Good Tired

I've had what I feel is a really constructive day. I got a lot done, some of it physical and out in the heat and you know how virtuous that makes me feel. 
It took me half of the day to finally kick my butt into gear and out into the garden but once there, I got some more weeding done and also more mulching. I have been looking through the open door of the old hen house for awhile now and seeing the hay which was still in there lining the floor, thinking that I should use it in the garden. 

And today I finally did.
I rolled the garden cart over there and, not being able to find the pitchfork, I just used my own hands and arms to gather it up, thinking all the while of my lovely chickens, my darlings, my daily amusement, and also, givers of perfect protein in the form of their eggs, and I hauled it to the garden and laid it out on top of the area I'd just mulched to slow down weed growth and increase moisture retention around the plants. And as mulch breaks down, it helps enrich the soil with nutrients. 

The Seminole pumpkins, tucked into the chicken hay. They're looking pretty good. 

As you can see below, we are using three different types of mulch this summer. 

Oak leaves, pine needles, and now the hen house hay. 

Will any sort of mulch truly prevent weeds from coming up? 
Not around here, baby. 
But it slows them down AND it makes them easier to pull because they root closer to the surface. My ideal garden would have two feet of mulch covering it with just enough space cleared to plant my seeds and starting plants. 

Well. You can't always get what you want. 
You know the rest. 

I just think the garden is so pretty this year. 
That naked dirt row you see is where I dug up potatoes today. Surprisingly, I found some really, really good-looking ones. Big, chunky, neither scabbed or scarred. 

For scale, that bowl is pretty huge. 

I also watered a few of our new fruit trees which means I moved the sprinkler every few hours. We're watering slowly and deeply. It keeps looking like rain, we keep getting rain forecasts, and yet a really good, long, substantial rainfall has yet to happen. 

I managed to get ant bit three separate times today. And when I say "ant bit" I mean my own personal legs were stormed and attacked by fire ants and began stinging me before I realized they were there. Twice it was the same species of ants as usual, the small ones we call "fire ants" or "red ants" but once, I was attacked by much larger ants whose stings seemed especially fiery although the smaller ones can wreak havoc too. I really need to pay more attention as to where I am standing and where I am digging in the dirt. 

And when I had worked outside as long as I considered prudent (it is hot and SO humid) I came in and finally finished the glaze-painting of my leaf platter. 

And even though that last leaf looks more like Funfetti than anything else, I can't wait to get this fucker fired. 

Glen sent me this:

Almost finished with the wood flooring in the other upstairs bedroom. I'm so proud of him. 

I'm tired and will go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow's plan is to pick beans and do some canning. 
Still haven't found that canning funnel but I know it's here somewhere.
Oh, how I miss a fully functioning brain. 

Love...Ms. Moon