Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I can and I did

You ever have a day when you get up fully intending to carry on with a normal day, coffee breakfast and off to the office. On our street there are three families that are on vacation and have asked that I water their yards while they are gone. They have normal sized lots and all are those boring, common type of yards that have mostly lawn with planting boarders of what ever was on sale at the local nursery......not an ounce of imagination or desire. Regardless I spend time to make sure everything gets watered on my watch, I would hate for something to shrivel and die in the much needed hot spell we have been having. So....my alarm went off at its normal 05:00 and I showered and put on my gardening clothes and headed up the street to the first yard, I was on my third yard when Mema came looking for me to say goodbye before heading off to work. She said "you look relaxed there farm boy, too bad you can't just stay home". I looked at her and replied, "I can", and I did. I am a list maker, and keep several lists. The first is a list for the week, all those little jobs I know I can get done through the work week. The second is a list of things that will involve time and trips to the hardware store and the like. And a third which takes precedence over my other lists and this is the one that has all the things that my lovely wife tells me she would like done. Watering done I looked over my lists and picked a few things from all three. I pulled out the row of Sweet Peas because they had all gone to seed and the few flowers left would not fill a vase(weekly list). Harvested my rows of Danvers Half Long Carrots and planted a single row for a fall crop(weekly list). Then it was off to the fuel company for two bags of sawdust for the chicken yard. I dug the yard and spread the sawdust to help combat the flies and dust(Memas list). Then a trip to the Miller for chicken feed and scratch (Memas list). Dead headed all fifty some roses (Memas list). Picked a basket of Gravenstein apples, I smell a pie in the works! That was on none of the list, but pie sounds good. Then off to the greenhouse to spray a preventative for spider mite(second list) and found this Phalaenopsis Orchid in bloom 'Rung Gung Ames'. A dainty little Orchid to surprise Mema.
While I ate some lunch my eldest son called and asked that I babysit "The Little Terrorist #2", so the rest of the day was spent reading Thomas The Train and making adventures. And all three lists were put on hold.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, to babysit 3 lots of neighbor's lawn and borders, your own lot and little terrosrist. Endless lists with equally endless achievements... ~bangchik

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  2. I have lots of imagination, but no skill or green thumb to do it with. ;) Mostly I see something and say, I could see that. haha.
    Please tell me about the sawdust. You get it from a fuel company? How does it keep flies down around chickens? (Yes, I am this ignorant.)

    Do spider mites lay little black eggs? I mean like tiny grains of pepper? Something has been eating my green beans... And there's been little green worms (caterpillars?) with black heads making nests in the leaves, too.

    Annoying that my camera can't take a close enough picture to share the little buggars. ;)

    Sounds like you had a wonderful, blessed day, Doc! :)

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  3. Bangchik
    I should retire and have those sort of days every day, don't you think?

    Linda
    With desire comes skill, your thumbs will turn green.
    The sawdust comes from Mt Scott Fuel Company which back in the day used to supply sawdust for the home furnaces, in fact when we bought the Manor it had an ancient sawdust burner that had been converted into an Oil furnace. Anyway since the sawdust burning furnace is now extinct the fuel company sells bark dust, topsoil, sawdust and other gardening products.
    Spider mites are microscopic and you usually won't see them except for the webbing and the damage to the plants are its indication. The green caterpillars are probably larva of the white cabbage moth. I would get an organic spray as they can be quite the nuisance.

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  4. Who has time for lists? Actually, I make lots of mental lists, that I keep in mind, but somehow never get around to. I did manage to week the front boring border around the house yesterday after work. I so want to re-do the damn thing, though.
    ~Randy

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  5. Thanks for that information, Doc! :)

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  6. Doc you sound so organized, I go through phases of list making but I'm never up to your standard!

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