Black Rot and the Swimming Pool

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After days of fall in mud puddles and traipsing through poison ivy, all of my shoes needed a good run through the washer and dryer.





Funny how kids today have never heard of doing that. I guess when we were kids it was something we always had to do, but these days either kids don't get their shoes that dirty, or they they just toss them out. I'm not sure. But YES! You CAN wash tennis shoes.

You need sustenance for all that relacing though.





Oh, and just because...

This is a great book. Don't let the cartoonish cover throw you. This book is just as good for adults as it is for the younger set.





I am always astonished at the lack of common sense I see in this world, and this book will help you learn to spot it, name it, and answer to it when you are faced with it.

The fig trees were pruned again. We began by cutting out all the bare wood on the first tree.





But we saw that some of that bare wood still had some life in it. It was hard to judge how high up that life went.

So we ended up leaving the rest at shoulder height.





Black rot has indeed made an appearance in our grapes. Michael went out and plucked off all the leaves with spots on them.









I know I should thin the clusters, but it's astonishing just how many there are.





Blackberries just about to bloom.





Maybe these are baby kiwi fruit? I hope so!





Time to take the pool deck apart.









Need to clear the earth away from the posts. None of that was there originally, just a bank. It had all eroded down and piled against the original pool.





Our stash at the back of the place comes in handy. We had torn down a barn a few years ago, and it still yields good stuff.





Part of it up!





Office cleaning awaited us, so we called it quits before we got much further.

A good day's work!

~Faith

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