..... teach an old dog new tricks? Well, here is Hannah with her new trick. OK, she isn't an old dog, she will be five next month, and theoretically in her prime. Those are cookies balanced on her paws, and she has learned that if she waits until I say 'get it' she gets both of them. Willie, however, just eats them. "Wait" he says. "Phooey".
But here is a genuine old 'dog' with a new trick -- ME! One of the advantages of living almost next door to the Fairgrounds, is that after the fair is over there are literally mountains of poopy straw and wood chips that they need to get rid of. I like the wood chips from the stables occupied by the race horses best. The straw blows around a bit in this windy environment, but the chips stay put and look very nice. I can get as much as I want free, delivered to my house, and since the soil here is very dense and lacking in organic material, it is like solid gold to me. I had eight big dump truck loads delivered, intending to use it on my field that is being converted to a wild garden. Well, that was a LOT of stuff, so Mark and I decided to rent a Bobcat, needed anyway to repair my driveway, and spread it all in one day. That looked like so much fun, that I insisted that I wanted to do it, so he graciously showed me how to run the machine, and off I went. It was GREAT! Here is the area I am working on to put in a wild garden and create a wind break.
I think at my advanced age I am learning the fascination men have for big machines. What's next? Guns?? The two young twenty-something men that help Mark were a bit astonished at the idea of me running the Bobcat, but, honestly, there was nothing to it. Easier than driving a car. I was a bit slow, so around mid-afternoon I handed it over to Mark, who finished the job.
Work on the greenhouses continues. We have almost finished one, and will start on the next one when another pallet of greenhouse bench tops arrive. The shipping of orders continues. There is usually a flurry of orders this time of year, when people start thinking about planting bulbs, although the shipping season will start to wind down soon. Seed sowing and propagating bulbs will start in earnest as soon as the greenhouse benches are finished. This is actually the busiest time of year for me, since shipping bulbs, sowing seeds and the repotting of bulbs starts to overlap. I like the change in pace, though, and I am excited about my new greenhouse benches.