Front Yard Project - Part 1

We put together a video of Emma and I working on the front yard.  It was soooo hot when we did this!! But now that it's fall, it's already starting to cool off!

Hope you enjoy!

September 2018

Esther

For the Love of the "Garden"

We're getting our second garden site ready for next spring although this is a dangerous job.  

Notice the boys in their hazmat suits!!  

We must protect them from all those nasty chemicals, you know, like, old rotten hay bales.

My plan is a 'no-till' garden so we're spreading some old hay on the new site for next year.   

The hay should decompose over the winter and help build the soil.   

I just finished reading, "The Plowman's Folly" by Edward H. Faulkner.  Wow, what a book!!  I'm looking forward to reading it again and his second book, "A Second Look", once I get it in the mail.

Even though the work was hard, we did have a few laughs here and there.

Resting?  The guys tell me this is hard work.

 

I thought this video was funny because that's Elizabeth driving the car on our road.

Our busy road, one logger truck today.

No, Esther didn't jump, Barrett pushed her off!

Ready and waiting for those young strapping boys.

October 2015
Sandy

Fresh Garden Potatoes!

I decided that it's about time for me to start walking once again.  I've let my life get a little bit out of order in so many ways that it's time to get back on track and stop neglecting myself.  I know when I take care of myself, I have more time to take care of others. 

 

I woke up at 7 o'clock this morning, a little later than I would like to get up, but that's better than what I've been doing.  I'm working on not staying up so late so I can get up earlier.  The day seems to be so much longer when I get up early.

Our garden is pretty much done for the summer but we still have a lot of potatoes in the ground.  On my way back home from my walk, I stopped in the garden to "dig" up as many as I could carry in my shirt that I turned into a little "pouch".   

The only things to fall upon these Kennebec potatoes were rain and sunshine; nothing else.

So far, out of all of the things that we grew in the garden this year, potatoes have been my favorite thing to harvest.

It's almost like magic!

I pull away the hay that we used for mulch, and there, just under the dirt, these amazing treasures sit.  

 Everyday is a gift!  

And so is the ability to garden.  

I look forward to getting another chance in the future to see what it is that we can harvest. 

Happy Gardening!

September 2015

Sandy

 

Our First Potato Harvest

     We went out into the garden late this morning to check on our potatoes to see if they were ready to harvest and this is what we found!  I think they're ready. 

     The red potatoes are "Red Pontiac" and the white potatoes are "Yukon Gold".

     Who would have thought that harvesting potatoes was soooooo much fun!! Not any of us because we've never done this before.

      So, what does a potato grown without any chemicals whatsoever taste like?  

     Well...........................um......................just heavenly!! 

     
     We had two "plots" for potatoes and one was better then the other.  I'll talk about what we learned in a later post. 

Barefoot Gardening in the Rain

     I've been trying all day to get myself and some of the kids out into the garden today, but the day was just getting away from me.  And I was kind of ok with it, at least subconsciously I was stalling a little bit because the sun was shinning so bright and I really don't like to work out in the hot sun.

     So, when I finally decided to stop everything that we were doing inside and gather the last minute things that we needed to take to the garden, I walked toward the front door and just before I reached the door, the rain just came pouring down!

     "Noooooooo!"  I said.

Rows of tomato plants.

     It has rained everyday for the past month and a half, and I am not kidding! 

     And I'm really not complaining either, I'm not.  I was just ready to start digging in the dirt and now I have to wait for the rain to stop, again.

     Oh, how I love this gardening thing!  I didn't realize how strong this burning desire has been inside my soul all these years.  It has been bottled up in me for the past 20 years or so and I can't stifle it anymore.  If I do, I will pop!  I want so bad to just get in there and get my hands dirty!

     The boys had work to do on the new fence project that we started and also potato duty.  Esther was going to help me plant, but now we had to wait.  It's a little hard to work in the garden in a downpour, don't you think?

     Oh, how I love the rain!  I love to be cooped up in the house during a rain storm.  But for the first time in my life, I was able to sit outside on my own front porch and watch and listen to the rain as it came just pouring down while the water was making its own little creek on our dirt road near the front of the house.  (Have I told you that the front porch is the best part of this house?)

     So for the next half an hour or so we sat on the front porch and talked while we watched the rain.

A few cabbage plants.

     The baby ducklings that were on the grass in the front of the house, jumped up into their bin and sat there just looking out as if they were afraid of a little water.  The bin was to protect them from the sun not the rain.  Silly little things, water is for ducks!  Shouldn't they know that?

     And then as fast as the rain came, it just stopped.  As the sun quickly came out again, I looked overhead a little to the South and the sky was as clear as could be with little fluffs of white clouds just moving ever so slowly past the incredibly bright sun!

     Well, sun or no sun, it was time to get to work because the day would soon be over.  So we quickly gathered up what we needed and drove to the garden which is about 3/4's of a mile away (thanks to Landon).

     And sure enough, shortly after we started to work, it started to rain, again.  But this time, we didn't care!

     Esther and I took off our flip flops and just worked in the garden barefoot as the rain came steadily down and kept us cool from what could have been a miserable afternoon.  And as for me, life doesn't get much better then this.

I was able to take some pictures between the rain drops.

Esther and a tomato plant.

More cabbage and Esther.

 
   

The sun peaking through the rain clouds.

Tanner adding insulators to the rebar posts.

Esther's garden selfie.

Tanner clearing the fence line.

Where did the potatoes go?

Barrett clearing weeds between the potato plants.

Cleared potato row.

      The Lord has truly blessed us as stewards of this place for this season in time.

Oh, and Cooper, well, he just kept on working, boots and all.  

Sandy

June 16, 2015