July 2024 Trip II – Day 1

This quick trip is all about getting irrigation properly installed in my dad’s garden after the garden hose break/dry well debacle. Today went like this:

• After getting Stella up and running my first order of operations was to check on the trees. Both apples are dead. Not due to lack of water, but voles. Not only had the voles stripped the bark from low on their little trucks, but they ate all the roots from the trees as well 🤬. While the filbert and persimmon have some bark nibbles, they seem otherwise ok. Like, I can’t just pick them up out of the soil… AKA they have a root system.
• I removed the existing irrigation, hoses, and timer, and then mowed with the Husky. Next was using the weed eater (my favorite – NOT) along the fence edges. The idea here is to remove the grass that voles call home. They tunnel around in the grass. I’ll be laying down heavy duty landscape cloth around the remaining trees after removing all grass in a prescribed diameter. I confess, without regret, to smacking a vole with the center of the weed whacker (they are slow moving creatures), doing it in, and later flinging it over the fence with the rake for the ravens or foxes. After running the weed eater out of line I,
• Raked around the edges of the garden to see just how much more grass remediation (a word I use a lot around here) needs doing. I think I can use the push mower to chomp down the rest of the grass around the still heavy edges. I also think I’m going to remove my dad’s raspberry trellis setup. I’ll keep the wire, and leave the T-posts in place, but the wooden parts are all crumbling, no one is growing raspberries, and it’s a pain in the butt to clean up to the fence line with the sagging superstructure in the way.
• My cousin Sharon called. It was a nice break, though she told me my uncle, my mom’s brother, has had to move from assisted living with his wife, to memory care. My uncle called Sharon’s brother saying he couldn’t find his wife. He was confused and upset. Sharon’s brother coached my uncle to give his phone to a care staff provider who was able to let Fred know what was going on. I’m a little surprised that my uncle’s wife, or their son didn’t let us know about this change in status. I’ll reach out to my cousin tomorrow. I am saddened by this, and not surprised.
• By this time it was 4:30, raining again, and I was in need of, ah, grass remediation myself.
• After waiting just long enough for the hot water to create a backlog , I relieved myself of the grass that shaking me and all my clothes did not, paused to hose down a weird paper wasp nest at ground level that will be in my way tomorrow, with anti-wasp spray, and then went to Tim’s for dinner. We had a great visit, and a tasty dinner. He’s getting better at letting me cook 😏. Not that he can’t, but that his mobility makes it challenging. He still won’t let me do the dishes!