White Lightning Axiom: Redux

It certainly was a full weekend. Started it off on Friday night in the back 50. Pulled out the tiller and went cyber-mutant giant mole crazy on the garden plot. Took till the dead of night but I got the whole thing tilled under. Just wanted to get that taken care of while I had the opportunity. The spring weather is fairly unpredictable in these parts. Well, unpredictable in that I do not know how hard it will rain when I want to work outdoors. Could be a spritz, could be something that would make Noah run for the hills. The weatherman isn't much of a help either due to the odd topography of the ridge that the Haupertionian Manor and World HQ is situated on. Sooo, I labor upon the soil to bring forth life by the sweat of my brow.

Saturday morning, Jake bursts in at 0630 and proceeds to proclaim that the sun has woken up so we should all follow suit. This goes on till the Mrs and I find that our beguilement has sufficiently imbued our creaking bones with enough gumption to get underway. I spend a significant portion of the morning raking, seeding and setting up the pea trellis' and tomato cages. Yet another sunny weekend day. I should check to see if all the cold, rainy, morose weather headed on down to hell. While I'm laboring under the clear blue skies, the kids are tossing sand at each-other in the twin-tower sand pit. The Stunning Mrs is sitting in a deck chair watching on as she pages through some circulars. Pastoral bliss? I wrap up the Haupertonian Agricultural Sector and move on to the herb boxes and the flower beds. Need to get those grape vines planted before they wither. Not counting on much in the way of fruit this year, but if I can get them to do something other than die, it would be nice.

Sunday, church, alone. Daylight savings made certain that attendance would be marginal. The kids were still in their semi-hibernation phase and trying to get them ready to attend would certainly not happen before the 1000 mass. Good thing too. The couple behind me 'whisper argued' through the whole service non-stop. Standard disenchanted young couple variety of argument. Nothing solved and only manipulative, selfish utterances exchanged. After a few years when you realize a few things, this sort of mucking goes away. Men marry the woman they want to be with for the rest of their lives: She grows and changes. Women marry a Man who they want to grow with: He will not budge. That, and us guys still think farts are funny. Ask the most Tolerant Mrs about the new skill the kids have learned. Speaking of kids, Once again, they fritter away the day frolicking outside while I finish working on largest flower bed and muck about in the dirt. Planting the morning glories, phlox, alyssum and other seed stock takes a bit of time since I need to break up the soil. Getting the sprinkler array set up for the garden is no simple task either. I would normally rely on the in-ground sprinkler system but I think it behooves me to wait a bit before getting the meter installed. No need in watering the lawn if it is going to rain for the next two months ... non-stop.

While the Shaggy Mrs is off getting her luxurious locks lopped off at the hair-dressers, I transport the Twin Tyrants to the Local Home Depot Temple to pick up some gardening and lawn supplies that I have seemed to have forgotten. Some grass seed, fertilizer, weed killer, hoses, cold fusion generator, zip ties and other associated brick-a-brack. I could find no sage, oregano or tomatoes so I'll have to wait another day for that. Probably when the Tamanend Park herb club sale launches in May. Although, I will probably get the tomatoes much earlier than that. The sooner the better. This year, I'm putting in only 6 vines along with two rows of onions, 3 rows of peas, 1 row of napa lettuce and 1/2 of spinach and butter-crunch. Thought ahead this year and got extra seeds for the lettuce and peas so that I can put in a fall crop as well. No peppers this year, never seem to use them all and I have enough dried pods in storage to keep a heard of chili-heads content. Three rows of beans (saved seeds from last year) a row of turnips, two of carrots and a row of Brussels sprouts. Two mounds of cucumbers are accompanied by one pumpkin mound, a watermelon and a mystery planting of seeds that the Mrs Grandmother gave to me. Could be anything but looks like either honeydew or cantaloupe. Did I mention that the Mrs is horribly allergic to both of those? In any event, I think I did the tangent thing again ... I was talking about the Home Depot trip. Wow, did I get off track or what?!

On the way back to the manor with all the booty in the trunk (no, not that booty or 'junk in the trunk' ... sheesh!), we stopped off at the Willow Grove fire department. You see, they were washing the trucks this fine Sunday afternoon and Jake caught a glimpse of them so we had to stop. While admiring the shiny, clean trucks, fireman John came out and invited the kids to go and sit in them. Jake damn near peed himself. A greater part of his day was spent talking about this. On the way back, I told Jake that if he eats his dinner and sleeps at night, he could grow up to be a Fireman too. At that point, Alexis chimed in and informed me that if she did that too, she could be a fire-girl! Ummm, yeah. That's right. I need to cancel her Gloria Steinem Feminist Book of the Month club. Honey, you are slated to grow up and be President ... of the World.

On a down note, I had noticed a lot of activity going on over at my neighbor's house. Initially, I wrote it off as a Jewish Holiday thing but was stunned to learn that on of their adult daughters had died. This particular daughter had a lot of problems in life. Health, drug and marital issues had ground her down and the cause of death was suspected to be and OD of some sort. Other than the horrible loss of life, the saddest part is that her Daughter, my neighbor's granddaughter, is now left as an orphan. Her father had fled the scene years ago and she had been primarily living under the protection of her grandparents. I'm hoping that Marvin and Sharon will feel free to ask the Mrs and I for any help. Marvin is quite ill these days now that he has lost both of his kidneys. I think this young girl will need a bit of adult interaction since her grandparents won't always be available. She is a teenager now and this can be a turning point in her life. I'm worried.

In other news, I spent Monday working on the floor in Jacob's new room. Need to do the fine sanding and it is taking FOREVER. I'll probably finish by this weekend and be able to put down a coat of poly, but it's hard on the back. Good thing it's a bit wet out right now or I would be tempted to avoid the wood dust and play in the dirt. Since it's raining, you know we lost power in the middle of the night. Perennial issue that COULD be solved by solar, ya think? Oh, and I finally turned off the heat. Officially. I still need to light up the wood stove on the cooler evenings, but I think we are essentially past winter. Time to get the AC checked out. Sigh.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 10:00 AM