I've gotten to spend time with my sister's kids: they spent Friday morning here and then i took them to a mead festival to watch the knights, eat the crazy giant turkey legs (or, nibble at the outside of said legs), and visit the vendors. That was a pleasure, except for the damp enveloping heat. We came back to my home for desert and sodas before promptly returning them to my sister.
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Monday morning: I actually stepped outside yesterday morning and it felt nice. We sat on the porch a bit and then i started some yard work and kept going for hours. There was digging, placing logs for the raised bed, weeding the edge of the logs on the "lawn" side of the logs so that only moss remained, and piling up of stuff to create a beginning of a hugelkultur bed. That's a raised bed that begins with a core of hardwood. We have hardwood! What we don't have is piles and piles of rotted compost or manure or any of the stuff layered on top of the logs. I have a start with sticks, branches, and a large chunk of a tree trunk that is part of the legacy from the previous owners. Some of their legacy manure went into that along with some stuff from the compost pile, then a thick pile of weeds -- it was pretty easy to get a great deal of green matter -- then the "turf," also known as chunks of red clay with grass. Later i went out and covered that with news paper. Eventually it will all silt into the gaps of the wood, but i think with out the paper one good downpour would wash it all away.
This is also posted at http://elainegrey.dreamwidth.org/616521.html .