When Married To A Sheetrock Hanger:

This is for all you girls out there who are considering marrying a sheetrock hanger, or a construction worker. These are things that I have learned over the years.

1. They tend to want to unload their tools in the front yard. Which wouldn't be a problem if they would go put them up afterward, but the one that I'M married to, just leaves them where they fall. He does, however, stack them semi-neatly in the front yard, which I guess I should be thankful for.
2. If there is a chance that it might rain, then the tools are unloaded onto the front porch. Even though they are under cover, it still makes the appearance of our place look so junky and unloved. I regularly go out and clean the porches off, but the minute I get them looking good, they get junked back up again. And some of these tools are danged heavy, and it's hard to put them up.
3. We went to the expense of buying and building a shed to store all the tools in, but the shed is too far away from the front of the house, ( probably about 50 feet or so), so it is too much trouble to put them where they belong. I understand that he's tired; I have learned the hard way that getting older means you can't do the things that you used to be able to do. Simple things like walking and lifting, are much harder to do when you're tired or you have degenerative disks in your back, and a hurt shoulder that you can't get fixed because you can't be off work for the time that it takes to heal. Because:
4. When you are in construction (self employed), you do not have medical benefits. If you get them privately, you pay big time cash every month, as well as a huge deductible for every procedure done. When you are self-employed, if you don't work, you don't get paid; so you suck in the pain of whatever ails you, and go to work anyway, and don't get your medical needs taken care of. All that to say, if you are too tired or hurting too bad to walk 50 feet to put your tools up, then your front yard is continually going to look like a yard sale or a construction zone. We'd never make it in a gated community, that's for sure.
5. And if you DO manage to get him to put his tools in the shed where they belong; he stands at the door, and tosses, and where ever they land is where they stay. It doesn't take long for floor space to run out in a 16X16' shed. (I regularly used to try to clean the shed too, but the minute I do.............
6. Sheetrock dust follows them around in a cloud, especially in the summertime. Sheetrock hangers look like PigPen off of Peanuts cartoons, only the dust is powdery white instead of dark. And when it's time to wash their clothes, the combination of dust and sweat makes a kind of white mud that is yukky indeed to have to pick up to put in the washer.
But, on the other hand:
1. Sheetrock hangers get up very early in the morning to go out into all kinds of weather to earn their living, and provide for their families. (all of them are not so good at this, but the one that I'M married to is).
2. He works when his shoulder is hurting so bad that he cannot lift his arms above his head, because he cannot afford to take off for the six months that it would take to heal if he had the surgery that he needed.
3. He works in the freezing cold in the wintertime, and the burning heat in the summertime to provide for his family.
4. He stresses every Friday about whether or not the people that he worked for this week will pay him what they owe him. If they don't, his workers get paid anyway, but he doesn't. And if he gets ripped off by the builder, then that loss is his.
5. The work is so physical that it is no wonder that he has shoulder and knee problems. As he likes to remind me often: "We're not spring chickens anymore".

There are many other pros and cons, (more cons than pros, let me tell you), about what to expect if you marry a sheetrock hanger, but I have thoroughly depressed myself, and don't want to think about it anymore.
So, bottom line is: these are just a few of the things that you will face, but you have to ask yourself if the hassle of putting up with the aggravations are worth the reassurance of knowing that he will do his best to take care of you and the children that depend on him, and know that he does what he can do, and if you want a clean shed and yard, then either clean them up yourself, or marry a professional man. I guess I'll stay where I'm at, after 30 years, I've 'bout got him broke in, and at times I'M not the easiest in the world to live with either. (sheepish grin)
Besides, if I didn't have junk all in the yard, then I'd be mighty lonely, 'cause he wouldn't be here, and I'll put up with the junk (don't mean I gotta like it), in order to have someone to argue with. Happy Gardening!
P.S. What does this have to do with gardening you say? Why, because I keep my garden tools in the messy shed of course! (All put up neatly, I might add).

Family Pictures

 
 
 
 

