The weather here in Central Missouri is trying to straighten up, but Mother Nature just can’t seem to get shed of her crabby attitude.
It was *almost* dry enough to get on the garden with the tiller, so of course, we got more rain. And temps in the low 30°s for a little extra slap in the face.
I did manage to cut the grass before it rained, so my yard no longer has the appearance of a goat pasture.
I have green salad coming up in the cold frame.
Brought a load of firewood home from the sawmill yesterday and unloaded it. The older I get the better I like propane.
Taking Mrs. Augie to the woods later today to look for morels.
I’m East Ctrl and was able to till this past week but you know how it is in the Ozarks. I’ve seen my neighbor 6 miles away,(2 miles as the crow flies) get an inch of rain while we got none. We had a few light sprinkles and some fog/mist in the past 24 hrs. I’ll be sowing lettuce, greens and brassica seeds today or tomorrow. Got a couple of 80 degree days coming up so that might help you. I didn’t till very deep. 4 inches max. Deep rooted stuff is going in a spot that’s been cultivated before. I did the double digging thing a few years ago there and I’ve got close to a foot of top soil in my garden area. Rest of the property is rocky and hilly. Took us two years to find a small property with South facing elevation and a pretty flat spot big enough for a decent size garden that wasn’t too far out in the boonies.
Finished my eight corner brace post holes, by hand. I did the actual corner posts and all gate posts last winter so they’re settled and solid. That clay was just a wee bit sticky this past week and one hole had standing water in it. I layered pea sized gravel and dirt when I tamped the posts in.
I still should have a couple of h-braces in the middle of a couple of long runs but it will have to wait. I just won’t tighten up the wires too much. It’s high tensile electric and the only thing it will be keeping in for now will be an LGD and he’s already trained to the same fence in an 80x80 area. When I start bringing goats in, they’ll go in that pen for a few days so they learn the fence. The fence charger I got puts out 7-9,000 volts and when they’re being trained, I’ll only have that pen hooked up. I’ve already taken a reading and it was the full 9,000 volts for the pen. Charger’s rated for 30 miles of wire or 100 acres. I have 2.25 miles of wire around 12 acres. So yeah, I can get away with low tension for a while. Just enough to keep it from sagging. I can tighten the bottom one pretty well. The beauty of the high tensile is that posts can be spaced from 40-100 foot apart depending on terrain. With 3250 foot perimeter, I sure wouldn’t want to be digging or pounding in 300ish posts in this rocky clay.