What money can't buy

You'd think with the gorgeous weather that we've been getting that everything would fall into place. Not quite. So what started as a rough work day, ended as beautiful as you would ever want to experience.
We planted the rest of the lettuce and spinach yesterday and got a nice .11" rain this morning. You'd think I had pleased the red Gods. The sun came out and it got warm. No problemo.
Then the wind started. Not just any wind - a south western blow that was warm! Great for hay making, terrible for planting new plants that haven't taken yet. Within a matter of hours, the nice rain we had this morning was gone, turned into dust and with it went the paper mulch experiment. Instead of lying down with the rain, the sun and wind dried it up like a dead leaf and it blew off the row. Dad and I disgustedly took it up and chalked it up to experience. No paper mulch this year - maybe. Anyway, Dad and I have been through enough heartaches to know that's farming and we moved on.
I went back after dinner tonight to finish weeding an established row of spinach and hand water the spinach transplants because they are in a fragile state right now and need as much moisture as possible. We are waiting on an irrigation system from Farm Rite, which was supposed to be here last week but has yet to arrive. It's not time to start the pump with the sprinkler heads yet, so we are resorting to hand watering  to get the first crop going. A tough spot but things could be worse. At least the hose is out by the beds so we don't have to walk far with the watering cans.
Anyway, I had a nice supper (a light supper Deb) and went back to work. The difference between working in 70-degree weather in March and 70-degree weather in the summer is that there are no mosquitoes to contend with. It makes it so pleasant. So as the sun settled in, the last of the robins cheerfully called to their own and as they quieted for the night, the Spring Peepers took over. Besides the laugh of your child, there are no better sounds than the Spring Peepers on a still Spring evening.
Thus inspired, I managed to "plow" three 100-square foot beds in preparation for Thursday and Friday's bed making. When I say plow here, I don't mean a three-bottom job on the back of the John Deere. I mean taking the pitch fork and plunging it into the soil to loosen the top layer for weeding and preparation for the double dig bed process. I know, I know. But I'm learning and I think I am closer to getting it down this time. Dad hasn't bought into the idea yet and I'm sure he will be rarin' to go with the power rototiller.
At any rate, I got done more tonight in an hour and a half than I did this afternoon in an hour and a half. You can thank the peepers and the beautiful sights in the clear sky for that burst of energy and production.