2021 Life Logs, Day 109: A Day of Deck Gardening
Date: Monday, April 19, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 63, Low, 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today was the first day of Falmouth School spring vacation and what a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was very little wind, and it was warm. Hurray! The plan was for me to arrive at the Goldstones around noon and have the boys help me fill the deck garden containers with potting soil that I was delivering. I did deliver the additional potting soil, but one boy was missing when I arrived and shortly thereafter, two boys were missing. And who could blame them? Sam got a call from two good friends that he hasn’t seen very much during the past coronavirus year. It was an invite to meet downtown to have lunch and then go knock about with a soccer ball. After their lunch, they stopped by the house to pick up a soccer ball on the way to the soccer field, and we lost Jonah as he was invited to join them. But Heather she played a little work “hooky” and spent time setting up the deck containers. She filled two containers and Ollie and I worked on the other two, using Heather’s expertise to finish the job. Then she did the planting.

When Sam and Jonah returned home, we lost Ollie. All three boys headed into the backyard to fire up their blacksmith shop. Last week Jonah found a U-shaped piece of metal that he wanted to straighten. Yesterday the boys used some curved concrete blocks to build a forge using a small shop vac as a bellows to provide the blowing air to keep the fire going. Jed worked with them to make sure it was safe, and they were successful in straightening the U-shaped half inch square metal rod. Every year when we go to the Barnstable County Fair, the boys always stop and watch the blacksmith. Their attention to detail paid off with this project and they were very proud of the result.

Jed is taking the boys to the driving range tomorrow morning and I will return tomorrow afternoon to complete installing the irrigation system on the deck. There are two vertical wall planters (and Heather ordered a third today), hanging plants, a four-shelf mini-greenhouse, and two elevated raised beds placed from one end of the very long deck to the other. I installed most of the irrigation system last year, but never finished the job. Jonah wants to help me finish it tomorrow. Then we will just sit back and watch things grow. It was really exciting to see all of this come together today.