It is Friday the fifteenth of March; I am cranky and I am way up high upon a ladder.
What am I doing here I am thinking. How did I get here? I got two wrenches in my hands, a stanley knife in my pocket, trying to fix electrical problems, 15 feet up in the air. Well, I had noticed the lights in Joey's weldingshop were not working properly. But that didn't affect me, although her aircompressor, where I steal my hot air from didn't work either, but alas. NO what did affect me was that my 220 volt welder in my part of the shop wasn't working either. So here I was wanting to weld stuff. My whole welding teaching instruction, ever, was: "When you are welding it should sound like bacon cracling in the pan". Well there was no crackle, just the riproaring sound of silence. Now, some things break down the same way year after year, as does the electric. See: a welder uses 220 Volt, it so happens that there are three electric lines going into the shed, one is the ground and then you have one 110 Volt line and another, and that makes together, if you wire it right 220. Every couple of years one of the wires just fries (really I ought to wrap this in electrical insulation tape, but who has time to do it right??) and then you find yourself on the ladder. Oh, I remember, I was wanting to weld a sign for next to the road. I have been wanting to do that for years, but this week, both egg buyers decided that their chickens were starting to kick in and they wouldn't need mine. So, what do you do with 70 dozen eggs a week? Make a big omlet that is for sure. Thus the roadsign, it has a little wooden board on there with the word: eggs. So that is what I was doing on the ladder, trying to sell eggs. If you know someone who likes eggs, send them my way. Started some trays in the greenhouse, even though it has collapsed whimsically in the recent snow storm. Nothing a good stud can't fix. I did purchase some plastic to fix it, but it is too cold to fool with it, besides, it will need some reasonably serious overhauling after 15 years of service and I am not in the fixing mood rightnow. A friend came by, he brought a supreme care package: discount alcohol, cleaning rags, a bucket, a jar of dry roll your own tobacco. Reading this back it kind of belongs together. It was most thoughtful and it all came in handy. Roger helped me get both tractors on the hoof again, so really we are done fixing. Until I moved the lawnmower and the wheel fell off in the driveway. Mandatory fixing. But it is all coming together, like every year, hopes are high, sheds are clean, clothes off the floor and taxes waiting to be filed. Got tomatoes germinating on the heat pad, kind of trippy when it is freezing outside and those hothouse plants are coming through. The tunnel is looking decent, still a lot of spinach, cilantro, lettuce and a bit of bolting arugula. Took one row of cress out to put some sprouting potatoes in from last years' harvest. Just for the heck , hopefully I'll have some new potatoes halfway May when ma is still visiting. Also the half planted to strawberries looks good, if you can find the plants in the watercress weed, what a painful weed that is. Have rented out 6 plots, I think, (album storage is not the same as record keeping Pieter), so that is kind of exciting. Plans for the coming season: sell eggs at home, grow a tunnel full of stuff, flowers, cornmaze, was going to do beez but that will have to wait till next year, maybe some rabits, flowers for the heck and whatever else the mind churns up. So, here you have it, up to date. Got eggs, looking for bacon. ".
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorPieter Los, born in Scotland, raised in the Netherlands, lost in the USA. . Archives
May 2015
Categories |