The Does And Don'ts of Clearing Garden Debris

This is the way it works: you decide to finally get off your lazy bum-bum, (Frankie and Steven's new word for rear-end, courtesy of two years of living in California), and slog your way out through the (literally) five-foot-high weeds, to clean up the area that is supposed to be called your garden. Now, in the first place, you are not supposed to let your garden get into such a state, and in the second place, you are not supposed to let it go for so long without cleaning up for the winter. (I kill myself, preaching about how to get your garden ready for winter, and then letting mine go so bad). I know! I can blame it on SADD, the seasonal disorder that some people get in the wintertime, when they recieve less sunlight, so it makes them depressed........ Well, it sounded good anyway, sigh...... Ok, ok, I admit, I've let the stupid garden go all to pieces. Well, to the weeds anyway. Can't blame the bugs this time, they are all dead, YIPPEE! Finally got rid of them little suckers, halleujah! 'course, now nothing is growing, (weeds included), but, by golly, them bugs are history baby! Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I feel much better, (MY kind of therapy is cheap, hehehe!)
Back to the subject at hand: to re-cap - I've slogged my way through the five-foot-high weeds, gotten through the guilt-trip, and rejoiced about the absence of bugs........ So, as I studied the situation, (all the tangles of thick, dead weeds), I ultimately decided that the best way to handle the dilemma of getting rid of them from my raised beds, was to burn them off. Now, first of all, when you decide to burn weeds, you 1.Make sure that it is not a windy day. 2.Make sure that you have a water supply handy. 3.Make sure that you are not alone. 4.Make sure that you have cell-phone signal, and 5. Make sure there are no structures or vehicles close to the burning area. The reason that I know what NOT to do is simple: 1.I burned weeds on a windy day. 2.The water supply had been turned off at the pump-house for the winter. 3.I was all alone on a dead-end country road with very few neighbors. 4.The area where I was has always been completely without cell-phone signal, and 5.Steven's junky trailer AND my vehicle were within danger range.
Now, I've said before that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and every lesson that I've learned has always been learned the hard way, so you'd THINK that I would have given this some thought. I probably wouldn't have done it if I had not had a lighter, but lo and behold, I found a lighter in Steven's junky old trailer, just in time to do the dirty deed. Yippee!
So, I went all around, setting lots of little areas on fire, (had to make it burn away faster, don't you know), and before I knew it, all kind of grass was burning. Now, it's hard to have to try to decide to fight the fire by yourself, or call the fire department; if you take the time to call someone, the fire can spread so fast, because of the wind, and if you decide to fight the fire before calling (so you won't be embarrassed about causing such a calamity, because even I'VE got to admit, it was a pretty stupid thing to do), then the stupid thing could get out of hand so quickly.
So, I started raking and stomping, and frantically beating that darn thing out as fast as I could, so I wouldn't have to admit to anyone that I'd made a ton of mistakes; and hoping and praying that I could handle it by myself; when I actually started making head-way, and could actually see being able to put it out without having to call someone. Whew! what a relief! dignity restored. Now, if only the neighbors up on the hill didn't notice anything.
So, in the end, I got the fire put out; hung around for a while afterwards to make sure that no sparks got carried by the wind, and re-set the darn thing, and tried to breath a sigh of relief that the situation got no worse than it did. So, all's well that ends well..........except that...........the stupid weeds in my raised beds didn't burn at all.........they were wet and mushy and did not light up; it was the grass all AROUND the raised beds that caught on fire. Good Grief!

Improving The Soil

I don't know what happened to that last post. It is a collection of my favorite photos, set into a movie. It posted, but, for some reason, I can't get it to play. Oh, sigh.
While Amber and I were in California, I was able to get some baby lily bulbs from Tansy's front yard. She has got some beautiful lily flowers that some military wife planted, before she and Jacob got there. I was totally amazed and awed at the quality of the dirt in Monterey. Here, we have clay, which is good in its own way, (it's good about holding water), but it is absolutely back-breaking to try to dig, plow, or otherwise generally disturb in any way.
When I started digging in Tansy's flower bed, I was totally amazed at how easily the shovel went through the dirt. It was so crumbly, and light; I could have dug a hole to China in just two hours, it was that easy! You can, however, improve the soil where you live, if you are not so fortunate as to live in Monterey, where the soil has the consistency of lumpy flour. (I swear to you, it was that easy to dig). Improving the soil where you live is not a complicated matter. What I did in my garden this year was, when we built the raised beds, we put a mixture of clay dirt, and bagged top soil. At the time that we put the beds in, we had a man out there with his big tractor, clearing off the spot where our new house was to go. I told him while he had his tractor there, and was disturbing the dirt anyway, to take a good truckload of topsoil down to the garden area for me. Topsoil is great for planting in, especially if it has lain fallow for a long time. Forest topsoil is fantastic; all the leaves and pine needles and other forest debris that has decomposed over the years, is just brimming with wonderful nutrients to grow plants in. Topsoil is a lighter color than the subsoil. It is more crumbly, easier to work, with lots of compost and castings in it. So, I don't think that what the guy put in our garden area was exactly top soil. It was just as red as the red clay that was all over the rest of the place. But it was there, and seeing as how I didn't have the money for a dump truck load of compost or topsoil, I figured I'd just have to make the best of the situation. So, we tried to mix equal amounts of dirt and bagged top soil, and compost, (bagged at this point, because I didn't have enough compost made for three, thirty foot-long garden beds.) Filling those beds in was some more kind of hard work, let me tell you. Hauling the dirt to the beds, dumping it all in, and then mixing the dirt and topsoil together. And, I knew that I didn't have enough top soil to do the job correctly, but when you're on a strict budget, you do the best you can do. I was hoping to do what I could this year, and slowly try to improve year after year, which, actually, is basically what all gardeners do. So, we got it mixed the best we could, and planted, and we actually had a pretty good garden. (We are NOT going to talk about critters at this time). My plan this next spring is to shovel some compost on the top of the beds, work it in, and see what happens this next garden season. Now that I've got the bulk of the dirt in the beds, hopefully the rest shouldn't be as hard to do. I've got a fairly decent compost pile; a neighbor has horses, and I helped clean out the stalls so I could take the bedding and "other stuff" for my compost pile. It has gotten kind of soggy, which compost is really not supposed to do, but I figure I can salvage it by shoveling on a layer between now and spring, so it will have a chance to dry out and finish breaking down. (But first, I have to get all the debris from last season out of the way, sigh.......) That's my plan, anyway. Happy gardening.