Hot and sweaty

The puppies went out and played in the wet rye.
I've posted three days so be sure to check them out. Blogger is giving me a hard time with pictures so hope these show up.

4/22/08 Tuesday
Set the alarm to get up before the sun did. We couldn’t watch the weather forecast yesterday as there has been some kind of interference messing up our tv so the only channels that would come in were GLC, which we like anyway, and fox, but even that was shaky. It’s probably some piece of oil field equipment nearby. We’ve had the problem before where it was a regular cycle taking out the picture and sound every ten seconds or so. This time there was just nothing but snow and static.

Anyway the picture came in this morning though it was still fuzzy so we could see the weather report. There is 97% humidity and a chance for thunder storms later. Unfortunately there will be ninety degree temperatures along with the high humidity so that will be pretty rough. Dry heat is one thing but nothing compared to this swamp like atmosphere.

The next three days however show a good chance for rain. That means there is a rush to get as many seeds in the ground as possible. I worked till ten thirty last night but the moon didn’t come out till late so it was too dark to see well. So I got the flashlight out and held it in one hand as I operated the tiller with the other. Got half of the black eye peas planted. I’m working on the rest this morning and will keep going till it’s just too much for me to handle. Then I’ll run to Janie’s to do the poop scooping and go online.

In addition to that I may pick up some carpet that one of our friends, Jeannie (? Not sure if I have the name right but that’s not unusual for me) called me about yesterday. They are remodeling and the carpet in that room is being replaced or the floor tiled or something so she thought to offer it to us before donating it or throwing it away. As long as it’s not white we could sure use it but there is so much dirt out here, plus the dogs and I both tracking it in, (even without us the wind blows it in) that it would be ruined.

Speaking of Jeannie I thought I should mention this. Her husband, Jay, and son, Mike, have been a tremendous help to us. Jay helped pay for the replacement chimney, arranged for the replacement window where there was a big hole rotted clear through the wall, gave us some fencing he was replacing, (other’s leftovers are quite a blessing for us) and just bought us one of those Amish electric fireplaces that have been advertised so much lately. On top of that Mike is working to create a golf tournament to raise funds to help us get a tractor and other needed things for this farm we are building. And most valuable of all is friendship, the one thing we seek the most and couldn’t seem to find in Stanton. May God bless those who have blessed us. May he open the eyes of the rest.

So time’s a wasting. I need to get back outside while it is still cool and get as much done as possible.
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It’s after one now. I’m having a rough slowdown. Had a real hard time deciding what to plant. This is one of those times the brain injury lets itself be known. I got the box we keep our seeds in and began looking through them to see what I would plant next. All the choices, the instructions on how to plant, when to plant, was too much for me to sort out. This is frustrating. To think I once ran two companies at the same time, juggling all kinds of things at once. Now deciding what to plant is hard. I called Cherie. We will get together and make a schedule for me, something clear and simple that says what to plant where.

Worked late

The full moon


4/21/08 Monday
I worked till 12:30 last night. Had planned on planting seed under the full moon but decided not to. The light of the moon wasn’t quite enough to clearly see what I was doing but one of my big concerns was rattlesnakes. My understanding is that they are out hunting more at night and with the rye grain being high and poor light I could easily step on one.


So I mostly worked on running the water line (garden hose) back to the air conditioner. As you can see I’m encasing it in pvc pipe for protection. At some future point I plan to install regular pipe but for now this is a good quick answer.

After digging the trench to a point the area was no longer lit by our porch light I went in the garage and started working on the greenhouse. It went better than I thought though I will have to take some of it apart in order to continue. Things have to be put together in the proper sequence in order to complete the job. I’m getting to the hard part now.

I’ll work on that later today providing I’m doing well. I’m in the part of my cycle where I have few seizures and generally have a high cognizance. Getting lots more done now than at other times.

The important thing that needs to be done is getting seed in the ground. We set the alarm so I can get on that early before the temperatures climb into the nineties. That kind of heat really drains me. I watered the area we plan to put black eye peas in along with a few other areas nearby. First task is to start trucking out wheelbarrows of compost to spread along the rows along with fertilizer and the soil amendments Matt gave me. I’ll be sparing on the compost for the black eye peas because the seem to be hardy and grow well in this soil. That will give me more to use on other types of plants that need more help. I just don’t have enough compost for every area I plan to use. Next year should be better.

After I till all that in I will plant the seeds using Matt’s seeder. Then I will spread mulch over the rows. This will be made by mowing some more of the rye down and capturing it with the grass catcher on the mower. Growing the rye is a great way to help this garden. First it brings up nutrients from deep in the soil which becomes part of the compost made from mowing the young rye plants. I noticed the older rye doesn’t compost well at all. The rye serves to help control weeds though it doesn’t do well against the tumbleweeds. It also works as a windbreak. I bought fifty pounds of Sudan seed the other day because it will make a better windbreak being heavier with thicker stalks. This I will plant on the top edge of the rows peppers and other of the more delicate plants will be. Geese! It almost sounds like I know what I’m doing.

So it’s going to be another busy day, which I like anyway. Love to work and I’m really behind as it is. Had to take a pain pill this morning, which is no surprise. It will be a pain pill day to enable me to keep up a good pace. As much as I hate them they do the job. Today I need to call about renewing the prescription. They will probably require me to go in to see the doctor.
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1:50 – Boy the heat sure does get me. It was January or February that I was out in the snow sowing the rye seed. I can handle that and even enjoy it but this heat sure hits me hard, just sucks the energy right out. Cherie noticed and said I needed to come in and rest a few hours. I told her “no, I’ve got things to do” and kept on trucking but it wasn’t long before I had to agree. Besides that I’m having a minor slowdown anyway so wasn’t moving too fast as it was. Spending lots of time trying to figure out what I was doing or about to do. But we have gotten things done.

Cherie spent much of the morning watering what we have in the ground. She did it despite the back pain that has returned. Friday she had to see the chiropractor that Janie so graciously set her up with so there is no charge for us. Between that and the new mattress the ladies from our Sunday school bought when the learned of how much pain she was having, partly from sleeping on the thirty year old mattress that was in this house when we moved in. We have been wondrously blessed by these compassionate people who live their faith, not just talk about it. It has done much to restore my faith in the God of my youth after many bitter disappointments at the hands of others wearing the “Christian” label on their lapels. God will deal with their hard hearts.

Anyway, we are blessed but my point is that Cherie is a trooper and a tremendous help, enduring much as we work together to create this farm, home, and our future. But in the meantime I must take a break to cool off and rehydrate. I sure enjoyed working last night after the sun went down and everything cooled off. Got a lot done. I’ll probably take a nap as I often must around this time of day anyway. See ya.
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4/20/08 Sunday
It’s 4:40 in the morning. I’ve been wide awake since three. I suppose this is a good time to catch up on the journal. We went to Matt’s farmer’s market yesterday. I don’t remember if I mentioned him visiting us earlier this week so will mention it now. Matt visited us earlier this week. Cherie had found his number and he had sent out an email regarding the market so I gave him a call. When he came I gave him the grand tour of everything I’ve been working on. He asked about my needs so brought some stuff to the farmer’s market. The biggest help will be the seeder he’s letting me borrow. Sitting on the ground and putting seeds in the earth is painful for me, hurts more than lifting something heavy. Matt also gave me some soil amendment stuff to fix up my dirt. That plus advice on how to do stuff will be a big help as well.

Here at the farm things are slowly progressing. By the time we got home we both were drained so didn’t get much more done. On the way home Janie called. She was at the Bad Boy Blast (A big fund raiser for the local police agencies) and the battery for her camera had run down. She asked if we could get her other one and bring it out. No problem, just a U-turn across the interstate median and head back to Midland. We were glad to be able to help.

This was the second day for the Blast and boy was it crowded. There were more than a thousand that showed up the first day and I suspect even more were there on this Saturday. For those of you not from the area the fund raiser is a skeet shooting event at Windwalker, which is maybe five miles away from our place. In fact we can hear the shotguns going off. There was tons of food and stuff but we were tired and neither of us do good with a lot of commotion and activity, especially me, so we didn’t stay.

I cleared out space in the garage and started working on the greenhouse. That is not going to be fun. Spent some time sorting the different pieces out, trying to figure what goes where. It’s a confusing array of parts. I gave up after a bit and came in. Cherie and I had scheduled working on the living room but we were both tired so nothing got done. Maybe today we will get to it.

It’s five now. Cherie stirred a little and the dogs came in to check on us but she’s back to deep sleep judging from her breathing. I sure wish I could go online at times like this, get some stuff done. Maybe later that can happen.

Go figure, I’m feeling tired now. We will be getting up to get ready for church in an hour or two anyway but I’ll try to snooze a little.
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3:50 – It’s a hot hot day. Going to get into the nineties over the next few. This is spurring me to get the water line run to the evaporative air conditioner. I had wanted to run one from the hot water heater under the house out to it but couldn’t figure out how to tap into the water line. I know there is a way but would get confused looking at all the stuff in the plumbing section of the stores. Last year we just used a garden hose and that’s what we will do this year. I just want to bury it in order to protect the hose because it crosses the driveway and the well traveled path between the house and the garage. The hose Wally and Jen gave us will work perfectly as it is long enough to make the journey. It’s an old used one they had stored away and had a leak or two in it but that’s what I had asked for knowing I can easily repair them. But it’s a hot job digging a trench.

I found another well cover while digging the trench. It’s only four or five feet away from the other one. Every time I dig I find something. It’s too bad that my only relatives in the area choose not to talk to me. Ah yes…good Christian people showing the love of Jesus. (sarcasm intended) They could help me know the history of this place and understand what it is I find. But my expressing my thoughts about the mysterious unknown, and in some cases known, persons who stole what they wanted over the years evidently hit close to home. If you’re not guilty don’t act guilty.

Right now I came in for a break and something cold to drink. The dogs are smarter than I am as they are staying inside. Cherie is sick today. Her broken molar is once again infected and it has spread into her sinuses. She tells me the tooth has been broken and giving her problems since about the year 2000. It is unfortunate that dentists require payment up front or they won’t do the work. Otherwise we would have it fixed and make payments. Hopefully we can make enough money farming to cover it. There is so much that needs to be done. These are the kinds of things all poor people in this country endure and it is good in a way that we can experience these hardships. I know that sounds strange but having been homeless wandering lost in this realm opened my eyes to many things. I feel I am to help others see, to open eyes to the plight of those less fortunate and thus bring understanding and compassion. It is the heart of God. Jesus spent his time with those who were looked down on, who were sick, poor, and rejected. There are more references in the bible to the poor and downtrodden (837) than almost any other subject.

West Texas is hard on plant life. Of the four blueberry bushes only one is still making it. Two never came out and the leaves dried up on the other one. None of the raspberries show any life but two of the three blackberries have leaves on them. I saw evidence of more gopher activity out there today. They will be a constant challenge and battle. Destructive little creatures. Keeping things watered will be a tremendous challenge. As funds come available I will buy more soaker hoses and drip feed irrigation stuff. But I haven’t managed to install what I have as it is.

It’s time to get back out in the heat. At church today Dave or Ed (I always get them confused) asked if I was planting in the full moon. I thought about it yesterday night but was too tired. I think I will go out there tonight as that’s when the temperature is manageable. Also I’ll set the alarm to get out to work early before things heat up. I’m anxious to use the seeder Matt let me borrow. With that in mind I will prepare the rows where the black-eyed peas are to go, till in the compost, fertilizers, and soil amendment stuff Matt gave me. Hope the moon is out early. It looks like the sky will be clear but you never know around here.

The week in pictures

4/15/08 Tuesday
It’s 1:00 now. I’ve been out working since eight this morning. Fact is I’ve been bustin my butt for days now. The new tiller is getting quite a workout along with my body. Things are finally beginning to take shape with this farm and it feels good to see some progress. Despite that I am under the gun to get seeds in the ground. Fact is most of this stuff should have been done by now and I should be caring for young plants. Actually the potatoes are coming up and looking good. They are my first plants for the season to come out.

I think that the first batch of seeds I’ll be putting in the ground are the sunflowers that we will be planting on the south edge of the farm. This is a ridge that runs along the dirt road that goes to our neighbor’s barns. Over the decades the wind has deposited enough dirt to raise it five feet above his field. I tilled up where we want to plant them. This is where we put seventy five of the Afghan pines for a wind break. It will look great we think. As you approach our house from the south (where the interstate is a mile and a half away) there will be a wall of yellow when the flowers are in bloom.

Each white stake you see holds up a pine. There are seventy five of them here

The Afghan pines are not all doing well. Gophers or some other little critters are scrapping the bark off at the bases and have killed three so far. Cherie wrapped cloth around them last week. Hope that helps. I haven’t had time to take the gopher poison and put it in all of the little holes that are showing up all over the place. For that matter I don’t have time to do so many things around here that need doing. If I had the money I would hire Tommy to help out when he’s free. Tommy is one of the two guys who stay with Chuck and Lillian. There’s a story there but I don’t think I’ll tell it now. He’s the kind of guy that makes a lot of people uncomfortable but he doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve been so many places and seen so many things that there is not much that bothers me. Fact is that Tommy is a good man with a well developed sense of integrity and the kind of person I can trust.
Cherie watering the strawberries. She's a farmer now. See what I did?

Anyway, I’m getting side tracked. The wind is blowing hard now, running at twenty miles per hour or so. Fortunately it’s not kicking up too much sand so I can still get some stuff done outside. If it gets worse I’m thinking I’ll clear out some space in the garage and see if I can put that greenhouse together where it will be protected from the wind. Once together it won’t be hard to carry out and put on the frame. I’ll have to run straps over it and stake them down or the wind will rip it off the ground out here.
I climbed on the roof to take pictures of what I'm doing. You can just make out the outlines of a couple of the plots I'm tilling.

