Monday, April 06, 2009

Stubbornness

I think I have a serious problem when it comes to seeds. I love seeds... and can't seem to throw old packets of seeds away despite the fact that their shelf life is well and truly passed and therefore the chances of them germinating are practically zero (even if I do store them in a cool, dark place as opposed to in a tin in the hot greenhouse like someone else I know... mother!). So every year I try to use up all my seeds from the previous ten years by planting pots and pots of seeds in our (fortunately) very big greenhouse. This year is no exception and the children have been helping lots by filling lots of pots with soil. The biggest problem is that they then need watering every day and the closest tap is a little walk away and the hose doesn't reach. So when it was raining the other day I walked passed the garage that has a drain spout that was a bit broken and decided to use it to collect water from the roof for watering the seeds. Miraculously my invention (which took 2 minutes to build) seems to be working and as long as we get some more rain soon I may not have to walk so far for water over the next few weeks when I need to water my zillions of pots of seeds that are not likely to germinate anyway!
Our other big job for the weekend was to build a wood shed for our mounting wood pile. Until now we have just been covering it with plastic etc. and to be honest I have never had a problem with it, but apparently the time has come to make a proper shed for it. My image of a wood shed is a few posts which hold up a roof and maybe a couple of walls on the side. My father-in-law used to do concreting for a job and uncle-in-law (is that a word?) is a builder so by using their help it should be a simple thing to build a shed..... only my husband is too stubborn to ask my father-in-law to help and my father-in-law is too stubborn to offer his help so things move a little more slowly than they should. Of course no one else seems to have my "build things in 2 minutes" mentality either so everything has to be measured exactly, leveled exactly etc. (brings back visions of the chicken house). As a result we now have concrete blocks in place... after a whole day's work...... need I say more!
Tomorrow we have a repeat visitor coming... unfortunately not in the best circumstances. The mother that stayed the other night has been hospitalized with food poisoning (fortunately not from here!) and the daughter is being looked after by another family, but will come to us from tomorrow until the mother is well enough to get out of hospital... perhaps until Sunday. Not a great way to spend their first trip to Japan!

1 comment:

  1. Oh this made me laugh!

    My parents bought K a book 'DIY garden projects done in a day' or something. We have *never* completed anything in less than two weekends!! I keep trying to convince him that near enough is good enough but no luck...

    And great that you can help out your guest and her daughter. Must be stressful for all involved and I'm sure knowing that her daughter is in good hands must be a relief.

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