Dirt!

We finally got the new raised-bed gardens filled with soil today.  We had been trying to decide, for a month and a half or so, what to fill them with.  A local man had topsoil for sale, but it would have cost nearly a thousand dollars to get that.  We thought about using straight compost, since Gayle can get that cheaply from work, but that wouldn’t be good for growing tomatoes.  There is a pile of rubbish and clay pushed up in the “pear orchard” near our house, so we decided to have a friend who has a Bobcat, a digger, and a big dump truck come today to sift through that pile and get what’s good from it, then fill in with compost.  Apparently, the boys told our landlord’s son we were going to do that, and yesterday morning he came to the house and told me that his dad’s cousin, another farmer here in the area, had a pile of topsoil to get rid of–for nothing!  He took Simon over to show him where it was.  Simon came home saying it might be enough to fill half of one of the two beds, but I just knew that if God had given us that soil it would  be enough for the job.  When our friend arrived this morning, he went and got a load.  Immediately, we knew we had plenty of soil!  He ended up bringing three loads, and smoothing it out, and then he and Gayle went over to where Gayle works and got a load of compost.  Once we get the smoothing out finished, it looks as though we’ll have a couple of lovely garden plots!

Baby watched from the window in front of the computer desk–if he climbs on the shelf under the desk he can easily see out.One bed is right out the kitchen window–see how close the digger was to the window!

Baby loved watching!

The boys are sure enjoying this! I made this boy stay inside or on the porch while the machines were moving around. He didn’t like that very well. He made the best of it though, and used Baby’s lookout spot.