I’ve been pushing myself pretty hard. Sunday I had a slowdown but I kept going despite of it. It started out as one of the mild ones but after two or three hours I got to where walking was a difficult task and I had to be careful not to fall down. By that time it was hard for me to formulate sentences so talking was a chore. I quit because it was time for dinner and I was done for anyway. Yesterday’s seizure was the kind that came on quick and after a two hour nap I was fine and going again.

There is a lot more I should write but there is too much to do. I came in at 11:00 to rest and fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before laying down. It’s 1:52 and I’m rested up now. So are the puppies. They came in with me and crashed out on the bed too.
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3:12 – About an hour is all I can handle on that tiller at a time. If I could raise the handle eight inches it would help. As it is the tiller handles are below counter top level when I’m running at it’s full depth. Raising the handles won’t be easy. I’ll look at that later. Regardless the tiller is a Godsend. It’s got using a pitchfork beat all to pieces. I can just come in and lay down for fifteen minutes and the muscles in my back relax and the pain goes down. Besides I need to drink something every hour in this heat so it all works out.
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4:40 – I’m in for another back break. I sure do miss being able to go online at times like this. For that matter I just miss being able to go online whenever I need to. Eventually we will get a satellite internet hookup that will solve all of this. Till then we just have to work with it. Cherie should be home in about a half hour. She took care of the poop scooping for me. That saves me the time and money of going to Midland but not going means I don’t go online. There is too much to do around here anyway. I guess I’ll take a pain pill. I’ve been real careful taking them but now that my doctors appointment was moved back nearly a month I must really stretch it out. That’s because he must renew the prescription before I can get anymore.

4/18/08 Friday
Don’t have time to write much. Here’s what I journaled since last Friday. And pictures which tell much and help me remember.

Catch up

Here's a video of the grain rye blowing in the wind yesterday (Thursday) It wasn't long after this it turned into a sand storm where you would have barely been able to see the house.


4/9/08 Wednesday
Not doing good this morning. Have a headache and when I went out to make some more tree stakes my hands were so weak I could barely cut the wire. It’s cold out and there is a chance we will have rain. It sprinkled for about ten seconds this morning but that’s it so far. I’ve been staying busy and not having too many slowdowns during the day. Still having a hard time figuring things out but I suppose I should get used to it. I borrowed Chuck’s trailer and with the help of Jamie went and got several rolls of fencing at the landfill. There was lots of lumber discarded from some construction site there so I got a truck load for use around this farm. Our Wi-Fi access in Stanton doesn’t seem to be working anymore. I forgot to take my laptop with me when I went to Midland yesterday so wasn’t able to post on the blog or check email. I’m not real motivated to write or do much in that arena. It’s probably depression. I get so tired of struggling.

I went to the Mennonites who own the house on the corner of our property and let them know I would now be willing to sell up to three acres to them. I had told him no when he asked last year. He wasn’t happy with the price but said he would get back to me. We talked about possibly doing a trade for a tractor. Right now I’m not real inclined to go that way. The only reason I am considering selling is to raise capital for this farm. I’d rather shop for my tractor than let someone else find it for me. Regardless we need cash to buy needed supplies and build a farm.
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4/10/08 Thursday
Yesterday wasn’t a good day. I was depressed and frustrated and then was very angry. The depression stems from my inability to get things done. The anger was related to that and small things like hoses breaking after I spent a couple of hours fixing a sprinkler. Then I got something in the mail that really grated. I won’t talk about that here till we see our lawyer. I’ve been going back a few years in this journal to research some stuff related to what I got in the mail and that brings lots of memories of Toledo, the friends we left and the early days of Cherie and I renewing our relationship. Lots of emotion there.

Last night we had the first rain for the year. It was only a quarter inch or so but very welcome. There was some hail, about marble size for us though the weather had a report of tennis ball size hail. Hearing that I pulled the cars as close to the garage as I could get to provide some kind of protection.
making stakes by splitting wood I found at the landfill

Today there is a thirty mile per hour wind with sixty mph gusts. It’s too much for me to do much outside. Despite all the rain and everything being wet it’s blowing sand out there. I’m going to have to redo the stakes on some of the Afghan pines as the strings I used on the first ones aren’t working well in the wind. Unfortunately many will be damaged before it’s over.

The compost is finished. It’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago it was all freshly mowed green stuff. Now I’ll start a fresh batch. With the rain the weeds will be springing up with a vengeance so as I mow and hoe them down they will go into the compost bin. Now that it has rained tilling will be much easier. There is lots of that to do. Cherie made a list of all the seeds we have to help me map out what will go where.
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4/11/08 Friday
Can’t believe it’s Friday already. We went to see Patrick Duffy, our attorney, this morning. He could see how the math didn’t add up on the issue we are concerned about and agreed that we have a clear right for an accounting for it. I’ll explain this at some future point. I guess I’m finally learning a thing called prudence, or something like that. The biggest problem with this issue is simply a lack of communication.
Here is some of the fencing I recovered from the landfill. Still don't have stakes to hold it all up but will do it some way. You know I'm resourceful. It will go a long way in keeping rabbits and puppies out of the plants.

It will hopefully be a busy day. As long as I’m in good shape it will be for there is much to do. Today I plan on getting the tiller out but the first thing is to get those last thirty trees planted. I haven’t surveyed what the fifty five mph wind gust did to them yet.

Just got done poop scooping at S&J’s. Put ninety one dollars in the gas tank. The truck is making a ticking noise now and not running as smooth as it used to. It’s not really bad, just something I notice. The miles per gallon seem to be ok but I will have to check with the next fill up. It’s got 170,000 plus miles on it so I need to start babying it. I drive it pretty easy most of the time just to save on gas but still get in a hurry sometimes.

There is lots of other things that I am sure have gone on but I don’t keep up with this journal as well now that I can’t get online unless I come to Midland. We had Alltel turn off the phone line we had for the PC card. No sense in paying for something that doesn’t work. Cherie did the math and if we kept the line it would cost us $480 till the contract was up so it’s cheaper to incur the two hundred dollar disconnect fee. Plus how quickly I wear out when I am working outside doesn’t help me keep up with the journal. I come in and lay down to relieve the pain and often snooze. It’s a frustrating thing to feel old at 51 on top of a beaten up body. I just want to run and can’t. I keep trying though. But I’m doing much better today than I was two days ago. It feels good to be positive about things again. These bouts of depression don’t last long but can be intense.

There is much to do so I must post this, check my emails, and get moving. There is lots of other things I need or would like to do online but can’t afford to waste any of this “prime time” when my brain is working and the weather is cooperating.

