Today was a day of toil. About a week ago Camera Girl was in her garden, supposedly turning the soil with a pitchfork. I say supposedly because after ten or fifteen minutes of effort the pitchfork was still stuck in the ground and the ground was having the best of the argument.
Finally she gave up and complained bitterly of her fate. Being the gentlemanly parfait knight that I am, I mocked her. I said, “Sure women are always saying how they can do anything a man can but apparently that doesn’t apply to pitchforks.” She sot me a look that seemed to imply something about the quality of that night’s dinner. So I displayed magnanimity. I said, “You poor weak creature, I will turn the soil for you, only not today.
Well, apparently “not today” was today. So I went out to the west field and starting singing road gang spirituals. And to be honest, between the matted weed roots and the stupid liner that someone put in the soil was incredibly tough and heavy to turn. But three hours of working like a hired field hand got it done. About half way through it occurred to me that I could have rented a rototiller. But by the end I was so satisfied with myself that it was worth it. I showed up afterward in the kitchen drenched in sweat and covered with dirt but extremely pleased with myself.
I preened in front of Camera Girl and lectured on the difference between man’s work and woman’s work. I mentioned that I left some clean up of weeds and liner next to the garden. And that she should get that squared away as soon as possible. She mumbled something under her breath but I pretended not to hear her. Then I headed up for a well deserved shower.
Remarkably shortly after i finished working the skies opened up and it poured to beat the band. Probably some of the seedling I put in this week may be washed away. But some of them will make it and I ‘ve got more for next week too. As long as we don’t have a repeat of last spring when it rained for forty days and forty nights, things will be fine in the garden.
This year we intend to grow a lot of butternut squash because Camera girl makes a great chicken soup with it. And we’ll grow lots of zucchini and eggplant. This year we’ll put in some thorn-less raspberries and I might move my blueberry bushes to make it easier to protect them from the birds. Most years they get more than I do. And I have to remember to put out the egg cases that the praying mantis laid over the winter. I sure don’t want them hatching in the house.
So it was a work day but I’ll be sure to find something to be outraged about in the news when I check it out. Enjoy your Thursday night.