Friends and Neighbors with Skills and Big Toys

What a day! First thing today, my friend and neighbor came over and showed me what I needed to do to replace some rotten spots in the sub-flooring in the upstairs bath. Well, as he was showing me he ended up doing more than I wanted him to, and it's a good thing, because when he left me on my own with specific instructions on how to cut around the flange on the commode and water pipes...
let's say I was off a tad.

He left me his jigsaw to use even though I insisted that I had one, and when I showed him mine, he smiled and said "you better just use mine". Wow! There is a big difference in the newer jigsaws!

I'll wrap up with my good neighbor fixed my sub-floor and I am very thankful to him for it. He's self admittedly anal about it being just right, and it is.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, my bush beans that I originally thought were pole beans, and my pole beans that I originally thought were bush beans are growing like crazy.
Hubby tried to do a little trellis for them, but they're outta control.
The couple that owns the Bridal Shop have been invaded by a bamboo forest. I called and asked if they would mind if I came and cut a few pieces. They said I could take all I wanted. I got into the beast with my new bow saw and went and cut 12 canes. I stuck them in the back door of the beast and brought them home hanging out of the back the 6 blocks home.
While I was on my way Hubby called and said that Dale was at the house with his JohnDeere and was flattening out the sand!
I am soooo tickled!
Everything on the house is coming together and it is looking beautiful!
No more open pit outside my door!
No more ruts to break ones leg, no more standing water in puddles up to one's knees.
We now have a level surface on which we can now order topsoil and then plant grass!
Dale and his John Deere rock! What we were doing shovel by shovel he took and scraped the entire yard with the front end loader and made it all smooth.
Smiling the entire time, he looked like a little kid playing in a big sandbox. After he was finished he said "I can't call that work"...
Boys and their Toys

Granddaddy is Really Sick and the Garden is Full of Weeds

Funny how you can tell how things are going in your life by the condition of the things that you love.
My beloved 94 year old Granddad is very ill. He is not bed ridden mind you, as a matter of fact he won't go to bed. He has congestive heart failure and the pressure that laying down puts on his chest is so great, he won't sleep in his bed, but instead, in his kitchen chair.

I find this so very upsetting, and even after a hospital bed has been provided for him, just laying back the littlest bit puts too much pressure on his chest.

I feel absolutely helpless to help him, because even though the smallest tasks are becoming impossible for him, I'm still a child in his eyes, and can only make him do so much.

I garden because of him. He taught me how at a very young age, and my first driving experience was on his old McCormick Farmall Tractor. It is a passion of his, and he has passed it onto me. Now when I go to the garden, I cry. I half heartedly pull the weeds, and I still have to transplant peppers, but I find myself avoiding the garden because my thoughts immediately go to him, and as of right now he will never have another garden, and he has said so.

Oh how these threads that sew the fabric of our lives connect. I know that Granddaddy is in God's hands and all will be in His time, just as I know that I will work my garden until I can no longer do so, and the passion for cultivating ones food has been passed to my children.

No, it's not fun. It's hard dirty work, but when you put up 20 jars of jelly from the strawberries you have grown, or cut up cucumbers in order to make 5 gallons of pickles, or when your making soup and you can go out into your own yard and pull up enough potatoes, onions, and carrots to fill your pot....you have done something real.

It is a basic and wonderfully rich experience, and a gift from my Granddad that I am so grateful to for giving me.

Thank you Granddaddy, I'll get to those weeds.

The Garden is Coming Right Along!

Everything except for the okra is doing well. I planted 8 seeds and 8 plants came up. They go about 4 inches tall and one day I came out and 1 was completely gone. The next day I came out, and another was gone, and on and on. I now have 3 okra plants as of 5 o'clock this evening we shall see what we have tomorrow. I think some sort of critter is eating them as they didn't die over night they are completely gone. I should run and get more seeds as they are my all time favorite veggie. Perhaps I will place little cages around them.

Also my Lima, Green (two types) and Kidneys are all coming up very nicely too. I do believe that this same critter is ripping these legumes up as well. However, said critter must not care for legumes, or green onions. because I find bean sprouts and onions out of their planting hole laying on the ground every morning.

I have no natural wild rabbits, as the Cat population has wiped them out. I have done my best about informing my neighbors about their cats and asking them to keep them up, and they have, but I believe the damage has been done and it is too late. When I was a girl there were tons of rabbits here in the yard, but that time is gone.

This year I caught 6 cats in the trap that the county brings to me each year. They were all farral and nasty mangy looking things. The attraction to my house is something I simply don't understand.

I will be transplanting all of the pepper plants tomorrow, and am looking forward to tons of green peppers this summer, I am going to find a many recipes and possible and I will share them hear on canning as many things as possible instead of freezing them. I have such fond memories of the wonderul things my grandmother would can every season, they were so delicious and there was always something fabulous to eat.

With the prices of everthing including energy, I think that canning will be the most efficient and cheapest way of storing food, and if done without additives at home in glass jars not aluminum cans the food tastes extrordinary.

What I find so incredible during this time as opposed to the last time our boys were ate war in a variety of theaters, and our economy was doing so poorly our government encouraged us to plant what they called "Victory Gardens" . This is simply not the case this time,and as a matter of fact there is a bill in congross that will eliminate all backyard food production and limit food production, to liscened corporate farmers only. Call me paranoind if you must, but something is up! Gardening is the very first thing that we did as per God's instructions. I just don't know how well this legislation would go if in fact passed.