Mum Planting Day

Pauline (8 months pregnant) and Brent brought their dogs along with them to the farm Friday night. We talked a little while and went to bed around 10 PM. Linda fixed sausage biscuits for our breakfast and then Brent and I headed to the mum patch. The girls followed a few minutes later with a cooler and other things to help get through the day. Brent and I used string to lay out the rows and I had the generator running to provide power for the electric drill that we used to drill holes for the mums. I had borrowed a 100 gallon tank from our neighbors, Nancy and Steve, to use for watering. I had purchased a garden hose adapter and put it in the drain hole on the tank and I used the scoop on the tractor to fill the tank with water from the creek. Stacey removed the plants from the shipping boxes, in the order we needed them, and passed them to Pauline, who dropped the plants in the holes, while we drug the hose down each row and let gravity drain the water through the hose to water every plant. Regina and Linda set the plants with dirt as we moved from one end of the row to the other. Around 10 AM we were doing good, with 22 rows planted, so we took a break for a cold pop from the cooler under the canopy we had setup to get out of the sun. I drove back to the house to pick up the snack goodies we had forgot to take with us. Stacey and Pauline went along for a bathroom break for the dogs. We returned to the patch and continued planting and taking breaks from the near 90 degree heat. The generator failed, but this year, we had a backup plan. We used a cordless power driver to finish drilling the holes for the rest of the patch. I mentioned quitting for the day a few times, but most wanted to finish the work, so we kept plugging along until we had done the 45 rows with 1,125 mums planted and watered.
 
We packed up the stuff, took down the canopy, parked the wagon in the old barn and drove to the house. The time was 1:20 PM and we were exhausted. We took showers and then I drove us to Columbia and we ate at a Mexican Restaurant as we hashed over how the day had went. We fine tuned our plans for doing better next year as we enjoyed our meal. Back at the farm, we let Pauline take a well deserved nap, while Linda, Brent and I unloaded the stuff from the Mule and pickup truck. Then Brent and I removed the finish mower from the new tractor and hooked up an old bush hog. It was a lot harder to do than it sounds. After a couple of years of not being used, things weren't exactly easy to work into place. It took some gentle persuasion from a sledge hammer and a new locking pin, but things finally went together. I gave it a test run near the edge of the creek and it reminded Brent of a time when we first got the farm. I used to cut down trees and the old bush hog would clunk and sound like I was chopping up rocks, but that is how a lot of the farm was reclaimed. We both looked at each other and laughed as soon as it happened and Brent said, "You're back!" I put the tractor in the hay shed and we went to the house for the evening.