More garden

Drip irrigation system installed

Over the past 2 weeks my wife and I made a trip to Virginia to keep two of our three grandchildren while their parents went to San Francisco.  Since it is such a long drive we went up a couple of days before they left so we could rest up for babysitting.  Needless to say, after the weekend I was more tired and sore from playing than hiking the Appalachian Trail.  When we returned home we had an electrician come to rewire a short in our house wiring.  Now I have holes to patch in my wall where he had to cut to run the new wires.  I am waiting for my son-in-law, Craig, to come to help patch the walls.  This will be a learning experience for him.  Until then I have continued my garden work.  I have set up my trellises for my cucumbers and they are already climbing.  I finished setting up my irrigation system shown in the pictures above.  It is a drip system which puts water on the plants where it is needed and not sprinkled in between rows.  This should cut down on grass growing between the rows which should make the garden easier to maintain.  The system is on a timer that is set to turn on twice a day and run for 1 hour.  I should have a good crop based on the number of plants that are growing.
  I have an appointment to see an orthopedic doctor about my knees next month.  The pain that took me off the trail continues when going up and down steps.  Also, the nerve pain in my left thigh has gotten worse since I stopped hiking.  It feels like shingles and is painful to the touch.  I will have to see another doctor about it if it gets worse.  More to come later.   

Garden 3

Okay, so now my garden is back under control.  Grass has now been removed and more rows have been planted.  You may be able to see some of the 300 million rocks that Amy and I have raked to the outer boundaries of the garden.  Every year once the ground is tilled I use the front-end loader on my Kubota tractor to haul rocks from the garden to the other side of the driveway.  Every time it rains, the rocks multiply so I need to remove them again and again.  These pictures are taken in the afternoon so the surrounding trees cast shadows.  Originally the front yard looked like the forest that you see in the background.  About 5 years ago I decided to remove a lot of trees so I could have this garden spot and I planted the fruit trees you see in the yard.  There are 2 plum trees, a peach tree, an apricot tree and two apple trees that have not grown very well.  This is the first year I have had fruit on the trees, but I am not sure they will mature.  On the right you can also see the magnolia tree that I planted when the kids were little. To the left of it is my scuppernong vines.  I planted 2 originally, but one died.  There are enough wild muscadines in the trees that pollinate my vine so I have an abundance of scuppernongs.  Back to the garden.  I planted everything too early since I was going to be hiking.  Some of the plants actually survived, but no row was complete.  Of course the grass grew well while I was on the trail and took over the garden.  In the bottom picture you can still see some grass in with the cucumbers.  Next week I will add a trellys so the cucumbers will grow up off the ground.  I do not have my irrigation system installed yet, but it is suppose to rain tomorrow so it can wait till next week.

This picture shows some of the beans and peas that sprouted.  All rows have been filled in with seeds and the plants should come out of the ground in the next couple of days.  My garden is a little smaller than I have had in the past, so I should be able to keep it up.  

My trellys system may need some explaining so once I get it set up I will post again.    

Garden -2

     I have not seen any more snakes since my last post.  I am hoping that the ground is dry enough to re-plant the rest of my seeds.  Most of the seeds I planted in February came up, but the squash and butter peas are sparse and the purple hull peas did not sprout well..  I will try to get get the seeds in the ground before we go to keep our grandkids, Kinsley and Cooper.  Hopefully the seeds will sprout and plants will be up when we return.  I received my drip watering system that Jason recommended.  I hope to have it installed by Tuesday afternoon.  This will be a water conservation system.  Although we get our water from a natural spring, our reservoir is maximum 250 gallons.  This means that when there is no rain, running sprinklers drains our water supply down to the level of the pump.  When that happens water begins to spurt as air gets into the pump.  Of course our spring has not gone dry in the 35+ years we have lived here, but the water level gets low every summer that is dry.  The drip system will be on a timer and allow water to feed the plants, so it will definitely help conserve water.  It should also help with the grass and weeds that usually grow between the rows.  How well that works is still to be determined.  I will post pictures of the system once it is installed, but that may be another week or so, since getting the rest of the seeds planted will be my first priority.
     Today I plan to run some errands in town and take my old boss to lunch.  Since we were the only men in the Central Office, Mr. Campbell and I would go to lunch almost every day, alternating who picked up the tab.  I have missed that since I retired.  Not just the company, but eating lunch everyday.  Mr. C is retiring next month so this may be the last opportunity I have to take him to lunch.  Of course I miss anything related to food.  I also miss the cakes which were part of the birthday celebrations at the Central Office and the homemade ice cream that was made at least once a week during the summers.  And especially Joni's coconut cakes.  I am hungry just thinking about it.  More to come later.

