Wow! This weather we’ve been having, and will continue to have for another week at least, is the kind of weather that makes Maine Maine. It is beautiful as we finish out yet another week. Golly, it’s hard to believe just how fast these weeks fly by when one crosses into the seventies. I thought when I retired I’d have a hard time filling the time. Now that I am retired I’ve learned that there simply isn’t enough time to accomplish everything. These weeks should slow down just a little bit.
Our Saturday is a typical one for our family. My daughter and her dog are spending a good portion of the day helping my wife clean the winter out of her gardens. Momma Gator has most of the work around the perimeter of the house completed, but we have a rather large, and growing naturally, wild rose garden that started out about three feet long by maybe two feet wide. Over the years it has grown to about 8 feet or longer long and fills in much of the area between the driveway and a runoff drainage ditch that borders our property. The area is probably six or more feet wide, so those roses really took off and are doing exactly what my wife wanted, fill in the area along the driveway.
One major problem with the bushes is the thorns that leave absolutely zero room for fingers. And the bushes have become rather tightly compacted over the years. So for the two women to clean them out and cut them back is a very slow, sometimes painful process. Yes, they do wear garden gloves but the thorny bushes have been known to reach out and grab their legs, arms, and everything in between.
We have a large area at one corner of our yard that was just overgrown mess. A few years ago the girls cut down much of the overgrowth and began chipping their remnants into the area. Those discarded materials have become, and are still becoming, really nice dirt and that area in another two or three years will be ready for planting. It already is looking pretty good and I can back my tractor well into the area to dump my grass clippings, adding to the composting.
I’m not sure if Momma Gator is planning another veggie garden or a flower one. In either case, the newly formed soil is going to work out well.
How come I’m only telling you what the girls are doing out there? You ask. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t do outdoors except mowing the lawn. (Momma Gator might say I don’t do indoors, either, but I’d have to dispute that. I might lose.) So what am I doing this last day of the week? I’m working on my computer, making bread, playing chef for lunch, and a bunch of things like that. I may, probably won’t, head into the garage for some work there. The computer work has been successful as I’ve successfully establish sharing on my network. It isn’t as easy in Vista the first time as it is in XP.
Daughter Gator, who is the best griller in the family, will cook us some steaks for supper. Yes, we older Mainers still call it supper. Inside, I’ll probably make some world famous onion rings to go with it. They’ll probably have a salad, too, but greens in salads contain vitamin K and that raises havoc with my blood. I must say I occasionally have a salad, but Monday is my blood test day, so I don’t want to mess it up before then. I hate those doctor lectures.
So, just another day in Maine and in the Gator family, not at all unlike the day that many Maine families will have when the weather is this great.
Have a great Sunday and we’ll be back again Monday.
GiM
No comments:
Post a Comment