If I had good sense, I would stay inside the house when it's dry. There's this problem with road dust. Actually, it's timing. Timing is everything. When there has been rain, there is no dust. When there has been rain, the soil can't be cultivated.
All of the above explains why my cough has returned. I had to get the garden tilled for the tomatoes and peppers. . There were potatoes to hill. Mowing was required in order for the garden to have mulch. It was imperative to get plants in the ground while it was perfect for planting.
The Criterion apple tree was loaded with baby apples. I spent many hours, over three days, on a ladder, snipping off the excess apples with a small scissors. There's nothing like looking over my head while wearing trifocals and perching on a stepladder on a steep hill. Did I mention having vertigo?
All my endeavors coincided with the maximum amount of road dust. All the farmers had the same idea. They rumbled by on enormous tractors, hauling huge discs, planters and other implements for mass planting. They created great clouds of airborne dirt. Before that, the road grader guy bladed the gravel and exposed the dirt to the strong wind, always blowing toward my place, which is too close to the road. Trucks of every weight limit and size went by so fast that I listened to hear them hit the bridge after not making that last bend in the road. There were 18-wheel grain trucks on unknown missions, since there is no harvest in spring. Smaller trucks pulled twin tanks of anhydrous ammonia, the non-organic answer to fertility. It was like a buffalo stampede.
Every day, I got out a fresh surgical mask. I donned it when a vehicle was heard approaching. Where I went wrong was I miscalculated the amount of fine particulate matter that remained suspended in the air.
Last September, I had microbial pneumonia, also called Walking Pneumonia. It coincided with the harvest stampede. I coughed until after Christmas. I was all better until spring gardening fever got me. For my sacrifice, I do have things coming up in the garden.
The broccoli and cabbage plants are looking great, after I applied a little liquid organic Thuricide to the chomping worms.
These miniature bok choys are Toy Choys. They are adorable and tasty
The Little Sweetie snow peas are just starting to bear.
The Love Lies Bleeding are strangely pretty. It has not escaped my notice that I don't have to have a vegetable garden or more flowers. What's the fun in that?
