Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Down On The Farm


Yesterday I worked in the garden all day long. I weeded and I mulched and I dug trenches and put composted chicken shit in them and I planted cucumbers and I tied up tomatoes.



I planted two eggplants and my peppers look so good that I think I'll go buy a few more to put in. I've pulled up the bolted mustard and fed them to the goats next door. Those goats run to the fence when they see me coming. The baa and they bump each other out of the way as I toss the spent plants over and they pull at the greens and tear them from the stems and munch them with great and obvious delight.

The potatoes are doing well and I think we could probably dig up a few already. I love the way just-pulled-from-the-ground potatoes respond to the knife. They're so crisp they practically explode away from it in pieces. If you cut them. Which I don't, if they're the new, baby ones.
I'm excited to see how my blue potatoes turn out. They're the shorter row on the right.

All day as I worked, it threatened rain. Thunder to the northwest and great dark clouds and even a few heavy drops but then nothing. Nothing at all. By the time I finished I turned on the sprinklers, thinking that surely that would get the rain to come, but no, it did not. I kept checking the radar and it looked like surely we would get a squall at least, but radar lies, children, it truly does.

You've never seen anyone as filthy as I was by the time I was done working. I'd had my hands in the dirt all day and composted chicken shit, too. My hair was soaking wet from sweat and I'd probably smushed fifty mosquitoes who'd had the temerity to try and feed upon me. Whenever I'd find a bug in the garden, I'd pick it up and take it to the chicks and put it in their box and as always, Mabel/Maynard would be the one to find it first and the others would chase her/him around and try to take it but that bird is the bug-eatin'est bird you ever saw. Mr. Moon actually chopped a worm into six pieces the other day for them. He's nicer than me. To chickens, at least.

I was taking a shower when he got home and I showed him what I'd done in the garden. We had to check the chicks, of course, and we oohed and aahed because they were on their roost, all lined up like the big chicks they're learning to be. I came back to the house to grab the camera but by the time I got back to the coop, they'd all scattered, of course.


I'd picked broccoli and collards and snow peas and onions and I made a stir fry for our supper with all of those, a red pepper, two carrots, tofu and peanuts. Here are the vegetables being wokked.

It was a perfect day, short of not getting rain. I love getting filthy in the dirt, I love having a body strong enough to dig and bend and pull and plant. I love getting things tidy in the garden, tucking up the mulch like a nice, airy blanket around the plants and I love the sight of things growing. Nothing makes me happier than all of that. And then to come inside and cook what we've grown and sit down to eat with my love- well, here we are. Heaven of a sorts.

Our old house, our two acres, our birds and our crazy dogs. The garden we've made. Unlike the people who lived in this house a hundred and fifty years ago, we don't have to depend solely on what we raise in the garden and the chicken coop and the hog pen. We have Publix, eight miles down the road. But if there's anything more rewarding than eating what we've raised with sweat and muscle and dirt and water, I don't know what it is.

Well, seeing my kids all in one place, having a good time with each other, laughing. That's the very best.

And reaching over in the bed at night to find my husband, to pat him and feel his hand touch mine, to turn over and go back to sleep, knowing he's there beside me.

How did I get so lucky?
I have no idea.
But here I am, lucky and knowing it. Working and growing it. Writing and showing it.

Now. Could we please get some rain? Not to be ungrateful or anything, but could we?

17 comments:

  1. It drizzled on and off here yesterday - mostly off. It looks like it should again today, but my knee doesn't hurt.

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  2. That does sound like quite the rewarding day. I wonder if I'm going to have a garden and chickens when I am older. Who knows? But I kind of hope so.

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  3. Gardens help more than can be imagined.

    Right now, my garden is helping me to hate squirrels. Little tree rats are diggin' up everything I've put in. Me, the BB gun, and a cold beer is about to rain down some righteous terror on Mr. Nutty's pepper diggin' brigade!

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  4. Nice day, yum, aw! Perfect indeed.

    I bought blue potatoes at the market a few years ago and they were GREAT! Why did we stop? Apparently carrots came in purple and black as well!

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  5. DTG- I do not think we will get rain today. Shit.

    HoneyLuna- I'll bet you will. I'll just bet you will.

    Windy Days- You are so welcome!

    Magnum- Yep. Mr. Moon loves to shoot the squirrels. I think when I'm gone it's squirrel-huntin' season. Have you ever cooked and eaten one? I'm thinking it can't be that bad with gravy on it. What do you think?

    Steph- Yeah. If you want to be a farmer!

    Ms. Jo- If you make mashed potatoes out of the blue ones, they turn out lavender, which is so pretty.

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  6. yummy. I'm getting hungry

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  7. so precious! you have a beautiful life. i love when you share it with us all!

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  8. I love seeing your garden rows! Everything looks beautiful!

    So, are you getting any ripening yet? I have found a couple of ripe cherry tomatoes and a couple of hot peppers that had turned red, just here in the last few days. So it begins!

    Serious Gardening Question: do you use miracle grow or are you all organic?

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  9. how wonderful your garden is!

    my favourite times are spent in my garden...nothing like dirt under the nails and flowers blooming!

    smooches

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  10. I love the pictures, and miss having a garden. Though we have had SO much rain here that peeps are worried about the potatos rotting in the ground, which is never good.

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  11. Thank you for sharing your beautiful life with your beautiful words. Wishing I could send you some of our Wisconsin rain!

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  12. Lavender mash, yep, done it! Why did we pass that up in favour of visually bland?

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  13. Am shipping you some rain. We have PLENTY these days.

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  14. I agree. Nothing tastes more satisfying to me than home grown food. It's special and filled with love, if food can be filled with love.

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  15. Gamzoo- Lovely name!

    Learner- Wish I really could sometimes. Share, that is. I have plenty of collard greens for all, believe me.

    Lady Lemon- My tomatoes and peppers are not ripe yet but all my green stuff is pretty nice and edible. No, we don't use Miracle Gro. Compost and composted chicken shit. Stuff like that. We could do better, I'm sure, if we got more knowledgeable. I just keep adding organic matter and hoping for future soil improvement.

    Ms. Bliss- I know! Been missing you. Where have you been?

    Kori- I thought it was snowing where you live like a week ago. Now rain? Damn, girl.

    Llyn- Wish you could. We sure could use it. And you're welcome for the sharing! Thanks for stopping by.

    Ms. Jo- I have no idea but some people gag at the idea of blue food. Why IS that?

    Aunt Becky- I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival!

    Nicol- Oh, I think it can be.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.