Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Pictorial Proof…..
...that old farts can do more than pass gas!
This afternoon we started with this.
Using the shovel to get under the rim of the barrel to lift it. Then slipping the pickax in beside the shovel to lift the barrel higher loosened it enough to allow Jay to tip it up while I slipped the dolly under it. He could then tip it back onto the dolly and move it out.
Here he moved it into line with the other barrels lined up down the back driveway.
Next Jay tipped it off the dolly and allow me to move it out ready for the next one.
He said, “Smile while I sit on the tractor and take your picture.” This is my yeah right smile!
In line and ready to clean out and fill after all the moving around.
Jay parks one of the barrels out at the end of the driveway to take to his sister, Marilyn in Mount Clemens.
Time to get busy with the mower and clean it up.
Supervising this whole project from the roof of the shed is my buddy.
Notice how he seems to be changing color to blend in with the shingles.
Next it was break for lunch at Arlene’s Diner in Otisville then on to McDaniel’s Farm market for the material to fill the cleaned barrels.
Jay is out there mixing the growing materials but I have to start preparing supper so it is good bye for now!
Exercise & Punishment!
The exercise I needed but the punishment I didn’t deserve!
Monday we went out to McDaniel’s farm market for two rhubarb plants and some veggie plants for the garden barrels.
One plant went in each garden in the corner (on the north east and the south west of the front of the dome) for protection yet still getting sunlight during the day. These plants have gone to seed so we won’t be able to harvest them until next year. But with a little luck this should take care of the rhubarb shortage we have every year when jam making time comes.
Of course you can’t go plant shopping without buying some inedible things too.
So four Ornament Cabbage plants found their way into the berm out front. Two of which the critters dug up last night but I lovingly tucked them back into the berm this morning.
My second can’t eat is a Hen and Chickens that I put in the middle of the berm with plenty of ‘egg room’. ( A small joke--I know too small to be out alone.)
While out working on the berm I found this.
Strawberry plants growing among the grasses. Of course I had to ask Jay about them because every thing I find with three leaves are automatically Poison Ivy to me . How strawberries got from the top of the hill at the side of the dome to out in front of it I have no idea. I’m not very bright when it comes to identifying growing things I didn’t plant I’m afraid!
Now comes the punishment part. As you know both hubby and I are old farts! So moving heavy things take a little engineering. This time it was getting the garden barrels from out by the shed and placing them along the back driveway for ease of watering and weeding. Well we used the tractor and our trusty flat dolly with the wheels that rotate. Like when we moved the air compressor, the dolly was tied to the tractor and Jay tipped the barrel while I pushed the dolly under it . Which sounds really simple until you find the barrel has been sitting in the earth and grass for around a year. Breaking it loose with a pointed shovel under the rim, then pushing a pickax in beside the shovel allows you to lift the barrel up high enough to slip the dolly underneath. Then with the tractor to pull it along the driveway and into the grass makes positioning it easy.
We managed to move three before the tractor decided it needed to rest and it was betting too dark to work anyway. I did manage to loosen three more, for moving later today, before shutting down.
Up on a chair on the porch sits one large tomato plants, three small one, some green pepper plants, and a cartoon of Mush melon seedlings ( my idea) waiting for us to bring the other barrels up and clean the weeds out of them. So if it don’t rain we have a busy day ahead of us today.