07/14/13

I had a very productive weekend, even though it rain several times on Saturday and was very hot on Sunday.

When I got up Saturday morning I decided I was going to harvest garlic. Since it was the weekend, though, I wasn't in a huge hurry, so was taking my time eating breakfast and getting ready. That was until it started thundering, and then I decided I better get moving. I managed to get the garlic harvested and get back inside before the rain began, but only barely.

When I got back in I called my Dad to let him know it was raining, because I knew he planned to ride his motorcycle down to help me work on the mower. He had already left by the time I called, though. Somehow he managed to miss the rain, but said he ran into wet roads several times. While he was here we managed to get the mower working, although we aren't sure what we actually did that fixed it, which is frustrating. I certainly have a better idea now of how the mower works, and feel more comfortable replacing various parts if needed. Before he went home I asked him to look a my chainsaw, which wouldn't run the last time I tried it. He managed to get it to start, and after a few adjustments, it is now running better than it ever has.

After my Dad went home, I decided to go ahead and mow the front yard, or at least the section I hadn't already mowed with the push mower. I was able to finish with no problem, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the mower is indeed "fixed". After mowing Andrea and I went over to the garden and dug some potatoes. We went ahead and dug the two rows of Yukon Gold. The results were much better than we had seen from the half row I had harvested before, which I am attributing to the use of composted horse manure. Overall, however, the total yield was disappointing. I don't have final counts and weights yet, but I know that the yield is nowhere near what I was hoping for. Maybe we'll get lucky and the other varieties will do better.

On sunday I attended the Whippoorwill Festival in nearby Berea. This was my first time attending, but I enjoyed myself. It was very hot, though, and I came home exhausted. Because I got home earlier than I anticipated, I planned to work on something this evening, but just couldn't motivate myself to do so. After a nap, I rode over to the garden with Andrea so she could dispose of some weeds she had pulled from the herb garden. When we got back I hung the recently harvested garlic from the porch rafters to cure. It had been laying on top of the book shelves in the living room, which Kitty was not happy about since that is where she likes to lay. I figured I could at least take care of the garlic, for her, even if I didn't manage to accomplish anything else.