setting up the raised bed, snake, and kitty junk

I had a busy weekend out in the yard planned but then Saturday was overcast, cold, and worse, windy. The overcast and cold can be dealt with but that wind made it hard to be out for long. Sunday though was warmer and still so my main task was setting up the new raised bed for the little squash starts Gary gave me. I had already gotten the cucumber sprouts in the ground on Friday with a cage for them to grow on. 

First I used the trimmer to cut down to the ground all the grass and weeds, an area about 5’ x 5’. then I laid down some black plastic and cardboard on top of that and then put my 4’ x 4’ raised bed together and sat it on top of the cardboard and lined the outside with bricks (the pots on the right are potatoes and the one on the left is a tomato). 

Next I added a small thin layer of small dead twigs and then a layer of oak leaves and then a layer of composted peat, then dirt, then compost, then dirt, then fertilizer, more compost, more dirt until I ran out. This is two bags of compost, four bags of potting soil. I need at least 6 more bags which I’ll get today (turns out it only took four).

Before I started on that, while I still had the trimmer out I went ahead and used up the gas still in the tank going around all the edges of the flower beds and under the crepe myrtles on the west side of the barn and cut the path to the compost pile a little closer when the son of the wicked bitch of the west who was finally mowing that horribly overgrown lot (though I shouldn't remark on that considering how we let the big back yard get during the spring wildflower stage) flagged me down to tell me that he had just chased a big cottonmouth out of the area he was mowing and it slithered into the calf high bluebonnets, primrose, cleaver, hay grass, and developing coneflowers behind the flowerbed above. OK, thanks for the warning. I’ll stay out of there. I’ve seen plenty of snakes since I’ve been living here and neighbors have told of seeing cottonmouths but that’s one I have never seen and I’m perfectly happy not to encounter one.

I’m going to try and get the last of the kittens neutered this week, the one that is the most untamed even for me, the one that has very similar markings to Robin’s male cat Noodle, the one that I had yet to get a good look at it’s rear end because it never walks around with it’s tail erected…until yesterday. 

Yesterday while I was petting the brown tabby, Handsome Boy, in my lap Twin plonked his self down, spread his back legs and started cleaning himself down there, very obviously a boy and not just because I could see his balls but also because his little pointy red penis was proudly displayed. All righty then. First time I have ever seen a cat penis.

Nothing else going on except for the continuing implosion of the republican party. They have no policies with which to campaign, only harping on the doddering old fool in the White House who put that whole bullshit to rest with his aggressive State of the Union speech so now republicans are going on about how mean he was calling them out on their bullshit, trying to convince everyone now that he was on speed and their ridiculous rebuttal in the kitchen with a trad wife (except a trad wife would not have a job much less be a member of Congress) wearing a cross and speaking in her little girl voice and lying her ass off because they thought that would appeal to suburban women. But make no mistake, while they are distracting us with the clown show Trump was busy at Mar a Lago meeting with Victor Orban, dictator of Hungary who Trump admires and plans to emulate once back in the Oval Office and installing his daughter-in-law and another loyalist as co-leaders of the RNC while they announce that if you aren’t loyal to Trump, they don’t want you in the Republican party. They are preparing for the takeover and demise of our democracy. 

We all thought the 2020 election was crucial and it was but it doesn’t hold a candle to this one coming up. The MAGAts (there is no real republican party anymore) are much more prepared for the takeover than last time (if you haven’t looked into Project 2025 and Christian nationalism yet, now would be a good time).