Sorry, Jillian!

Thursday: yesterday.  Fire ants in the compost.  Assmbling the cursed upside down tomato tower.  I thought it might be a little easier if I broke my day off and today into 2 separate posts. 

It was our day off, so I slept in until 7:30.  Mom used to say I was an early riser; I think I'm reverting.  I did some cleaning but found myself distracted by the "Stargate Universe" marathon.  I had not seen most of last season. 

So, I did all kinds of cleaning and organizing during the commercial breaks.  About a week ago, I had taken the Tomato Tower out of the garage. 

When I'm manic, I feel like I can do anything, and assembly doesn't scare me.  Hey, if I can assemble a treadmill and manage my Vendo Bottled vending machine, I can do about anything!   With God's help! 

I had taken all the parts out and put them on the couch... but got stuck at step 2.  The manual illustrates each step.  Step 2 is helpfully illustrated on the BACK of the manual!  AGH.  It took me about an episode and a half of SGU to figure out step 2.  Once I got that, I had it.  Except for Step 3.  Which involved a fair amount of cursing.  Sorry, Jillian. 

I finally got the thing assembled.  I hung the empty bag on it and showed it to Ron.  He was impressed. 

The marathon wound to an end.  I am curious to see how they end things with the Ursini aliens (last 10 episodes start Monday). 

I took it out back (during a commercial) and watered my in-ground plants.  My Barbados cherry is flouishing, in the pot, in the side yard.  It is doing so well I'm going to plant it inground, in the new garden bed I dug.  It will eventually hog up the whole bed but I'm OK with that.  It even has nice pink flowers and edible fruit (very high in Vitamin C!)

My beans have all sprouted, and look great.  I need to mow the "grass" this weekend.  "Grass" being assorted springtime weeds and regenerating wild raspberry canes.  The trick is to keep it short while it's tame-able. 

I discuss the tomato planter with Ron.  Does he want to participate in each step?  Or does he want a turnkey "Water only" operation?  He chose the latter. 

Since tomatoes and cucumbers (his choice) are heavy feeders, I mixed a lot of compost into the potting soi.  I also added moisture-holding crystals to the mixture, and some peat moss.  Yes, I know peat moss is not really "sustainable" but it works for me. 

When I dig in the compost pile, I shove all the top, partially decomposed matter aside to expose the "good stuff".  Then I use my hands to dig out the required amount, throwing the disgusting June bug beetle grubs into the lawn.  I also encountered a really scary, long, multilegged thing that was happily dead.  I'm used to the lizards and all. 

However, the firey tingle in my hands was QUITE familiar.  Curse it!  (Sorry Jillian)  Ow, ow ow.  Run for the hose.  Hose them off.  One fell on my foot, and in a very bitey mood.  Ow ow ow. 

It's a remarkably similar sensation: fire ant bites, or hives.   At least for me.  Finally got rid of them.  Brought home some used coffee grounds from work to run them out of the tomato planter. 

I decided to quit, and come inside.  I did my God Time, ate, and went to bed.