Saturday, August 29, 2009

Payback

After the arrival of the last bill for cell phone service, I had a 'chat' with J15 about her texting habits. We do not have unlimited texting on our service plan. Unfortunately, she was using it like we did. To the tune of $46 of overage charges. Yikes! She was quite contrite and, to her credit, did offer to pay me back out of her savings. But we came up with a compromise. I took sweat equity. And today, it was payback time.
The weather was beautiful- sunny and low 70's and after all the rain we had, it was the perfect day for some serious weeding. No pictures here- it was an embarassing amount of weeding! Over the summer, the end of the barnyard where we had planted our small fruits (blueberries, currants and raspberries) had become quite overgrown. Yes, there were lambsquarters plants bigger than I've EVER seen them, with 3 inch trunks near the ground, and lots of smartweed and nightshade. Well, they're there no more. We pulled and weeded and discovered that our plants have fared pretty well, all things considered. We also weeded the asparagus my parents brought for us.
We've now got huge piles of weeds that I'll need to move but it looks so much better. I've got a few more tasks for her to make up for her 'oops' but nothing this bad. Actually, we had a good time doing it. The weeds pulled easily since the ground was so soft and we had a great talk. It was also just nice to be out in the sunshine.
I canned another 10 quarts of tomato sauce last night but I don't know how many we're going to get from here on out. All this rain and cool temps has set mold and mildew rampant in the garden and in the damp, slightly shady corner of the garden all the vines are dying. Not a pretty sight. I'm really hoping that some sunshine and dry weather will save the rest of the garden but I'm not going to hold my breath at this point. With the crazy weather we've been having, anything is possible. We've had the wettest August on record, following the coolest July on record. What a year!

6 comments:

  1. Kids and texting seem to go hand in hand. I'm glad you took it out in sweat trade....it's good mom/kid time.
    I think this summer has been the biggest challenge ever. We are supposed to have frost tonight. I hope they're wrong.

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  2. Good idea on the sweat equity, kids remember that better! My friend's 17 yo ran up a bill for $512.00 this month! She worked out a deal with the cell company, but I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now, lol!

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  3. I understand the sweat equity so well. Since my kids are all in college they remember working things off to. We also have the weed and mold and wet with the garden...I will be working in the garden this afternoon. It's sad to see the growing season coming to a end..2 days with out rain has been great! Enjoy another day of this beautiful weather...Lisa

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  4. August has seemed like Sept. this year!

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  5. Nothing I like better than a little sweat equity from the younger generation. I think that makes more of an impression. All this cool weather is from "Global Warming"...dontcha' know according to the liberals...I say Bah Humbug, it's just the way of the world. We have the biggest weeds we have ever had...like weeds on steriods....lol...debbie

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  6. You've noticed I don't have pics of weeding either? I don't know what it is this year, but I've gotten so behind.

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