This weekend, I decided to prepare my precious garden beds for winter. This isn’t a simple process, but I had steady company – Zip was fascinated by the process and sat beside me all afternoon. I find myself talking to him, a troubling symptom of what I call animal dementia. God help me; I enjoyed his company.

This winter preparation is a complex operation for me. First, I use a hand rake to pull roots or root clusters from the summer flowers. I pull up any roots I see and dig out those that have formed big dirt blocks. When I get all the roots out and level the soil, I get a bag of unique bed soil and spread it evenly over the four beds, filling in any holes from the summer growth.

Then I get a wheelbarrow full of donkey manure – the best fertilizer I can imagine – and spread it all over the top of the soil in the beds. This takes about an hour and a half. After applying the fertilizer, I cover the beds in cardboard to keep weeds from growing and then place bricks all over the top to hold the cardboard down and protect the soil from the winter storms and cold.

I’ve decided to leave the Tin Man right where he is. Ed Gulley was no sissey; winter was a minor annoyance for him so the Tin Man would keep his place outdoors.

Zip has become my outdoor pal; he is always where I am, and he sat alongside me for the two hours it took to get the beds clean, replenished, and covered in manure, cardboard, and bricks. Zip seemed to have done this a hundred times. Every few minutes, he would hop onto the beds and get a scratch or hello. Then, he would jump up onto the soil bags and look out at the pasture. He just wanted to be close.

All done. The bed is ready for winter, thanks to the cardboard Maria saves and the bricks stashed away in the barn for one reason or another. It’s a beautiful feeling to get the bed all settled and ready for winter. The donkey manure will do its excellent work and seep down through the soil. The flowers will grow and shine. It was exhausting and triggered some of the fatigue I’ve been experiencing since my concussion.

I lay down and fell asleep for half an hour. I enjoyed every minute of it and am grateful for my new companion.