Spring and Summer Project Update

I previously wrote about my home project list.  I have been able to cross a few items off over the past few weekends.

1. Fix the truck – Done (both times)

2. Fix the tractor – Done (mysteriously fixed itself)

3. Remove holly bushes from the front of the house - Done

4. Replace broken split rail fence – Done (with a little help from my neighbor)

5. Raised vegetable garden – 50% complete

The new vegetable garden is 10’ X 12’ X 10”.  (It is actually 10’ 1/2” X 10’ 1/4” X 12’ 1/2” X 12’ 3/4” because I didn’t feel like breaking out the saw to cut wood for a vegetable garden.  Seriously, it’s not the foundation to a house, it’s a box filled with dirt.)  The construction is almost complete.  It is going to get six post caps, one at each corner and one at the six foot mark on each of the 12’ sides.  I was going to make the post caps myself but saw these on sale at Home Depot for $3 a piece and I couldn’t pass up the bargain.  The garden has been filled with 2 cubic yards of top soil and will get another cubic yard of some type of garden soil or compost.  I was considering installing some type of drip irrigation, but I think I might leave that until next year.  I want to see how it works out this year first.

Next weekend I am going to add the post caps, the remaining soil and purchase the veggies.  I think we will start with a simple assortment, tomatoes (2-3 varieties), cucumbers, peppers (2-3 varieties), a row or two of corn, and whatever else I can get my hands on.  The kids want at least one pumpkin and one watermelon.

The AA (Anti-Avian) Pellet Gatling Gun with automated thermal image tracking and PAASRED (Pressure Activated Anti Small Rodent Explosive Devices) are still in development and should be installed before the end of the summer.  Apparently my attempts at purchasing cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine on the internet have put me on some type of watch list.  Whatever, like the Federal Bureau of Investigations have never heard of the Carl Spackler technique of rodent prevention.

I have to thank my two boys and their two friends for helping me haul the 2 yards of topsoil from the truck to the garden.  It is really amazing to see four kids take enjoyment from shoveling 2.5 tons of dirt.  One of the boys, a 6 YO, said “If we were doing this for real, we would be making a lot of money.”  They seemed to really love it when I lashed them all to the front of the wheelbarrow like a team of horses to pull it to the backyard.  At first the whip scared them, but they learned quickly to work together and pull faster to avoid its sting. (just kidding there were no children harmed in the making of the garden, no one was tied or whipped, just shoveling)  I would love to repeat this same exercise every year to determine at which point they stop perceiving it as fun and it becomes work and to see when monetary incentive becomes involved.

If I don’t get anything planted in it, I think it would be a great team building tool for the next work picnic at the house.  Flood it with some water and have mud wrestling.  I have my wrestling outfit all picked out, just need to find a Speedo to match my cape and mask.