Thursday was a rain off and on day, so no gardening. My new helper and I headed out to drop the car to be inspected again and then went shopping. When we got back I discovered that they had re-inspected it, not newly inspected it for $35, and there was no charge. Yay!
So I went to the local locksmith to find out about new car keys. A new one for my Subaru was $203! That wasn’t happening. But I was told that even if the battery in the current key fails completely, it just means it won’t unlock the car remotely. The chip will continue to function and is needed to start the car. So I decided to have 2 door keys made @ $36, one for my purse, and one in case the purse gets locked into the car.
Then we headed home. While I put away the shopping, my new helper got a key basket hung up by the front door. I had selected a frog key fob with a flashlight to make it harder to lose. That will be the one in the house. The one in my purse had an identifier also, something none of our keys have ever had. I’ve got dozens of keys and have no idea what they go to.
My helper friend arrived at 11:30 and I sent him to the root cellar to sort out the bad onions from what was left of the good ones. This is all that’s left.
The extra shingles had been stored on a pallet in the shelter in the front pasture. When the contractor needed shingles he shifted them to the dirt. So my helper friend went out and moved them out of the dirt up on boards. Once he’d done that we could see where there had once been a pallet but it had rotten away. So we need to bring a new one up and stack them properly. The wood is for the smoke house, apple and hickory.
June has always meant the scent of multiflora rose and clove scented dianthus. When I was out at the shelter I could smell the roses, and went in search and found this mound of them. The clove scent dianthus died years ago, and I’ve never found a similar one.
Near the roses the wild Concord grapes are flowering.
But out behind the Tonka garage there are tiny grapes forming.
The West Shed garden’s daylilies have buds now.
The East Shed’s 7 Sisters rose is covered in buds.
The little catalpa at that end of the shed has buds now.
The West garden around the house has Sweet Williams blooming.
Next to them, the coral bells are still flowering.
In the West Herb garden the catmint is doing very well, very tall this year.
In the South garden my helper friend swears this hollyhock has grown a foot since Tuesday. I dunno about that, but it has filled out.
Before he left, my helper friend went to the hardware store and got longer bolts and wider washers for repairing the butter churn. The old lid had bad metal fatigue where the bolts went through.
When my brother got home, he repaired it and now it’s already to churn butter on Friday. My helper friend will do that and the new helper will learn how as back up. It’s supposed to rain off and on all day Friday, so we will again work inside. I think I will take the new helper and get the winter clothes put away and the summer clothes out.