Garden Work.

 When we first moved here 30 years ago, I spent a gazillion hours setting up the garden.  Our land is on a slope, so the beds had to be terraced. And fenced, after we got goats and peacocks.  It covers an area about 40 x 40 feet.

At first it was pretty productive.  Got a little less over the years, mostly because of a big oak tree that turned into a huge oak tree that provided a bit too much shade.  But Hurricane Michael took care of that tree.

It started to get a bit neglected, especially after 2018.  In October came Hurricane Michael, which covered our 5 acre yard knee-deep in what used to be the tree canopy.  It took us literally 6 months to clean that up.  We did not go into the garden.  At the end of that six months Bob got diagnosed.  So basically the garden just went by the wayside.

Last spring I did a *lot* of cleanup.  Even put in some plants.  But after it got hot and buggy and the tomatoes died and the cotton never really did anything I just walked out, closed the gate, and that was that.

But I've been on a cotton spinning project lately, and uncovered a lot of my saved seeds and I really should see if they are viable, so this week I've gone back in, although it was tricky because it's solid weeds.  Bring on the flame thrower - world's most fun way to weed a garden.  In a couple of hours I got the garden back to where I left off last year.  What was left was a strip on one side, and the back quarter of the garden.  These two areas are where Bob had his pineapple plants (in pots), and where he sort of tossed anything that might be useful (every flowerpot we have ever gotten, including the thin plastic ones that plants come in) now covered in weeds and brambles.

I was sort of sad (OK, very sad) dumping out the dead pineapple plants.  He was so pleased with being able to grow from pineapple tops, and even harvested a few tiny pineapple plants.   Today I finished going through that section, tossing out the old plastic pots, random containers, whatever.  Then I began to tackle the back, which will take awhile.  It's about 10 x 40 and I got 10x10 cleared today but it was the easiest of the area and took two hours to drag out all the pots and the sheets of corrugated plastic he used to cover the beds we weren't using (once upon a time).  And even more tomato cages (I think he saved every tomato cage we ever used).  I filled up the back of the truck with trash.  Then out with the flame thrower and cleaned that small area.  

I figure I have 8-10 hours to go to finish the back of the garden and that will be it for this year.  I might even put in a few plants.

It feels good to do hard work, because I'm coming up on the worst part of 2020.

I keep a dream journal - just to jot down any random or weird dream.  A few months ago I had one where Bob and I were in the bedding section of a furniture store.  We were lying in the bed together.  There was a long table beside the bed, and various salepeople kept coming by and putting stuff (accessories, body care products, random items) on the table, then someone else would say "well, maybe not" and put something else done.  The next day I was puzzling over this dream, and then undersood it.  Towards the end, Bob had developed a septic infection in his blood, which caused his blood pressure to drop dangerously, which in turn made alarms go off continuously (and they could not be turned off).  And his kidneys had ceased to function, which meant that he needed dialysis.  Not only to cleanse his blood, but to try to protect his lungs (which had a fungal infection by then anyway).  The same fluid buildup that was causing those huge blisters on his legs was also leaking fluids into his lungs.  But dialysis causes blood pressure to drop - and his was dangerously low already.  Enter the Catch-22.  The usual way to raise the blood pressure is with IV fluids - which you can't do safely to someone with non-functioning kidneys and a dangerously high fluid buildup.

Hence the parallel with salespeople bringing us items.  I woke up one night to several people gathered at Bob's bed, discussing the problem.  Basically - what could they put into him to increase the blood pressure without putting in too much fluid.  Something thick.  Maybe a few more pints of blood?  A few pints of platelets?  Maybe albumin?  Anything?  Anything that wouldn't do more damage, that would let him have some dialysis (which, by the way, he really hated).  And all I could do was sit up on my couch and listen.  

So, garden.  Absolutely beautiful day outside today.  Tomorrow after work I'll stop by the feed store and pick up some herbs and tomato plants and maybe a few peppers.  Get some of those cotton seeds in the ground.