Time suckers: Hot tubs and gardens

I was just going to water the garden.  That is all.  I wasn't dressed for down and dirty.  Just put on the sprinkler, and walk away.

Well.

I remembered that I wanted to put in permanent markers for the different plants (as opposed to the plastic thing sticking in the ground) and so I found the metal things and a stapler and started that "project."  Then I realized that many of the little plants had yellow leaves.  So I nipped those off.  Then I decided that it was time to come up with something for the peas -- so that they could grow up instead of trailing on the ground.

As you can see from the above picture, the garden is no longer sexy looking.  It looks like a carnival.  But the DAMN dogs kept running into it, and so I had to come up with something quick and dirty to take care of THAT problem.  GRRRR.  So with the few stakes I could come up with and the last bit of orange tape and some string, I came up with one ugly fence!  Well, it works.  I did that yesterday.

One of the DAMN dogs, waiting for someone to throw a stick.

I love the stakes and string combo, so that is what I devised for the peas.  I still need to come up with something for the tomatoes, but I am going to wait and see which ones survive.  Between all this rain and wind, some are taking quite a hit.  On the other hand, those that are weathering all the things thrown at them are getting quite hearty.  Survival of the fittest!  Always in play, even in the garden.

I found two little towers in the greenhouse to use as pea fences too!

So, before I knew it, I was dirty and well, I decided to check out the hot tub to see how that fared.  We have had nothing but headaches with that thing since we got it, however many years ago.  Peter has tried everything to get it "right," and it was all good until last summer, when he decided to drain it and not use it until Fall.  BIG mistake.  All this gook hardened in the lines and since then we have been battling what basically looks like dry skin floating around.  It was beyond disgusting, and no one would even go in it, so we drained it yesterday and I climbed in and scrubbed it within an inch of its life.  Then we refilled it.

Well.  The thing is, we can't use the artesian well to fill it, because it is 500 gallons and we don't have that much water.  So.  We have a dug well and so we use that, and we have a filter attached to it so that the water goes in clean.  But it has too much something in it, some brown mineral, so the water always turns brown.  When I opened up the tub, alas, BROWN TEA again, and more of that crap stuff floating.  I told Peter and he said he was done.  He quit.  Wasn't going to deal with it anymore.

So I have been running the clean cycle over and over and over and cleaning out the filters.  And somehow, the day seems to be disappearing before I can even decide what I am going to "do!"