4/4/08 Friday
Yesterday was a day of accomplishment and disappointment. So far I have planted sixty of the ninety afghan pines. I looked at the strawberry plants that are on the north side. Out of seventy plants there are only about seven that still have leaves. Some of them show signs of bugs eating them. What a bitter disappointment. I don’t know if bugs got them all or a rabbit or something but whatever it was hit them hard. I’m almost afraid to go out and look this morning. The strawberries we planted where the old melon patch was are doing much better. I folded some of the wire fencing recovered from the landfill to provide some protection from rabbits and such. Bugs are a different matter. As much as I want to go organic it is vital that we make sellable crops this year so I may have to use pesticides. Right now we are building a farm with toothpicks when we need logs. The tiller however is a big boost. Any income we bring in can be used to get things that will help us do better next year. And doing better next year will improve the year after that. Little by little we will do this. On top of getting the material building blocks (so to speak) each year adds to our experience and knowledge of how to do things. Unfortunately I am learning again much of what I learned last year because I forget so much. I read what I downloaded last year regarding growing corn and it was all brand new to me. Eventually it will stay.

I was surprised this morning that I didn’t need a pain pill, especially after how hard I worked yesterday and how sore I was when I went to bed. Cherie and I were out watering and working till way after dark. I separated cloves of garlic till after ten. Unfortunately it is all in pretty sad shape. There are fifty or sixty heads of garlic that Matt gave us some time back. They sat in the box out of sight and out of mind. I was disheartened to learn that they should be planted in the fall. Now the ones that sprouted are all shriveled up. I think I’ll run them through the blender and put the past around plants to see if it wards off bugs. Perhaps I’ll see if I can produce a liquid I can spray on them and see how that works.

While I didn’t need a pain pill I unfortunately have one of those killer headaches that come by every now and then. Laid down with the blanket (we don’t have drapes yet) closed over the window to reduce the light. I did that till the alarm sounded to let me know it was time to move the water sprinklers. I’m running them again to help the rye as much as I can. Didn’t run them when I was focused on planting the trees. Just couldn’t do two things at once.

I’m fixing to head into Midland headache or not. I’ll stop by Walmart first to check on some Azalea mulch they have on clearance at sixty cents a bag. It’s high in acid so will be good for a lot of what we want to grow. The peat moss is all gone. I checked on that yesterday and was disappointed to see that. They told me that if it didn’t get sold it would be thrown out. What a crime that is. If it didn’t cost me eight bucks in gas to make the forty mile round trip I would have gone up every day to hopefully get a deal on it before they tossed it in the dumpster. We are spending $250 a month on gas as it is. That’s a big chunk out of a nine hundred dollar monthly disability check.

After Walfart I’ll hit Janie’s to poop scoop and go online.

4/2/08 Wednesday
Looking back I see the last entry was Friday. Nuts. I’ll look at the pictures I took to see if they help me remember what I did. This morning was a pain pill morning because of how hard I worked yesterday. It’s not really how hard I work but what part of my body I’m straining that aggravates the pain. I know I spent three or four days planting the first thirty of the Afghan pines we got for windbreaks. Yesterday I dug thirty more holes for the next batch. With those planted there will only be thirty left to go. They desperately need to get in the ground now as they are still in the box we got them in from the forestry service.

The way I’ve been planting them is I first use the post hole digger to make a little three of four inch hole, which I then fill with water. This softens the rock hard dirt and makes it much easier to dig farther. After it soaks in I use the shovel to make a basin that is about two foot across and dig a hole with the post hole digger a foot or more deep. After that I mix up a batch of dirt in the wheelbarrow. The wheel barrow is really suffering from all the work it’s done over the last year and a half. Cracks are showing up in the metal at stress points.

The dirt consists of compost I made last year (didn’t do it right but it’s better than sand) mixed with peat moss and some stuff called “landscaper’s mix” I picked up with the broke bag haul from Lowe’s. What a shame that is no longer is available. Not sure what it’s for but it contains lots of organic material and some perlite. That’s all gone now, used it up on the first thirty trees. I did get a good deal on sphagnum peat moss but I can’t tell you where. So I bought eleven bags of it. It won’t last long. Walmart has some on clearance for three bucks a bag which is great compared to the eight bucks I’ve seen elsewhere. Money is going to be real tight this month so I’ll have to be careful about what I spend. Maybe we’ll make enough from this garden to help us do things right next year. Anyway, I mix all that up and throw in some bone meal (Phosphorus that helps in root development) and some sulfur. The sulfur helps acidify the ph because afghan pines prefer an acid soil. I stir this mix in with the dirt I dug out for the trees and plant them.

I had planned on making a protective cage for them with fence slates but that won’t work out right now. Mostly that’s because of the time it will take me versus the need to get the trees in the ground. Perhaps I’ll find time to make them later. In the meantime I am staking the trees up to keep the wind from destroying them. I had purchased some of that plastic orange fencing you see at construction sites last week because it’s as cheap as I can find except in mail order catalogs. Along with it I got ten plastic stakes to hold it up at a dollar nine cents each. They were four foot tall. Needing stakes for the trees I decided to use them. You know, I use whatever I can find. I cut them in two because two feet was just high enough for the Afghans. But fifty cents times ninety trees is forty five bucks or so. That’s a lot of change to come out of our meager resources. Looking around I saw the stakes I had found at the landfill. I plan on using them in this garden for trellises and such but…there’s another need. By cutting them in half and then splitting each half I have good two foot stakes to use on the trees. Every penny saved can be a dollar earned you know.

I got a call yesterday from Steve. He’s the vice president for the Food for Everyone (or something like that) foundation. It’s connected to a yahoo group I joined that promotes the Metlieder growing system. He heard about me when I asked a question in the group. The foundation is starting something to help veterans so he wanted to see what he can do for me. Steve is going to email me some information on it today. I didn’t make it to Midland yesterday so consequently wasn’t able to go online. The PC card was able to connect to my surprise but it was the same old story. The signal strength was bouncing from good to not there at all. We discovered that there is a Wi-Fi hookup accessible where we get our water jugs filled in Stanton so I’ll go there to get online. Sorry I didn’t make it in Don. I really wanted to get you out and about yesterday, know it would be a blessing.

So what else? Let me look at the pictures to see if it brings anything to mind.

Ok, there are two things. While dumping dirt out of the old Styrofoam planter Janie didn’t want anymore I found some worms. Now I’ve been wanting to start up a vermiculture thing for a while to create the worm castings that are so good for gardens and what I needed was the worms. Now I am motivated. I took an plastic drum recovered from the landfill and cut it in half. After drilling holes for drainage and ventilation I scavenged some hinges off an old cabinet to attach one half as a lid. A little dirt and a little compost should do it. I’ll need to keep it moist, growing worms is like growing plants, water and food. Hopefully I’ll have tons of worms when all’s said and done.

The other picture shows how the rye is making grain already. After that one little rain we had it all sprang up quickly. All the watering I did with the sprinklers didn’t compare. It’s wonderful for me to see the sea of green waving in the wind. So my question is, how do I harvest the grain? If I had a scythe I could mow it down like in the old days, gather it up, and when it dries thresh it. I don’t have a scythe and they aren’t cheap. Up north you can find them in antique shops but not down here. They can be ordered new from Lehman’s but again aren’t cheap. I wonder if I can use the mower. It has a bag to catch the clippings and the force of the blades could well thresh the grain off the heads. Then I’d just have to let the wind separate the chaff from the grain by throwing it up like was done before machines. Last year I set up a vacuum to blow the chaff away from the winter wheat we grew. I’ll plant those seeds this year.


I know there’s lots more stuff that’s happened in the last few days but it’s not there, can’t remember. I haven’t been keeping up with this journal mostly because I’m working so hard and get tired so easily. That plus the pain level increases with the activity. But there is lots to do and no one but me to do it. Having multiple slowdowns (seizures) doesn’t help. Cherie helps some. That reminds me of something. Cherie looked up seed starting on line yesterday and figured out we’ve been doing it all wrong. She’s going to get moving on planting seeds again. The last few flats were miserable failures. Nothing survived out of over a hundred seeds planted. Hell most of it never came up. I really need to get the seed shack put together but that’s just another thing I haven’t been able to finish. It’s not that I am unable to, I just don’t seem to get to it. It is frustrating and depressing for me to not achieve these basic goals. I still haven’t mailed out the “Year in pictures” I struggled to finish since last November. They sit there forgotten. I remember but as soon as I get busy forget. It’s the biggest problem I have from the brain injury, the one that holds me back the most.

Friday

3/28/08 Friday
I busted my butt yesterday. Finally got the potatoes I said I was “determined” to get done Tuesday planted. Tilled up where we had planted squash and beans last year. The seed potatoes I got had started to grow so I cut them up in preparation for planting. They are supposed to sit out for two or three days before you put them in the ground. I don’t know when I cut them up but I think it was longer than three days. I’ll go check the journal to see if I made a notation. On Tuesday I said that I had cut them up “two or three days ago”. That means they were cut at least six days ago. Not good but unfortunately it’s not unusual for me to lose track and forget. I hope this didn’t harm the chances of the potatoes making it. This is the kind of thing that worries and depresses me. It’s hard to have all these hopes and ambitions but seem unable to keep up with simple things.

So to plant the potatoes right I needed to dig a trench by hand with a shovel after I tilled it. Then I laid in a bag of peat moss, a bag of something called “landscaping mix” I’d picked up in the broken bag haul before Lowe’s vetoed the idea, and some compost. After throwing in some fertilizer and bone meal I tilled it all in. Then I planted the now wrinkled cuts of potatoes. I strung a soaker hose from last year over as much as I could and watered it all real good.


That was a lot of hard on the back work so I’m paying for it today. I’ve poop scooped at Janie’s where I am writing this. Then I will finally be able to post on the blog. I know it’s been since Sunday but that’s the way it is folks. I’ll post each day separately. There are lots of pictures. Cherie took a video of me using the tiller with a camera someone blessed us with. The Kodak takes video too but we never used it before. I don’t know how to post video’s on the blog but I’ll try.
It worked!!! Here's vidio of the new tiller in operation

Thursday

3/27/08 Thursday
There was a whole lot I was going to write yesterday but as usual never got to it. We spent a couple of hours at Alltel regarding our internet line. In the process the guy called a customer service rep to have me talk to. It was one of those guys in India where so much telemarketing is done now. It wasn’t long before I was screaming at the guy even though I was in the middle of Alltel’s sales room. “Don’t you understand English” I yelled in frustration as the guy followed the script on his computer evidently not comprehending what I told him. It is extremely embarrassing for me to have these emotional control issues in public. Eventually, after being shuttled to various other departments and people we learned that our house is in a fringe area. The nearest tower is five miles away and in order to get good data service we should be no farther than three and a half miles. Despite that they won’t let us out of the contract unless there was something changed on Alltel’s end that causes our problems.

We went to the I-Hop near the Walmart on interstate 20 so we could go online. Cherie ordered the grilled chicken salad and when it finally came out it was just a bowl of lettuce with some parmesan cheese on it. The waitress was a trainee and after going to the kitchen said “Your supposed to put that on yourself. Their cooking it now”. I asked to see the manager. She left and came back to say the manager wasn’t in her office. “So there is no manager here at all?” I asked. “She’s here, she’s just not in her office” I was told. “Well, I want to talk to her so could you go find her please”. The girl left again and came back with another lady who, after trying to get us to accept the chicken salad that Cherie no longer wanted said they would take it off the bill. I didn’t finish doing the stuff online I wanted to, which included posting on the blog, but we were pretty much disgusted. My sandwich sucked and the cheese soup was so nasty that after one bite neither of us would eat it. When asked the standard “how was it?” at the cash register (incidentally the couple before us said “We won’t be back”) I expressed my dissatisfaction. A lady had come from the back and heard us. Come to find out she was the manager. The person who had come to our table before was just another waitress impersonating the manager. Because they had already accepted my credit card and rung it up she said she couldn’t refund my money but to just ask for a manager next time we come in. I don’t think that will happen. All of this just set the stage for our visit to Alltel.

This morning I accidently took a double dose of my medicine. I remember looking at my pill minder and telling Cherie I must have messed up before cause there was only one dose instead of the two that were supposed to be there. So I took it. Now I am feeling…well kind of like I took two seizure pills instead of one. That’s the short term memory and is why I always try to tell Cherie when I take a pain pill so I don’t forget and take another one and another one. I just didn’t remember taking my morning meds so presumed I’d screwed up loading the pill minder instead of trusting it.

I’m fighting the depression again. There’s a despair when I see how much there is to do and how little is done. Am I doomed to failure? My saying “If you reach for the stars and don’t make it at least you went farther than if you never reached at all” seems kind of shallow right now. I’ll get over it but it can be hard to keep your head up sometimes.

Wednesday

3/26/08 Wednesday
Kind of a crappy start for the day. I went out to do a few things before we ran into Midland. That’s when I discovered that I had never watered the strawberries. I spent two days planting them but forgot to water the ones on the north side of the house. They were put in the ground five days ago. This is so not good. I had drug a hose out to them but evidently got distracted so forgot all about it. Yesterday I even went and got the same hose to water the compost I was preparing but it never crossed my mind. This is where the short term memory loss can cost me. It is depressing, I again wonder why I even try or if there is any point in it.

Tuesday

I don't remember what day this sunset was though it had to be within the last few. Found several pictures of it I had downloaded.


