Sunday Update

There's no photograph to document the results, but today was a day full of sunshine, sweat, and dirt.  I slept in (really really slept in) and woke up with a bit of a hang-over.  Word to the wise, dearies:  If you work all day outside, drink WATER, not two hearty gin and gingers with a slice of lime.  It's delicious, but you will get more than a bit tipsy.  Nothing that a little time outside won't cure, but still...the wake up headache is not very friendly.

After a restorative breakfast of pancakes and hot coffee, it was off for the races!  Here's what I did today, before I crapped out, took a shower, and now sit reclining in state in a tatty old bathrobe.

1.  Tilled the new front garden, added peat moss, and tilled some more until the tiller ran out of gas.
2.  Planted the new front garden, with assorted squash and a mix of sunflowers, as well as perimeter yellow onions.
3.  Laid out some more cypress mulch, to pretty up the edges of the front garden.
4.  Ripped copious amounts of quack grass, nettles, and bindweed (oh how I HATE bindweed) from the perennial garden in front of the house.
5.  Dug out a huge mat of something that I think is called False Dragon's Beard.  It is horribly invasive, and I think has choked out several asiatic lillies, blackeyed susan, and some other stuff that I can't remember what it was, but it isn't there anymore.
6.  Rehung the sun, moon, and stars to their summer glory.
7.  Planted two pincushion plants, which have cute purpley puffball flowers, in the perennial beds.
8.  Planted all the front raised beds, with things like carrots and spinach and parsnips and radishes.  Oh, and some cute speckled lettuce with a german name like "Fortenschluesssen"...or something like that.
9.  Watered everything I had planted, and filled two bird baths.
10.  Moved some crap that had been lying around for a while, making my place look a little like the aftermath of a tornado...random piles of debris and all.
11.  Heaved all the weeds into the chicken run, to the delight of the girls.  The girls, incidentally, only laid ONE egg today.

 Freeloaders.

I also got a wonderful mix of suntan, sunburn and reamplified freckles, all while avoiding getting bitten by bees, flies, or too many mosquitoes.  There were, as always, the usual chores of hosing down assorted plants/trees/animals, feeding all sorts of creatures, and wandering about with things that needed to be stowed away/thrown away/cooked/fed.   All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.

P.S.  I used my solar oven, AND it baked three potatoes!!