You may recall back in 2019 we discovered the waterline from the road to the house had broken. We never knew because it was before the water meter. After replacing it for about $5000, we discussed replacing the one to the barn but decided against it.
Well the water bill just came in and it was for 150% of a whole year’s usage for a 6 month period. So we checked the meter, and sure enough, the line from the house to the barn must have broken sometime this summer. The bill in May had been normal.
We’re not looking forward to repairing that mess as it will mean tearing the chicken coop area apart, taking down the layer pen and lots of reorganizing, not the mention tearing up another pasture. But hopefully this time we can install the frost proof hydrant by the gardens and get an agricultural meter for the farm. So it won’t be a total loss.
I’m going to try for an abatement on the bill, as it’s obvious this is far above our normal usage, a job for Monday or Tuesday morning.
Once it had warmed up on Sunday morning, I headed out to start work on the Small garden. I thought I’d just pull the plastic up, with my intern’s help, use the raked compost from planting garlic to re-inoculate the area, and mulch. Well, I’d forgotten about the cordwood holding the plastic down…
Where there were deeper holes, the plastic had made tiny ponds. I had a supervisor watching me move wood.
There was another smaller frog in the same tiny pond but I couldn’t get a photo and it didn’t sit and watch me.
Fortunately, I had the truck right there and was able to load the wood onto that and drive it to the woodshed. In the past we used the sleds. By the time I got the first piece of plastic up and dumped over the bank with my intern’s help, I’d forgotten all about the inoculates. I raked up the branches that had fallen into the tall grass that had been in this garden and went in for lunch.
When I came back out I started mulching on the far side, because I had to move the first hay stack to get the rest of the plastic out. Fortunately I was only mulching a narrow strip, because I will be planting garlic next to this strip.
But when I reached the south end of the garden and pulled up the plastic, this is what I found. When I had cleaned out the east side perimeter of this garden, the plastic had stopped the growth right at the fence. But with the stronger light from the south, the roots and plants had tried to grow. This is the dreaded crabgrass, and one needs to remove all the roots possible, or it will just re-grow from any left nodes. So I had to clean this out before I could do any more mulching.
So I worked my way down the inside of the fence, then moved outside and did that.
There was only a short 6’ strip on the west side of the garden, so I did that and cleaned up under the plants at the far end. They are kept mulched with hay so it was a quick job. It was late afternoon by the time I finished so I quit for the day.
On Monday, after I get the laundry sorted out (still no washer, the repair he did didn’t fix it) I plan to move the mulch I put down, spread inoculants, and put it back. Then I’ll inoculate the rest of the garden and resume mulching.