The Garden Plot.

Yesterday morning, when we returned from Mass, we found the workers at the house getting ready to put in the new windows. It took them most of the day to complete the work, but I believe they did a good job.

We picked a tinted glass for the individual window panels. Because of a covered area built on one side of the house, there's no problem with sunlight coming in through the windows in the kitchen or living room. The bedroom window is a different story; the bedroom gets quite a lot of afternoon sun. The tinted widow panels help. While these tinted windows don't keep out 100% of the sunlight, it's much better than clear glass would be.

Later in the afternoon, when the sun wasn't beaming down quite so strongly, we went to Mama and Papa's place in Tubtubon to gather carabao manure for my little garden plot.

My wife's papa and I took a shovel and an empty feed sack and crossed over into a neighboring farmer's land. This particular farmer has quite a few carabao and gathering the manure was no problem. As a matter of fact, we shoveled up about 25 or 30 kilos until I had Papa stop; he would have gathered even more, if I hadn't.

The area I have allotted for my little garden plot doesn't get sunlight until 10:30 or 11:00, so I was out first thing this AM (before 7 ) digging in the plot. The space isn't really large, only about nine feet by nine feet, but it'll take me a few days to dig up the spot. Unfortunately, portions of the area will stay completely shaded and I can't use the entire 81 sq. ft..

I'm using a shovel and doing a variation of the French Intensive method of gardening. It's slow going - shoveling, removing stones and grass roots. But, once I've finished and put out the manure, this little area can be used for a long time to come.

I'll be taking before and after shots to document my progress on the garden. As an added bonus, this photo includes one of the new jalousie windows. No before photos of the windows, however.