I got my yearly load of compost Monday morning

May 3, 2016 - Tuesday

30 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

It's such a beautiful early morning that is dawning outside my windows. Hard to believe that it's to turn cloudy and rain later this afternoon. Oh well, we can always use the moisture. Tomorrow's forecast is for a high only in the mid forties before returning to a more reasonable seventy degrees on Thursday.

The violets are beginning to bloom at the edge of the woods

Monday started with the usual walk. I honestly forgot about the incision and was almost home when I felt a twinge in my lower right-hand side. I'd been pushing right along in an attempt to elevate my heart rate and the incision began to complain. Needless to say, I slowed way down to an old man's shuffle and took it easy for the rest of the day.

Since I couldn't run any marathons or perform multiple super human feats, I decided to visit my farmer friend from whom I buy a load of compost each spring. He was just starting the sifting plant for the first time this spring and told me to go back home and get the trailer. For the third year in a row, I was his first customer of the season.

I love hanging around his work area where everything is mixed and sifted. The black dirt and aged cow manure smell so fresh, so clean. I'll use the mix to fill the new planters and spread an inch or two on top of the existing raised beds, mixing it in just before planting. 

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I needed to do something that wouldn't tax the incision. I'd promised Sargie that I would take it easy until I visit the surgeon on the 12th and it had been only six days. Since I couldn't fill the planter or leap tall buildings in a single bound, I decided to begin installing the watering systems in the pyramid planters.

The first step was to remove a shelf or two and using a hand trowel, shovel the existing soil to one side or the other or remove it completely.

1/16th inch holes were drilled in PVC pipe with an end cap attached, then threaded down alongside the center pole.

It seems to take forever to drill all those tiny holes. There are three evenly distributed rows the length of the pipe with about twenty holes in each row.

At one point, I ran out of pipe and end caps. A quick dash was made to the hardware store in town pausing long enough to visit Yooper Brother Mark at the plant. He was taking a break and we spent a few minutes talking alongside the Iron River which flows nearby.

It took a while, but the first planter was finished by late afternoon. My goal is to do one each day until all four are finished.

By the way, the strawberry experiment was pretty much a failure. Those growing in the bottom two or three tiers faired marginally through the winter months, but any that grew higher froze and died.

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With rain in the forecast, the top soil/compost was covered with a tarp before I came inside for the night. The last thing I need is heavy mud sitting inside my trailer for the next three weeks.

Sargie was supposed to be finished at 5 last night, but an onslaught of patients meant should couldn't leave until much later.

We watched Dancing With the Stars last evening and called it a day. Thankfully, I remained in bed during the night and lay awake for only an hour or so around 1 AM. After last week's procedure, my body doesn't know if its coming or going.

Sargie opens today. I'm going to take my walk then work on installing the watering system in the next planter. There are also three more giant pumpkin seeds that have sprouted. To grow more than one plant is a question I'm going to have to solve fairly quickly. I'm uncertain if I'm willing to invest that much time and effort into growing Cinderella-sized carriage pumpkins this summer. Oh heck, why not. I believe in fairy tales, don't you?

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...