Weekly Update: 5.24.25
I poured water around the pepper plants, angling the old watering can so that I didn't splash the leaves. It was a relief to see the plants in the ground -- as weeks of crazy had slowed us down on our garden. As the sun began to set, I soaked in the sight of all our seedlings finally planted. It had been a long day and lots of work, but the effort was more than worth it.
The garden was one of our main projects this week. The seedlings we started in March were officially outgrowing their pots, so it was time to make the garden a priority. We worked in the garden a couple hours each day, breaking ground into rows and planting as we went. Our brother Levi finished up the school year as a substitute teacher this week, so we had his help starting Tuesday. Now that Bonnie-Jean's puppies are bigger, she helped for several hours every day in the garden as well.
On Saturday, our brother Jeremiah took some trellis plans I had sketched and made them into a reality. He used crooked scrap one-by-fours left over from making our interior siding. To make the wood weather-proof, he dipped the lumber in Eco Wood Treatment prior to assembling. He built four trellises the first day, and two more during the week -- providing growing space for our 68 melon plants. Our niece Eilley Mae was his assistant.
For our squash, we strategized how to get them off the ground. Last year, we struggled with mildew. This year, we wanted to create a better situation for moisture. My mom and I both did some research, and we decided to build open-bottom planters for our sqaush -- each with about twelve inches of growing space inside. Using scraps leftover from interior siding and trim, our dad, Levi, and I all built the planters throughout the week. Our sister-in-law Erin dipped the competed boxes in Eco Wood Treatment as well. Thursday afternoon, Grace, Bonnie-Jean, and I placed and filled the boxes. Planting the poor root-bound squash plants into the boxes was one of the high points of my week.
In the bunkhouse, we spent a lot of time working on bathroom components this week. I helped my dad install our corrugated metal -- a project that looked way simpler on the DIY YouTube videos than it actually was. After the metal was installed, we trimmed our cedar planks to fit perfectly between corrugations. My dad specially milled some cedar boards into trim around the shower.
Grace and I sanded and treated all of the cedar with Helmsman spar urethane. We did several coats on the planks before installing them in the tub, and a couple more coats once it was on the wall. We also applied spar urethane to our vanities. When the weather cooperated, Grace worked on painting the rest of the bathroom trim and door with our paint sprayer.
Grace, Levi, and I also finally started on my folks' room. We installed all the blocking one day, then we worked on the siding yesterday. We finished the upper portion and the rake walls first -- getting all those annoying angle cuts out of the way. We hope to make a lot of progress on the rest of the siding this weekend. Bonnie-Jean has been working on the plywood floor planks, sanding them and prepping them for staining.
While most of our time has been focused on the bunkhouse and the garden, Grace and I found a couple hours on Sunday afternoon to make some hard cider using a Cider House Select spiced cider kit. I made one of the kits several years ago, and the cider was delicious. If all goes well, we'll be bottling on Sunday. We hope to bottle both the cider and the Irish red ale we made a couple Sundays ago. We had planned to bottle it last week, but it was still fermenting.
Bonnie-Jean spent a lot of her time caring for her pups. They had their first real bath this week -- which they didn't like very much. They were so fluffy and clean afterwards, they were even more irresistible than usual. They will be ready for new homes in just over a week. We've all gotten attached to them, but they are so ready for their own families.
As the week drew to a close, we planned for another round of rough weather. This year's series of spring storms have been no joke. On Monday, the forecast was downright scary -- with elevated tornado risk. We prepped as best we could, then watched the weather channel for hours as severe weather developed all around us. Thankfully, the only damage we had was a couple toppled trellises -- and surprisingly, none of our plants were harmed. Gardening in particular makes a person look at the weather forecast differently -- assessing how the plants will be affected by rain or a dry spell. When severe weather and hail are called for, it takes faith to not worry about all our efforts being ruined. We have to always remember that we facilitate the garden -- it's God that makes it grow.