Garden Time 1

Mm

Okay, after 2 weeks in the woods, not seeing a bear or snake or even a lizard, I decided today to work in my garden.  So, I tilled up all of the grass and uncovered about 1 million rocks.  I then went to get my wheelbarrow so I could haul off the rocks.  Only, I find the tire on the wheelbarrow is flat.  After trying to pump it up, with no success, I decided to get a wheel from an old lawnmower, and put it on the wheelbarrow.  That is when I moved the old lawnmower to reveal a 6 ft black rat snake under the lawnmower.  I was going to move the snake away from the house, but by the time I found something to use for that he was gone.  So, somewhere in my backyard is a 6 foot snake  My guess is that Amy will not be working outside for a while.  I do not think the wheel will last very long on the wheelbarrow, but it will only need to get me through today.

Ok so all the grass isn't up yet 

Day 11

Game Over.  Mountains win.  I'm done.  My knees just can't take the uphill climbs or the downhill slopes.  I have tried on two attempts and that's all.  If I ever complete the whole trail it will be by doing a section at a time.  My knees just do not work like they did years ago, so I am happy to be home.  Today while I was waiting for my wife to pick me up, I was sitting in the Holiday Inn Express with my back to the lobby door when I hear someone call my name.  When I turned around there stood a hiker from North Carolina that said Jane had just dropped him off and told him that if he saw me to say Hi.  This hiker thought he might have broken a bone in his foot.  He had been sitting at Unicoi Gap for about 2 hours when someone offered him a ride.  That someone was none other than my trail angel, Jane Kuck. Here is a picture of Jane and I.

In yesterday's post I mentioned that God puts people in our path to help us or teach us something.  I failed to mention that sometimes it may be us that God is using to help someone else.  It is quite possible that we may not even be aware of it at the time.  We may never put it together that God used us in that way.  One thing I am sure of, Jane is a true trail angel.  As the hiker told his story to me, and I shared how Jane had just appeared on the trail to help me we both agreed that Jane is one of those special people, a true trail angel.

What did I accomplish on my journey?  I did cover 52.9 miles of the AT plus the 8 miles of the Approach Trail that do not count.  Added together I hiked 66 miles.  For anyone who is doing the math remember I hiked a 5.5 mile section twice.  What was the most enjoyable part?  I would have to answer the nights at Blood Mountain Cabins.  I am really a couch potato and enjoy the comforts of home as opposed to sleeping in a tent.  The reality is that I knew my knees were in bad shape because I had to have help to stand up after crawling out of my tent in the morning.  I always made sure that my hiking poles were real close when I crawled into my tent because I needed them to help me get up each morning.  I am not convinced that being overweight had that much of an effect on my knees, but it probably did add to the problem.  Another best part would be the people that I met along the way.  Every person that I met was very friendly.  Sometimes you would know and remember a persons name, like Tom who had just gotten out of the Navy and started hiking. Or you would know them by a trail name, like Slo-Mo and Green Mile, a father and son hiking part of the trail. Or, you would just remember the state where a person was from, like the hiker from Maine that I gave all my food.  Everyone who passed me usually stopped to talk for a minute or two.  Was I ever discouraged?  Sure.  This occurred almost every time I looked up and thought I was just about to reach the top of a mountain only to find out that I was wrong and the top was still uphill some more.  Or when I did reach a mountain top only to be able to see the next mountain I would be climbing and dreading the climb I knew was ahead.  I could do pretty good on level ground, but there wasn't much of that anywhere.  Was there anything I did not like?  Yes, the taste of hot water from a 2 liter bladder bag I carried.  When I was  thirsty warm water was not what I needed to quince my thirst.  I really believe that if I had found someone hiking at my slow pace to pair up with I would have enjoyed it more and could have gone further.  The old saying "misery loves company" has a lot of truth there.  Don't get me wrong, I am proud of my journey.  I now know that I am one of the 7 out of 10 that do not complete a thru hike.  From now on I will be a weekend camper, a couple of days at a time.

