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Hi Everyone,
The last few months have been pretty challenging here on the farm—and I have shared many of those trials with you. Our hearts have been blessed as you have remembered us in your prayers, offered words of encouragement, and shed tears with us. Last Sunday something happened that has given me great joy this week and has encouraged me to step back and “smell the roses”. That something was an inch of rain—and the after results have been breathtaking. So grab a cup of tea, and find a cozy spot where you take some time with me to sit back and enjoy life.
Last fall I attended a Bulb Class at the local IFAS County Extension office. I came home with 30 tulip bulbs for Mama to plant. She got them planted—and the chickens, cats, and an armadillo tried their best to keep digging some of them up. I think that around 13 actually sprouted. A few put up flower stalks just in time for them to be frozen and killed—but one survived and last week after the rain it bloomed a pretty pink. People have put “meanings” to different flowers and different shades of flowers, and I found it very interesting when I saw that a pink tulip is what you would send to someone to say you care. Yes, it is a reminder that God cares about us and He has placed beauty all around us for us to enjoy and to help turn our eyes upon Jesus.
While the tulips were pleasing to my eyes, my ears were being tickled by the sound of the Spring Peepers. I have been listening for them since January—but it was too cold and too dry. The rain last week did not bring a cold front—but a touch of Florida spring. I have always said that I do not want to live anywhere where spring doesn’t start February 1. By the middle of January I am tired of dark clothes—I am ready for pastels and spring florals. Yes, I buy pretty material just to make dresses that I can wear to milk the cows and play in the garden. I am not a blue jean girl. The average person may not be able to tell the difference between my Sunday best and my farm best—but I can. I have learned though that if I want to wear pink I need to make sure that it has some brown in the print for I do not believe that cows like solid pink—they always seem to add a touch a brown to my pink dresses. We were talking about frogs though. Yes—frogs! Spring peepers are nothing more than a sweet sounding frog that sings only when the night temperatures are perfect and once the spring rains begin. Their sound is so calming and I could sleep on the porch just to listen to them sing. Another evening sound I heard last night as I was brushing out my hair after a shower was the neighborhood barred owls—or hoot owls. They sound like monkeys making a fuss.
I am definitely a bear when it comes to cold weather—all I want to do is hibernate inside where it is warm. Last week’s rain brought beautiful spring weather with it and I had no desire to stay inside. The winter freezes had taken their toll on the kale, Swiss chard, celery, strawberries, and a few of the cool season flowers. I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the gardens last week trimming off the dead and exposing the fresh new growth. All the bottom leaves on the stalks of kale turned a pale yellow because of the hard freezes—so I stripped them off and fed them to the chickens. The celery was ripe for harvesting—and then the freezes hit and turned them mushy and spongey. I wasn’t sure how much had survived but I could tell that there were some good green leaves and stalks sticking out above the melted heaps of pale yellow-green frozen celery stalks. Once I had them all cleaned up I was blessed to find the majority of the plants had survived. I had faith that they would, since you can cut off the top of a store bought celery bunch and plant the base in the ground or stick it in a glass of water and it will grow celery. I spent one day in the greenhouse cutting off all the dead flower stalks of Mama’s five Dianthus plants she bought last fall and has never gotten around to planting them in her courtyard garden. Then I trimmed off all the dead leaves and burnt flowers on my strawberry plants that I am growing in half moon PCV pipes. They were looking pretty poorly due to severe cold temps—and my lack of watering. I was ready to give up on them and told Mama that if she wanted to salvage any to plant in her courtyard gardens that she had better hurry up and do it before they all died. Then I took a closer look at them and saw all kinds of new growth and a few crisp white strawberry flowers and at least one little bitty green strawberry that restored my hope and I cancelled my offer to Mama and decided to give the strawberries the much needed TLC that they needed.
Thursday and Friday I had help from Micah in the Market Gardens. We did some weeding—but mostly prepping. He got a bed ready for me to plant some more red potatoes. We had planted two full rows last week—but I had 11 little potatoes left over. I decided to plant them instead of letting them go to waste. Later when Micah was broadforking the future green bean bed he dug up a little potato that we had missed last fall when we harvested the potatoes that I grew in the row—so I added it to the bed of 11 potatoes. Since I am growing green beans in the Market Garden tunnels I plan on planting green beans tomorrow—but I needed to prep the beds beforehand since I wouldn’t have Micah’s help in the garden tomorrow (it is his day to wash the milking equipment). Since green beans need some nitrogen but not a lot—I had Micah add a thin layer of composted cow and chicken manure to the bed before he broadforked it in. I am not happy with the “soil” of those beds. They remind me more of beach mud than garden soil. I still had a very small hill of the beautiful compost we bought a few years back and we pulled the tarps back form that and added a few buckets of it down the middle of the two beds—for I only plant beans in the middle since the plants grow so big and seem to cover the walkways. Then I dug up shovels of composted woodchips out of the walkways and used it to line the edges of the beds on both sides to help “make” better soil and to suppress the weeds.
Preparing gardening beds isn’t always about weeding and composting—sometimes it is about pest control too. A few years ago we just happened to build our garden tunnels over some BIG ant beds. The ground was tarped for months and they seemed to have moved out—but over the winter they seemed to have moved back inside. A couple of weeks ago Micah and I took a shovel of ants from each mound and added them to the other mound in hopes that they would fight to the death. Well, it seems that they were happy to see Aunt Thelma and Cousin Betty. So we pulled out the guns—five gallon buckets of water and an abundance of Dawn Dish soap. The BIG cities are gone—but little villages have popped up in their places—or in nearby areas. So it looks like we need to go to war again. If they were not setting up housekeeping in between my rows of green beans I wouldn’t care but with the bushes growing big enough to cover the walkways (and hide the ant beds) and since it is impossible to harvest green beans without sitting (or standing) in one spot for a lengthy amount of time—it is the perfect recipe for ants to conquer humans. I prefer to conquer them first! Hopefully we can encourage those who survive to get out of Dodge and move to the next “town” over—but not in my house please.
The weather outside was in the 80’s by day and 60’s by night—which has been just perfect. A few times I have found myself drawn to the rocking chair on the front porch of the Cracker Shed. It was just for a few minutes here and there—but it was just enough to relax and recharge and take notice of the beauty all around me. Yes, the next few days are supposed to be back in the 50’s and 20’s—but the sun will still be shining and it is only for a few days. Then the temps return to the 70’s and 50’s and I am sure the spring peepers will sing once again.
I hope that you are able to take time to enjoy the small things in life that bring beauty to our everyday lives.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare