June-ish things

 Summer is nearly upon us - where has the time gone?  I will say, this has been one of the most enjoyable springs as far as weather goes that we've had in a long time.  Only a few days have brought that late summer type heat, the rain hasn't been a constant deluge, and no surprise frosts have hit us.  

I've had to come to terms with my age and physical abilities, which is a nice way of saying I'm too old and fat to accomplish much these days.  My list has been pared down to a few key projects that are hopefully achievable.  Li'l Red tractor is finally fixed, and Reputa tractor's steering is holding up so far.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to move the manure, which has been piling up behind the barn for the last year while equipment was broke down.  My back has been acting up lately, so I decided to go easy and only do manageable loads of manure, which meant loading it into my little tow behind trailer; the new one I bought to replace the rusted out one last summer.  It's easier to unload than a pickup truck load of heavy, wet, manure and shavings.  I loaded it using Li'l Red, and hauled it out to the back of the property with Reputa.  Things were going great...until they weren't.

Around the fourth trip out Reputa started jerking and sputtering, so I shut her down and only then did I notice the trailer was tipped at an angle.  A quick review of the scene revealed a tire had completely come off the axle.  I unloaded the manure and set about reattaching the wheel, discovering the cotter pin that held it in place was missing.  I left the tire on and went around the other side to check the cotter pin on the other wheel...also missing.  What the heck?  Apparently they either spontaneously and simultaneously disintegrated, or there's a cotter pin thief about.  Or...they never had cotter pins.  I shudder at that thought.  At any rate,  I had some pins that served as replacements for the time being and decided to do one last trip before calling it a night.  I loaded the trailer, headed away from the manure pile, and suddenly Reputa started jerking and sputtering again.  This time, one of the tires had split wide open, so that was the end of that.  I noted the size of the tires and ordered some solid replacement wheels from Amazon.  There was some issue changing out the bearings, but thankfully my neighbor is a mechanic with all of the tools, so he was able to replace the bearings with the correct sized ones (the wheels come with 2 sizes), and I was back in business.  I've only hauled one load with the solid tires, but I am happy with them.  I replaced the bicycle tires on my manure cart with solid ones, and I don't know how I lived without them.  No more flats!

While I was waiting on tires, I had a look at my cottage gardens.  Last year I planted perennials into the grassy areas in front of the hillside garden.  I love seeing grasses in with plants, so I thought this would be a picturesque little garden.  Boy, was I wrong.  The grass, which was mostly crabgrass, quickly overtook the beds and was pretty much smothering the plants.

I pulled up some of the edging from around the wildflower garden out back; because it's over the leach field, it doesn't really freeze in the winter and warm/cold cycles keep pushing plants and landscape pins out of the ground.  I'm tired of having to re-pound the pins each spring, so away it goes.

Once I had the edges marked, I started pulling what weeds I could, and cutting back seed heads.  I laid newspaper over the grass areas and mulched heavily with bark mulch. 

It took me about a day to do each bed, carefully winding newspaper around the plants and making sure I was pulling as many weeds away from them as possible.

Now I have places to plant my other perennials, and the plants I grew from seed this winter.  After this, I need to do the same to the hot borders in front of the barn.

No rest for the wicked, I guess.