3/25/08 Tuesday
I can’t believe it’s after 12:00 already. Got up, took my meds and a pain pill, early so I could get to work. I have been encouraging Cherie to take a walk every morning for her health. This morning was the first one. We used to do this when we first moved here but that habit fell away during the winter. She had started back on the Staten drugs for cholesterol despite learning just how nasty they really are, because her doctor said she should. That pissed me off. I feel that the best way to reduce cholesterol and get healthy is to exercise and eat right. So I’m going to have to be a nudge. I love her and want her strong and healthy so we can have as many years together as possible, and make them quality years. From what I’ve read Staten drugs are one of the biggest frauds perpetrated on the American public by the big pharmaceutical giants to date. Y’all ought to go online and check it out.

Yesterday was a rough day. The morning was ok but at eleven I had to go back and take more tests at the neuropsych. That was two and a half hours of learning just how poorly my brain works. It drained me, I was exhausted by the time we were done. We went to the Thai restaurant we had found for lunch. I love Thai food. It has flavors that are unique. Then we went to Tractor Supply to get the warranty card on the tiller filled out. After that we hit Janie’s to go online. I didn’t want to stay too long as her son was there but mostly because there is so much to do on this farm. It’s too bad because there is so much information I need to get and some new contacts I’ve made that I need to follow up on. Both came through the Mittlieder gardening method group. One of them is the VP for the Food For Everyone (or something like that) Foundation. He is working on setting up a non profit for disabled veterans and after learning about me wants to talk.

After all of that activity I was not processing well. At home I was again wandering as I do when slow. One of the things I had a hard time with was trying to determine what size plot to prepare for the corn. The more I tried to figure it out the more confused I got. I have a hundred and fifty seeds that need to be planted ten inches apart. The rows need to be two and a half feet wide. I want to make the area a square as it’s best to have the corn bunched together for pollination. As simple as this is it was too much for me. I decided to make the area ten feet by ten. I marked out two plots this morning that are about three hundred feet apart. This is to prevent the two different kinds of corn from cross pollinating. That way I should have good seed for next year. One of the things I’d dearly love to find is an antique corn machine that removes the kernels from the cob. You see lots of them up in the Ohio Michigan area.

Right now I’m working on compost. I moved the compost bin we got from the seminar put on by the extension agent in Odessa. I had filled it with green clippings from mowing the rye along with some cotton and stuff I had chopped up with the lawnmower Wally has given us. Boy, that sucker stank. Smelled like some animal had died. But it was sure composting. The level sank by two thirds. So it was time to stir this up and I decided to move it farther away from the house and to reload it with more stuff. I’m mowing pathways in the rye fields to collect the green clippings in the mower bag. Cherie and I marked where we are going to plant the Afghan pines so I mowed along that. The clippings will go in the new compost along with the goat manure I got last year. It will make a rich mixture that should be ready in three or four weeks.


Today I am determined to get corn and potatoes planted. The potatoes I planted last week or so I did all wrong. This time I’m using the seed potatoes we got from Walfart. I cut them up two or three days ago and they are ready to go in the ground. I finally got the base of the greenhouse in the ground. At this rate I’ll be lucky to finish it this year.

I fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so it’s time to get back to work.
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It’s 4:00 and I am still working on the compost. I have a hard time estimating how long a task will take. I figured this would be done in an hour. It’s been over four hours and I am not yet done but pretty close. I think I’ve stayed on task with this, not wandered off doing something else, but it’s hard to say when I don’t remember what happened an hour ago. I had to come in and take a break. Was getting a little light headed and unsteady on my feet. It’s getting pretty warm out now. I’m so tired. Hope it’s not a slowdown.

PC card died

3/22/08 Saturday
It’s 3:30 in the morning and I’m still wide awake. I figured I would have crashed out quickly considering how hard I worked yesterday but that’s now how it worked. I got the strawberry beds I planned done and Cherie helped me get them planted. In my mind the areas I prepared would have held all the plants but it ended up being only half of them. No problem, I’ve got a killer tiller so will just make more beds tomorrow for them. That machine is going to see a lot of use over the next few weeks. I hope I can get some sleep tonight but at this rate may not. Hope that doesn’t slow me down. I know I’ll hurt, mostly from moving the telephone poles and about fifteen wheelbarrow loads of dirt. Thank God for the pain medication.

I kind of drifted off around 5:30 but never really got any sleep all night. Doesn’t matter, I’ve got things to do. I got up and out by eight and the first thing I did was fire up the tiller. Then I went to carefully put mulch around the strawberry plants we so carefully put in the ground last night. Because it was getting dark and we worked till we could not see there were some areas I had to fix. As I worked I saw the puppies wrestling on top of the south bed of strawberries. OH NO!!! I thought as I got up and screamed at them. My yelling and pointing to the area saying “NO, Bad Dog” didn’t do any good. They were in it just minutes later. Then Trixie decided it was a good area to sprawl out and lay. Each time they heard it from me. When I looked at the bed I could see it has already been a major pathway for them. I don’t know how many of our strawberries they have destroyed yet but will when I mulch them. I’ve worried and thought on how to deal with pests such as rabbits and bugs but I think our biggest problem will be the puppies. Last year the destroyed seventy percent of the melon patch as they exuberantly played. This is a major problem. I think I will have to go online and see if there is a way I can make an electric fence for cheap. I sure can’t afford fencing for the large area we want to plant.
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I tried to post that for about an hour and gave up. I think that our pc card is failing in addition to Alltel’s signal bouncing in and out. There are times the card shows no signal at all but my cell phone shows that Alltel’s signal is strong. I often unplug and plug the card back in several times and then suddenly there is signal. Janie suggested we take our card in and have it tested. It really doesn’t matter cause if it is bad there is no warranty and we couldn’t afford one anyway. Besides that, if it is bad and they know then we won’t be able to get out of our contract. So I’ll leave it be.

I’ve got one of those splitting headaches now. That on top of being slow. I called Cherie to find out where some peanut butter is and she said I should take a break and rest, or maybe even call it a day. My reply was a simple “No”. I explained that we were under the gun and couldn’t afford to take a break. I’m not moving too fast as it is so the work is going in slow motion. I am tired.

I’ll try to go online again but really don’t have much hope.

Nah, it ain’t going to happen. There is not much signal registering on the cell phone so even if the card is working it couldn’t make it.
Here's how much I've dug out of the big compost pile so far.


It looks like our PC card has bitten the dust. There is no signal of any type no matter how many times I put it in the laptop. It doesn’t work in Cherie’s either. I’ll take this laptop to Midland when we go to church and go online through one of the free Wi-Fi sites to be found like we used to when we first moved here. So I won’t be posting everyday for sure. There is so much else I need the internet for beyond email. It’s the greatest source of information for anything, like details on how to plant and grow different things.

We got all the strawberries planted. I worked pretty hard and after not getting any sleep last night am pretty tired.
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This is for my new blogosphere friend, Jim. You mentioned how my problems make your's seem less. Here is my philosophy. I carved this while recovering in St Louis. You know, I used to complain about having no shoes till I met a man with no feet. Many have it much worse than I. I am blessed with life period.


