By 10am, the three top rafters were in place.
Butch left for a meeting, but came back a few hours later. He and Phil started to put up the purlins, the additional supports for the root. Phil had to climb up and down ladders, one side and the other. He did three of the edge connectors between rafters, and six of the purlins. The sun beat down, the humidity was high, and after about two hours, he realized he would not be safe working more, and sent Butch home.
(The year before we were married, Phil worked much of the summer in New York, rappelling tall buildings in the heat. In a job where his safety depended on complete focus, he learned quickly when he was reaching his limit. He said he hasn't felt like that since his time in New York—he was definitely over-heated today.)
The apple orchard was getting overgrown. Yesterday he let the cows graze up along the 20' or so near the road: they mowed that well. He opened up some lanes down the aisles today, something I've been almost obsessively opposed to. It went really well though.
Until a few cows escaped (that rascally Catherine and her two offspring). Then, between one bored cow munching apple leaves, Socks making the cows run riot through the orchard and then twisting, serpentine, as we tried to hold him back; between accidentally approaching Snowman more abruptly than he was expecting (whoa, sorry, big guy!), and electric line running here, there, and everywhere: it was a mess.
In the end, though, it was mostly okay. Some of the trees were a bit defoliated, but none were trampled entirely, and the cows returned to the pasture to graze.
Phil spent some time in the evening putting up another purlin on his own, with just the tractor and special extension he built. It took longer than with the forklift, but he felt like he could spend a bit more time thinking about what he was supposed to do; he felt more relaxed.
We are into summer storm season. Like previous years, in the afternoon, the sky to the west shows beautiful clouds and light.
The sky to the north shows lots of rain falling everywhere but here. The rain shadow. It's a bummer.
I wheeled five wheelbarrow loads of compost into the greenhouse. The compost had dried out significantly, which is not ideal.
In the greenhouse, I had planted the six elderberries that survived potting on. The roots had snapped off on some, and one plant shriveled up entirely. I resisted digging it up to find a dessicated root, and then, one day, an elderberry sprout poked up! Yay for second chances!
And in the moon bed, I have been thrilled the last few days to find calendula volunteering. I think my Mom sent me seeds, and I made seed balls and scattered them. Not many flowers came up anywhere, but the four or five calendula make me so thankful! What a beautiful, useful herb, growing for the first time here at Spring Forth.
I think the ironweed, growing around the farm, is also beautiful, even if it is a weed. That rich, luscious purple.
To close: the thunder and lightning offer one extra treat, even if heavy rain isn't one of them.
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