I hate to say I am depressed, because that is not really the word to describe it. I just feel so helpless and useless. Having a broken foot is awful. Since I last posted, in addition to completing...nothing... I have had a follow-up in which I learned my foot has not healed, at all. He said I'm looking at another 2-3 weeks on crutches.
I have been too unhappy to come post on here, because there's not really anything to post about. Heck, I haven't even been in the garden.
Eventually I'll be back on my feet, working in the garden. Until then, stay safe and garden extra for me :-D
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Dangit
It WAS broken.
On the other side of that, I played an inning of softball with a broken foot. That's pretty beastly, haha. Possibly stupid, too, though.
On the other side of that, I played an inning of softball with a broken foot. That's pretty beastly, haha. Possibly stupid, too, though.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Working in the garden is about impossible...
When you have a broken foot :(
Still not 100% sure if it is broken, but it sure feels, and looks, broken. Will probably give it a day or so to calm down and get some X-rays on it. Really sucks :(
I got NAILED in the foot on a throw from the outfield in our softball game. Just a really dumb mistake on my part...so, just about everything is on hold, now.
hahaha, who do you think I am?! Yea right! Not working for me is, frankly, ludicrous. I'll use my crutches and find a way to get around. Probably won't be doing real intensive tasks, but, I'll do something, that's for sure.
Stay safe out there people!
Still not 100% sure if it is broken, but it sure feels, and looks, broken. Will probably give it a day or so to calm down and get some X-rays on it. Really sucks :(
I got NAILED in the foot on a throw from the outfield in our softball game. Just a really dumb mistake on my part...so, just about everything is on hold, now.
hahaha, who do you think I am?! Yea right! Not working for me is, frankly, ludicrous. I'll use my crutches and find a way to get around. Probably won't be doing real intensive tasks, but, I'll do something, that's for sure.
Stay safe out there people!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
I love the heat
But come on...at least give us some rain or something!
I had a clever idea the other day. I called a horse boarding facility. Of course they were ecstatic someone wanted to come take some manure. So looks like Saturday I will get another truckload and bring it home. The only problem now is finding more cardboard and newspaper.
Until later, keep cool!
I had a clever idea the other day. I called a horse boarding facility. Of course they were ecstatic someone wanted to come take some manure. So looks like Saturday I will get another truckload and bring it home. The only problem now is finding more cardboard and newspaper.
Until later, keep cool!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Set at 150 and bake for 7 months
Lasagna!
Well, somewhat. More like the most disgusting version of lasagna ever. A layer of newspaper/cardboard, a layer of cow manure and rabbit manure, followed by a layer of hay. In 6 or 7 months, I'll till it into the ground, as it will have (hopefully) composted into rich, nutrient-filled soil. I still hope to get a few (3? 4?) chickens in the early spring to go through the garden one last time, devouring pests and pulling up weeds. Speaking of devouring, I'll also order 1000 Lacewing eggs and 1500 ladybugs from somewhere (like Amazon.com). That should take care of some of the pests.
Here's how the lasagna gardening went:
1) Spend hours gathering a lot of crap
2) Lay newspaper on ground. Pile crap on top. Pile hay on top of that.
3) Finished lasagna garden!
Also, I did it again. I changed the plot layout. I know, it's sad :( I'm too much of a perfectionist. But, to be fair, I only did so to incorporate more companion plants and to move the corn far away from the tomatoes, which is bad pest-wise. More on that later, though. The prep for 2011 is coming along nicely. Just need to track down a lot of manure. All that above (about 1 truck load) covered slightly less than 1/4 of the garden. Lots to go.
Well, somewhat. More like the most disgusting version of lasagna ever. A layer of newspaper/cardboard, a layer of cow manure and rabbit manure, followed by a layer of hay. In 6 or 7 months, I'll till it into the ground, as it will have (hopefully) composted into rich, nutrient-filled soil. I still hope to get a few (3? 4?) chickens in the early spring to go through the garden one last time, devouring pests and pulling up weeds. Speaking of devouring, I'll also order 1000 Lacewing eggs and 1500 ladybugs from somewhere (like Amazon.com). That should take care of some of the pests.
Here's how the lasagna gardening went:
1) Spend hours gathering a lot of crap
2) Lay newspaper on ground. Pile crap on top. Pile hay on top of that.
3) Finished lasagna garden!
