Two work parties, as usual, Tuesday and Friday mornings. On the agenda? Tomatoes Tuesday, “three sisters” (corn, beans, squash) Friday. But first:

Notice that Garden Towers are really going to town with lettuces. (Tops were planted only a week ago.)

Daniel and Marita (and puppy Shadow) in the greenhouse, check tomatoes and decide which ones ones get planted in the bed we prepared last Friday.

Evan and Marita planting.

Thursday Community Dinner (with visitor Rich, see this post; he’s the one momentarily near the sliding door to the porch) spotlights Annie, who wanted to wash all the dishes by herself. 

Then, the next morning, at Friday work party, she wanted a nice picture of her, weeding. Okay.

Marita, on the other hand, wanted me to show her about to eat soil off a shovel. Okay.

But then Aya wanted to fake extreme concern over what shall we do with this yellow dock root? Okay!

That root was buried deep within a strangely shaped bed.

We all stood around for at least ten minutes, wondering how to make all parts of the bed available without stepping on the soil. Four keyholes? But that would move a hell of a lot of soil. How about four brick paths, north, south, east, west? Well, okay. Hmmm. . . better set them in a bit, or the person who steps on them is sure to wobble. Okay. However, already, the bricks are beginning to settle in a bit too far. Let’s just say figuring how to best make this bed navigable is a work in progress.

The bed, BTW, is for the three sisters, corn, beans, squash. Here, we’ve already weeded it; Daniel is forking it.

Here’s a few from afar of all the characters in this play. 

Our guest, “Rich from Idaho,” had just left the scene, having decided that the best use for him would be to repair the main gate! YES! Not only that, but he happened to have brought all his tools with him. Here he is, in fake ego mode, about to get started.

“All I need is some wood,” he said. We’ve got plenty of wood! And of course he had his saw with him. 

When he was almost finished he asked if I, or anyone, knew where the other part of the latch had gone. Nobody did. I volunteered to go to the hardware store to get what he needed. “I prefer to figure something out,” he responded, and sauntered into the greenhouse where a bunch of stuff is stored. Chose a single screw of a certain size. Voila. Presto. The repaired gate is now both much stronger —

— and sports a DIY latch. Plus, it will reminds us forever of his brief presence in our lives.

Way to go, Rich! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Okay. Three more photos, all bird-related. First, I went outside this morning and found this cardinal nest with broken egg beside it on the porch. It’s hard not to blame Tiger cat, but who knows! At any rate, I’m going to get a bell to put around his neck.

The nest was up somewhere in the tangled mass of kiwi that serves as a shady roof in the summer here.

Oh wow. Eagle-eye Dan just noticed another mourning dove nest (the other one is still on top of an upside down rake), this one up near where the cardinal nest must have been. See it? Third square over at the top. Here she is, close up. See her? At the bottom of that square.