First Alfalfa Mowing and Buckwheat update

Mrs. PP had kinda a bad night last night with a persistent headache that the doctors all said was normal for this stage of her recovery. As I have mentioned I am coming back to the Small-Hold about mid morning and getting the necessities done then going back for the afternoon and over night.

I think my duties at the hospital now mostly consist of making sure the wife doesn't drive the nurses crazy though. She refuses to follow the "rules" and if she doesn't watch out she is going to be sorry as some of the staff are getting a bit frustrated by it. Take last night for example. Her headache meant no TV,  very little light so I couldn't read and no conversation from her. Needless to say I would fall asleep in the chair next to her bed. Instead of waking me up when she needed a bathroom trip or calling the nurse like she is suppose to do she would unhook herself and attempt to sneak in on her own setting off the bed alarm and making the monitors at the nurses station go bonkers. After getting caught she just got snippy with everyone and kinda rude a few times. I know it's hard on her but she is usually the one complaining when people don't follow the rules in any other situation. She is still far too shaken by the thing to be walking around on her own on a tile floor a fall could be terminal at this point.

Anyway there are going to be rough spells and her irritability is understandable.

The neighbor came by and mowed, raked and baled our little alfalfa field this week. He was baling it up Wednesday as I left for the hospital. I took a risk that it wouldn't rain Wednesday night and it payed off but that meant yesterday the top thing on my to do list was getting that hay out of the field before it got rained on.

After checking the bales I was concerned that it was still a bit damp in places and might be a combustion hazard if I stacked it in the loft so my son and stacked the bales on pallets loosely and covered the stack with a big tarp. This will allow air flow from under the stack and hopefully dry the bales out properly. If it does start to smolder it is far enough away from the barn to not start a fire.

We got 39 bales off the little acre and a half field. Since this is the first cutting it has a lot of weeds and grasses mixed in but still makes excellent hay. It was also so thick that my son and I managed to fork an over flowing truck bed full of missed cuttings to feed right away too.

Waste not want not. Besides that much cut and dried hay laying out there would have reduced the next cuttings yield significantly by suppressing the growth under it. My son said I gave him heat stroke however while forking the stuff up into the truck.

The Buckwheat is sure showing where the rain managed to stunt it's growth in a couple of spots.

This is the bottom/low spot in the garden and you can see where the white flowers die off and the green grass is coming in. No big deal as the sheep will get turned out in this area come about September anyway but perhaps when I sow Buckwheat again I might wait until the rainy period is over. Of course then we get the heat which isn't suppose to be good for it either.

Just a few quick updates of what I been doing a few hours each day. The garden is really taking off. It's amazing how much it grows when you only look at it once a day. I am so lucky I got the mulch put down so thick before Mrs. PP's hospital stay or it would be totally over grown by now.

Sorry I am not answering comments I need to get back to doing that once again.

Thank you to everyone who have left such wonderful comments. You have no idea how much that means to both of us and how much it motivated me to at least making some quick posts.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!