Whew!!!

Between the back room and the garden, I worked for about five hours this morning and I'm ready for a rest!  I began in the back room, first clearing it out, then doing some fine sanding on woodwork, then running the vacuum, then (all out of order) deciding to use the sander again on the white paint that's already on one window and needs replacing.  Whew.

Then, off to the garden.  Sometime in the past week the idea that planting time is not far away broke into my thick skull.  My two new beds need help and work, so I attacked one of them this morning. The other will have to wait awhile.

OK, so this is the other bed -- I didn't get a 'before' photo but let's face it, they look very much the same and need the same amount of work.  First, off with the chicken wire and into weed removal. Took about an hour with a hand tool to stir up all the soil, get new weeds and remove older, larger roots and things that didn't decompose completely over the winter.

Off to the back 40 to attack this compost pile, which is the oldest. 

I forgot the step where I unrolled this hardware cloth and fought to make it lie flat across the bed.  This is a bucket-load of raw compost, which then had to be sifted through the mesh to keep larger pieces out.  I took special care with the fat earthworms that were transferred, not smushing them in the mesh.

Four buckets later (all my body would handle today and also about half the pile) I have an inch or more of gardener's black gold over the entire bed.  And it's still not even close to being full.  I see more Black Kow in my future. And perhaps more diligence in removing green weeds.

Lunch.  Garbanzos with lemon, parmesan, olive oil, garlic and herbs over fresh greens from the garden. Life is good.

And now, folks, I think I'm gonna crash for awhile, start making that long list of things to buy at SW tomorrow after work.