6/26/08 Thursday
I was up watering the melons till 12:30 last night. I can’t remember if I skipped watering them the day before. Of course I can’t remember, that’s the bane of this brain injury. It is vitally important to keep the new plots I planted moist because the sun can bake the seeds while they are still in the ground. I know I spent a lot of yesterday mowing the rye in order to make mulch I could spread over where I planted the melons to protect them. It may be too late as they have been in the ground for days now.

The problem with the pain medication is it masks the pain and then I can work harder. That just aggravates the source of pain and probably reduces my bodies ability to repair the damage, or creates more damage. Anyway, I am back in pain again, to the point getting in and out of bed is an exercise in how to do it without causing too much hurt. With Cherie working I have set up a pad of paper to keep a record of when I take a pill. When she’s here I would just tell her. This helps compensate for the short term memory and will protect me from taking too many of them. Just now I came in to take one and got to typing. Now I don’t remember if I took it or not. Because of this it is possible for me to mistakenly take enough to cause an overdose. I could take a pill every five minutes because each time I would think it’s the first time. So now I make a notation of what time I take one.

Despite the high pain level I must get out and work. In this harsh environment skipping one day of water can kill the more delicate plants. Plus there is tons of weeding to do. There is always weeding to do. I haven’t been keeping up with it and can’t really say why. Do I just have other things more important that needs doing? Do I just forget? I know I constantly pull weeds as I water but there is much more to do. Right now bending over and pulling a weed is excruciating so I’ll avoid that. Even sitting on the ground and pulling weeds is pretty bad so that’s not an option. However, I can operate a hoe just fine. I bought a second one that has an extra long handle that works better for my six foot tall frame. As long as I can keep my back stiff and straight up it doesn’t hurt too bad. Plus I can push the mower without serious problem and there is plenty of mowing to do. Running the tiller is a different, that is hard on the back when it’s in good shape simply because it requires that slight stoop that kills me.

The black eyed peas are coming along well and some are ready to pick. Here’s where I have a problem. I’ve talked to several people who know about “truck farming” but I’m not sure how to go about it. How and what do I charge? Do I need to supply bushel baskets or bags? Should I just run an ad in the paper? Do I need a scale?

Last year Cherie and I waited till the blackeyed peas were dry before we picked them. We didn’t know any better because the peas and beans we’ve bought in the store were all dried except green beans and the like. When we were visiting with Jay and Jeanette the other day she laughed when she heard that. Jeanette was raised on a farm and told us about how to pick and…whatever you call getting the peas out of the pod. She called the skin or pod “Snaps” and explained how you cook some of them in with the peas. We’ve got lots to learn. Jay used to can his chili peppers along with lots of other stuff. They can teach us lots of good stuff.

So if any of you want some blackeyed peas just come on out. Bring something to put them in and I suppose that until we know how to do it you can just pay us what you want. Email us at bobcarver2@yahoo.com for directions and to make sure we will be here. Actually email won’t work well because I only can go online twice a week or so. I’m hesitant about giving out my phone number but have to figure something out. We need a business phone so perhaps I should just make my cell phone the business phone. That’s something I’ll need to discuss with Cherie. Last night we went to Stanton and tapped into someone’s Wi-Fi while sitting in a parking lot. We are still waiting for the satellite internet to be delivered and installed. It’s been a month now. I tried calling the number this morning and just got a busy signal. That is so frustrating as the internet is a vital part of our life and this farm.

That’s it for now. I just got done watering the last of our apple trees. Out of nine there are four left. One of the things I want to do is take some college courses on agriculture with an emphasis on orchard and greenhouse operations.

It’s 11:00. One of the things I haven’t been tracking is my slowdowns (petite seizures). So I don’t have a clue if I’ve been having a lot of them or am in that part of the cycle where they occur rarely. I think I’m in that part of the cycle but sometimes I’m so tired, frustrated, and confused along with the pain, that it’s hard to tell the difference between that and a minor slowdown.