Cheap Shade is Cool!

The sun is wickedly hot,
even early in the morning.

I'll confess to being quite frugal at times. Since I spend so much time on the tractor in the summer, the relentless heat has caused me to investigate air-conditioned tractor cabs which means I was investigating new tractors. All it took was a quick Google search to collapse from a severe case of sticker shock. Tractors are expensive! So, no new tractor for me.

Wrap the Gear Straps around the
uprights on the ROPS, and snap
the hooks onto the u-bolt.

Next I looked for the hard canopies (the ones that attach to the ROPS), and suffered more sticker shock. So I returned to a prior idea: a large umbrella. I had tried a golf umbrella in previous years, but they were not sturdy enough. I dug even deeper into the idea bag and found my old faithful, years-ago-Christmas-present "Sportbrella." It's a large, deep umbrella that's very, very sturdy. I had quit using it before because I could not attach it securely to the roll cage but still be able to detach it after every use (tall tractor/short tractor shed door). A chance purchase at Northern Tool solved my problems.

Wrap a Gear Strap around the top bar, then snap the
hooks into the u-bolt.

Use an elastic cord to
keep it from spinning.

They call them Gear Straps, basically, hook-and-loop straps with a twistable snap hook. The snap hooks were too small to go around the umbrella shaft, so I found some u-bolts that fit loosely around the umbrella that I could snap onto. The result keeps me in the shade, and gives me at least a couple of additional work hours. That's really important when the heat index is 110+.

It's a small thing, I know, but I enjoy working these things out. What about you? How are you being frugal?

Nancy

Laying the Groundwork for Garden Beds

Trees, trees, beautiful, leafy trees!

What a gorgeous day!  Abundant sunshine, temperatures in the low 50s, a perfect, perfect day for working outside.  Most of the leaves have fallen, and my father-in-law has been kind enough to pile his excess (after he mulches his garden) for me.  The early morning was a bit too crisp so I cooked early, then the Resident Dragon and I bundled up for leaf hauling.

A leaf sweeper makes raking leaves a snap!

Last year's leaf hauling was quite an adventure (see "This Winter, 'Picture' Next Year's Garden") which involved pitching it fork by fork into a trailer (out of which I fell before the day was done).  This year, with help, and twice as many leaves, we utilized the tractor bucket for moving leaves from the ground into the trailer.  Five trailer-loads later, the leaves have supplied the following:

The last trailer load of leaves!

• 12" layer on three 25' garden strips (4' wide)
• 12" layer on two 30' garden strips (4' wide)
• mulched 8 fruit trees in the orchard
• mulched 6 hardwood trees in the yard
• mulched 10 blueberry bushes
• mulched 12 blackberry plants
• mulched 3 muscadine vines

And, there's probably a trailer-load of leaves yet to be swept up.  I see another day of leaf-hauling in my future!

Two passes with the tiller
should begin the composting process.

From left, blueberry bushes, blackberry
trellises, and muscadine trellises

I'm actually excited about the leaves because, as any reader of this blog knows, my dirt just needs help.    Any organic matter would be an improvement.  Last year, I didn't add leaves to the garden until late winter, so I hope to have several months of additional composting time on this year's leaf crop.

It seems sort of absurd to be thinking of next year when this year's garden has barely finished, but next year's garden will be better for this year's effort.

Come to think of it, most of life's good things result from work done well in advance of the good fortune.  Good choices reap long-term benefits.

In gardening or in life, you always benefit from (pun intended) laying the "groundwork."  I can't wait to see what comes up!

What's growing in your garden?

Nancy

Lenten Rose

Lenten Rose