Outside work has been often and varied. For one thing, the I.U. students had to complete their five hours of service learning each, so Hannah joined me one day to complete the clearing of the tomato patch. She got the unenviable job of unearthing a burdock bush whose burrs had been catching puppy Shadow’s coat all summer long.
Finally, we got all the tomato cages stacked next to the backyard fence of DeKist 2. Yes!
And, of course, there’s always laying chips on paths, both in the garden and around the houses and alleys between them. Here’s Dan, with the remains of the old chip pile before the gigantic new one arrived.
Justin, getting every last chip of the old pile . . .
The new pile! Poorly placed, but we’ll take it anyway, even if we do have to quickly shift the pile back off the street. Josh did that. And told me that some man from up the street came over to help. I wish I knew who it was so I could thank him!
Here’s Josh and Solan, hard at work.
Voila! Path newly chipped!
Rebecca checked out the old compose pile . . . We await the promised new manure load before we can layer a new pile.
And, Rebecca supervised yet more interns in the front yard of DeKist 2 as they completed their five service learning hours each. This semester, we’ve enjoyed the labor and companionship of eight IU interns, for a total of 40 hours work!
A long planned event finally took place when we scored a truck, thanks to Michaele, who worked with Josh to drive out to Sobramesa Farm for two loads (26 bales) from the permie group purchase. Stacked them along the fence near the compost.
Finally, there’s the project Josh and I are embarked upon, to put our six Garden Towers to work for the winter. First, we must start some seeds. Since neither Josh nor I had been privy to how seeds are started around here, we asked Solan for his help. He agreed. Yesterday, at 5:30 we worked feverishly for about an hour to mix potting soil according to the Eliot Coleman recipe, to wit:
In the order given, mix;
3 buckets brown peat
1/2 cup lime
Add 2 buckets coarse sand or perlite (we added perlite)
3 cups base fertilizer, and again mix.
Add one bucket soil
2 buckets compost,
Mix again, then, add water and mix.
Press into soil blocks.
So we did that.
Added water.
And started to make soil blocks.
Josh and I will finish the job tomorrow.
Rebecca came over here this morning and suggested that we only plant three Towers instead of six, since it’s an experiment. Let’s see if it works, before committing more time and seeds. Okay.
Meanwhile, Hank just couldn’t believe we wouldn’t let him in while we were working. Come on!
