05/20/13

I decided to take a week off from work to get caught up on a few things around here. Today was my first day off, and it didn't start off very well. I began the morning by using the tractor to do some more prep work along the edge of the yard where we are planning to plant some bushes. While I had the tractor out I decided to move a few large rocks that were somewhat in the way. I still haven't really mastered the process of picking up large rocks with the front end loader, rather than just pushing them across the ground. For one of the rocks I was having to try to manually push it into the bucket, and in the process managed to get my finger caught between the rock and the bucket when it shifted unexpectedly. The result was a couple of cuts to the underside of my finger, and bruising to the top. Fortunately it was only my little finger, and the rock just caught the tip, but it was very painful at the time.

I'm not one to work through an injury, especially when I'm bleeding, so I immediately went back into the house and took an extended break. After lunch I decided to go back out, because the pain had subsided. I worked a bit more on prepping the edge of the yard, this time using a hoe and rake to smooth out some of the soil I had moved earlier. I also took a load of topsoil to the garden so I would have a convenient supply for adding to the potato tower. While I was at it I went ahead and added some soil to the tower, and by the end of the day I noticed that the plants appeared to have already grown, which is impressive, if accurate.

I don't know if the issue was just the heat, or if my injury also played a role, but I wasn't able to stay out as long as I had hoped. After a couple of hours I had to come back in, and ended up taking a nap. After dinner, though, I went back out and Andrea went with me. We installed another small walkway in the herb garden. After that we watered the tomato plants, which took longer than expected. Hopefully we'll have a good solution before the season is over, because we'll be watering them very often. I'm already dreading watering them tomorrow because I know that I'll need to haul more water up from the creek. Hopefully I'll get the rain barrels finished and installed soon, so I don't have to haul a lot from the creek.

I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I had hoped with my first day off from work. I did manage to get in maybe 6 hours total, though, which I suppose isn't too bad considering I took some time off for my injury, and it seemed to have slowed me down for the remainder of the day.