There is something about the stillness of a clear fall afternoon that is so restful. That is, until the cats discover that not only are you outside, but that your lap is available for casual occupation. Bold and Darth Fluff approached at the same time but Bold got the lap space. She turned around once and flopped. Then she belched. Evidently, her early supper met with approval. After sitting for a few minutes and soaking up attention, she decided to jump down and chase away one of the other cats.
After Bold got down, Blaze decided it was her turn. Then I had three of them (with the addition of Little Blue and Snip) for a little while. I didn't really have room for three, but none of them wanted to give way for the others.
A recent project we built in the garden was a large raised bed. I've been reading about hugelkultur and decided I wanted to do a version of that, after all, we have the raw materials in abundance and it would be shame not to utilize them. It sure beats leaving them to rot in place.
I wanted to build the bed using three courses of concrete blocks around the sides. I thought it would be a good working height. Unfortunately, we are short on concrete blocks, so we started looking for other materials. I suggested to my husband that even decent wooden pallets could work. We found a free source on Craig's list and were able to get enough to build the project. Right now the bed is four feet high by four feet wide by twelve feet long. (I think if I was going to do it again, I'd cut the pallets in half so the beds were only two feet high.)
Because of the large gaps between the pallet slats, we utilized an old pool liner on the inside of the pallet walls. Not a pretty solution, but it keeps the bed contents in place. Landscape fabric would be good to use the next time we do this. The pallet frame was situated in an over grown section of the garden. Think weeds and light brush. The whole bed was filled to overflowing with leafy brush, then we pressed it down with short chunks of heavy dried branches. The brush compressed down to less than a foot thick and then the heavier wood filled up the bed to about two thirds full. On top of that we piled wood chips to help fill in the gaps and then we added grass clippings, chicken manure, and composted leaves. The final few inches at the top of the bed were filled with soil we had built over the past couple of years with organic materials.
The whole time we were building this, the cats stayed out of the way, but their curiosity with the new bed was evident with their tracks the day after we finished putting the dirt in. They all agreed that my new winter garden bed should be a cat play ground. The only trouble was they didn't consult me before making their decision. I didn't spend two days of hard labor just to entertain my cats!
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