3/23/08 Sunday
It’s one of those mornings where I had to take a pain pill when I got up. The combination of bone pains that come with weather changes and the effects of all the work I’ve been doing are like a one two punch. It hurts but I remind myself that this is part of the blessing of still being alive. I remind myself of that all the time as it really puts things into perspective. Regardless of the pain and a brain that doesn’t always work well I am a lucky and blessed person. My life is a gift. Pain I’ve lived with for eight years now and the first five of that with no medication so it’s just something there. I would gladly endure more for a brain that worked like it used to. I’ve always had a high tolerance for pain.

You can see the strawberries I just put in behind the puppies doing what teenagers do.

We were blessed with some rain yesterday with little sprinkles during the night. It was disappointingly light and I stayed out in it putting mulch on the new area I planted with the remainder of the strawberries. I haven’t been outside yet this morning so don’t know how wet the ground is, but the dog’s paws were pretty dirty so that’s a good sign. They weren’t out for long for Cherie looked out the window and they were again dancing on the strawberries. I’m not anxious to go out and see the damage. Those puppies to more to try my emotional control issues than anything else. It bothers me when I get so angry I scream and throw shovels around. At least I am able to restrain the urge to hit them but it scares me when I get this angry. Fact is though that I have always had an anger problem going back to childhood. Part of it I inherited from my dad. My memories of him involve lots of explosive anger, much of which I triggered but he was easily set off in general. I was held back in the fifth grade, not because of my grades but because I was deemed emotionally not ready. I feel this is another evidence of Asperger’s syndrome. I wish my dad and mom would talk to me so I could learn more about these problems I had. Hell, I just wish they would talk to me.

The rye grain is growing well in spots.

This is the first real rain we’ve had this year. Up till now the highest recorded level of moisture was five one hundredths of an inch. Here’s another of the glitches from the TBI, I’m not clear how to write that out numerically. Is it .05 or .005? It’s a small thing but the testing at the neuropsych really brought that out. So the rain is a reminder of how far behind I am on the garden. Much of our seed needs to be in the ground and if I had it together there would be lots of tomatoes and peppers growing in flats ready to plant. Next year will be better as things like the greenhouse and seed starting shack will be finished and ready for use. Plus once the beds are made it will be much easier to just amend the soil in preparation for planting. So we are creating the infrastructure of the farm so to speak.

We are sitting in Steve and Janie's driveway and taping into their WI-Fi so I can post this. It works better than the PC card did anyway. We didn't want to go in and bother them just to go online.

Love it, getting things done with the tiller

3/21/08 Friday
The visit to the neuropsych involved taking a bunch of tests to see how well my brain worked. I hate that because they remind me of how much I have lost. We were there three hours and when I came home I laid down and turned on the TV. Next thing I know I am waking up a couple of hours later. Those tests exhausted me.

The meeting about wind energy was put on by an attorney who’s firm puts together these deals. The idea is to get a large group of us together who’s land is in the same area to attract wind energy companies and get them to compete for leases. This guy has been doing it for seven or so years. It sounds pretty good but we will see. I’ll have Steve look at the paperwork they wanted signed before we do anything. Regardless nothing will happen fast. Seems that these things can take a few years to put together. But considering there are a hundred or so wind generators operating in sight of us with a couple hundred more scheduled to go in it looks promising. Time will tell.

James and his wife were there at the meeting. He’s one of the people from the first church of Stanton who was in our Sunday school class. I liked him and he was fairly open and friendly then. He didn’t seem inclined to talk. They sat next to us. I didn’t recognize him but that is not unusual for me. Cherie let me know who they were. I tried to talk about how things went when we were there in my very awkward way. What I did was try to explain how my social skills aren’t very good and that I probably said things that were not smart. He just repeated that he hadn’t heard a thing, which I found kind of strange being sure I created a stir. I invited and encouraged him to come and visit us. He said he doesn’t get out our way much. After that things seemed to get more relaxed so we talked about things like hearing loss. That encouraged me. I just want to have friends in this community and enjoy the same kind of fellowship we have in Midland.

So I’ve been out using the tiller for the first time. What a blessing that will be for us. Even with it there is lots of hard work for me to do to prepare the beds. First thing is the strawberries. I ran the tiller with the tines running in reverse just a few inches deep as suggested in the directions for breaking sod. Then I’ve been hauling wheelbarrow loads of dirt from the compost I piled up last year with the front end loader on the tractor Wally had rented for us to mow the weeds with. It’s got to be some good dirt as evidenced by how well the rye is growing next to the pile. I was already in pain from helping them load the tiller at the store but today will surely add to that. Thank God for the pain meds. I already need them but they sure help me keep working. As much as I hate them they sure help.

It’s 12:30 now. I’ve taken a half hour break to rest the back and write this. I suppose I should fix something to eat despite not being hungry. Because I don’t feel the sensation of hunger I must eat by the clock. So it’s peanut butter and jelly time. Pray for my friend Don. The infection in his foot has rebounded. Being diabetic that is particularly dangerous. It is not uncommon to hear about diabetics losing their legs. Cherie’s grandfather lost his but that didn’t slow the old guy down.

I’ve got work to do so enough of this.

What an ordeal posting or just going online is. It's taken a half hour so far.

Finally. Forty five minutes, several disconnects, and much frustrating time watching the signal strength go from two or four bars to no signal while the bottom message scrolls "Dormant" even when there is signal. I so look forward to when we can get a satellite hookup.

Another milestone

3/20/08 Thursday
11:27 – I just got back from picking up the tiller. I view this as another milestone. It’s a big leap forward in our dream of creating a living farm. When I picked a check up from Jen she said “it’s a mini tractor”. Without the help of them and Don, for that matter all the friends we have found at First Baptist and Midland, none of this would be possible. Thanks very much for the blessings all of you. That goes for those of you around the country in the blogosphere who have supported us even with simple things like an email, comment, or material things like seeds too.

I don’t have time to post this now. Too much to do. First thing is to read the manual for this tiller. By the way, let me tell how this worked out. After much research I had decided to get the White brand tiller but then Don called this morning. Along with a gift to help us purchase this vital piece of equipment he just happened to get a ten percent off coupon from Tractor Supply. Now the Cub Cadet tiller costs eighty bucks more. Sure it uses the same drive train as the White but it has a three year warranty versus the two year one for the White. The eighty dollars is the reason I was going with the White but ten percent off means I could get the Cub for only eleven dollars more. Not good at math I thought it would be thirty bucks more but figured it out when they rang it up at the store. Looking at them side by side at the store I could see a clear difference. So we’re blessed in that as well.

Today will be busy anyway. I go see the neuropsychologist at one for evaluation for the Texas Rehabilitation people. They may help me get this farm going and off of disability. Even if they don’t I’m gonna do it but I’ll take all the help I can get.

Then tonight there is a public hearing or meeting regarding plans to extend the wind generator farm to our area. If we can get one of those huge things on our land there’s money in it. I don’t have a clue how much but it could give us a big boost for creating a pick your own orchard. Who knows if it will work for us but we are sure curious to learn.

It's been a few days

Smoke from one of the recent grass fires

3/19/08 Wednesday
I know it’s been a few days. Things have been busy with lots going on. I just got done with lunch so will take this time to write. You’ve probably noticed how short the posts have been lately compared to the wordy entries I usually have. Part of that is due to how difficult and frustrating going online has become but mostly it’s because there is so much going on. So let me try to fill that in though it will be hard to remember some of it.

Let’s see…I took the tiller to Small Engine Repair (I think that’s the name) to get their advice on fixing it. Cherie had to help me load it on the truck. When the guy came out and saw what I had he flatly told me it’s not a good idea to sink more money into it. Just the carburetor and electrical would cost two hundred dollars and it needs more than that. Plus gas tanks are not available but mostly it’s because of the clutch. They commonly wear out and they don’t make that one anymore. What a bummer. Other than that it’s a rock solid piece of equipment made back when things were made good.

The Blackberries and their new trellis

Even doing half of what we plan will require a tremendous amount of tilling, at least by our standards. Nothing compared to what farmers do but a whole lot for my weak damaged body to do by hand. So a tiller is important. From the small engine place I went looking at what was available. Lowe’s has a little rinky dink thing for $680.00. Not an option. Home Depot didn’t have anything better when I stopped by so the next place was Tractor Supply. Now we’re talking. They advertised a Cub Cadet tiller for $679.00 but didn’t have any put together when I dropped by. They had just came in and were still on the truck or something. The lady said they have been selling them as fast as they come in. There was a White brand tiller there that looks pretty good. It is priced at six hundred dollars ($599.00, same difference). That looks good.

I stopped by Home Depot a little later to talk to the Garden center manager about getting their broken bags of material. She said that they were no longer allowed to give that stuff out. Seems that some of the venders had complained about it so now the policy is to throw it in the dumpster. “I don’t suppose the back of my truck could be considered a dumpster” I jokingly asked. The answer was no. What a shame and what a waste but that’s the American way isn’t it? Throw it away before you give it to someone in need.

Where some of the raspberries are


But while there I saw they had just brought in some Cub Cadet tillers like the one Tractor Supply advertised. They wanted four dollars less so that’s not a big deal. I spent the last couple of days going online to learn about the White machine so I could compare it to the Cub. It didn’t show up on Tractor Supply’s website or even on White’s. That got me worried. The Tractor Supply manager told me that they had just started carrying the White brand of products so that’s why it wasn’t on their site. Even typing in the model number didn’t bring it up on White’s site. Come to find out the same manufacturer makes both White and Cub Cadet so I called their customer service number. The tiller that was listed White’s site was listed at $900.00 and was a hair larger that the Cub. But that’s not what was on the floor at Tractor Supply. After going through the “if you want…push two” maze I got a human. He let me know that this was the new 08 model so wasn’t online yet and switched me to the White products guy. He told me that the White tiller uses the same drive train as the Cub. The only difference was a few bells and whistles (his terminology) and the motor on the White was a Brigg’s and Stratton versus a Honda on the Cub. For eighty bucks less I think it’s a no brainer. The warranty is only two years versus three on the Cub but I’ll take good care of it.

So I went back to Tractor Supply. I got a hold of the manager and asked if they could hold the machine for us. It’s the only one they have in the store. Let me tell y’all how things fell into place on this. Seems that Jen and Wally had donated some money Sunday or so through the PayPal donation button on the blog, then Don called yesterday to say he’d like to contribute. Amazingly enough it came out to the exact price of the tiller. Is that another “Godcidence”? (I made up that word a few years back after I woke from the coma to explain the many things that seem to fall into place since then.)

So it looks like we will have a tiller soon. It’s a rear tine model with a reversible drive so even Cherie can operate it. The front tine type like the old Sears I read are not at all recommended for hard dirt like we have. I would like to get it today, mostly for the 150 strawberry plants that have been sitting and probably dying for nearly a week now, but must wait till the funds are there. PayPal takes four plus days to get to the bank. We are so under the gun. Mother Nature doesn’t wait till we are ready. It just doesn’t work that way. So every day counts. Our seeds arrived Monday. I don’t even have the seed starting room done or the greenhouse put together.


So I probably won’t be making too many posts. I picked up two of these workbenches at the landfill today. They are made of pressure treated lumber so will be great outdoors and real handy when we start doing all this stuff. Looking at the pictures I have I see the ones I took of the raspberry and blackberry plants I put in. The blackberries I made this trellis for and put out by the mesquite patch. They grow pretty tall, about ten foot high if I remember right. The raspberries need shade so they are under the mulberry.

Enough prater. Got to go. Hope the stupid PC card works so I can post this in under an hour.

Ok, it took thirty five minutes

No, fifty four minutes so far. Uploading the pictures
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I was digging a trench across the driveway to bury a garden hose that will lead to the back of the house where our evaporative air conditioner is. The hose currently runs on the surface where I must walk and run over it daily. That isn’t good so I figured on putting the hose Wally gave us inside some pvc pipe to keep it from getting squeezed and cutting off the water flow. So as I dug I hit something solid. The first thing I uncovered was a metal strip. Then as I dug farther I saw it was embedded in some concrete. Now it’s a mystery. What could it be? Time for an archeological excavation to see what we have. It is a big block of concrete that is at least a foot and half thick. I haven’t finished uncovering it because Cherie and I needed to plot out where we are planting the Afghan pines. I’ve got ninety things to build that will protect the trees from the wind and heat.

In thinking about it I believe this block is a cover for the old water well. When Charles Lewis visited he told me that an old windmill had originally been in that area. The well had evidently gone dry so was replaced with the current well that is a half mile away. I wonder if this well is still dry. It would be real convenient if it now had water in it. That will be something to investigate later. Just moving this hunk of concrete will be a chore.

It’s a shame that my cousin, Daryl, has been so cold and not even accepted my repeated invitations to come and visit. What a hypocrite he is, an elder or deacon in the church but he can’t even show the love that Jesus said to show to strangers. He knows much about this place and could help us learn about what is where. But when I revealed we not only knew but had taken pictures and documented how things were being taken out of the house both before and after my grandmother died, Daryl really distanced himself. Actually he was never open and when we first showed up at the church he was transparent as he tried to avoid us, speeding up and keeping his head down when he had no choice but walk past us in the hall. I had watched him down the hall talking to others and making furtive glances to see if we were still standing there, so purposely stayed put instead of going into the sanctuary for the service. When he walked by I said “Hi Daryl” in a loud voice he couldn’t help but hear. He kept hurrying by so I repeated my greeting so he had no choice but acknowledge my greeting. That’s the kind of behavior that raises some questions. Makes me wonder if he knows about things stolen from here.