Added water to barn batteries. Did maintenance work on the biodiesel car - changed oil, changed fuel filter, rotated tyres... Realised the brake shoes need changing soon...
Went over to J & M's and picked up the pile of carpet they offered to us ages ago but it has been too wet to get. Brooke and Susan helped me lay it around the edges of the upper pond, and it went about half way and covered all the stuff that is lying out in the sun. The rest is either shaded by the big old gliricidia or has wedelia growing down to the waters edge...
In the morning I planted corn, but no pumpkin... also watered the nursery and planted a few more trays of pidgeon peas. Greg came over and talked story with Malte, who is going to pay him to draw up a design of where to plant the various bamboo's that he is going to sell them also, so I hung out with him for a while - he helped me plant some pidgeon peas and we talked about trading some species and we walked the area that straddles the property line with J & M, and I gave him my ideas of where to situate some windbreak species...
I'm sure I did something else of note, Oh yes! wandering around, shelling pidgeon peas out of my shirt, I saw that Roo's understudy was about to escape from the Chicken Tractor. Roo has been getting fed up with him lately and I guess he finally put his foot down. So, anyway, I see him perched there right on the edge of the two sheets of chicken wire. As I approach, he jumps down and starts to scurry off. I was a bit annoyed I guess, that I would have to chase down a bloody rooster, but as I had my hands and shirt/pouch full of seed I didn't chase him that second. Instead I wandered over to the tractor, and started throwing in the seed that was too young to plant or too mouldy or bug eaten or whatever. And of course the rooster came back trying to get in. I managed to pin him down with my foot (I was wearing slippers) and get a good grip on his ankles without losing a single good pidgeon pea! Ha! We'll be eating him tomorrow I suppose.
Oh for dinner tonight I made fried cassava chips, excellent with salt and a kind of Palak Paneer, (using costco goat cheese) but also a medley of spinaches from the garden, mostly katuk and brazilian spinach (both perennials) and some kale and chard too. Lorinda had the solar cookers going all day - a good sun day...