Got some stuff done

It was a great day because I got a lot done. That always makes me feel good. They have a guest speaker at church who will be talking about the name it claim it faith healers like Benny Hinn every night till Wednesday. Both Cherie and I have been around that kind of stuff and have soured from that exposure. Cherie intends to attend all the sessions and I would like to as well but planting all this Rye seed will take a lot out of me so I may not be up to it at the end of each day. I’ll play that one by ear.





We came straight home after church so I can get right on the planting thing. The first task was to make a handle for the broadcast spreader so I can pull it behind me. Seeing some branches that looked like they have the right bends I cut down this section of the Mulberry tree. It was dead anyway and I had planned on cutting it eventually for firewood. The new chainsaw chain we bought out of the CRP money to replace the old worn out one made quick work of it. I so wish I had the woodworking equipment to cut usable lumber out of this log. It is a beautiful dense gold colored wood. Hard as a rock though and dulls the chainsaw in a hurry. It’s tough stuff to carve as well. I might try to make a walking stick out of some of it. Meanwhile I made the handle for the spreader.





I pulled one of the fifty pound seed bags out of the truck and it took half a bag to fill the hopper of the spreader. Being a seed spreading virgin I had to experiment and try to figure out what setting to use as well as how fast to walk. It didn’t take long to use up the fifty pounds. Pulling that sucker in the loose sandy soil had me breathing hard pretty quick. This is going to hurt. As much as I dislike them I am thankful for the pain pills. They will enable me to keep going. I ran the second hopper at a slower feed setting so got more ground covered. I suspect we may have to get two hundred more pounds of seed to cover the entire five acres.





At first I raked over the seeds by hand. Steve and Janie had given us a special rake landscapers had left behind that is perfect for this. I think it’s about four feet wide. Raking the seven foot wide swath the seed spreader covered really works out my grip and forearms. And it was a slow ponderous pace so I decided to try something different in the hope of being more efficient. I took the empty seed bag and shoveled about twenty pounds of dirt in it. Putting that on top of the rake I just pulled it along. Works well but is still hard on the hands. I think I’ll fabricate some kind of handle that is geared for pulling in the morning. Just the three hours I put in today has effected my hands to the point typing is a chore. I’ll have to dig my carpel tunnel braces out now. A real hot soak in the tub along with another pain pill helped some but I know I’ll be sore in the morning. No big deal, I live with pain as it is so it’s nothing new. When/if we get a tractor all this will be a snap but till then I will do the best I can with what I have, as always.






There was a fantastic sunset that I was glad to get some pictures of. I usually take a bunch of pictures and then delete the ones that are not as good. It was hard to decide what to delete this time. It will be so nice when the new computer screen I ordered comes in. Then I will be able to post the pictures to my Flicker account. I can’t access it now because the passwords are on my computer and I wasn’t smart enough to write them down.






As always you can click on these pictures to enlarge them. Worth doing I think




Time to hit the hay folks so see ya next time.