Spring Training

Sylvrfalcn

Sylvrfalcn

Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
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My friend, who owns the property on which our archery range is located, has a small problem. Adjacent to the range is a small pond (more like a hole in the ground, as it actually doesn't keep water in it) that has a tendency to overflow and flood the archery range during heavy rains. On the south end of the "pond" is an earthwork dam that has no spillway, etc., to accomodate the overflow. So, the decision was made to install a culvert pipe through the dam. However, lacking the funds to have a construction company bring in a backhoe, that's about as far as it's gotten. Until now. Going fishing the other day must have awoken the dormant country boy in me, because now I have a powerful craving to plant tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, et cetera, and have some fresh homegrown stuff on the table to go with the fish, squirrels, rabbits, and such that come out of the skillet/stew pot.
I told my friend that if he would be so kind as to allow me to plant a small "herb garden" on his property, I would make his flooding problem go away. Got started last week, and five days of hand digging 3-4 hours a day has yielded a ditch 27 foot long, by 4 foot wide, by 4 foot deep. Big enough, but still not deep enough (needs to be 6 1/2 feet deep), but no worries, the culvert pipe doesn't arrive until next Friday, and I'll be ready for it. :D
Retired life was making me soft and lazy, and I don't like that, but swinging a pick and shovel in that kolichi clay is sure helping me get back on track. My calluses are coming back, my muscles are coming back, and it would seem my spirit is coming back. Hard work, fresh air, earth below and sky above, bees buzzing, birds singing, snakes slithering, rabbits hopping. It is good. My seeds are all planted, and soon the young sprouts will burst forth in a cycle as old as time itself. Welcome springtime, pics to come. ;)

Sarge
 
"I'm in the Army now, I'm not behind a plow, I'm digging a ditch, I'll never get rich, I'm in the Army now".






munk
 
NOW you see why most victims are "found in a shallow grave."

That digging stuff is hard work.

wacherlowerback.

Kind of a refreshing post for some reason. Dunno why.
 
With you there, Sarge.

Can't wait to plant this year- peppers, chives, lemongrass- stuff that's easy to grow and useful when cooking. It's on my mind. Later this year we'll be posting pix of peppers instead of knives, I hope. Have a grow-off.

(don't anybody even go there- posting pix of pickled peppers :foot: )

I like to see winter come- I like to see winter go, too.


Mike
 
We're still covered in snow up here and likely to stay that way for about a month. Sort of funny to hear about you digging away and thinking about planting a garden.

Still, nothing beats getting outside and getting some work done.
 
Got done reading that and I smiled, feeling a little jealous. Nothing like doing things like that; doing Real things. You get done, and you say, "I did that, and it has yielded real results." Life is good.

Chris
 
Sounds like good medicine to me, Sarge.:):thumbup: For all my time spent on the ball field, in the classroom, and on the campus quad, none of it has yielded as much personal wisdom as my time spent behind a shovle and pick axe. I' was a ditch digger plenty of times for my father every summer from the time I was 12 until I was 22. I've felt the sun scorch and stretch my skin tight. I've felt the burn of shoulders and arms and back as muscles scream out and you tell yourself, "Just 4 more feet to go". I learned the value of a buck with work roughed hands. I learned to take pride in what I did. At the end of a day many a man has accomplished nothing more than shuffling one piles of papers to the other side of his desk and he is thought great. At the end of my day I left a phyiscal mark on Mother Earth. I had changed the landscape. I had given the ground a tattoo and was maybe 20 dollars richer.
The most important lesson I learned behind my shovel is that I didn't want to be there forever. Now, softer and tannless I sometimes miss my time outdoors. I miss coming home and never having to have the question asked, "How was your day?" It was obvious. Dirt under my nails, a slack tired face, dark circles painting my eyes, and the earthy-salty smell of the common clay. I was beat to death, but happy about it. It was a great time in my life. Spring training indeed;):thumbup:

Jake
 
Blow it in place, Sarge hehehehe
:p :D

Might be easier to back fill it after blowin' it (with explosives, you pervs)
than to dig/tunnel.

DaddyDett
 
Ad Astra said:
I like to see winter come- I like to see winter go, too.

