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Hi Everyone,
If you have ever called our house and gotten our answering machine you have heard me say, “Hi, you have reached Tom, Tarri and Tiare Street at Shepherd’s Hill Farm. We are probably out milking the cows or playing in the garden . . .” Yes, that is what we call it when we go to the garden—unless we are weeding elderberry, Florida betony, nutgrass or goldenrod. I actually enjoy weeding, but I want to know that after I have spent all that time weeding that I will not see that weed poke its head back up a week later—which is what happens with invasive weeds. Anyway, last week we got to play a lot—and sometimes in the rain. We didn’t play just in the garden either, but up at the house around our courtyard too.
For years Mom has told me that a certain patch of pinecone ginger needs to be moved from the back of the house. I planted six little pieces of ginger on the back of the garage about ten years ago. Ginger has a tendency to multiply, which is great for most areas—but not when there are electrical wires, water lines, and a generator in the area. For years I have told Mom that I need a place to move it too—but we couldn’t come up with a good new place. Sometime last year I got the idea that we should pull up the Arizona Cypress in our front yard (which was slowly dying) and replace it with a big circle of ginger and a bird house. Those were just ideas though—we tend to build a lot of castles in the sky. Lately though—I am tired of dreaming and ready to make those dreams come true. Therefore, Monday morning I cornered Papa and asked him if he could please remove the tree from the front yard. He pushed it over with the tractor and dragged it off to the compost heap. Mom and Steve then grabbed a hose to mark out the design of the new flower bed. Once the shape was made they used the shovels to dig out all the way around it. Then Steve suggested that we get the giant boulder that we dug out of the garden last year (Journal # 316) and put it on one side of our new flower bed. Papa got the tractor all ready, and then we headed out back to the oak tree where our rock had been holding down the earth for the last year. He picked it up, and brought it up to the house and set it down in our new bed. Then Steve, Mom and I spent the rest of the day broadforking and pulling up all the grass. I should say that we spent most of the time laughing our heads off. The sod was so thick that when I put the broadfork in and pulled back I could literally hang in the air. I would lay back and pull on the broadfork and it would very slowly come down. I would end up flat on the ground with the broadfork handles still not all the way down. Sometimes I had to push it down instead of pull it down. After a while I turned my job over to Steve who had more strength than me—but still didn’t find it too easy. By the end of the day our new flower bed was total dirt, had a nice big rock in one corner, and a post in the middle for a birdhouse.
Tuesday morning, before we milked the cows, Mom and I attached our biggest birdhouse to the top of the post—although it could honestly have been a whole lot bigger. When the milking was done I gathered some radish seeds and some white and red sweet potatoes and headed to the garden. According to the moon—it was a good day to plant root crops. There was one problem though—it was raining or misty all day long. I did manage to plant six, eight foot long rows of radishes and 36 sweet potatoes to let them grow and make slips for planting in May or June. Once I was done in the garden I joined Steve and Mom who were digging up the pinecone ginger on the back of the garage. I had only planted six roots, but I think that we dug up two wheelbarrow loads of it—anybody want some, we have plenty to share? Once they were dug then we filled the new flower bed with them—and we didn’t even make a dent in the wheelbarrow! We put a little tub for water under the rock for the birds to bathe in it—hopefully the wild birds and not the ducks. We wrapped chicken wire around the post so that a Black-eyed Susan vine can grow up it. Come summer the bed will be in its glory—until then we have a dirt patch at least that is until we can get some mulch to cover it.
Thursday afternoon I had the chance to give a garden tour to some of our customers that stopped by to pick up an order. The last time she was here, the garden was a disaster, and while she tried to help us weed—it was a little too much for her. She found the garden 75% better than the last time. Yes, we have spent much time this spring getting the garden in better shape and boy does it look very inviting. On Friday we played some more. We finished pruning the crabapple tree in the back yard. Then we headed up to the chestnuts to cut some more branches for crafting a pyramid trellis to go in our courtyard. We will plant a bleeding heart vine under it—and it will be in its full glory come the end of summer. Sometimes in order to make something pretty, you have to plan way in advance.
The elephant grass in the back yard had all turned brown—and the new growth was coming up, so Steve cut it all down with the weed eater and then he and Papa loaded it up into the back of the truck and took it to the compost heap. With the elephant grass chopped down the desire to eradicate it from the yard overcame Mom again—but this time she has a way to remove it. An excavator was rented for the muck work around the new milking parlor, and since the builders will not be here Monday and Tuesday, Mom had them teach her how to work the machine. So if all goes well, Mom shall be doing some major digging this week. I am hoping that once the elephant grass is removed from the yard, that she can take the machine to the garden and remove the elephant grass form there so that it can be replaced with another of my dreams—a garden pond!
While we were busy creating in the front yard last week, the construction crew was busy destroying in the back field. With us successfully milking in the new milking parlor (though it is in a temporary location), the crew could begin tearing down the old milking parlor. By the end of the day Monday the only thing left was the rotten floor. The walls had all been gently demoed and the good wood stacked for some future project, and all the rotten wood thrown into the dumpster. By the end of Monday they also had a huge whole dug where they removed some of the muck that was around the old parlor. Then came Tuesday—over and inch of rain! The ducks were in heaven with their new found pond. You should have seen them splashing and running around. For everyone else though . . . well, the rain just made mud—and lots of it! Everyone had their share of getting stuck in the mud or spinning tires. Tuesday night when Papa and I were doing the chores we did a lot of slipping, sliding and spinning around in the truck. I thought for sure that the truck was going to take out a wooden post, but it didn’t. Then I thought that we were going to end up facing east and west in the middle of the lane that runs north and south, but the truck stopped facing northeast and southwest instead. By Thursday things were starting to dry out some, and the majority of the muck had been relocated throughout the farm to fill in bull holes and driving ruts. On Friday the dump trucks of sand began to arrive and by the end of the day it looked like a new place. It will not be long before the sand is covered with concrete and the new milking parlor is moved to its permanent location.
All around the farm there are birds singing and making nests. The bluebirds are in the old log by our front porch, and the mockingbirds are in the holly tree. I don’t know where the wrens are nesting—but last year they were in the garden shed. Out in the fields the robins are looking for worms and the meadowlarks, though seldom seen, are heard playing their flutelike melodies.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare