Take out the trash day …
I have already confessed to being partial to a bit of Beethoven and also to a weakness for a good Gilbert and Sullivan tune. Another of my favourites is Aaron Sorkin’s political TV series, The West Wing. One of the episodes in Series 1 has the same name as this blog post. The relevant dialogue between the Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman, and his assistant, Donna Moss, goes as follows.
DONNA: What's “Take Out the Trash Day”?
JOSH: Friday.
DONNA: I mean what is it?
JOSH: Any stories we have to give the press that we're not wild about we give all in a lump
on Friday.
DONNA: Why do you do it in a lump?
JOSH: Instead of one at a time?
DONNA: I'd think you'd want to spread them out.
JOSH: They've got X column inches to fill, right? They're gonna fill them no matter what.
DONNA: Yes.
JOSH: So if we give them one story, that story's X column inches.
DONNA: And if we give them 5 stories...
JOSH: They're a fifth the size.
DONNA: Why do you do it on Friday?
JOSH: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.
This post feels a bit like take out the trash day because there is no one big project to report on but rather a series of smaller ones that are nonetheless exciting – at least to us! Most important, we have harvested our first produce from the veggie patch – silverbeet and lettuce. It tasted absolutely delicious. Quite by surprise we also harvested a bunch of small perfect new potatoes from our first batch of home made compost. They grew unnoticed in the roots of some potato plants we composted. Cath put in time weeding the very front of the cottage where a couple of callistemon bushes planted by the previous owners are flowering and look quite beautiful. This aspect has a spectacular view looking south down the Huon River which our current cottage doesn't quite capture properly and is the stuff of renovation dreams.
Then we planted up the wine barrels we bought the other day, two of which now have a classic Provençale combination of olive trees and lavender. The other two have some lovely pink geraniums to add a splash of colour.
To complete the re-modelling of the entrance hall and laundry (see “Artist in residence …”), Cath did some fancy work with the ceiling plasterboard. The result is that new matching lights now adorn the ceilings in both the entrance hall and laundry. Finally, after slashing the paddock out the back of the shed, we started to mark out the orchard which we plan to stock with apple, pear and plum trees. We will have to undertake a significant program of soil improvement before we can plant up the orchard next year.
Speaking of soil improvement, the only other incident of note this week, concerns out decision to pile up heaps of horse manure at strategic places in the garden and allow it decompose slowly over the course of a year. This will not only improve the existing soil but also provide an extra layer of organic-rich material on top. Prior to making this decision, it always seemed to us that the Huon Valley abounded with little side-of-the-road stalls advertising $2 / bag horse manure, but we soon discovered that economic theory has not penetrated this far south. Clearly many folk are out there looking for horse dung and most of the stalls sit empty as gardeners scavenge the country side for a decent haul of the stuff. Of course, a simple price increase would resolve the scarcity issue but I am more than happy to incur the search costs at the moment and not leak this bit of intel.
The other day we noticed that one of our favourite spots had restocked so we grabbed the trailer and set off. We had just started to load when a white people-mover screeched to a halt next to us. An aggressive man leaped out and demanded to know how many bags we were taking. Just to see the reaction and have some fun, I said that as there were only 10 bags we planned to take the lot. The late arrival nearly suffered an aneurysm while remonstrating forcibly that he have half the haul. I suppressed my inner economist’s urge to a lecture him on the fact that us taking all 10 bags was a Pareto Optimal distribution of the dung, because I surmised my antagonist wouldn’t appreciate either the subtlety of the argument or the humour of the situation. So instead I simply enjoyed the moment in silence and shared a conspiratorial eye-roll with Cath. If you had suggested to me even a couple of months ago that I would be standing on the side of the road in the southern-most municipality in Australia, in danger of being assaulted by a total stranger because of a disagreement concerning the equitable distribution of a load of horse dung, I would have told you not to be absurd.
Subsequently we discovered that one of our neighbours operates a horse poo stall and he has now promised to deliver us his entire stock as it becomes available. A perfect theorist’s solution – corner the local market. Unfortunately, he only has three elderly rescue ponies and their output isn’t quite as prolific as we would have hoped …
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