Monday I traveled up to Haymarket VA to the home of ANONYMOUS PHD. He was, er,tasked with the unenviable goal of installing a terraced garden in the slope behind his house.
Being in the foothills of the Appalachians and actually on the side of a small mountain the "soil" was most uncooperative. The first trench went fairly fast (maybe 21/2 hours with just one of us working), but the second, with both of us, took almost 4 hours with pickaxes and shovels to get one trench 4 inches deep and most of the second day to get it the other 2 inches. Interestingly, we discovered where the bugs go during a drought....about 6 inches down, at least the Japanese Beetles, Roaches, "click-bugs" Spiders and Centipedes.....
At midnight, Tuesday, my folks called to ask that I drive down to Atlantic Beach NC to help them secure their fishing boat and my grandmothers property against the onslaught of Alberto, which was expected around 3AM...so, I left.
The trip down was interesting....my windshield wipers died so when the rain hit I had only rain-X between me and blindness. My folks called, as I approached the NC line, to let me know that they had enlisted my uncle (who had just gotten back into town) to help with the boat, and that Alberto moved much faster, and was far less damaging than they had anticipated, (it had passed over by then)...in other words after 4.5 hours driving, don't come....
This was a bit annoying since the hardest part of the construction done and we likely could have finished the next day. Additionally,I was supposed to attend a party in DC that night which was a short hop from the casa de PhD.
Oh well, much was accomplished and although I'm still sore and sunburned I got to eat the best cinnamon roll evah.
Now I batten down for my drill weekend.
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