Planting, fun projects, Victoria, the little Ranger

It was another busy weekend for me and Mama. We went on bus visitation Saturday morning which kept us out until a little after 12 pm. From there we went to Bowie to Trade days. Mama and I went specifically to get some plants from a lady that has a booth there every month. Specifically we were looking for vegetable plants and more specifically for yellow tomatoes – which she had in abundance this weekend. Mama was thrilled.

Right next to the vegetable plant booth an Asian woman sets up with trees and palms. In her booth she had a fairly large apple tree for sale. Mama and I are looking for three specific types of apple trees that are supposed to (according to what she has read) do well in our area of Texas: the Braeburn, the Gala and the Fuji. The tree she was selling that day was a Gala apple tree so I bought it.

It was 2 pm before we got home but there was still plenty of time to get the plants in the ground and move on to several other little chores. I did not realize as we were leaving Trade days that Mama had bought so many pepper plants but they filled a complete row in our small garden. We spaced out the four tomato plants into a small row and I put the apple tree in the northwest corner of the garden.

Sometime down the road I want to put up an attractive fence around the garden but what we have is sufficient for now and since I do not plan to extend the garden on the far side, the apple tree will sit in a good spot for many years to come – Lord willing. All the other orchard trees seem to be doing very well where they sit in the garden area. We should have apples (two varieties), pears and nectarines this year. The fig and the peach are too young to produce yet.

With the forecast of strong storms and rain coming I took some time and worked on the koi pond. It is very generous to call it that since it is only a muddy hole in out patio so far. I put a border around the edge of the concrete and sealed it to attempt to keep out some of the water that accumulates there every time it rains.

I will need the wooden edge at some time so now seemed like a good time to try it. We should be able to test it this week as a rain water barrier. If it is not effective as I built it, I will start over with another design.  Keeping undesired water out will become paramount once we have the pond setup so it is something I need to get done before I go much further anyway. For me it was a fun project.

Victoria spent all day Friday and Saturday in bed. Yesterday she was out of the bed for some longer periods of time but never more than an hour. Today she is headed to work but she is still not feeling well; the usual bronchitis and accompanying cough.

On Sunday afternoon the guy who leases the large acreage just to our east stopped by to ask to see the Ranger pickup. We had talked about him buying it a couple weeks ago, settled on a fair price and yesterday he wrote me a check for the negotiated price. It will be nice to see it get fixed up and used even though it was not worth it to me to do the work.

We will use the money to help buy some calves.