Wednesday, February 14
After several days of cold and rain, the weather authorities blessed us with a day of brilliant sunshine and blue skies. So I thought I’d share my day with you.
We got up, had coffee, and took the dog for a walk down to the garden. Phoenix opened up the greenhouse and watered the little seedlings. The chicory, yarrow, and Sweet Annie she planted last week are already sprouting, so that’s exciting.
Kobi and I went to check on the little drainage ditch we dug the other day in a spot where a wet weather spring had been flooding out a low lying section of the garden.
I don’t know if I’d ever seen a wet weather spring before. It’s a place where rain water that’s gone underground higher up on the property comes back above ground. Whichi is pretty cool, except for the fact it has been steadily turning a whole section of the garden into a mud flat. Just past the fence on the south side of the garden there’s a little abandoned pond the farm family dug a few years back. We wanted to get the water flowing down to the pond rather than flooding the garden, so the other day I started digging a miniature drainage canal. My inner child loves doing that sort of thing. As does Kobi. He does his part by barking excitedly at the shovel blade, manically pawing mud off the shovel, and occasionally jumping in next to me and digging holes.
Our inspection revealed that the ditch was holding up and draining the muddy part of the field. And the little two-inch tall waterfall that Kobi dug out halfway down to the pond was still burbling happily.
Inspection complete, we walked back up the hill to get breakfast. While Phoenix was cooking eggs, sausage and hash browns, I went out back to add oil to the generator.
I’d been waiting for a break in the rain to check the oil and I was a little worried that the oil level would be really low. Good news: there was plenty of oil in the crankcase. Bad news: the oil was black.
That’s what happens with motor oil in an engine but considering the generator trauma I’ve experienced in the past three months I’m very motivated to keep up a proper maintenance schedule and protect our investment with the new generator.
So I ended up draining the old oil and replacing it with fresh oil. Caught the used oil in a plastic yoghurt container and poured it into an old empty oil container. I’ll save the old oil to use on a future building project — used motor oil is great for treating wood that is going to be in direct contact with the ground.
Breakfast was ready by the time I finished prepping the generator.
Neither Phoenix nor I had any clients scheduled for the day and we really wanted to get some work done in the garden. The weather in Middle Tennessee is mild over the course of a normal year but surprisingly extreme in short bursts. Spring tends to come on really fast and before you know it the ground will be baking under the Southern sun. When it’s time to plant, it’s really time to plant.
But we needed to fill both gas cans for the generator and get a roll of fence to run along the side of the hoop house that borders the main driveway to the farm.
This is the biggest hoop house in the garden, 100 feet long by 30 feet wide. The plastic cover was shredded by a tornado-like wind event a couple winters ago, so we are turning it into a shade house for growing elder trees and other herbs that can’t take the full Tennessee summer sun.
We hadn’t fenced the side of the hoop house because the plastic is still mostly intact on the bottom three feet of the side wall and because the ditch between the hoop house and the driveway is full of wicked brambles that we haven’t gotten around to clearing yet.
But, as you might have figured out by now, Kobi loves to dig. Especially in areas where mice, rats, moles and voles might be hiding out. So we need to get that side of the garden fenced or it’s just a matter of time before he gets on the trail of a mole-man and breaks on through to the other side. Where our friends’ dogs, goats, cats and chickens run free. Kobi is a good boy but he’s got a feral streak and no one wants to find out what might happen were he to suddenly have the run of the property.
So after breakfast we got in the truck and headed over to the Mennonite community where we could get non-ethanol gas and a 50-foot roll of fence.
Back at the garden I spent an hour or two digging out a bed for planting milky oats while Phoenix worked on replanting herbs in the shade house. We want to get the oats sowed tomorrow morning before I do my Thursday shift on the farm because (a) it feels like now is the time and (b) we have a waxing moon in Taurus for the next couple days!
We headed back to the cabin around three o’clock to drink some water, make a cup of coffee, eat a snack, and collect Kobi (who is grounded from going with us to Menno-land because he loses his shit when we pass a horse-drawn carriage or a Mennonite woman in a dress and bonnet riding her bike down the road).
We spent the rest of the afternoon digging holes (Kobi), transplanting elders (Phoenix), and clambering around on a 12-foot step ladder taking apart the top of a crumbling end wall on the big hoop house, cutting down the rest of the old plastic cover, and taking down an old roll-up door we won’t be using.
As the sun was setting we realized we were feeling pretty bushed. Even the dog looked tired, although he would never admit it!
So we packed up the truck and headed back up to the cabin. Where I had just enough light left to chop enough kindling to get the wood stove going tonight, plus a little extra for the morning.
Then make a little dinner, write you a little letter, and get ready for bed.