Preparing the Garden for Winter

I knew today would be a busy day, we were going to prepare the garden for it's winter sleep, click on the link if you want to read more about the specifics.  It was clear it would be cold working outside, having woken up this morning to frost everywhere.  It's not an unusual occurrence, especially since the temperatures have returned to what is typical for this time of year.  But the sun was shining brightly for the first time in several days, and the reflection on the frost was beautiful.  It was a cheerful beginning to the day...

...and the way the ice crystals arched over the grain in the wood was awesome!

The first major step of preparing the garden is covering the soil, without disturbing the previous gardens established root system, with a good layer of manure.  So off we went to the Paso Fino Elegante horse ranch; they have lots of aged manure that is perfect for a vegetable garden!  The owners Mario & Kathy are friendly and welcoming, and we really enjoyed our first visit there.  In fact, we spent a couple of hours with them, learning about the ranch and getting a trailer filled with manure. 

Here we are at the manure (now that is a pile of fertilizer!) with Mario digging to get to the good, aged stuff.  They ask for a nominal fee and give you as much as you want.  He filled our trailer to the brim!

Our experience there was so enjoyable that we will definitely go back to visit and learn more.  We were invited to come back and watch Mario train the horses (he was not doing that today).  They have champion stallions and mares; Mario proudly introduced us to several of them, and they were indeed elegant and friendly to boot!  We will be back!

Off we went, with our trailer loaded with the perfect fertilizer, heading back to the cabin.  Both Johny & I noticed how heavy the trailer felt with the load we were carrying.  As I payed closer attention, I heard an odd sound.  I said, "that sounds like a flat" and as Johny looked into the rear view mirror, he grunted and said, "it is, the trailer has a flat".  We found a place to pull over and were dismayed when we found not only a flat but the tire was shredded to bits...

This must have been our lucky day, because a truck pulled up and a gentleman said, "looks like you have some trouble".  He (Perry) said he and his buddy (Bert) were chopping wood at Perry's (we all do a lot of that around here) and they heard us coming through the mountain.  They helped us jack up the trailer and try to replace the tire with the spare but that didn't work, so Perry loaned us one of his.  Now talk about lending a helping hand...Perry doesn't know us from Adam!  (Of course, we will be returning his tire, will give us another chance to express our gratitude for his kindness!)

We stopped at the local tire shop at the bottom of Pumpkintown Road to replace the tire.  So by the time we got back to the cabin, the sun was beginning to climb over the tree tops, leaving little direct light.  But we are both motivated to get this fertilizer on the garden. So we spent the rest of the hours of sunlight shoveling sh**...I mean manure, all over the garden, and you know what?  We had just enough!  My intention was to show you a picture of how it is looking, but my camera batteries died, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for that.  But it looks rich and thick and gives promise of an excellent vegetable garden to come!

I'll share your comments about what you were doing during yesterday's "one moment in a lifetime" tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise