Okay, here we go with the garden again! I love the feeling of getting things planted and knowing that one of these days little green shoots will start poking there heads miraculously through cow poo and rotten food (that would be fertilizer and compost). Man, is it a lot of work to get to the point of having seeds finally in the ground! And the work is far from over...I guess we value things more when we've put a lot of work into it, which is soooo true when I take my first bite of a homegrown tomato or when the family is eating a meal that came from the garden, such as beet greens, potatoes, and our own "Biff loaf". I guess we didn't plant Biff, but God did loan him to us for a season and now he's in our freezer. Now why thatis not hard for me to say being from the city, I don't know... I think partly because of my parents' influence, neither of them originally being from "the city" (Boston, to be specific), and partially from living with Max for so long and knowing that it is the best beef we could have (or any other game meat we might have on the table), and I'm very thankful for it, as is Max.
I really feel like I've accomplished something not having Max here, yet still getting about a quarter of our large vegetable/fruit garden planted. It may not be a big deal for anyone else, but I've learned a lot being married to Max and living in the country, and I know I have soooooo much more to learn.
Today, in the midst of getting the ground ready, the sprinkler system set up, and getting beet seeds (a lot of them!) and swiss chard seeds planted, JB cut his foot pretty badly. The kids were playing outside while I was gardening but I wasn't paying much attention to the three eldest and the youngest I knew was safely with Gramma Shell (who is visiting while Max is away...thank you God!). With much resistance from JB, he got Hydrogen Peroxide dumped in the cut, then had to get a large skin flap cut off, then had to deal with me finding out when he had his last Tetanus shot (which, thankfully, was fairly recent), and finally had it bandaged.
He felt much better once the antibiotic, bandage, and sock were on, so I went back to gardening, at about dinner time. I put Gramma Shell in charge of dinner because I was going to get these seeds planted! Being the wonderful grandmother and mom-in-law that she is, she fed the kids, then went out and planted like 50 trees with Evelyn towing along behind her.
My planting seeds experience this evening would have been kind of funny to watch, except that I thought I was going to have to throw a pregnant kitty. Let me explain...I had soaked the beet and lettuce seeds thinking I was being so on top of things, but quickly realized that wet seeds are a pain to get in the ground! I decided to use the dripper lines as row markers, which wasn't such a bad idea 'cause it saved some work of having to string lines around sticks (I did learn something from last year's gardening!). I added some of our compost, which for some reason had lots of feathers, avocado pits, and mango seeds in it (mangos have huge seeds!)...now I'm just waiting for the avocado and mango trees to sprout, not to mention the dove trees (ewww). Anyway, after a few rows of having wet seeds stick to the tip of my fingers and being very frustrated, I found that if I threw the seeds into the dirt, I could plant them much faster. Granted, many of the seeds got planted in clumps, but at least they are planted, and I'm pretty sure they will come up and give us delicious beet greens and young lettuce greens, that I can then thin viciously.
As I was throwing seeds into the ground, our very pregnant kitty, Moo Moo, came and started wanting to be affectionate. This is normally a welcome thing, but my Mike's lemonade (all I could quickly find for refreshment...that's my excuse anyway) and bowls full of precious seeds-in-water were balancing on the wall of the raised bed and I was already having a hard time aiming my wet seeds at the little valley-rows I had dug. For the first several times that Moo Moo came wanting attention and walking stealthily along the wall, but still endangering my drink and my seeds, I placed her gently behind me. My frustration was mounting though and I have to admit, I tossed the pregnant kitty. Like any other kitty, she landed on her feet, and like the loving kitty that she is (not like any other kitty), she still loved me and stuck around, though not right in front of me nor near my seeds or drink.
Well, that was part of my day. The first part consisted of home schooling, trying in vain to get the kids to pay attention on the first nice day after 4 days of overcast skies and chilly temps. It was a beautiful day today and I'm so thankful for the craziness, as long as it's not craziness that sends us to the emergency room (close call today) or gets my Mike's knocked over, or means that I'm stressed out. This kind of craziness is actually a bit refreshing...
