It has occurred to me that this blog is helping to increase my productivity. First, by documenting the things that I'm doing, my goal of simple living is on my mind much more often. Second, I really don't want to have to write the daily update post where I admit to accomplishing absolutely nothing that day.
We got up early again this morning and worked outside for a couple of hours. Andrea worked in the herb garden, staking some peppers and basil, harvesting a few more of the Super Cayenne, and harvesting a large container full of basil. She said that she'll probably be making more pesto tomorrow. I need to start eating it more often, since we are obviously going to have a good supply of it.
While she was working in the herb garden, I knocked out a little project I've been wanting to do in that same area. We eventually plan to extend the herb/flower garden along the entire length of the trailer. Right now we have a 10 ft section planted with herbs and peppers, a 10 ft section sowed with flowers, and then another 6-8 ft section around the a/c unit that is inside the fence, but has nothing planted. I used a pair of grass shears to cut all of the grass and weeds in the area around the a/c unit, then dug a small ditch from it to the edge of the fence (about 5-6 ft away) to route the water from the a/c. Previously, the entire area in front of the a/c stayed wet, and weeds and grass would grow very quickly. I hope that by routing the water away we can make the area more usable. Next I need to put down some landscape fabric under the a/c, and then put cardboard down in the rest of the area and cover with some straw or wood chips. I wish we has some manure right now so we could go ahead and start some sheet composting over there, but at least I can smother out the weeds and grass, and then just add manure and another layer of straw later.
After showering and cleaning up we decided to go out for breakfast. We had biscuits and gravy at the locally own restaurant in town, which is always a nice treat. After breakfast we headed to Nicholasville, to the Lexington Container Company to look at barrels and something to use for hauling water to the garden. LexCon is a great place to find barrels, both new and recycles, buckets, containers, and prepping supplies We've bought from them before, and plan to go back when we're ready to make rain barrels. Today we bought a 30 gallon, a 55 gallon metal open top drum, and 5 plastic parts trays. The 30 gallon drum will be used to store water in the garden. We can just leave it over there, and haul water from the creek to fill it. It has a removable top which should help to keep the water fresh, while also making it easy to fill and dip out of. The 55 gallon metal drum is going to go into the shed to hold my long-handle tools, such as shovels, hoes, rakes, etc. I'm thinking of cutting a piece of lattice to fit over the top, so I can just stick the handles through the holes in the lattice, to keep everything orderly. The parts trays were something we hadn't seem before. It appears that they held parts that were shipped to the Toyota plant. They had various sizes, but the ones we bought were maybe 18-24 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 3-4 inches deep. Andrea thought they would make good trays for carrying plants, especially when she's dealing with a large number of seedlings. They were only $1 each and stack well, so we figured it was worth trying them.
On the way home we stopped at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store to look for a couple of things. We didn't find anything that we needed, but its always enjoyable to just look around to see what they have in stock. We are big fans of re-using existing materials whenever possible, so the Re-Store is a great place for us. We also stopped at Tractor Supply Company so Andrea could pick up a pair of gloves. She's been using a pair of leather work gloves I received for Christmas that were too small for me. She decided that she should really invest in a good pair that fits her, though.
I've not accomplished much since we got home. It was so hot again today, with temperatures above 100 degrees again, that staying inside where it was cool seemed like a much better idea than going back outside to work this evening.
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