Raised Bed Garden

Good morning to you guys, and welcome back to Coverin the Base! Thanks for coming, and we hope all’s well in your neck of the woods today.

We’ve got some video for you today of the finished product in regards to our raised bed gardens. We’ll still probably put some type of arched entrance coming into the garden area, but other than that, I think we’ve got a done deal!

Once more, we planted these raised bed gardens to show that you don’t have to have much room in your yard, to indeed produce a substantial amount of produce. I believe and we’ll see as time goes by, that these gardens will give you a good yield, a much better tasting product than store bought, allow you some good family time, and save ya’ a buck or two in regards to the ole grocery bill!

If you haven’t tried it in the past, what have you got to lose by just, “giving it a shot?” I think you’ll soon see, the good far exceeds the bad.

We’ve got a problem on our hands this morning here at our place. Dale, who works with us, loves to take our dog, Calley, for a walk. Well this morning they were on their daily commute, walking the property line.

The back side of our property abuts to State owned land, essentially a Park. The two property lines are through heavily wooded, and in many areas, swampy land. We have 15 head of beef cows, and Dale and Calley found one this morning mired down in a bog…belly deep.

Deb and I went and picked up Gary, who helps us on the place some, but mainly works with our son Mark, on the paving crew. We’ve called Mark in as well, so we can all get out in the swamp to see if we can free her up.

I’ve not been out there yet myself this morning, but am fixing to go as soon as Mark arrives. I’m not sure yet with what we’re faced with, but do know that if she’s bogged down belly deep, we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Hopefully we can literally dig her out enough that she’ll get out on her own with our help. If not, we may have to build an A-Frame hoist out of lumber above her, to run a strap up under her belly, and come-along her out. We’ll just have to see, and then weigh our options.

It wasn’t a month ago, I was coming back home and Deb called to tell me a truck had run through our fence. This means our cows could get out on the highway, which is not a good thing!

Luckily, our oldest son Josh and his family, pulled up while Deb was on the phone with me, and shut the cows out of the pasture the guy had run through the fence in. I swear, it’s something all the time, but that’s just part of it!

Well, Mark’s just pulled up so I’ll be back with you guys directly!

Well, we’re back, but the news isn’t good. We got her up out of the muck bog she was in, but she never attempted to move her back legs at all. We strung cable between two trees and put two straps underneath her. We hooked those into a big come-along and jacked her to her feet. We kept her up for about two and a half hours but she never moved her back legs.

Her back legs were what had really bogged down, and we tried stretching them out and moving them around, with no luck. We finally eased her back down and she attempted to get back up, but only using her front legs.

She drank almost two 5 gal. buckets of water, and ate several cattle cubes and some sweet-feed. I thought about going to town and get some B-12 but I don’t think it’ll do any good.

We’ve left her water and feed beside her so, possibly by in the morning, she might be a little better. If not we’ll have to do something with her. She’s just give out. The guys talked me into giving her the night to rehydrate, but I believe it’s to no avail.

Deb and I saw her day before yesterday, but we had rain, all night before last, and up until noon, or so yesterday. So she’d been there for two days, bogged down. During winter, they go all over these woods eating tree leaves, or palm fronds, just about anything. We hay, cube them, and keep plenty of mineral out for them, but they still have to fend for themselves to an extent, as there’s just little to no grass during that time of the year.

I hate it because she was a good cow, and a good Momma. Life’s a cycle though, somebody’s always checking out, and somebody’s always checking in. It’s a shame, but God’s will.
Where was I?

As I said earlier, our raised bed gardens are completed, and 99% of the landscaping around them, are now complete as well. We’ll have a short video for you to see the finished product.

We hope by our showing the construction, planting, and finished product in regards to raised bed gardening, that this has been a help to some. Again, this takes very little space, and the landscaping possibilities for them are literally endless.

If you decide to put these on your project list, we wish you all the best, and may, they provide you many hours of enjoyment, and good, fresh produce to put on the table!

How about a couple cartoons and maybe a joke or two to end this up today? I don’t know about you guys, but I could stand a couple!

Thank-you for coming to visit with us once again, and please hug your children!

May God Bless you all! Keep your eyes open, and your nose in the wind!

Dub