the moment i arrived in belmont around 11:45am, i was in the backyard doing yard work. my father had moved the cars out of the driveway so we could get access to the lawnmower. he also wheeled the tent stove into the backyard and was burning some wood. but the thing i noticed the most when i set foot outside was the stench of chicken manure. my father had opened a new bag, and had sprinkled some manure around the backyard. the smell was so foul, i was afraid neighbors would complain. i ended up putting some leaf compost on top of the raw chicken manure to cover up the smell, but i could still smell outside, as i kept discovering new places where my father applied the manure.
i brought a roll of clear vinyl sheet that i had at my place, hoping to repair the cloche. but my father said the material wasn't thick enough, and would sag. besides, the fix is a little bit more involved; other than screws, the cloche also has a few rivets that need to replaced as well. i'll need to find a thicker vinyl sheet (i measured, at least 0.5-0.6mm; the sheet that i had was just 0.3mm).
we cut up the stack of remaining maple branches sitting on top of the picnic table and put them into 5 garden refuse bins. i did some raking, cleaning up the leaf debris around the southwestern corner of the yard. whenever i saw an dandelion or some creeping bellflowers, i'd dig them up. i redug the bamboo moat, and discovered half a dozen escaping rhizomes that i either tried to dig up or i simply sprayed with roundup in the hopes of killing them. we moved out all the rain barrels, but we need to recaulk them before they can be used, as a few barrels were leaking last season. my father also helped me move one of the southern bed hostas. my father mowed the lawn, but there was hardly any grass tall enough to cut yet so we didn't have any clippings for the compost, which is all shredded leaves at this point (at one point my father had to go and get more gasoline, this is probably our last season with this mower, we're thinking about upgrading to an electric one).
after finishing up with outside work, i was in the basement around 3:30pm, watering the plants. i also took a few outside (those that i found with mealy bugs) so i can spray them with neem oil. i pruned off any new cactus growth, as we want them to conserve their energy for when we move them outside.
one final inspection of the backyard around 5pm, i discovered our hops plant was starting to form some bines. we put a mesh fence around it to protect them from rabbits (though later i read rabbits don't eat hops).
by the time i was all finished with gardening work, it was already close to dinnertime. my father braised some pork and beef (the leftover barbecued beef chunks from yesterday) and cooked up some cabbage with eggs.
my father received another e-mail from the city, one last contract to sign before receiving the small business pandemic grant. the contact person needed a picture of a signed copy but also 2 hard copies sent to the city office (i'll drop it off after cafe work tomorrow).
i biked home after 7pm.