Busy Weekend

A Garden

And the Spring arose on the garden fair,

And the Spirit of Love fell everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry nest

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I was busy this weekend. My back hurts, my shoulders are sore, and I didn’t get in the shower until 4:30pm Sunday afternoon. I had to plan, measure, shop, carry and lift.  I had to clear the land of two giant plants and rake the soil level. Why you ask? I planted a garden. I built a raised vegetable garden and planted beets, parsnips, three types of tomatoes, patty pan squash, 8-ball zucchini, lettuce, peas and rainbow kale. Located on the top of a retaining wall that is part of my cottage property, I had to haul up 18 cubic feet of soil - thus the sore body. All my bounty will be organically grown and hopefully after all that work I’ll actually have some bounty to share.

It was my plan to complete the project without help but I had a bit of a problem with the wood screws I bought. They had a weird head – not Philips and not flat-head (I’m not sure that’s what they’re really called but that’s how I distinguish them) turns out there’s a third type – shaped like a flower. And what I learned is, the bit-head is included in the box of screws! Who knew? Thanks to Jim Fleming who was my knight-in-shining armor, he helped educate me in the ways of the power drill and bit-heads. As a great coach he knew the importance of teaching me about how important it is to pre-drill holes before setting the screws and talking out the design and the process of implementation. 

The only down side of working that hard is I didn't have time to ride this weekend. Saturday was wet but today was beautiful. I kept thinking I was almost finished and then I could take a quick ride. But when I was finally finished I was way too tired to get on the 'ole cycle. But right now I'm feeling successful and self-sufficient. Hard physical labor will do that for you. Perhaps next weekend I’ll build a chicken coop, get a cow maybe a goat or two,  . . . yeah, I know, that’s going a bit too far.