The long weekend

Friday 29th August.

Rising at 7-00am.

The day starts with tea drinking, crosswording, reading and generally lounging around as my long weekend stretches out ahead. I've decided to set myself a couple of small tasks each day and when they are done I shall take time out to relax and catch up on computing, e-flurrying and reading.

Todays task is........................................

..............mowing the bloody grass. I've finally got the whole garden cut down to an acceptable level. It's taken a few weeks but now the sprawling front of the property looks like the 7th hole at St Andrews Golf Course. Well, ok I exaggerate slightly. Even the kids all came out............

.....to admire my handywork. They stay out of the way when Dad is racing around on the mower making lots of noise. Now ALL I have to do is go round with the weedeater but that's not on the schedule for today. I finish the day with a bit of "pottering" around and whilst doing so noticed that one of the Flowering Dogwood saplings......................................

............has got a flower. The other sapling has a bud forming on the top too.

That was all the work done for Friday. Time for feet up and a read.

Saturday 30th August

Rising at 8-00am.

The sound of Alvin calling at the bedroom window starts my day. After a light breakfast of toast, cheese, tomato from the garden and some low fat milk I'm off out for a trip to the lumber yard here in town to purchase water pipe insulation, wood, wall plugs, screws and a masonary drill bit.

Todays task is...............................

.........fixing the front garden tap, or faucet to you American folks.

The first really severe winter we were here I was very naughty and left both front and rear garden hosepipes attached. These were both "frost resistant" outlets, or so I thought. The following spring I discovered that both had split and were leaking. So, I replaced them. Last winter I was a good boy and removed both hosepipes before the heavy freeze arrived. The front outlet STILL split. Aggghhhh!!

OK, I'm neither a plumber or a carpenter but I replaced it again, lagged the pipe through the house wall and on the inside too.

Then I mounted the whole lot onto a wood base so hopefully it should keep the frost out. I will, of course, still be removing the hosepipe before any freezing occures. The whole thing went as planned and when I turned the water back on there were NO leaks.

Completing this one task alone gained me 2 Gold Stars and 4 Brownie points from my wife.
Now, all I have to do is paint it............................mutter, mutter.

I was a little hot and bothered after my plumbing/carpentry chore so decided that no more work outside would be started. I had planned on re staking the willow tree but it can wait until tomorrow. Instead, I checked and water the veggie seedlings which are growing indoors.

Cabbage and Kohlrabi are romping along. I may have to repot the cabbage again soon.

Catnip (left) and brussel Sprouts look good too.

OK, that's me done for today. In the fridge I have a couple of very cold beers, with my name on, awaiting my immediate attention.

Sunday 31st August

Rising at 8-00am.

Todays task is................................

Re-stake the Willow Tree.

This tree was badly affected by the last ice storm and I've been gradually pulling it back into shape. At the start it looked..................

...................like this. Then with a bit of work...........

.......like this. And now.......................

.....this. So it's coming back to shape, slowly.

A look around the tomato plants shows that plenty of fruit is still available......

and I harvest around 3 lbs.

The volunteer plants seem happy enough..................

.......and one plant has it's first tomato.
Home grown peppers, onions and herbs were added to some of the ripe fruit I harvested to become.......

...more gloop for freezing.
Monday 1st September

Rising at 4-00am. Yes, thats 4-00am.

Couldn't get back to sleep so got up and read until 7-00am then went back to bed until almost 10-00am.

Todays task is..............

Repot all the seedlings. This I decided while laying awake early this morning. I did the lot......

Here we see Cabbage in the foreground, Kohlrabi at the back........

....and here Brussel Sprouts in the foreground and Catnip at the back.

I then did a bit of touching up on the house paintwork and dug up.......

....a few potatoes. Well, 6lb to be precise. I only have one more potato plant to harvest now and that works out great because then Plot 5 will be available to start the fall planting in a couple of weeks.

So now my long weekend is drawing to a close and I'm happy that I got at least some of the things I'd planned to do, along with plenty of of R&R.

Time for.......................................

...............dinner.