Solarizing fool

So we solarized our front bed, the one that we accidentally bought and planted blueberry and elderberry bushes in, and then forgot to weed or maintain in any way shape or form.  Yup, that one. Well we set our sights on next year for this bed so we needed to either retill it or solarize it and then plant a fall cover crop if there's time. So after doing a bit of research on solarization, I decided that I would cover the bed in its entirety with two layers of 2mm thick, clear plastic.  Two layers because apparently they help to build heat underneath more than just one layer, clear plastic (as opposed to black) because it lets more heat in; one source made the metaphor that if you think of tinted windows on a car, the windows get hotter but the inside of the car stays cooler, and if you have clear windows the inside of your car will bake like a Thanksgiving turkey.  I added the last part, but the point was clear that clear plastic will heat the grass and weeds underneath more than black plastic and hopefully cut down the time it takes to kill everything off.  So here I went, hauling wheel barrow load upon load of rocks up from the woods to hold my plastic down....you should have seen me, I would load it up and then I would have to back up to the end of the flat and get a running start to make it even half way up the hill with my load of rocks.  I'm sure I looked like I was training for some sort of cavewoman race.  I just really didn't want to use stakes or pins and rip the plastic....buying plastic and putting it all over the earth goes against so many of my grains so the least I can do is make sure I can reuse it. (I am completely aware that this conviction cost be about 10 hours of work)
I get all the plastic laid and carefully woven around my berry bushes and hubs gets home, I tell him about the cavewoman race and show him my final product.  He looks at it, takes a drink of water and says "Hm. Probably should have mowed first." So I turn to him, about to unleash my primal cavewomanness all over his 'hm' and he says "But good job...you did good, love." I simply cut my eyes a bit and thought to myself, 'he'll see, this is going to be the best, fastest, most successful solarizing event of the century.'

Sidenote: John is working a ton this time of year, often late into the night, which is truly inconvenient for all of us, because he would much rather be doing all of this stuff around the house, and he actually knows how to do it.  Me? I'm just flailing around and Googling stuff, hoping that something works.   The benefit? I get to experiment and learn on my own, the drawback? I'm probably wasting lots of time and energy for a far less epic reward than if we were both working on this together.

Skip ahead a couple of weeks and I'm standing in said field, noticing that my blueberries are shriveling up. Nooooooo! Not the blueberries! You have survived in the face of zero soil prep, zero maintenance and you haven't been eaten by deer and birds yet (thanks to my Fort Knox chicken wire wrapping), you must not shrivel! Then I think about it...I laid all this plastic to heat up the soil temperature to an uninhabitable degree.  I did that, on purpose, somehow not realizing that it would also affect my berries!! Of course they are dying! They must need like 80 more gallons of water a day to survive my super stellar plastic wrapping job!  I actually hadn't watered them in a while because we had gotten a bit of rain recently and the soil out there holds it pretty well.  But as soon as I realized this I grabbed my hose (right, because we are still handwatering, because the outdoor hosebib is still just a hidden pipe under 8 feet of dirt somewhere).  Now first of all, for everyone driving by, it absolutely looks like I'm watering a field of plastic.  But to make it even better, once I get to the last and farthest plant I realize that the two hoses I grabbed are just a bit short to get me there, but there's no way I'm going to go drag a third hose out to get me an extra 10 feet for one plant.  So I plant my feet and put my finger over the nozzle to spread out the water spray juuuust right and then I lean back and arch the hose so that my water trajectory juuuust makes it to somewhere near the plant, and there I stand.  So now, as the cars go by they see me, battling with the hose, shooting up a rainbow spray, arm up in the air holding it just right, looking very focused, and still watering a field of plastic.

That brings us to current day.  We'll see how this goes.  It would have been much smarter to simply solarize rows rather than the whole thing. Of course, I wouldn't have needed so many rocks that way so I wouldn't have gotten these awesome cavewoman arms.

In other news...

I just made my first cup of golden milk! (A golden latte if you will), its so good!!!  For anyone who doesn't know what this is, its one of the latest yuppie delights that make people like me feel like they are doing something really good for their body while mostly just indulging in a delicious treat.

Here are the deets:

-Milk of your choice (you can also use coconut milk if you want a thicker, dairy free version)
-Tbsp coconut oil (good fats and increases bioavailability of turmeric)
-Tbsp turmeric (anti inflammatory properties, improves brain function, improves heart health)
-Some amount of ginger (can help lower blood sugar levels, improve GI health, lower cholesterol)
-One cinnamon stick (helps stabilize blood sugar, improves cholesterol, strong antioxidant)
-Tiny sprinkle of black pepper (increases bioavailability of the turmeric...and who doesn't love a little kick?)
-Sweetener of your choice (honey, agave, maple syrup.......just because)

Put all of those things in a pot and heat until the oil is melted

Add your favorite bag of chai tea for a little caffeination

Sip. Slowly. And Enjoy.


Lastly, I found these in an old dump site on our property, they clean up nice! One had gelatinous bleach in it, lovely, another had Milk of Magnesium that had since turned to powder.  At least I think that's what it was..