Mulching, mulching, rain rain...

Sole purpose at this point is to mulch the gardens!  The weeds are coming up strong and fast and if I cant keep them under control I will be in big trouble!

Snake-a-geddon!

I worked on clearing out the red barn of the remaining hay and straw (and boards, and firewood).  Scarey work, since its snake season!  Here is a pic of one of the two big blacksnakes i encountered this weekend:

No poisonous snakes spotted this weekend! YAY!

Radiator Leaks

I did discover that the tractor radiator does in fact still leak.  The stick actually did puncture the coils. I am researching replacing it - early info hints at about $400-$500 for replacement cost, not counting labor.  I am looking to do it myself - I want to make sure I know how to do all of this stuff in case of unavailability of help!  I think I will keep the old radiator and try to patch it via weld... we shall see!

Mulching

Well, to continue with the mulching story.  I replaced the spindle that broke on the Husqvarna riding mower.  It went much smoother then I expected.  The air-impact wrench was very handy.  I am so glad I got that,  Having said that, it is very important to remember that there are situations where you MUST NOT use an impact wrench.  For instance, bolting the spindle to the mower deck - I was careful to set the impact wrench to its lowest setting and stop it when the bolt came close to tight.  I got the mower deck back on and then hooked up the cyclone rake to the mower.  

I took the mower-rake over to the red barn and ran it over some of the hay/straw I had taken out of the barn.  The mower/rake combo did as I hoped - it ground the straw up and in a sense "cleaned" it!  The dust and mold were thrown airborne and just the straw (cut up into more manageable pieces) was saved in the bag.  This stuff was perfect for putting on the garden.  I ran the mulch down to the garden and mulched a little around the front end of the garden.  Then I tried grinding up the straw that I had out in the weather next to the garden.  It was a bit damp, but using a fork to take it and spread it around on the ground before mowing over it made it workable.  I started mulching the beans and corn - focusing on the weedy area first.  I did manage to get the beans covered and part of a couple rows of the corn done before the rain started.  See the pictures below.

The Rain

OMG, the rain came down HARD and FAST.   A second storm came through a bit later and snuck up on me - so quiet and serene rainy day then BAMM!!!  Lightning strike that sounded like right on top of me!  Whew.  Here are some pics of the garden after the first wave of rain:

The two rows of beans are mulched, but the rain chased me out before I could get the corn done!  See the weedy section on the right about midway?

Water is standing there now - I hope that I can get in to mulch more next weekend.  The weeds don't stop growing when its wet!

I got a little mulch down in the front around a squash and some of the eggplants and tomatoes.  Lots to do yet!

The rain really came down later that day.  Here are some pics and videos:

This is the ditch I have been trying to dig to put the drainage tile in for the house.  Its been too wet to dig it out since last fall!  Well, there were some times that I could have been digging, but I was mowing or putting in the garden those times!

Here are some videos of the rain:

Grape Trellis Progress

Oh, I almost forgot!  I got the tops on the grape trellis and the lower high tensile wires on!  I still need to paint the whole thing with copper naphthlate paint and put up the rest of the wire, but I am safe for a while!  I tied a couple vines to train them to the wires.  I need to start paying more attention to the grapes - evidently you do have to trim them as they grow the first couple seasons.