A Standing Rib Roast, and Topsoil For Blueberry Hill and Beyond

No, I'm not playing cribbage tonight. MM went alone, while I take some rest. I wasn't really planning to go this week anyway.

We had a full work day, MM and I, and my sore ribs got a workout shoveling those 5 yards of premium topsoil. Where to start? I slipped on a rain-sodden clay bank last week, and fell with a good smack on the ribcage even though I had my elbows tucked in; and in spite of some really classic ignoring for 5 days I finally admitted that I was in some serious discomfort and went in to the walkin clinic, where the doctor prescribed some antiinflamatories and a standing rib roast (x-ray). I didn't hear back from them about the x-ray but I did take the medicine and I resumed my previous program of hope and denial.

Today I received a load of 5 yards of amended topsoil previously purposed to be cannibis medium. Since the grower switched his grow medium he's selling off the old extra stock, and it should make a good addition to my plantings, when used as a top layer over a mixture of gypsum, wood chips, and manure for Blueberry Hill. 

He had lots to sell, and I elected to buy 5 yards, about 4 times my truck's payload, and he kindly delivered it from Springfield.

Only trouble is that he couldn't quite get his dump trailer where I wanted the pile so he dumped it on the road past the woodshed, where it would block all internal traffic, so we had to move it and tarp it until the beds were ready.

MM volunteered to help me move the pile, and we worked with shovels, hoes, rakes, and the dump cart to wheel over to the place it needed to be stored until my gardens are ready.

I'm working on Blueberry Hill just now, a bed just south of an overhanging fir tree. In its original condition, it's an eroding clay bank with exposed roots. At the bottom of the bank there is standing water after a heavy rain. I'm stacking a couple logs to make a retaining wall for a raised bed and filling the bottom foot with gypsum, dead leaves, wood chips and a bit of manure. The top four inches to be the cannabis soil and the blueberry bushes I have waiting. I may have to add an additional log midway up to hold more soil- We'll see how it goes. I calculate that a bed directly under the drip line of the fir tree to the North will get summer sun slanting under the branches, and I will prune the fir so its branches don't shade too much.

Blueberry Hill, with tarped pile of soil above. Some scrap wood debris is already
piled above the logs, which  will be stacked two high .

bottom of Blueberry Hill, with logs ready for
 stacking, and woody debris waiting to be cut
up and buried.. 

Blueberry hill from the Northwest

Log on transport dolly waiting for chainsaw trimming and stacking.

Along with blueberries, I will set out lots of onion sets to discourage gophers, and maybe some runner beans and greens.

Besides the soil, MM dug out a dead bush near the bottom of the bank, and I assisted. And I moved in another log to be ready for stacking.

We enjoyed the display of flowers from a young apple tree in the front yard, where we hadn't thought there was a fruit tree. Every day brings new delights.