A Day Of Small Tasks

Yesterday my lower back wasn't bothering me and  my right knee wasn't feeling stiff, so I spent the day doing constant but light work.  Well, I didn't want to stress my back of knee (give them another day of rest).  It was mostly clean-up stuff like collecting broken 6-packs of seedling planting pots, slow-speed kitchen and bathroom cleaning, watering houseplants, gathering up scattered cat toys, etc.  It is good for the body to just stay mildly active sometimes.  

But I did get a few more serious  things taken care of:

1.  One of the more important things was to straight the bent electrical conduit pipes that fit inside the PVC tubes for the frame of my garden enclosure.  That may seem like serious work, but it is more tedious than physically hard.  It is most just getting some leverage.

I stuck one end of the metal conduit (which is thin compared to real iron pipe though not exactly flexible) under the trail hitch of the riding lawn mower and set a cinder block a few feet out.  Mild body weight was enough to bend part of it straighter again.  Then turned the pipe around and did it again.  Repeated that for the 4 bent conduit pipes.  Then moved the cinder block a little further away and did the middle part.  

They aren't perfect, but they are "straight enough".  They are just there to keep the 10' lengths of PVC tube from sagging.  I had to use PVC for the framing because the connections were complex at spots.  PVC has more connection options than electrical metal conduit (like this)...

The image is upside down to show all the connections.  The top one actually is used pointing down to attach a support pole to the ground.  The others hold ceiling poles to support the chicken wire covering the top of the enclosure.  

2.  Then I had to figure out what broken PVC and connecters I needed to replace.  To my relief, I only need 3 straight-line connectors and some new PVC cement and 3' of straight PVC tube.  The parts broke at angles that can be cemented back into place.  

Then I can roll the chicken wire back over the top and sides.  Actually, that will be harder than it sounds.  First, vines have grown up the sides and connected in fallen chicken wire and they all need to bu pruned away a few inches at a time.  I've done some of it, but it is slow work and I'll leave that for next week.

Second, part of the reason the top chicken wire collapsed was that the stuff is 4' wide, so there are 5 strips of it over the tops and sides.  I had clips holding them together, but they were weak.  They really need to be "sewn" together with aluminum wire.  I didn't do that when I built the enclosure and meant to every year after.  This time I will.

3.  I've been cutting apart old overgrown shrubs along the fence where I have a long 50' straight flowerbed of perennials and The Mews Memorial Garden.  I don't do too much at a time.  It takes a lot of twisting and bending, and too much of that causes muscle cramps and stiffness.  But I have the trailer stacked about as high as I can safely tie down, so I will be off to the County Recycling Center some Saturday soon.  

They pile up yard debris to make mulch/compost.  If I go on a Saturday, I can get the trailer loaded with it for free, and I have plenty of places to use it.  I could go there any Saturday, but I feel slightly guilty if I'm not providing fresh material.  LOL!

4.  Planted 2 cherry tomatoes in a large pot on the deck.  Well, 2 grew in one small pot, so rather than damage their roots separating them, I just planted them as one.  They are draped over the lower rails.  To ease the bending, I stuck foam tubing on the rail boards. The stuff is actually insulation for putting around hot water pipes to reduce heat loss, but I have a talent for "repurposing" leftover stuff.  I try to help my plants as much as possible!

5.  My meadow bed has wild grass growing in it, which competes with the flowers.  Since I went to a lot of effort to plan 40 seedling and transplanted 8 existing Black-eyed Susans there a couple weeks ago (and they seem to be getting established - at least none have died), I wanted to think of a way to help them a bit.  Well, I collect a lot of thin cardboard from cat food trays from the stores.  So I cut them into 10" squares.  I'll cut a 2" hole in the center and a slot to one edge.  Then I'll slip them around the seedlings to smother weeds/grass.

6.  Mowed the daffodil bed.  In previous years, weeds and grass grew over the Summer.  I've tried covering the area with black plastic sheeting for several years (after the daffs died back), but it collected rainwater and mosquitos bred there so I kept having to poke holes for drainage.  It finally got too brittle from U/V rays and ripped apart.  This time, I'll cover it with black water-permeable fabric.  It is more U/V resistant and lets water sink through.  But that's for "next week" too.

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After that, it was making dinner, watching The January 6th Insurrection House Committee Report summary/analysis on MSNBC, and processing some pics off the camera.