Finally Friday

I woke up 15 minutes late on Friday, with the alarm going off. In my dream it was somebody honking their horn, but it finally dawned on me it was the alarm clock.

At lunch, I swung by the bank and got out cash for the weekend (I only had five dollars in my wallet). In the afternoon, I called the repair shop and told Sam I'd be bringing the car in Tuesday morning. Then I asked a co-worker if he would follow me (it's less than a mile away) and then take me to the Enterprise car rental place (another half mile or so). He said yes, so I'm good to go (except for the costs).

Once home after work, I changed clothes and went outside. I got the wheelbarrow, a pitchfork and a shovel, along with my compost sifter. Now, my compost sifter is homemade. It's about a 2 foot by 2 foot square of 2" x 2" wood, with hardware cloth attached and some corner braces (see photos).

So, I went out back and used the pitchfork to dig off the top few layers of compost. I put that into this year's compost pile (I always have two - last year's and this year's). Then I put about six shovel-full of dirt onto the sifter. I broke up any large clumps and then bent over, picked up the sifter and shook it over the wheelbarrow. You do that for four or five times and you get a full wheelbarrow of compost.

Needless to say, this is a tremendous strain on one's back. Belatedly, I thought maybe I should do less compost per shaking. I got two wheelbarrow's full before my back gave out completely (I wanted three, though). I dumped them in the raised bed garden.

Then I selected the biggest hosta in the back and, using the shovel, cut it in half. I hate to do that, but they never seem to mind. I put that in the wheelbarrow (along with the pitchfork, shovel and compost sifter) and went to the front yard, after filling in the hole out back with fresh compost and then covering it with nearby mulch.

In the front yard, I dug out a hole near the new shrub (and the tulip) and got a bucket of water. I poured half the bucket into the hole and then set the hosta in it. I put the dirt I'd dug out around it, and then covered it with mulch. I tamped it down and called it good.

I put away the shovel, pitchfork and compost sifter and replaced that with the rake and the garden weasel, and went back in the backyard. I raked the piles of compost out and then worked it into the existing soil with the weasel. Then I took everything back inside and got a hammer, some nails, a tape measure and some string.

One of the reasons I think last years garden was under-productive was because I over-planted it. So, this time, I marked off 12-inch rows (instead of the 8-inch one's I did last year), pounded the nails in and tied off strings. Then I planted the first two rows with leaf lettuce, cabbage, carrots and snap peas (again see photos).

I put everything away and washed up around 7:00 PM. I am totally pleased with myself, BTW, using the nice nights to get so much work done, knowing the weekend's supposed to be rainy.

I had just started to think about dinner when my friend B___ called. We talked for a while catching each other up (he's working on his boat and me on my gardens).

When we hung up, the couch that had eased my aching back kept singing it's siren song to me. So, I started reading a magazine I'd got in the mail today. The next thing I knew it was 2:00 AM and I went to bed.