Saturday, April 17, 2010

Super-Productive Day

Why can't every day be as productive as today was? If so, we might stand a chance of making it through our To Do lists once in a while. Nah, I think there's some unwritten law that forbids one ever getting to the end of a list.

Early today, I took off to run some errands. For a change, I had only four stops . . . instead of the usual 8 or 9 when I head for town. While I was gone, hubby took his chainsaw and spent some quality time with eight foot long maple logs back in the wood cutting area.

As soon as I returned, we had a quick lunch of apple slices and peanut butter and then headed out into the front yard. The "front yard" is a large area that's fenced in mainly to keep the deer out of the gardens but also so that our dog and occasionally visiting granddogs have a large area that they're free to run in.

You should know my dear husband is really good (I mean he is truly very conscientious) about regularly picking up dog poop whenever he sees a . . . ah, um . . . deposit. But today he said he was feeling a need for a thorough campaign (before the grass grows too high) to really clean things up. So taking designated pooper-scooper shovel and designated bucket for same job, we meticulously went over the whole yard area (in a grid pattern no less . . . hey, we were serious about this task) picking up any deposits that had been missed over the past winter. You can thank me now for not documenting this part of our day with pictures.

Then we took the protective mulch covering off the flower beds and picked up all the branches and twigs that had fallen into the yard over winter. Mulch was saved to be reused in the garden this summer but branches were hauled away to the burn pile.

I had pulled the mulch off the rhubarb plant several days ago, so we picked that up and hauled it away.

Rhubarb, beautiful rhubarb! The first fruit of the season. So, okay, it still has a ways to go/grow but it'll come along quickly now.

Then because we were seeing strawberry leaves valiantly trying to poke up through their heavy mulch, I decided it was time to remove their winter blanket.

We're still having temps down to freezing and a little below at night, but these guys needed to breathe some fresh air and let the sun hit them. (Why do the weeds grow faster and stronger under the mulch than the strawberry plants?)

While I was working in the strawberry patch, hubby ran the little tiller around the perimeter of the field garden to deter the sod in its quest to spill over its boundary into the garden soil. Zoey, the Wonder Dog, checks to make sure a proper job is being done.

Next we attacked the fruit trees that are in sad need of pruning. We only got three done (seven more to go) before it was time for me to go in to start some dinner.

But before going in, I had to take a couple of shots of the garden bed I planted last Sunday. Here in the left side of the bed you can see radishes (two rows on the far left), and arugula (on the right) coming on strong. In between are two rows of lettuce not doing much yet.

On the right side are two more rows of radishes and a couple rows of lettuce. The spinach has yet to make an appearance. As I've said, our night time temps have still been getting down below 32° so I'm very pleased with the job the cold frame seems to be doing of protecting the little sprouts.

Tomorrow? Hubby and a friend are going on a hike as soon as J gets here after church. I'll drive them to a starting point several miles away and they'll hike back through the woods. If they take the shortest route, they'll do 4.9 miles. If they are going good and decide to throw in another loop or two off the trail, who knows how many miles they'll rack up.

As soon as I get home from dropping the guys off, I'm going directly into my quilt studio and play there the whole time they're gone. Unless I decide to go outside to weed in the garden beds. Or make a batch of cottage cheese. Or bake a blackberry pie with some wonderful frozen blackberries friends gave us. Or make some necessary organizational phone calls for an upcoming event. Or wash a few loads of rugs. Or get caught up on my blog reading. Or take a nap. ZZZZZ-zzzzzz.

5 comments:

Jenyfer Matthews said...

WOW - that was a productive day!

Here's hoping you get some time in your quilt studio but if you opted to take a nap instead, who could blame you???wa

Erin said...

The hubby's hike sounds like a great time - for you! I always love it when my husband takes the boys out somewhere, although I tend to spend so much time considering what I should do with my time that by the time I decide, it's over, LOL! Your house is very nice, is that a greenhouse I see? I didn't realize you had built it yet - keep the photos coming, I love seeing your northern garden develop! Now go and do something rewarding with your time! ChickenMama told us about your weekly radio call in show and we listened over the internet while knitting last night and loved it, my 6 year old even called in, he was pretty proud of himself, LOL!

MaineCelt said...

You have a RADIO SHOW? You are awesome in more ways than I can count. I wanna tune in too... can you direct me to a website or a link for listening?

Erin said...

OOPS! Not Mama Pea's actual radio show, it's a radio show broadcast from their town, LOL! Sorry for confusion, although MamaPea SHOULD have a radio show!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Jen - I DID spend some time in my quilt studio today! Wha-hoo! (No nap though.)

MaineCelt and Erin - Oh my goodness! I got a good laugh out of the confusion. You have no idea what a disaster I would be on the radio. I have so much trouble with my tongue when it comes to getting the words out right . . . dablah, blubbah, publah. And then, of course, I always say 'summer' when I mean 'winter' and 'left' when I mean 'right.' Nope, wouldn't work for me to try to come across anywhere near intelligent over the radio!

BUT we do have a fantastic local radio station that is manned 99% with volunteers and has been going strong for several years now. Talk about a bunch of dedicated people.

Hey, Erin - Thank you for saying my house is very nice. What it is is very unfinished! The greenhouse is framed and attached to the house and all but just covered (temporarily . . . for HOW many years?) with heavy-duty greenhouse plastic. We have no means of heat or ventilation in there yet and up here a greenhouse NEEDS a heat source about 10 months of the year!

Thanks for the encouragement on the garden. I really hesitate blogging or posting pictures because we are SO far behind everyone else. How can I expect anyone to enjoy seeing my lettuce breaking through the ground when they've got fruits on their tomato plants already?

Good for your big boy calling in an answer last night. Way to go!!