It's all about France

Cabbage seedlings that I planted about 3 weeks ago.

One of the first books I read about gardening was Elliot Coleman's book, "Four Season's Harvest," and that was about 15 years ago.  Since then, the one thing that keeps coming back to me is what Elliot said about his garden and France.  

Here are two excerpts from his book: 

Page 2, "Four Season's Harvest"

Just a map.

Page 3, "Four Season's Harvest"

When we lived in Illinois, I was so excited to hear this because no one ever talked about growing a garden in the winter.  And now that we're in Missouri, I think we have even more potential!

It's quiet interesting that in just about everything that I read and listen to, France seems to be mentioned almost 95% of the time.  

Oh, and the things that we hear from people that we meet!  

For example.

A few weeks ago, when Barrett and I went to buy some electric fencing, the couple that stayed late to help us with our order, spent almost 45 minutes telling us about their trip to France that they took some years ago.  They had been to a lot of other places, but without any prompting from us, they mainly just talked about France.  

And just today, as I was planting the seedlings, I was listening to my iPhone and once again, France was mentioned, more than once.

France, France, France!!  They must be doing some things right over there otherwise I'm sure people wouldn't be talking about them so much!  Oh, if I could just jump in my car and drive over to France, I would do it in a heart beat! 

If I wait until I have all of the "right" things I need to plant anything, then I'll never get anywhere.  So today (I couldn't put it off anymore), I needed to plant my seedlings and I didn't have what I thought I needed.  So after trying to think outside of the box, I thought I could build a tray to "re-pot" my seedlings. 

"..............necessity is indeed the mother of invention."

   --Jo March, "Little Women"

So, I went about looking for what we had laying around and sure enough, I found some scrap wood to make a few boxes.  So Cooper and I set out to do that.  Oh, how I love to build things.  It's been a while since I've used a hammer and it felt really good.  

I have more boxes to build tomorrow and more seedlings to plant but I'll be on my own because the boys will not be home, so hopefully, I can get it done.

I have so much to learn about gardening, and that's alright because I'm not afraid to try.  I guess I'm a little afraid to admit it when I do something wrong, but I shouldn't be, but that's human nature. 

While I was working today, I was listening to some podcasts and one of the things that I heard was that if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn.  And I know that!  It's just hard to put yourself out there for people to see what is really going on.  Unfortunately, pictures can tell a story that isn't reality, but I would like to get to the point where I can be as transparent in a blog as I am in person, so I'll work on that.  Smiles! 

  So here I am, trying to learn.  I have the drive and the desire and--

Someday, I'm going to visit France.

In this little section of seeds there was about 225 little cabbages.

It doesn't really look like there are almost 225 seedlings in here.

Cooper and I built two more boxes for more seedlings.

One my way out to the creek to get some sand for the potting mix, I passed these Jersey ladies just relaxing in the pasture.  We bought them from a friend up north and they came to live here with us a few months ago.  The little guy, BoJo, is about 3 weeks old:  our first calf born here on the farm.  His mom is the light one in the middle.

Tanner's peacock came to visit me while I was planting the seedlings.

Two more boxes that we built.  The "soil" on the right was soaked to prepare for the seedlings.  Those lines on the one box are just water that ran down the side, although it looks like blood.  Ew!

Our turkey came to visit me also.  We're not eating him because we would like him to help us get baby turkey's next spring.

As soon as I started moving my soil "parts" around to prepare my mix; peat moss, sand, and vermiculite,  the birds thought I was going to feed them.  In the picture are some Peking ducks, a female turkey in the center, two guineas and some Muskovy ducks.

Here I am trying to finish the last tray, in the dark.

Elizabeth came out to hold a light for me so I could finish.  Three trays done.

October 2015
Sandy