A Day in the Raspberries - Weeding Away!

    Finally! A post with a few picture of me! :)

    Yes, we're still at it. We were sure that once December rolled around it would be way too cold for yard work. But the ground isn't frozen so we're still digging around in it. Today we're in the raspberries again. We already pruned them and burned the stocks, which makes weeding a lot easier.

     We hit it hard for about three hours today, knowing that if we finished all the weeding we wouldn't have to climb that hill again until spring.

  Here's an interesting lesson that we've learned:

Take Note: If you want to buy gardening stools (which are really nice when the ground is cold and soggy) don't search for "gardening stools" online or in the store. Search for "bathroom stools" because they are basically the same thing and cost half as much.

    We are never alone when we do yard work. Our lab puppy isn't so puppyish on the outside, but still quite so on the inside. He loves to be under-foot, under-hand wherever we are, which is cute and fun for the first five minutes and then a little irksome.
    Mom especially doesn't like it when Lucky lays down right where she needs to weed.
    Yes, she does throw her weeds on him :) ...

    Do you see those ear warmers that I'm wearing?

    Well that's the last time I ever wear them because I left them on my gardening stool for one second and the next thing I knew they were a dog toy. I'm going to have to get new ones before heading out to school in a few weeks because the winds in Rexburg are fierce.

Lucky roamed from person to person all day.

My younger sister (pictured above) is in charge of feeding Our two dogs: Lucky & Shaska and our two cats: Midnight & Mirage, every morning so the animals have a special love for her.

Even the cats get in the way a little bit as they look for attention. 

Here's another interesting lesson we've learned:

See the knife that my mom is using to weed? It's called a Hori-Hori Knife (no kidding) and it is every gardener's dream tool. We love it. We don't use spades or handrakes or spikes anymore. 

Give me a Hori-Hori knife any day.

    After we get done weeding, we mulch the rows so no more weeds grow before the raspberries do in spring. We take our bales of straw and put them through the chipper-shredder so that the bits are pretty fine. We rake that together, wheel it up the hill in a wheelbarrow and lay it pretty thick on every row. We've found that this chipper-shredded stuff lays denser and keeps the weeds down a Whole Lot Better than just the straight stuff.

    My mom does the chipper shredding and she wears a painting mask so she doesn't breath in the straw. I'm still pulling little flecks of straw out of my sweatshirt. 

    I takes a lot of bales, and it takes a lot of working hands to make it all happen -- but today we had both so everything went well. I love my family. I love doing hard things with them because every time we do, we become closer. I know I can count on them. They know they can count on me.

    That's what family is ...