LysmachiaMoon's blog: Getting busier

It feels like already I can feel the pressure mounting to get things done in the garden. I've been busy this past week, trying to do as much of the "construction and demolition" type stuff as I can before I have to start digging over beds, planting, mowing, weeding, etc. I hauled in more dirt from E's huge pile and built up the level of two raised beds in the veg. I managed to remove the fence from around the Auxiliary Garden...I ended up doing what I swore I would not do: I snipped off the wire fence a little below ground level and left the underground part and the "apron" in place. I tried everything to dig out that fence wire apron and it was nearly impossible. Plus, what little I was able to uncover was so badly rusted that I finally realized that it probably would be a lot more sensible to just leave it and in a few years it would be gone. At any rate, even just snipping the fence off was a huge job, pulling up the posts, etc. It took me two long sessions over the course of two days. The fence is gone but I still need to clean up the debris, level out the soil and then of course decide what the heck I'm going to do with that area.

I also tackled that big dead pine tree that is hung up in another tree. I wanted to get up as high as I could and saw thru the trunk, but my stepladder wouldn't get me very high and besides it was nearly impossible to get the ladder safely stable. So I decided to saw thru the trunk much lower down, where I could stand on firm ground. I'm about halfway thru. Another couple of "saw sessions" should do it. Once the trunk is sawed apart, I should be able to lever the snagged upper part down and hopefully out of the tree that's holding it. I've got a rope on the upper part, now it's just a matter of sawing, tugging, and getting out of the way.

I bought 8 more of the half-size concrete blocks to set along the edge of another raised bed in the veg. These will replace a very rotted board. I found last year that the concrete blocks edging the one long bed really helped to warm up that bed quickly. So I'm hoping that I'll have one bed ready for early crops: I'm thinking I'll plant carrots, radishes, beets there as soon as the weather stabilizes a bit.

Most of my time these past couple of weeks has been spent caring for our elderly cat Chester. He never really recovered from having dental extractions almost a month ago. Sadly, he passed away this morning. It has been a long, hard road these past weeks and I'm glad that he's finally at peace.

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