Also, I did it again. I changed the plot layout. I know, it's sad :( I'm too much of a perfectionist. But, to be fair, I only did so to incorporate more companion plants and to move the corn far away from the tomatoes, which is bad pest-wise. More on that later, though. The prep for 2011 is coming along nicely. Just need to track down a lot of manure. All that above (about 1 truck load) covered slightly less than 1/4 of the garden. Lots to go.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Eh, what the heck
I planted some corn. It's the "late" variety, so I really don't know if it will do anything. But why not, right?
Also my cucumbers are finally growing well after I hand-pollinated them. I picked them too early last time, so this time I'll wait till they're very dark green.
Well, I am tired. It's nearly 11:00 and I've been following the drama at the courthouse in downtown Ft. Worth for the past 14 hours or so.
http://twitter.com/aandro
Good night.
Also my cucumbers are finally growing well after I hand-pollinated them. I picked them too early last time, so this time I'll wait till they're very dark green.
Well, I am tired. It's nearly 11:00 and I've been following the drama at the courthouse in downtown Ft. Worth for the past 14 hours or so.
http://twitter.com/aandro
Good night.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
We know what you are and we don't like it.
Farmer.
Redneck.
Idiot.
Dirty.
Low-class.
I'm tired of it. It hurts, to be honest. I am tired of the negative judgment farmers get when they just want to do their job. Maybe we farmers have a negative judgment about you! Probably not though...we're nice people.
I'm always amazed by the responses & looks I get when people see things I am doing, usually when "prepping" a garden.
That's a lot of work, why would you do all that?
That was a nice lawn, why did you mess it up?
Why are you getting manure to put on your garden? That's disgusting.
Why don't you just buy fertilizer?
Why why why why?
Aggravating. The so-called "city-slickers" are always appalled when farmers scoff at them. It's not to say the farmers are doing things the appropriate ways either - many farmers have disgraced the business of farming for years to come, and it will take effort on both sides to win the other over. For example, let's run through 4 quick answers from the above questions:
1) Work is part of life. Being lazy in life is one of the most wasteful things one could do with a life.
2) A "nice lawn" cracks me up. I have realized Americans are so perverted in what we call "wealth" (which is not really wealth, but that's a different discussion altogether). We bask in the greatness of our green lawn, which we pour hundreds or thousands of dollars into every year, to gain _______. That's right. Absolutely nothing. Except praise and bragging.
3) Manure is smelly. So how do you get rid of it? You can let it sit by itself, where bacteria will soon enter it, cause diseases to run off when it rains, getting into the soil, plants, and eventually entering your environment in some way. Or, you can take that manure, properly compost it so it heats up, kills bad bacteria, and place this compost on a garden bed, which will properly fertilize the garden as God wanted.
4) I don't know - would you eat meat that was 2 years old, but was treated with a chemical so it was "still edible?"
So maybe I'm standing on my soapbox now, screaming a little too loudly. I am just tired of it though. People do not like things different, simply because they do not like things different. It's the dumbest argument I've ever heard, but people stand by it.
So most of this above was for prepping a garden. This is like, I dunno, 1/12th of what a farmer will normally do. So I could go on, but I won't. Instead, I will go to sleep and wake tomorrow, with this in the back of my mind. I'll do what I do while people look on, and I'll do it with a proud but heavy heart.
Redneck.
Idiot.
Dirty.
Low-class.
I'm tired of it. It hurts, to be honest. I am tired of the negative judgment farmers get when they just want to do their job. Maybe we farmers have a negative judgment about you! Probably not though...we're nice people.
I'm always amazed by the responses & looks I get when people see things I am doing, usually when "prepping" a garden.
That's a lot of work, why would you do all that?
That was a nice lawn, why did you mess it up?
Why are you getting manure to put on your garden? That's disgusting.
Why don't you just buy fertilizer?
Why why why why?
Aggravating. The so-called "city-slickers" are always appalled when farmers scoff at them. It's not to say the farmers are doing things the appropriate ways either - many farmers have disgraced the business of farming for years to come, and it will take effort on both sides to win the other over. For example, let's run through 4 quick answers from the above questions:
1) Work is part of life. Being lazy in life is one of the most wasteful things one could do with a life.
2) A "nice lawn" cracks me up. I have realized Americans are so perverted in what we call "wealth" (which is not really wealth, but that's a different discussion altogether). We bask in the greatness of our green lawn, which we pour hundreds or thousands of dollars into every year, to gain _______. That's right. Absolutely nothing. Except praise and bragging.
