One of the benefits of eating only one meal a day, (self-rationing since I won’t wear a muzzle so therefore have limited resources from where to collect food), is that a pair of work pants I was having trouble zipping aren’t so hard to zip now. It also makes me want to stay distracted by doing something that is otherwise equally as rewarding as stuffing my face.

I had been thinking of giving up my sites for posting things about gardening, sewing and writing, but the darned auto-pay kicked in before I could decide — so, I may as well use the sites since I’ve paid for them. But, I wasn’t in post mode when I started this project so didn’t take any shots of the mess it was before I dug right in.

The act of engagement, in short order, lifted my spirits and I felt more compelled to share the process for anyone who’s interested to see what I’ve been up to.

Right there where the potatoes are was a heap of several layers of deposits of kitchen scraps and other more carbon type debris, as well as some dirt kicked over it all, sitting there slowly decomposing because I was too lazy/hot to dig a trench. The cardboard near the lower right side was in between the layers too.

As soon as I sensed the nonsense coming our way about muzzling, I stocked up on a few things to make myself feel a teeny, tiny bit better about the ongoing and escalating lack of freedom. One bag of the two bags of potatoes that I hoarded turned to mush in the blink of an eye — it’s awfully hot in my house.

Boy do dying potatoes stink!!! And make a mess on a shelf and all along the floor from where they’re carried to the sink.

So much for hoarding.

The second bag was on its way to turning to mush too — so it was decided to plant them as seeds and see what might just come of them.

This big tub is where some of them will go. It has holes drilled all around the bottom about an inch up and a few on the bottom bottom.

So, anyway, in between the #1HugelkulturBed and a little Palo Verde tree that was planted early spring on a mound was a path going somewhat northwest to southeast that looked like a good place to dig a trench — maybe not the best place for planting — but another path can be taken instead of it and the Palo just might like the extra nutrition.

The image above was after all the stuff that had been sitting there lazily decomposing was raked from where it was sitting and put into the trench. The dirt that was dug out is sitting on the left. Below is after it was covered over with that dirt. Voila, a happy little compost trench full of lots of pincher bugs and such.

Now that path is level between the hugelbed and the palo tree.

The palo tree is inside the ring of the pot that had no bottom.

A pile of logs that had been lining the edge of the hugelbed went under the #ScragglyTree for now to be used for something else sometime later.

Everything looks a little neater now.

I’ve been getting lots and lots of things done but haven’t been very motivated to bother posting much about it. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve just been trying to stay a little happy, sorting through the happenings and thinking to myself.

Someone I know who claims he knows some secrets he can’t speak of says “Humans have ten years, max, before they won’t exist anymore.” Since he won’t say how he knows, I’m.not.buying! Besides which, whoever knows, how much time they have? The best anyone can do is to stay as happy as they are able, for as long as they possibly can. “Always look on the bright side of life,” is what I say to myself now and to anyone who’s listening to my jibber jabber.

Here’s a little bright side — quite awhile back, I stuck another bunch of sprouting spuds in among the trees in the #RaisedBed — to feed the soil livestock if nothing else.

Right after the Monsoons first came along, several of them sprouted. There is just something about Monsoons that everything falls in love with.

There are lots of weeds around them too.

Who knows how far they’ll get — but it sure did please me to see them. It felt like they were saying, “Hi, Mom!!”

So, needless to say, I’m in the house and hungrier than when I started. It’s just about time for my single meal. In between, it also helps a lot to have a lot of drinks of water or some wonderful flavor of sun tea over ice cubes. I have a tiny bar-type fridge with just a top compartment intended for freezing. The only place the ice really freezes in at the front — so I rotate three different plastic tubs with lids and break the one that’s turned to ice with an awl. I can’t find the awl, so I’ve been using a screw driver.

And, I love to drink out of jars.

Life in the fast lane. That’s the way we roll.

Mickey caught in the middle of a sneeze, on the unmade bed where I’m about to join him for a nap and a movie while my rations cook.