Back of an Envelope – late July

To recent visitors: the title refers to a method of keeping track of tasks for the week, and imposing a little order on the kitchen table, where all the unwanted paper coming into the house winds up. To long-time guests: no. This has not helped to keep the table clear. They keep sending more.

Week July 21:
Sun: water: sow parsnips; repot rosemary; store Garlic
Mon: cool? Steve to build buck pen ~~& bushhog~~; till T-2: prune Basil: level M-7, sow Fall greens: strip Basil
Tues: AM, level T-2 : Basil to Tricia’s; pick up masa; PM ~~set sweet potatoes~~, peppers, ~~late eggplant~~
Wed: AM: water: to Mother’s; PM -Turner Farm, tortilla WS
Thurs: haul water; water; set sp’s & ep’s
Fri: Market prep

A break from the heat (90, i/0 94) let us work on the buck’s pen, so he can be left out for a while. Some sorry hired work last year left sags and gaps, tempting to a determined Nobel, when there are does in heat. Last season, kidding ran from December 27 to March 23, making it time-consuming and fraught with worry. This year instead of letting him run with the flock, I will turn each doe in with him when she’s cycling. Being sure when she’s covered will let me plan for kidding, and (I hope) target for a shorter period.

Hard work plus a lot of sweat: a stout new corner to Nobel's pen. Wish the picture showed how that post is set 32" in the ground!

It’s not finished: the morning was taken up by some catchup barn carpentry – oh heck, not to put too fine a point on it, having to nail back a section of siding that Nobel managed to butt loose in an escape plot. But one more solid post like the one at left, and we can place a single tight stretch of woven wire that he’s less likely to challenge. If it takes a whole morning next week, Steve may at least have an afternoon to get on the tractor!

A Tomato Hornworm Moth, dying as shown by ragged wings and feeble wingstrokes

This Present from God appeared while raking rows for chile peppers in plot T-2. I suppose I should have killed it – the caterpillars have been destructive this year – but by morning light it seemed just a mother fulfilling her duty to her kind. Anyway from her condition I judged the eggs were already laid!

Old, serviceable right front tire, mended, aired up and ready to roll

Last, thanks to Jeff, a newly-met neighbor and friend, for putting the right front tire on the 440 in working order: finally! There is no way to express the satisfaction and comfort this tractor represents, except to say that a whole bunch of work once left undone is now – safely, surely and beautifully – getting done. In coming weeks, look for before-and-after pictures of clean mowed pasture!

Sentimentalize about wild Nature all you want, but there must be something deeply human in the recognition of and desire for order.