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Read to the bottom of the journal to see the hidden surprise under the rose arbor!
Hi Everyone,
Life can be very hard sometimes—and that is when you find comfort in the smallest of things. Winter was long and hard this year, and we have had our share of trials. I think that is why new spring growth is so precious to me this spring. I have four fig trees in pots—and over the winter they were just bare branches. I wasn’t sure if they made it. Then one by one, three of them popped with new spring green leaves. The old branches were mostly dead, but the new shoots are a good foot or more tall now. The orange tree has new green leaves on the ends of its branches—and even the poor naked holy tree that Mama had butchered is putting on some fresh green leaves. The new growth gives me hope, it gives me encouragement, it says, “I am alive, I survived!”
Lately I have been taking notice of projects around the farm that need to be accomplished—projects that are out of the ordinary, not on the routine chore schedule, and that typically will never get done anytime soon. One of those projects was the rose arbor in the back yard. A few years ago one of the passing hurricanes huffed and puffed a little too hard and blew it down. The worst part was that it fell across the opening of the gate to the back field. We have had to go the long way around for over a year now. Last Monday I decided that it was time to clean up the rotten and collapsed arbor. I was going to use the tractor to pick it up and remove it—but its fuel stomach was on empty (and Papa was not home). I then realized that I could use the drill and disassemble the trellis piece by piece. I also found a new tool—one I had never used before. I am not allowed to use any saws—circular or chop saws. Mama is afraid that I will cut my fingers or hands off (cautiousness isn’t really one of my trademarks so I cannot blame her). I had heard that Papa had bought a new blade for the Sawzall, and that it can be used to cut down small trees. I found the Sawzall and began to study it—I wanted to know just how safe or unsafe it was. It reminded me a lot of my electric drill. I didn’t see the new blade anywhere, but I did find a box of blades. Thankfully I know how to read—and took the time to read the fine print on the blades. Most said “metal” but one said, “Wood with nails”. I knew that was the blade I needed—but first I had to figure out how to get the metal blade out of the Sawzall. I am not completely incautious, so the first thing I did was to take the battery out so no accidents could happen. I finally found the little switch to unlock the blade and was able to swap the blades out. Micah was still washing the milking equipment so I began demolition by myself. The first thing I did was to cut back all the rose canes that were growing through the fallen down arbor so that I could get to the wood. Then I got all the exposed trellis disassembled screw by screw. Micah joined me just as things were starting to get a little tricky. I needed him to dig up some Poke weed—but last year’s dead poke weed plant was in the way and it was as big around as a little tree. It was time to pull out the Sawzall. I was impressed. With the poke weed plants out of the way I could now climb under the rose vines to get to the underneath side of the arbor so that I could get to the screws. I would unscrew the screws and Micah would pull out the wood. Then there was a cross piece that went through the middle of the rose bush and we couldn’t get to the slats because of the very thorny rose canes. I realized that the only way to get it out was to cut it up in smaller pieces—so Micah held the canes out of the way and I put the Sawzall to work. We got everything disassembled and removed that we could get to. There is still one cross piece—but it is six feet inside the hedge of thorns. The top part of the arbor where the metal panel was has the rose canes growing all through it—so it stays, though it is no longer high in the sky. In the end we had a nice cleared path to the gate again. It is also nice to be able to enjoy the beauty of the rose without all the rotten fallen down wooden arbor decorating it.
The next day Rosa gave birth to a little bull calf and Papa said that we should call him Thorny—I liked Thorn better. Thorn is very good at disappearing—and we have spent countless hours driving all over the farm looking for him. He has been found a few pastures over from where he was supposed to be; in between the Market Garden tunnels; in the middle of a field in the tall weeds—and under the rose bush where all thorns reside.
