Only Two Days?!

I can’t believe it’s only been two days since I posted. My body feels like it has done a weeks worth of hard labor and I hurt everywhere. Trying to do in one week what I would normally do in three is kicking my butt. Yes, I’m whining.

The other day Elijah loaded my trailer with all my gardening stuff. I started my day Tuesday  packing it all in the plant room.

Then I wanted to work on the compost bins. I moved these in through the gate fighting Daisy who was trying to escape the entire time.

(We are taking apart the wood pallets bins and replacing them with plastic…the bottoms are already rotting).

Then I thought I should be smarter than the sheep and put her in the chicken pen. Apparently being smarter than my sheep isn’t too hard to do. My fingernails are long for the first time in years and I broke one trying to get her to go through the gate rather than stand there and stare at me. So much for trying to be “girlie”.

I had a total of five trailers of finished compost that I spread around some of the beds and in the greenhouse (that has to be packed in in buckets). Entirely too much shoveling in one day.

Hauled the center bed into the pen to start new compost with. I still haven’t gotten to the left bed.

Yesterday it was 25* in the morning and I was less than thrilled to start my day. I can tell you that when it finally snows I will put the kids on the bus and go back to bed for some much needed rest!

I re-tilled four beds that I put compost in and then tilled another four in front of the greenhouse until my tiller decided it was just too cold and would no longer run properly.

Next up was to get the leaves out of the ditch which was a pain. First they were frozen, then the sun came out and everything became wet and sticky.

I mowed and used the leaf blower. It took a lot longer than I wanted to spend to clean this area. It must be about 30’ wide and 150’ long. How many years have I talked about reseeding that area? First thing next Spring!

Frozen and yuck.

The previous night Homer took the wood pallets apart and he got two put together before it was so dark we couldn’t see.

Yesterday I put more together and he added a couple more in the evening. There are eight so far.

I layered leaves, chicken coop droppings/straw and sheep pen rakings with the stuff from the greenhouse. I still have a lot more to clean today so when I am done most of these bins should be full to the top.

When the girls got home on the bus I was cleaning the leaves on the corner of the property. I have more leaves than I need for compost, but if I don’t clean them up now they are a wet matted mess in the Spring.

Em tried the leaf blower, but it was too heavy for her.

We uncovered a turkey egg. Where all does she lay them?

Emily helped me haul two of the four piles (that was seven trailer loads! We’ll do the rest today although I’m not sure there will be room in compost bins.

Today I want to get the chicken pen finished. I’d like to cover the whole area with a couple truckloads of sawdust as an experiment to see if it is less muddy in the Spring, but I seriously doubt with all that I have to do that is going to happen this year.

Nick sawed up one of the trees. Not really sure why he didn’t do both, but I’m not complaining. I’ll take what I can get. I suspect he’ll do the other one tonight and then move on to the other dozen that need done. Nick isn’t the kind of guy who gets very excited about things. Hurry, quick, fast are not words used to describe Mr. Laidback.

It’s 28* out this morning. I’m chilled and I’m haven’t even gone out there yet. My shoulders and back ache and tingle, but you know, I do this to myself. It’s my choice to have the big gardens and all the animals…and normally I live to work on it all….just not when it is chilly. I turn into such a wimp. I will say, though, that I am thankful the snow has held off as long as it has. If we can get through Sunday we should at least have all the “junk” stored. Cross your fingers!

Are you beginning to wonder what happened to the FUN at The White House? Me, too. Hopefully, we’ll be having some again soon.