Mike
Click to expand...

During this time of the year here in Oklahoma things are often unsettled and uncertain when it comes to the weather.
From all apearances Spring has Sprung and is busting out all over!!!!
The Crocuses have been out and blooming for quite some time. The Daffodils are all blooming thier little heads off, Tulips are up and getting ready to bloom and the Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom as well.
And we had a 93* day last week. It is 56* today and we had some much needed rain last night with the promise of more. It's supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow.
The helluvit is that nothing is safe here until at least Easter. I'm just waiting until all the peaches down in Porter, not far from here, are all in full bloom and we get a super freeze that will kill most of the crop again this year.:( :grumpy:
Oklahoma is in sort of a no man's land.
The old man used to say that Oklahoma was fine for women and cats but was hell on men and dogs.
There are times when I think he was right and it's usually in the spring.
But the adverse weather builds a strong people and they are still here and still farming.
Some old friends in Montana says it hasn't rained much there this year and then I heard that Mesa hasn't had any rain in over a 100 and some odd days.
This is one year that I'm really glad for such an early spring and I'm really looking forward to when all of the cold weather is over!!!!:thumbup: :cool:
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Sounds like good medicine to me, Sarge.:) :thumbup:

I miss coming home and never having to have the question asked, "How was your day?" It was obvious. Dirt under my nails, a slack tired face, dark circles painting my eyes, and the earthy-salty smell of the common clay.

I was beat to death, but happy about it. It was a great time in my life. Spring training indeed;) :thumbup:

Jake
Click to expand...

Yup!!!!:thumbup: :cool: :D
And there's nothing like digging in the fresh dirt every spring and finding your first angleworm!
And especially if you found it on purpose as in digging worms to go fishing!:thumbup: ;) :D
 
Hey, if you any of you guys need seeds (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, various herbs, ...) let me know. I always let part of the crop go to seed, and I never spray anything.
 
I love planting a garden. Got it from grandparents on both sides. My parents, however, were never interested so I did it myself when I was a kid. They always loved the greenbeans, tomatoes, squash and bell peppers I got out of it. I enjoyed it. Last year my wife needed me to get the daughter out of the house for a while, so we planted one together. She mostly supervised. It was neat to watch her eyes light up when she picked the first tomato. Kids are neat.

That's a hell of a dig sarge. Did my share as a bricklayer laying paving stones in driveways. I like hard work. Maybe thats why my job seems foreign to me.;) Maybe its the Chinaman I work for?
 
Heh.....

Here in another month or so I get to start "planting" natural gas lines for 80 hours or so a week until the ground freezes again.


Any of y'all want some fresh air and exercise, I'd be glad to letcha fill in for me on the weekends...I get to keep the paycheck of course.....:D

That is one of the few things I miss down South, was the garden veggies. Gotta take a second mortgage out on yer home to make a salad in the winter up here...
 
Sarge, I suspect that your separation from the Service is as inwardly traumatic as the loss of a loved one, divorce, or losing your job. Nothing like hard physical work to calm the mind. Good on ya bud.

Steve

Oh, by the way 4'X4'x27' = 432 cubic feet of dirt

At an average weight of 90 pounds per cubic foot, that's

38,880 pounds!
 
Oh...by the way, start thinking of fencing, sub-soil to taller than you'd think fencing. Domesticated vegetables are astonishingly attractive to wildlife.

Spring? Dunno. the recent weather makes me skeptical that any season will stay more than a few days.
 
Hi Sarge:

I watched the news after hurricane Katrina. I learned that if you would wait digging that trench through the levy until a storm hits, the government will blow it up.
 
Steve Poll said:
Hi Sarge:

I watched the news after hurricane Katrina. I learned that if you would wait digging that trench through the levy until a storm hits, the government will blow it up.
Click to expand...


I thought Oprah Winfrey blew up those levies.;) :D
 
aproy1101 said:
I thought Oprah Winfrey blew up those levies.;) :D
Click to expand...

Ah yes. I bow to your knowledge of levy blowing town flooding skulldugery! I forgot to throw in subversive plots!
 
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