I am getting sick of this nonsense!
I rolled over, and it was 7:15 am; OMG, I set a new sleeping record. Mary was nowhere to be found, and then I remembered the exercise room. There she was, riding the bike at 123.5 mph. The wheels were turning so fast it was just a blur. She said it was a little more strenuous this morning than she remembered. Little did she know, I connected her bike to a generator, and she just provided enough energy to run the pool pump!
Like his dad, Scout is into technology, but sometimes he carries it too far!
I need to take the batteries out!
We walked the garden and decided the sweetpeas time had come, so I jumped into the bramble with my Makita trimmer, and within a half-hour, they were in two 90-gallon trash cans.
Sweet peas will almost inevitably develop powdery mildew towards the end of their flowering season. Keeping them well watered and improving air circulation will help; a fungicide may also prolong their life, but they are annuals, and eventually, they will exhaust themselves trying to set seed.
Mary got out her witch’s cauldron and poured a batch of baking soda and liquid soap into several gallons of water. She said some incantations and hocus-pocus; we had the magic elixir. We transferred it into a spray bottle and sprayed the tops and undersides of leaves and any other affected areas.
It was windy, or Mary might have brought out her broom and done some serious crop dusting!
The mouse was added for effect!
B-z-z-z-z-z-z-z, the blades cut through the flowers like a knife through hot butter. Soon I was buried alive in an abundance of sweetpeas. I captured many seed pods for next year’s planting!
It was a jungle of flowers.
I looked over my should when I heard a strange sound.
Little did they know!
Two trashcans (90 gallons each) later, I escaped the heap of cuttings and sat down to catch my breath!
Zap; thirty minutes later
Digging their roots out was another problem. The dirt was hard, and the work was backbreaking! I finally got all the roots out, and after Girls’ Night Out, I will rototill in about six bags of compost plus some other additives like peat moss, bone meal, 5-5-5 fertilizer, and chicken manure.
First, it needs good rototilling and removal of the sweetpea roots.
Mary picked blueberries as she cried!
We stopped working at 10:00 am and began preparing for the Elks Lodge! We had a good-sized group today but missed Sydney and her family.
We had hoped Jan M. would have called to join us but no luck!
The gang is mostly here.
Beer always made me sleepy, and the zero-alcohol beer still does the same. Two drinks and it’s nap time!
Sawing logs!
It is always “hat day,” and Linda did not disappoint us! Of course, Mary had her millinery on display also!
What do you call a turtle in a chef’s hat? A slow cooker.
Love the hat.
My arms were just long enough to take a selfie!
Just us!
We stopped at Home Depot and got some potting soil, tomatoes, bell peppers, and dill. Mary got a 50% discount on flowers after winking at the sales manager. OK, she did not wink, but Buddy remembered us from digging through the trash to find the Venus Flytrap plants for Ronnie.
We rushed home so Mary could nap, the girl that “never takes a nap!”
So I did!
I retrieved Scout from the beauty parlor, and he looked terrific. He pranced into the house and fell soundly to sleep. The beauty parlor takes his energy away! Mary was up and wondered where I had gone!
He is starting to like the front yard as he is closer to the target of his barking!
Getting used to being in the front yard!
While Mary slept, I finished the garden I started this morning. Mary joined me as her nap was about an hour long, and she changed into her “grubbies,” and we worked until 6:00 pm. Working together is fun!
The yards look terrific, especially Mary’s cactus garden on the east side of the house!
The sweetpeas are now gone and replaced by ten peppers and five new tomatoes. I used four cubic feet of potting soil, and it took the rototiller and a four-pronged spade to turn the soil over, but it felt perfect after all that work.
Tomorrow morning I must add the straw mulch!
What a difference!
We were pooped, so we headed to the swim spa for a good soak; it worked. We called colleen, Robin, Diane Porter, and Dianne Reidy while polishing off a half-glass of wine each.
Sleep came quickly this evening.
