The raise bed, the hidden hose

I was up early-ish on Saturday to work on the raised bed before Mama and I went on bus calling. In those two hours, I got enough done that I had a high confidence that I could finish the bed that day. When we got home I took a few minutes to get the old freezer from the barn lot – the one the coon got into – and disposed of it at the dump. Then I got back to the raised bed. Within an hour, I was hauling dirt to fill it so Mama could plant the vegetables she and Victoria had bought last week. The dirt was from a pile of manure I had removed from the barn last year. It had decomposed into some very rich soil over the months it sat in the open. Mama was very pleased with the way it worked up. Hopefully her vegetables will like it as well. She planted them as soon as I pronounced it ready. I meant to take some pictures but I worked until after dark getting everything done that I had listed for the weekend chores. On Sunday, I just forgot to go back out with my phone.

 As I was getting done with transferring the dirt to the bed I decided to run the brush hog over some leaves in the middle paddock on my way to the fuel tank to put fuel in the tractor. I should have remembered that we had a hose buried under those leaves but I did not – until the brush hog caught it. By the time I had kicked the PTO out on the tractor, the hose had been pulled from the barn into the blades and the part that ran back to the well house was pulled taunt. There was no way I was going to get it unwound as it sat. In fact, as I explored the extent of the damage I got into an ant bed and was quickly covered by the tiniest ants I have ever seen. I had to get Mama to help get them off my back. Fortunately, they were not the biting kind we often run into.

I disconnected the hose at the nearest coupling, wound it up and put it on the brush hog. Then I wound up the portion of hose that had come from the barn and headed to the house to get it all unwound. I had to drop the brush hog off the tractor, lift it onto its side with the tractor bucked in order to  get started on the chore of getting it all pulled free. It took about an hour to get all the hose off of the shaft. Since I was dealing with two one hundred foot hoses it required some serious reverse weaving to get the loops big enough to loosen their grip on the shaft but the blades had cut the hose in enough places that I was able to use those shorter ends to undo the puzzle. When it was all said and done, I ended up with one undamaged one hundred foot hose and one damaged sixty to seventy foot one that I repaired and put in the garden. I still have to replace the one, but only the one. We need the length to get to the barn until I get the well in the barn lot operational. That is the next task I have to complete; getting the well house built and the well in service.

Now Mama is able to water the garden by herself. That is a big deal since to this point I have been filling five gallon buckets and carrying them to the garden to watering the plants and trees. It was taking me three trips with two buckets of water per trip. Stretching a hose out is much more efficient. Since I accidently cut down the longer hose it worked out perfectly for use in that service. With the raised bed, Mama can plant to her hearts content without being bent over. She long ago quit kneeling down due to the pain she has in her knees. So, this was the best option to keep her gardening passion alive with the orthopedic limitations she is now experiencing.  And it looks decent – even if I do say so myself.

I will take a couple pictures tonight and update this post tomorrow.