Weeding

This morning I moved my chicken run to a fresh stretch of grass. I weeded the garden. I know that if I can keep up the weekly weeding through June, I've pretty much got the weeding licked for the growing season. The chickens had the full run of the yard. While Phyllis, Meredith and Pamela stayed out, Kelly joined me in the garden. Kelly gobbled up the angleworms who were lying on top of the soil trying to get some oxygen like so much brown pasta. You know how when you eat long spaghetti you might have to suck at the pasta to get it into your mouth? That is what Kelly was doing with the worms. While she was eating, I was hoeing. I have a hoeing difficulty scale. Hoeing before planting is the easiest. You can indiscriminately grab at the soil and turn it up without worry or care. Hoeing before all the seeds have sprouted is delicate work. You don't want to accidentally hoe up some seedling. Hoeing when all the plants are up and identifiable is not as hard. But hoeing at the end of the season is also difficult because the pumpkin vines have run and live plants just get in your way. Today, while hoeing, a gnat decided to get up close and personal. It flew right into my eyeball and stayed there. I tried to blink it out. My hands were all sandy so I couldn't rub it out. A small gnat can be quite painful when you try to rotate your eyeball around. Eventually I had to go into the car and look at the rear view mirror to get it out. Most of the sweet corn is up. The peas, sunflowers, lettuce, spinach, pumpkin, and squash are all up. The carrots are not up yet. The stiff necked garlic is doing much better than the garlic I bought at the grocery store. My walla walla onions are looking good. 15/16 tomato plants survived the deadly cutworm. Those newspaper collars I put on the tomatoes really help keep the cutworm at bay. All four green peppers are growning but one of the jalapenos doesn't look like it will survive. The Brussel sprouts are looking really good after all this rain. My resident hawk flew overhead again while I worked. I think it's a sharpshinned but I'm not entirely sure. The female bluebird flew in and out of the bluebird nest. A tree wren fluttered nearby in the tall grasses. A chipping sparrow hopped around in the mowed area. Mourning doves were talking. A pair of cardinals flew to the deck to take a bath. Chickadees flitted around in the crab apple trees. Today was a good morning to be outside. If it was any sunnier, I would have wanted to ride the motorcycle instead of weed.