her back since then. Providing nothing else happens, we will make a full recovery.

If there were is award, she ought to get one.