Mom had to take my Aunt to the doctors Tuesday morning so I milked her cows and mine. It wasn’t too bad since we are leaving the calves on the mama’s right now—which means we are only milking about half of the cows. I will never understand milk supply and demand. In the winter the demand is very high, and the supply is very low. Then come about the time there is lots of milk, the demand is low. So we take advantage of the calves and we let them have a bigger breakfast. If we need more milk we separate the calves, and when we have too much we leave the calves on the mama’s at night. When milking was over I did a little bit of “administrative work” before I fixed myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of kefir and headed to the Cottage Garden and had me a picnic lunch under the big oak tree. Then I went to work uncovering a 30 foot long piece of conveyor belt that we use in the walkways in the raised bed garden (Cottage Garden). I am fixing to plant Martha’s Vineyard with pumpkins and summer flowers—and I wanted to cover the garden hose so that we didn’t have to worry about cutting it or poking holes in it when we work in there. Since the majority of the Cottage Garden is so overgrown with no possible way to be retrieved by hand we have decided that one day it will have to be bulldozed away. I thought that it would be okay to go ahead and steal a piece of conveyor belt from one of the walkways that will be removed. The problem was that the walkway was covered in old leaves and dirt—so that had to be shoveled off. I had to get to it first so I headed to the house and grabbed the weed eater—another tool I have recently learned how to use, and I would call it a love/hate relationship. Blackberry briars, cat claw vines, wild grasses and goldenrod were thickly growing down the side of the walkway. I made them disappear with the weed eater—but the string broke too short when I was about two feet from the end. I tried to fix it, but I soon found myself lacking that knowledge. When I crossed paths with Papa later I asked him to please teach me something new—how to thread the weed eater string. I managed to get the mat completely uncovered, and I pulled up a third of it before it became too heavy and impossible for me. Then I went and weeded the garden bed where I grow roselles.
It was Thursday before I got to return to the garden—and since Steve was washing the milking equipment I had Micah’s help 100%. As soon as the milking was done we headed to the walkway to retrieve the 30 foot long conveyor belt. It is amazing what brawn can accomplish! Micah ripped that rubber mat right up and out—and it was very heavy. He got it folded in half and we ran a shovel through the middle bend and tied it to the Gravely so that we could drag it with ease closer to its new location. Then Micah had to drag it into Martha’s Vineyard and we got it set in place. It was then lunch time and Micha greatly deserved the break. When lunch was over we headed back out to the gardens. Micah composted and broadforked the beds in the East Garden, and I prepped the pumpkin bed. When Micah finished in the East Garden we swapped places—I tilthed the beds Micah had just composted and Micah finished prepping the pumpkin beds.
We spent about an hour “cleaning up” after lunch on Friday. The winter décor boxes still needed to be put back upstairs where they are stored, all the dishes needed to be put away from last week’s Pizza Dinner and all the silverware needed to be organized in its storage container. Then we had to wash down all the tablecloths and get them put away. When all that was done then we could go play in the garden—although I am not sure that Micah called it play. The border all the way around Martha’s Vineyard is supposed to be a flower border—so I needed about 256 feet, 5 feet wide covered in a thin layer of chicken compost. He would fill up the wheelbarrow and dump it and then I would spread it all out. I got the pumpkin bed all composted and tilthed too. Now I need to start watering the bed. Years ago we learned that you do not plow your fields in a drought because you will kill the grasses. We haven’t had rain in a long time, and I have not been watering Martha’s Vineyard—so it was really dry and it was really easy to pull up the weeds. We ran the shuffle hoe around then we just had to rake off the weeds—it was easy peasy.
This coming week I will begin transplanting vegetables and flowers out to the gardens—and I can hardly wait. I still need the flower border tilled in Martha’s Vineyard—and I still need to buy seeds for it. I am really looking forward to it. I also learned that I had better check the green beans. They have been flowering for weeks, and I have not taken the time to look inside to see if there are any green beans ready to harvest. I have a bad habit of looking at the green bean plants from a far to see if they are ready—but you cannot tell unless you are touching the plants and looking down inside. I will have to check them out tomorrow.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare
Rosa’s Thorn!