What's next for me?  I will turn my attention to my garden and start fishing again.  I will put my hiking equipment up for now and maybe try to do another section next year.  I will continue with this blog because it is all about my life journey.  More to come later.

Day 10

Today was agonizing.  Instead of the 7 miles that I thought I would be walking it turned out to be 9.5 miles after yesterday's 11.5 miles from Neels gap to Low Gap Shelter.  I will admit that from Hogpen Gap to Low Gap was the longest 4.5 miles I ever walked until today.  I met 4 hikers all young college kids. One was from Maine so I gave him all the extra food I was carrying.  He was glad to get it. They broke camp early and were on their way about the time I was crawling out of my tent.  The first 5 miles was fairly level.  Knees were feeling fine. Then the terrain changed to climbing up and down rocks and roots.  The uphills were tough on the knees and the downhills were treacherous causing me to go even slower.  A day hiker passed me for the second time. Once going and once coming back.  As he passed he said that "if you ever got lost just look for the rocks and the roots".  Then he was gone. With about 3 miles to go I stopped to refill my water. Just uphill from the water was a shelter.  I passed it heading for Unicol Gap   The day was running out.  I truly believe that God puts people in our paths to teach us something or to help us in some way.  With 2.5 miles to go I met a trail angel. A lady by the name of Jane Kuck (cook) appeared behind me.  She was a day hiker out looking at flowers and looking for Ramp.  She mentioned that she was from Hiawassee and parked at Unicol Gap.  I asked her that if I could keep up with her could she give me a ride into Hiawassee.  She said yes, but let me lead so she would make sure not to leave me behind.  That way I could choose when to rest.  As we walked she pointed out the different kind of plants and flowers I had been seeing along the trail.  As we talked about families and hiking the miles passed much easier.  After we got to her car we drove to the Holiday Inn.  She waited until I got checked in then I asked her to let me take her picture so, we asked a stranger to take a picture of us.  I will post that tomorrow once I download the pictures from my camera.  Two things popped into my head.  One the book by Dale Evans "Angels Unaware".  The other was the song "Angels Amoung Us".   To me she was the ultimate trail angel.  More to come tomorrow. 

Day 9

Longest hike yet.  I did the 5.5 miles from Neels Gap to Tesnatee Gap, which I had hiked before. Beautiful mountain views.  From there I started hiking up the road and was picked up by some day hikers who had passed me on the trail.  So, I got a ride to Hogpen Gap which was about 1/2 mile up the mountain road   At that point the sign said 4.5 miles to Low Gap Shelter. This was the longest 4.5 miles I have ever done.  The path was straighter but as soon as you topped one mountain you saw the next one you were about to go up.   I was beginning to think I had missed the shelter when I finally reached it just before dark.  I am way to slow a hiker only covering less than a mile an hour.  I can't go any faster.  About mile 3 I was feeling great when I stepped off a rock and felt pain in my knee.  For a while the pain only occurred when going downhills but by the end of the day it was hurting on the uphills to. There is no pain on an almost level path.  I have decided to end my hiking for this year.  I need to do 7 miles today to get to a point where I can get a ride to the next town.  That way my wife, Amy, can pick me up as she returns from her visit in Virginia.  More to come later