It took me a while to get going yesterday being fairly well worn out but I got the boys up, fed, and R to school. I spent some time researching old mines and placer areas near me in the morning as I have some adventures I am lining up for us this summer for us. I picked R up from school and got the boys fed their lunch. Finally I got my butt out in the garden and started tilling. The wild thing about my main garden is the number of rocks boulders that keep floating to the surface, or at least just below the surface. I have been working this same soil now for over 10 years and every year I am yarding more boulders from the ground. One would think that since the boulders are heavy that they wouldn't float but that is what it seems like they do.
This is a few of the dozen+ big rocks that got dug out. I ended up having to get my big pry bars and shovels to get them all out. After getting the larger ones out I managed to wedge smaller rocks that had been near them into the tines and had to dislodge them.
After a bit of a break to rest my ever tightening back and neck muscles I had done a pass with the tiller as J was riding his bike around. I saw his mouth moving but the tiller was too loud. I kept going a bit then looked up to see him with something on the ground. I shut the tiller off and walked over to find this little bird on the ground. It didn't look to good when I picked it up. One eye was shut and the other had a white milky look to it. The d=bird tried to fly but was all screwed up.
J wanted to try and help it so he got a box and some paper towels to set it on. I knew what was the eventual outcome by the way the bird moved. It had flopped a bit and then it craned its head and neck back to its back and flayed it wings. THAT is the death throws of a bird. When they crane their necks back super far like it did, the chickens have done the same when dying. The boys were sad that it died but that is a lesson in life, we are not able to save everything and nature will take its course.
I have no clue what happened to it, maybe the cat, another bird, it ate something bad for it? I don't know but we found it only about 20 minutes before it died and at least it was a bit more comfortable when it did go.
Shortly after the bird I was back tilling and bounced the tines off something big. Once I had it dug out the boulder was big, about a cubic foot big. Seriously, how do these things float up in the soil? I have tilled this exact spot for years and not found the thing until now. At least it is out.
It was 5pm and I had had enough, more so my body had had enough. I got through half the garden and have the other half to finish tilling today. As soon as the tilling and raking is done I lay out the irrigation lines and stake the ends down then I pull the plastic out. Once the plastic is down I start planting and hopefully will be planted within a week. The goal is before the end of the month, just like I managed last year.
I was smart years ago when I was on a muscle relaxer script and had weened myself off them, I still have a bunch leftover and I had kept them stored for long term. They came in SUPER handy as I took one in the evening and then slept all night, this morning my neck and back are WAY less painful than yesterday. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but far better and I have much more mobility in my neck.
Today R has school again, I have to finish tilling the garden, get the irrigation lines laid out, finish the fence so the birds don't get in the garden, and hopefully get plastic pulled out and laid down.
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Gab
I have a theory about that rock problem.