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Hi Everyone,
I think that I could divide my days into three actions: making a “To Do List”, marking off the things on my list that I did, and not marking off the things I didn’t get around to. Lately it seems that most of the items on my “To Do Lists” go unmarked, and they seldom get marked off on the day that I planned to do them. Maybe I am just dreaming too big, maybe things take longer to do than I think they should, or maybe we have too many things on the table and not enough hands to accomplish it all. Whatever it is, I can thankfully say that: Little by little things do get accomplished.
Back in November, around Thanksgiving, I started onion seeds. I know that I planted well over 800 seeds that resembled little black specks. A little more than 50% of the seeds actually sprouted and survived all the freezes and were ready to transplant out last week. I would have loved to have had the garden ready to plant them last Monday—but when we harvested the sweet potatoes back in October or November we didn’t take the time to cover the ground with a tarp, and therefore weeds took over. I was thankful that out of seven beds only one was a thick carpet of weeds—all the others were just scattered weeds. So after lunch on Monday, Steve and I worked at weeding the garden beds in the East Garden. One of the beds had some spent bok choy that had gone to seed, and I finally got around to harvesting the seeds so that Steve could pull up the plants. Over the course of a few hours we were able to get four of the seven beds weeded. Then our day was over and Papa needed some help.
We had a hayride at our Farm to Table Dinner the Saturday before, and the hay wagon needed to be parked in the barn lean-to so that the hay would not get wet. Papa thought that he and Steve could push and I could steer—but Papa wasn’t sure if I could pick up the tongue of the hay wagon. It is about eight feet long and is made of very thick metal. Picking it up was no problem, but when I attempted to steer it I found that the tires didn’t turn to easily in the grass—BUT I also found out that my feet moved too fast in the grass and I quickly found myself on my back and the tongue came crashing down on my knee. O what pain!!! It was the second time in four days that I found myself on my back—the first time I slipped on the icy ground and wrenched my arm and thumb. Thankfully the only problem with this fall was a very black and blue knee, and Papa fired me from the steering position. So I climbed into the wagon and gave directions: “a little to the right”, “more to the left”, “STOP!” It took about thirty minutes, with two men and the tractor to get the wagon finally parked into the barn.
When Thursday rolled around I headed back to the garden to prep for onion planting—but I was not alone. Shelby had contacted me earlier in the week wanting some hands on experience learning gardening. I told her that I would be prepping the garden for onions on Thursday and planting on Friday, and I would love her help either or both days. Shelby was able to come out Thursday and volunteer her help in exchange for some gardening know how. We took a tour of all the gardens first (the Market Gardens, The Cottage Garden, and the East and West Gardens), then we gathered our tools and took to weeding in the East Garden. When Steve was done washing the milking equipment and his lunch break, he joined us in the garden and was able to cover the weeded beds with some chicken compost—because onions like lots of nitrogen. Shelby and I topped the beds with wood ash—because onions like a lot of phosphorous. Then Shelby got the chance to use the broadfork—which is a little more exciting than weeding. It was going on 5:00 when Shelby finished the last bed that we were able to dust with wood ash—before we ran out of wood ashes. That gave us a total of three 30 inch wide x 20 foot long beds, and one 18 inch wide x 20 foot long bed. It was a pleasure working with Shelby and she was grateful for the info she had learned—and looks forward to coming back another day. Shelby is not the first person to come and volunteer to help in the garden for a chance to learn whatever she can about gardening—and I hope that she will not be the last. For years I have wanted to have Garden Volunteer Days, but have never figured out how to do it—but that changed after spending the afternoon with Shelby. So . . . if you long to work in a garden (and don’t have one of your own), or you want to learn more about gardening by a hands on approach then I invite you to come and spend Monday and Thursday afternoons (1:00 to 4:30/5:00) with me in the garden. All I ask is that you drop me an email: tpstreet@bellsouth.net and let me know that you plan on spending a certain day with me in the garden. There are always weeds to pull—and great fellowship to be had while doing that, but there will also be seeds to plant, seedlings to transplant, and the timing of it all to learn. There are five parts to gardening: Dreaming, Preparing, Planting, Maintaining the beauty, and harvesting. I would love to spend some time with you in the garden!
Friday morning I was about a third of the way done milking the cows when Mama showed up. The therapist had been able to get her hip back in and she was ready to give milking a try. I was skeptical (because I do not want her to injure it again), and I was thankful. Milking 16 cows was taking me 3 hours—when it would only take Mama and I two hours. With Mama helping me milk we got done by 11:00 and I was able to spend some time in the garden before lunch. First I broadforked the beds again, in order to mix the supplements into the soil a little more; and then I tilthed the beds, in order to smooth out the lumpy soil. It was then lunch time. After lunch I headed back out and topped all the beds with 16 five gallon buckets of our new compost (for I have found it to be a great weed barrier). Then I took the gridder down the rows in order to mark the spots to plant the onions. It was finally time to transplant the onions, and by 5:30 I crawled home after planting 460 onions. I managed to get all the tools into the back end of the Gravely—but I had to just park it in the barn because I had no strength left to put them all away.
On Saturday I had grand plans to clean my bathroom, scrub the grease out of the tablecloths from our Farm to Table Dinner, help Mama put away the dishes from the Farm to Table Dinner, practice my piano, and make some more elderberry syrup (my allergy relief)—BUT, after the milking was done, the kefir was bottled and the orders were packed I sat down to eat some lunch and found myself having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Mama suggested that I take a nap, but I argued that I had too much to do—but I finally gave in and laid down on the sofa and was out for a couple of hours. No, nothing on my “To Do List” got done—well, I did manage to practice my piano while dinner cooked, but the rest of the things will have to wait until another day. Tomorrow is Monday—and I have things to do in the garden. You want to join me?
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare