Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Did the World End?

At this point I am gonna assume no collapse happened today but for all I know it could have, except I think if it had my internet would be out.

I hit the ground running this morning and haven't stopped until the lack of sunlight forced me inside. I have no clue what has went on around the globe today and frankly after I post this I will more than likely just go to bed. After a shower of course because I am one filthy boy right now. I am just too tired to care. I do apologize that I missed my normal blog roll of commenting. I know all of you just hang on my every word.

The good news is the cistern cap is finished!!! I have not messed with pouring concrete in decades and I forgot just how sloppy, messy and hard it was. To make matters worse the advertised coverage of the ready made concrete mixture I bought was off by about half what it said it would cover. I bought 25% more than I figured I would need from their own coverage calculations and still had to make a run back into town for more. Driving like a maniac so I could get back before the first pour cured too much to add more. As near as I can tell I just barely made it too. I ended up having to add more water than they called for because what they recommended was NOT even getting the mixture completely wet or mixed. The thing will more than likely take forever to set up properly now.

Regardless it looks good and since my son helped me we can add yet another generation to the long list of users that the sixty-five year old mixer has been run by. Maybe it's silly but that just seemed kinda special to me even if it didn't impress the hell outta number four. OK to be honest he thought it was neat too but not as much as did, maybe it's just something that comes with age.

Before I tackled the cistern cap I had to hive up the last swarm I caught in the hayfield trap on Sunday. It was as big as I thought it was and had already built a fair amount of comb inside the trap but didn't seem to put out about the move. I didn't get to go back down there and check on them this afternoon however.

So one more project is scratched off the list. I now have to save up some more funding to finish the hand pump water project so I might not get that done until August, which is fine as we should get enough rain until then to keep the barrels filled.

The heavy rains should be coming to an end and from now on I should be making some progress in weed control. We had a visitor today that went on and on about the garden and how huge everything was but I thought it was an overly weedy mess myself. I only got half the melon section covered and only the rows of tomatoes, not the walkways done as yet along with the entire squash and zucchini area. The corn has pretty much righted itself. I have seen it right itself before but I have also seen it never come back or grow with a huge curve as well. We got lucky this time.

The pole beans are almost halfway up the trellis but the bush beans are engulfed in weeds. They will be my first target tomorrow as long as it doesn't rain tonight.

This is the time when most of the gardens around here fail. I have seen it over and over again. People put in gardens and will do the work but the constant heavy rains make it almost impossible to keep up enough until by the time it is dry enough to get back out there the weeds are just daunting.

I know how they feel.

So anyway if things hold true to form (which is always in doubt) I should begin the long push against the weed enemy tomorrow and things should begin taking shape. We already have a couple of ripe tomatoes to pick tomorrow as well and some baby squash too. By July 4th all the real work will be finished and it should be almost all reward after that. Only 30 some-odd more wheel barrow loads of barn mulch to move.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!



3 comments:

  1. No rest for the weary, sir. Sounds like you've got your hands full.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bravo on another completed project.

    A joke for you....
    Why did the bee go to the Dr??


    He had Hives.....I know so sad. But you laughed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No collapse in my neighborhood. The struggle continues.

    ReplyDelete

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