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.