The winds blew

6/15/10 Tuesday
The rain we got was miniscule so in order to take advantage of it I must rush out before the sun evaporates it all away. Digging down only the top inch or two of soil is wet and underneath it’s dry as a bone. I plan on running the disc to get the wet soil mixed deeper in with the thought that this will help keep it from evaporating away. But part of what I desire to do is sow Bermuda grass seed and the area it’s to go on can’t be disked so I will have to rake it by hand and then spread the seed, pressing it in with the roller I bought for that purpose. I think that task I’ll have to do first in an attempt to take advantage of the wet soil with the hope the seed will germinate. If the well water was good I could run sprinklers to get the grass going but because it’s bad that would only poison the seed and prevent it from starting. There’s a 30% chance of rain today so I’ll pray we get that.

Cherie is frustrated today. When I asked her what’s wrong she just says “I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind”. I so wish I knew more of what’s bothering her but I have a good idea of some of it. Life is difficult out here, money is short, she works full time and doesn’t have as much time or energy to do things around the house as she would like. I know what it’s like to not accomplish all you desire. I pray with her every morning but that doesn’t just fix everything.

Cherie made me another list of things to do, a big help for me. Among the things I need to do is cut up the wood that the winds tore out of our trees. On the news they showed an oil drilling rig that the winds had mangled the top of here in Martin county. We’re talking heavy steel just twisted into pretzel shapes. Fortunately no one was killed but some were taken to the hospital. That rig isn’t too far from the house. I’ve got some steel roofing that I noticed is coming up on the garage so I need to go put more nails or screws in it. Not sure what to use but it’s the kind of thing you don’t leave undone for the next wind will get under where it’s loose and tear it all off.

It will be a busy day. I must do my laundry sometime and it’s a poop scoop day so I’ll run into Midland at some point. A friend said he wanted to come out and visit but gave no indication what time he’d like to do that. I’ll just get out to work and hope he comes while I’m here. Laundry and poop scooping I normally do later in the day, often timing it so I’ll be in town when Cherie gets off of work.

Time to get out there before it gets too hot.
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Just picture this all nice and green with Bermuda grass nicely mowed. That's what I see in my minds eye. I see all kind of things as I visualize what can be.

2:40 – Had to take a break whether I wanted to or not. I’m almost done raking the area I plan on sowing Bermuda seed on, got about 80% of it raked and leveled. Been working at it six hours now, only taking off to get mail and something to eat around noon. If I had the right attachment for the tractor I could have done this in thirty minutes. Actually I could have done it with the Massey Ferguson tractor by scraping the surface with the front end loader blade running it in reverse. Losing that tractor was a real blow. One of these days, when I build a barn to work on things like that, I’ll tear the transmission apart and see if I can fix it. It could be something as simple as a shear pin. But until then it will have to sit. Meantime I’ve been pushing hard to get this area sowed and am paying a price in pain for that. The pain pills don’t work as good as they used to but that’s the way it is. Over time you develop a tolerance for them and I’ve been taking this prescription for over two years now.

The sun came out and is drying the soil pretty quick now. That’s bad. If there’s not enough moisture left in the dirt all this work might be in vain. I’ll allow myself ten minutes laying down to let the pain subside and get back out to work. Then I’ll pray for a light rain, one that won’t wash all the seeds away. I still need to go do my laundry and poop scoop today so only have an hour and a half to finish this.