a couple of firsts

Today it was drier than I expected.  We have had three inches of rain within the last week and yesterday the cornfield was muddy.  Today, the top of the soil was dry and it allowed me to really try out my new garden tool.  Thank you, Nikole!!

My new tool is called a stirrup hoe and it looks like a red stirrup and it has a little bit of swivel to it and it cuts on the push and the pull in order to cover a lot of ground quickly.  It doesn't work too well on mud but I have been trying it every day waiting for the right conditions and today was  the day.  I used it in the cornfield in the Johnny corn and it worked great.  I mostly cut with in on the pull, partly because I would forget to push and partly because my weeds were mostly grass and it got under the roots  better on the pull.  I did try pushing and on small broad leaf weeds it worked great.

The other 'first' today was that I watered the cornfield with the new water system.  I needed four hoses to get to the far end of the field.  I did both some watering with the hose and some with the sprinkler.  I ended up with some hassles dragging the hose up and down the rows.  I was concerned about plant damage from the hose as I moved in and out of the rows.  There may be a solution to that if I give it some thought.  There would be less potential for damage if I used the sprinkler so that might end up being the method that I eventually settle on.

Boy have the weeds been loving this weather.  Everywhere I look there is weeding to do.  That will be my agenda for the weekend.  As I get done I will try to post pictures.  I am not too excited about showing off my weeds.

test run

Yay!!  It works!!

water project finished and a nest update

Mom and Dad came out and we finished the water project.  All is left to do is to hook up the hoses and it is ready to go.  But since we had three inches of rain the last week it may be a little while before we need to use it.

This is the far end.  The red handle is a shut off valve and the hose hooks onto the part that sticks out.  So far it is duct taped to the post to keep it secure.  That will eventually be replaced with some type of pipe fastening system which will be more permanent. 

This is the near end.  A hose will connect the top of this pipe to the faucet on the house or the hydrant.  When I am ready to water I can turn the hose on at the house and the shut off valve will keep the water from being wasted while I walk around to the other end to water.  I can then turn the water on at the shut off and water away. 

So, today I was walking down the driveway to get the mail and I spotted a small intact blue egg lying on the driveway.  I immediately thought ti was from the nest that I had found when weeding the cobalt garden and was afraid that one of the dogs had stolen it from the nest.  We used to have chickens and sometimes the dogs would help me pick eggs.  Cody would carry hers off intact.  I think that she thought it was a tennis ball.  I would sometimes find her eggs where she left them.  Sadie on the other hand has no time for tennis balls so she would carry hers off and break it open and eat it. 

I went to check the nest and the mom was gone and there were two eggs that had hatched and two little brown fuzzy birds in the nest.  I decided to put the egg that I had found back in the nest.  I could not tell for sure how many eggs were left there and after I put the egg in there is seems that it might not be the right nest as the eggs may be a different color.  I guess we will have to see what happens.

It is hard to see for sure but here is the nest with the blue egg and the little birds and the other unhatched eggs.  When Mom and Dad were here I had mom take a look and we startled the mother bird who was sitting on the nest. 

water project stage two

Today Dad came out and glued the rest of the PVC pipe together into one long length.

When it was all glued together it was 150 feet long and we threaded it through the grove. 

We actually threaded it through the grove twice as the first time we didn't end up where we wanted to end up.  It should have been a straight shot through the grove heading southwesterly in a more or less straight line.  But my lack of a sense of direction is pretty much legendary and we came out the first time on the south side of the grove instead of the west side.  Kind of embarrassing but Dad never said a word he just backed the pipe out part way and we (I) did better the second time. 

Stage three of this project involves putting an upright at each end with a hose attachment and then digging a post hole and installing a post for the uprights to attach too.  There will be a pole at each edge of the grove.  Dad has taken the upright portions into town to work on them in his mosquito free workshop and will bring them out ready to attach to the ends of the pipe.  It is coming together well!

the beginnings of our water project

This is the beginning of our water project.  Our plan has been finalized.  We are going to run 150 feet of 3/4 inch PVC pipe through the grove.  It will be attached with hose to the faucet on the house or the hydrant near the well.  It will attach to hose on the other end which will then be used to water the garden.  The PVC will go through the grove at an angle, it will have an upright at each end that will be attached to a fence post to make it easier to attach the hoses and to keep the ends out of the reach of the mower.  I teased Dad about putting a birdhouse on the fence post but I am thinking it would be cute.  I was also thinking that it would be a place to hang a hose holder to wind the hose up out of the way for mowing.  there will be a shut off on the far end so that there is not water running on the ground while you walk around the grove to get to the hose. 

The reason that the project is at this point is that when Dad picked up the PVC there were not enough supplies at the store.  Because there were not any 20 foot pipes he bought 10 footers and then we needed twice as many of the connectors and there weren't enough of those either.  So we glued together what we had and he has now purchased the rest of the parts  while at the lake.  On Monday, we will glue the rest together and thread it through the grove. 

In the meantime Mother Nature has been taking care of the watering.  Last night there was a strong storm system that went through our area about 2:30 in the morning.  We had 0.7 inches of rain.  We had a few leave clusters from the trees to pick up but we were so fortunate to not get the brunt of the storm.  25 miles to the north of us they are without power with power lines and trees   down all over town.  Rumors are that they had 4.5 inches of rain and 85 mph winds.   A few miles further there are reports of 7 inches of rain.  This was round one.

Round two came this afternoon.  The sky got green and then black.  This is 5:30 p.m. and it is dark out.  The yard light is on.

 There were warnings for strong storms with hail and damaging winds and heavy rain but we got only another inch.  We missed the hail and strong winds. We did have water standing across the road...

In the pasture...

In the field next to the cornfield...

And in front of the compost pile where there is a low area...

This was the pumpkin patch before the storm, full of bright yellow blooms.  Now they look a little beat up.  We will have to see how they fair with the next round predicted around midnight tonight and the round after that predicting more strong storms for tomorrow afternoon.