3) Manure is smelly. So how do you get rid of it? You can let it sit by itself, where bacteria will soon enter it, cause diseases to run off when it rains, getting into the soil, plants, and eventually entering your environment in some way. Or, you can take that manure, properly compost it so it heats up, kills bad bacteria, and place this compost on a garden bed, which will properly fertilize the garden as God wanted.
4) I don't know - would you eat meat that was 2 years old, but was treated with a chemical so it was "still edible?"
So maybe I'm standing on my soapbox now, screaming a little too loudly. I am just tired of it though. People do not like things different, simply because they do not like things different. It's the dumbest argument I've ever heard, but people stand by it.
So most of this above was for prepping a garden. This is like, I dunno, 1/12th of what a farmer will normally do. So I could go on, but I won't. Instead, I will go to sleep and wake tomorrow, with this in the back of my mind. I'll do what I do while people look on, and I'll do it with a proud but heavy heart.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
For real
I need to stay on top of blogging...
So today is hot. How hot? 106 degrees hot. Frankly, though, I love the heat. I don't work outside all the time, because I don't want to injure myself, but I do work for 15-30 minutes, then rest for 30 minutes. I think it's a Texas thing...we just love the heat.
So what have I been doing? Working on the super large garden, of course.
First, we staked out the "plot" - 35' x 23' - and and edged out the perimeter:
Don't let the tiller in the above picture fool you - it broke 4 times, and I was too tired to pull it out of bed (those things are heavy!)
Next, after fixing the tiller (which took way too long), I started tilling. Tilling is some dang hard work! But, with a lot of muscle and sweat, I got it tilled, for the most part.
Cultivating with a tiller makes for somewhat light-work, but it doesn't do it all. If you're still new at gardening, cultivating essentially gathers the soil several inches down, pulls it to the top, and in the process pulls weeds from the stronghold in the dirt. This, then, kills the weeds. Supposedly you can leave the weeds there and they'll eventually go back into the ground or blow away, but I hate weeds. I rake them together then burn them. Die weeds die! Hahaha
Today I also came across something incredible - the power of a useful tool! I think we all have something like this:
But, as many of us know, this tool can be one of the must frustrating to use. It can feel like you're swinging a sledgehammer, somehow trying to dislodge a weed - how the heck!?!? Well, believe it or not, lower-priced hoes do not come ready-for-use. You definitely need to spend a few minutes sharpening the edge. I spent about 5 minutes putting a grinding (at a 45 degree angle) the edge of the shovel and took it out for a run.
Wow! What a difference. It easily chopped 3" under the soil level to kill the weeds. There was no more whacking away with all my strength. It made the job 100 times easier.
Well that's all for now. Time for dinner :-D
So today is hot. How hot? 106 degrees hot. Frankly, though, I love the heat. I don't work outside all the time, because I don't want to injure myself, but I do work for 15-30 minutes, then rest for 30 minutes. I think it's a Texas thing...we just love the heat.
So what have I been doing? Working on the super large garden, of course.
First, we staked out the "plot" - 35' x 23' - and and edged out the perimeter:
Don't let the tiller in the above picture fool you - it broke 4 times, and I was too tired to pull it out of bed (those things are heavy!)
Next, after fixing the tiller (which took way too long), I started tilling. Tilling is some dang hard work! But, with a lot of muscle and sweat, I got it tilled, for the most part.
Cultivating with a tiller makes for somewhat light-work, but it doesn't do it all. If you're still new at gardening, cultivating essentially gathers the soil several inches down, pulls it to the top, and in the process pulls weeds from the stronghold in the dirt. This, then, kills the weeds. Supposedly you can leave the weeds there and they'll eventually go back into the ground or blow away, but I hate weeds. I rake them together then burn them. Die weeds die! Hahaha
Today I also came across something incredible - the power of a useful tool! I think we all have something like this:
But, as many of us know, this tool can be one of the must frustrating to use. It can feel like you're swinging a sledgehammer, somehow trying to dislodge a weed - how the heck!?!? Well, believe it or not, lower-priced hoes do not come ready-for-use. You definitely need to spend a few minutes sharpening the edge. I spent about 5 minutes putting a grinding (at a 45 degree angle) the edge of the shovel and took it out for a run.
Wow! What a difference. It easily chopped 3" under the soil level to kill the weeds. There was no more whacking away with all my strength. It made the job 100 times easier.
Well that's all for now. Time for dinner :-D
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