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Location: Clearwater, South Carolina, United States

Sunday, October 19, 2008

turnips

Wednesday morning arrived a little later than usual – at least for me – but I finally managed to drag out and start my day in the usual ways. It was about noon when I went outside and my intentions were to crank the tiller and till up at least one garden bed and plant turnip greens therein.

When I got the tiller out, it did not seem to get the idea that it was supposed to crank when I pulled on the start rope. After enough pulls to start wearing on the arm a bit, I decided that I had best go beneath the surface to see what was wrong. I took off and checked the air cleaner, then took out the spark plug and they were both OK and I was getting spark – this told me that it was not getting gas.

When a machine runs on gas and it does not get gas, deductive reasoning tells me that it won’t run and that was exactly what it was doing – not running. After taking the gas hose loose, I blew out the carburetor, put it all back together and it cranked on the first pull of the rope – possibly had a bit of congealed fuel. It was one happy gardener that putt-putted out and tilled up the garden bed.

Then the seed was taken out of the freezer and I planted a row of turnips about 25 feet long. I always leave my leftover seed in the freezer and when I take it out for planting, the seed concludes that it was just a long winter. I have kept some seeds for several years and they still came up.

I finished hoeing out another bed that I had de-brambled and then took the tiller down to the future storage-building site. The site had parts so hard that it was difficult to level off – several passes of the tiller softened the soil considerably. Going back up to the garden, I got tiller happy and tilled up the bed that I had just hoed out as well as making a couple of passes at the bottom of the beds.

Then I took my shovel back down to the building site and tossed dirt around from the high side to the low side. The site still has to be raked out and fine tuned but that was about the time I ran out of steam, put my tools and tiller up and came in the house. It was also about then that I remembered that I had run right past lunch, which very well explained the lack of energy that overtook me.

Time just flies when a person is having fun and while this may not sound like fun to a lot of folks, it was to me. I ate, rested a while and just as the sun was going down I went for my evening walk, a somewhat tiring and yet invigorating venture. I feel blessed to have a garden, yard and tools to work with – but better still is having the strength and stamina to use them. Yes, God is good, all the time. ec

3 Comments:

Blogger Brenda said...

Sounds like work to me. :-)
James planted a variety of greens a few weeks ago so we've been eating those. He said yesterday that the turnips will be large enough in a few days.

10/20/2008 07:38:00 AM  
Blogger Merle said...

Hi Mr. Eddie ~~ have just read afew of your posts I have missed. I hope you are feeling really well again. It is great you are able to do your garden. I hope you don't have to erect the Storage shed?
You were lucky with the battery going when it did. And you have been busy with pears as well. Glad you liked my flowers
there are some nice colors. Look after yourself, and take good care, Regards, Merle.

10/20/2008 08:40:00 AM  
Blogger mreddie said...

brenda - I noticed today that the turnips plants were just starting to break through the ground. Should have planted them a little earlier but they will do fine.

merle - I will be doing our storage shed, with the help of my brother, son-in-law and who ever else I can trick into it. :) As you can tell I'm doing much better. ec

10/21/2008 12:04:00 AM  

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