Clouds, rain, and a nice day anyhow

Klipsun Trail near Barkley Village

 No skydiving today. It's an overcast day with rain falling during most of the previous night. I woke to the sound of rain drumming on the roof, sighed, put on my walking shoes and headed out to Barkley Village to join the Fairhaven walking group at 8:00am. Not many women showed up, maybe a dozen, because of the weather, I guess. But by the time we introduced ourselves around the group and started out, the rain stopped and hasn't returned yet.

Peggy, Diane, Judith, before starting out

Most of the women who showed up this morning I already knew. As you can see from this picture, we were not overly warm when we started walking, but by the time we had navigated more than five miles with lots and lots of ups and downs, we were very warm. After a few minutes, almost everyone had their jackets tied around their waists, instead of wearing them. I had chosen my own layers carefully and was comfortable the entire time. As I've said before, the brisk pace gives me quite a workout, since I never walk this fast with any other group. We kept up a 3.8-mph average, even with around 700 feet of elevation gain and loss.

My plot on the left, Nate's on the right

After a quick lunch, I headed out to the garden to weed my little patch, and I worked with the hoe to get that green section between our plots looking a little less healthy. I also have two more plants, nasturtiums, to get in there soon, but I ran out of steam before I finished. Nate has constructed a very neat mesh lattice out of twine to give his snap peas something to climb up on. I put poles in mine, since I don't have anywhere near as many as he does.

Compost bin and containers filled with composted horse manure

Yesterday Clint put out a call to the community gardeners to help with the compost bin. I've been putting in my kitchen scraps, along with many others, and apparently there needs to be a balance between "green" and "brown" materials: green being stuff rich in nitrogen; brown, rich in carbon. He asked if anyone might be going by a nearby horse farm; if so, would we pick up a couple bins of composted horse manure, and I volunteered.

I drove out to the stables and found the pile, along with the promised pitchfork, filled those two black bins and brought them back to the garden. There was nobody around at the stables, but two ducks guarded the place, putting themselves right in the middle of the road leading to the pile. I tried honking the horn (no luck) and finally put the car in neutral and tried to shoo them out of the way. Of course the drake was having none of it and came at me, quacking menacingly and flapping his wings. I ran away, screaming. By the time he had driven me away, he got his mate and went off somewhere, proud of himself. I sneaked back to the car and got the manure and made a quick getaway.

There's a lot more to organic gardening for me to learn, but next time I head out to the stables, I'm wearing some high-topped boots!
:-)