I remember starting last Monday all excited about the day and I rushed out in my purple robe and red crocs to gather eggs from the hen house. I remember when I began sliding across the smelly mud and realized it wasn't going to turn out well. Down I went with legs splayed out. Splat! It smelled and I was covered in the stuff, but I jumped up and finished my job, just like those ice skaters that fall. Haha. Of course, I did take a shower before I scrambled those eggs.
Tuesday I looked out to see this. Mark had been wanting to remove these tire planters for years because he hated mowing around them. I had always convinced him how charming they were, but not this time. They are out of there. All 13 were removed in about an hour and then Mark began removing the sod and leveling the ground were they had lay for over 30 years.
We also picked up about 250 dollars in supplies for what was to be our future raised garden bed.
Thursday the raised bed project began. Inspiring isn't it? The plan was 2 boxes 40 feet long. One almost 4 feet wide the other along the rock wall 2 feet wide. We rolled out the hardware cloth to keep out the gophers and then placed our beautiful 4 x 12 redwood that Eric donated for the project. He cut it on our sawmill last year from an old redwood log that was left back when the place was logged in the 50's! Redwood is an amazing species. The wood was a bit soft in a couple spots, but otherwise just perfect for our project. We folded up the edges of the hardware cloth and stapled them in place. Then a 1 x 6 board was attached to the top of the board to hold the sides together.
And we stoutly stood them up and attached the end pieces. We had to grunt a bit because they were heavy. Next Mark attached brackets inside to hold the boards together sturdily. The box was then lined with some sediment fabric cloth that Cal Fire left on the ranch after the 2003 fire mop up.
Friday we filled the box with layers of dirt that was full of worms, sawdust from the sawmill and barn manure. We covered the whole bed with some plastic and are hoping the worms work some magic in the next couple of months.
Now, this is small scale ag. On Saturday we finished up the project by getting the ground leveled again and tilled for grass seed. You can see the other raised bed we made along our rock wall. I transplanted all of our strawberry plants in this bed, so it didn't get the plastic wrap. We hope that these raised beds do well. If they do, we might make another next year.
Saturday night had us back in Eureka at the yearly Cattlemen's dinner and dance. I was pooped and only good for one dance, but we really enjoyed the people and the beef dinner. Today, Sunday, we slept in and then were back at it in the yard for part of the day. This wonderful weather has us inspired to clean things up. I did some weeding and Mark mowed the lawn for the first time of the season. He was happy to not have to drive around and around those tires.
Flowers are popping out around the place, like I mentioned we've had incredibly warm, beautiful, sunny weather. I think it was over 70 degrees today. It's nice being in California. Instead of stressing over our lack of rain, I'm just trying to be inspired by it. It helps that rain is forecast to be coming in on Wednesday.
The grass and especially the clover is really starting to grow. Only saw a few cows this week and they all looked pretty happy. Inspiring. I know.
