More green than brown, call it progess

My spacing was once again somewhat ambitious; the back is very tight now and will only get worse as the plants get lankier over the remainder of the season.

It seems it has gotten so crowded that my beans have escaped the confines of my border and are cascading down the other side of my fence over the alley. This is fine as long as the city doesn’t send the prison work detail out to trim the right of way like they did on occasion back when there was privet encroaching. Picking will be easier on the alley side, hopefully not so easy that someone beats me to it. On the inside, I’ll be squeezing in between the okra (btw spineless okra isn’t without spines; it really should be called spine-reduced) and the beans-on-bamboo-on-the-fence.

The mud chute from the well is finally drying up enough to start doing something about it and I’ve re-hung the two sections of fencing I took down for the well rig’s access. Things are slowly looking a little better but the evidence remains…..

“The well”…. well, it is is still pumping wide open just as much water as as a pump can move without power hooked up to it. After the pump was installed about 8 days ago, I granted Reggie, everybody’s favorite tattooed electrician, an extra week’s delay since he was backed up on another job and rain was in the forecast.

Today was to be our day for the hookup. A few minutes after I left for the office this morning, Reggie showed up with an immobilized shoulder. Apparently one of the jobs he was working on last week involved long ladders, one of which he tested gravity from (gravity still works by the way.) He took a tumble and is out of commission for at least a week, maybe two. At this rate I’ll have the well pumping just in time for the rainy season this fall.

The good news is that the 150 feet of trenching is now filled, tamped and back at grade with the yard. In the shady area near the house, the clay soil never really completely exited the “wet dirt” aka “mud” category, so I spread wheat straw over it area to minimize the muddy poodle paw prints that come with it. I went ahead and spread the straw under the porch and right up to the edge of the basement since I would be spending some time down there framing in a new wall with an access door. Actually, two access doors, one for me to more easily get in to where the pump controls and pressure tank are located, and one extra fat cat door. (I’m not kidding, I was told this one is on the way: “Fat cat cat door is an extra large cat door for chubbier cats”.)

Pictures showing evidence of all:

“Plant spacing”
From the back window:

From the back corner, with a little of the bean kudzu on the left:

From the back corner looking towards the other back corner, up the mud chute (pay no attention to the garbage can turned compost bin, it got caught in the mudslide and I haven’t been able to rescue it yet):

A re-run of the bean kudzu escaping the compound:

“The well”

The powerless well head and the “freeze proof hydrant”, freshly set into a bed of gravel with concrete added for stabilization:

“The back fence reassembled” (sort of in the background anyway).

“The smoothed ground under the pecan tree where a muddy trench once resided”

Under the porch @ the basement (including the still dry pressure tank).

The chubbier cat door’s indignant future beneficiary enjoying a stationary hay ride:

And some recent bounty:

That’s all for now…