That is not only the Morton salt motto, but the way our weekend went. Jo had the weekend off and we planned to get some work done on the farm. The last 25 mushroom logs need to be inoculated and it will be a relief to have them done.
Once again we stopped at The Corner Diner for breakfast. Then back to the house to load up and off we went. We didn’t have the Transit as it was still in the shop. Needing new tires, some brake work and something about the bearings. All of that was taking longer than expected.
As we arrived at THF, it was chilly and the wind was picking up. We opened up the tent and started to get ready for work. It is obvious that we have some tweaking do to with our set up. The tent is great, but the sliding door doesn’t work as well as we would like it to. It tends to get in the way when it is bunched up on one side.
Our attempt at using the door to create additional work space clearly can use some improvement. But in a pinch this set up worked well enough. Ron got busy with the drilling, Jo handled the inoculation and I was again in charge of waxing. The logs we were dealing with was soaking wet and the wax was not sticking as well and it was taking longer than usual to process each log. Ron decided that we should stack them inside the tent. That would give the log a chance to dry and hopefully, the wax a chance to set up. Did I mention that it was now pouring rain?
We had about 6 logs done when Don called. He wanted to know if we were out at the farm. Ron told him that, of course we were. It was just a bit a rain we were dealing with. Nothing that should interfere with the work that needed to be done.
Timing really is everything, isn’t it? If this rain had been falling on April 15, it was have been very nasty. No way we could have gotten the finished logs across the creek with our 4 wheeler. And with all the people we had on site, it would have been very crowded in the tent and no one would have had much fun. All of us would have stayed crammed in the tent, trying to keep dry.
Once again, I caught Ron supervising while Jo works. Do you see how wet the log is? Not to mention both Ron and Jo. It rained and then stopped and rained again. At times so hard that we could not hear ourselves talking over the noise of rain hitting our tent roof. We kept one ear perked for thunder. The first flash of lightening, and I was going to be out of there taking Jo with me. Ron could finish on his own.
Don arrived, dressed for the weather and jumped right into the work flow. With four of us working, we whipped right through the remaining 25 logs. And what a relief it was to be working on the last one. The rain had stopped so we cleaned up and then puttered around waiting for the generator to cool enough to put away. We wandered around the place looking at the flooded areas, trying to figure out where all the water was coming from. About an hour later we decided it was time to head home. This was only one project that we needed to get done over the weekend. I really hoped the weather would improve. It is May and really should be a bit warmer. Rain, wind and temps in the mid 30’s is not what we need. Especially as we need to get more work done outside.
Ron has plans to get his ginseng re-potted and into the greenhouse. I need to get some work done on our home garden. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We have garlic growing in our backyard. Not stuff that we planted either. When we trimmed and cleaned the garlic last year, we tossed a bunch of the imperfect cloves into the yard behind the woodpile. Guess they showed us as we will be eating them later this year. And I have a few volunteer kale plants already doing well out back.
We got very little done. It was so cold and wet that we didn’t feel inclined to do anything. A few chores about the house and some paperwork sorting was all I had to show for the two days. Ron didn’t make it back out to THF either.
Our 19 year old Misty cat. She is a cranky old lady, but she does enjoy reading my blog. As any cat lover will tell you, she really just likes the heat from the laptop. But I like my version better. Murphy has no interest in it. Though she will keep me company when I am writing.
Ron just reminded me I forgot to tell you that I came home with a tick again. Jo had just told me about the news stories she read about them being worse this year. Once Ron removed it for me, Jo proceeded to come up with every tick related comment she could think of. That I was ticked off was her favorite one. I just love my girl.