Monday: We were back at prepping the beds. It is an irregular patch, so we talked over how we thought we could get the most uniform sized beds out. Then Neil cut bamboo stakes so we could begin measuring and marking it out. We managed to get 10 nice 2' x 23' with 1' paths and a couple smaller beds towards the farm's 'tractor road'. Very exciting! I walked out all the strings, tying at one end, tossing the twine over and Neil would put measure, put in the stakes and tie them off. It worked really well. There is so much good fluffy soil, we couldn't stomp the paths down, so we are making raised beds. Digging topsoil from the paths to add to the beds. We are planting mainly perennials here and some flowers, so we really want to make these beds the best we can now as we won't be digging them up again next year like annual beds. 
We love having the bamboo around to use as stakes, strong, lightweight and readily available. Neil transplanted some on Saturday to start curving it around from the driveway a bit. It is similar to blackberries in that it spreads. But it is very functional and doesn't try to hurt you... It is a great wind and sound block on the north side of our house.
We listened to Terry Gross with Bill Moyer's on Fresh Air for the last hour we were digging 7-8pm. It helped. My uncle John sent us a link about this Moyers' special - BUYING THE WAR - it sounds fascinating and makes us wish we had a small tv for PBS. Moyers is back weekly with his new show 'Bill Moyers Journal'. Hopefully we will be able to get it and other episodes through netflix this winter to watch on the computer.
Quite a bit more digging to be done, but the prep is really moving forward and it takes a long time for most of our perennial herb seeds to germinate, so we have time. 
