Waiting to Plant, General Thoughts and Ponderings

 

One of the hardest things this year is waiting to plant the garden. Since the Greenhouse is not finished I have not planted any of our own plants this year. Crystal has urged me to cut down on the garden some this year. Well with building a tractor shed and other projects that makes sense. But, I love gardening. I don’t know why. Early in the morning before the sun comes up it is like communing with God. It is a personal experience like meditation, which I have never been good at.

So quiet motionless time is not my thing, but as I get older I am slowing down. However, patience is still not my greatest virtue. I should have planted in the basement again this year under the lights but I didn’t do that. I decided to let the local plant dealer sell their stuff to me. They carry plants propagated by the local Mennonite and Amish communities. There are many heirloom varieties to choose from. The last few years the cost has been $16 per flat of 48 plants. This year the price has gone up to $24 per flat. It is still way better than 4 for $4.99 at Wallyworld and more heirloom choices.

As of writing this it is Sunday April 30th and this should post the 2^nd Wednesday of May. So before I get plants I have to get a hydrant repaired outside. If you remember last year I did a video on a hydrant repair by installing new guts inside of it. Well that did not last 5 months and it was dribbling again. So, the other day I bought another entire one to install so look out for that video. Sometimes it is hard to come up with videos to keep the year going. But, in summer video opportunities are abundant.

I try not to do too much mundane stuff but for most of a prepper/homesteaders life the things they do are very mundane. TV shows hype everything up. I used to watch Alaska the Last Frontier.  It was always talking about the Kilchers starving if this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen. But when you look it up on a map they are less than 20 miles away from a full grocery store in Homer Alaska. Crystal and I live nearly that far away here in Kentucky. So I try not to overhype like the falderal of TV. We have enough of that stuff with the local and national news. We always seem to be in a severe weather alert day every time it rains! They hype all this stuff for ratings and money. They use the same tactics as an accident on the highway no one wants it to happen to them but they rubber neck to see what did happen. Ratings and Money that is what the media is all about, even News agencies. 

But, back to the garden, it rained last night so I have to wait to plow again. It generally takes about 3 days for me to be able to plow here. We have a clay/sandy loam that is awesome. It holds water well but dries out enough to plow fairly quickly. So I will have to wait till May the 2^nd or 3^rd depending on if it rains again today. I was checking the lettuces we planted on mid March and they will be ready to start harvesting this week. Guess I could do a video on how to harvest our cut and come again beds and how to process it so it lasts the longest. Tomorrow I will cut my grass. I don’t work on Sunday. It is a family thing for generations. One day of rest per week. My dad often had to do things on Sundays because he worked 6 days a week the rest of the time.

The sweet potatoes have not poked through the ground yet. I bedded those on April 3^rd in hopes that they would not show themselves till after May. Tender plants here cannot be put in the garden until after May. May 4^th used to be our last frost date. Today the USDA says that April 15^th is the last frost date. Well, we had a frost on April 26^th this year. So we are waiting till May 4^th to plant those tender crops. We also opted to not plant cole crops this year. Our freezers still have an ample supply and we will get back to that when we have a few less things on our plate.

As far as those things on our plate I will break the prepper rule and give utterance to the things planned for this year - so God can laugh at me. For 8 years my tractor has been without a home. We did a hoop house for it for a couple of years but other than that it has sat out in the weather. So it needs a home if I intend to pass it down to my kids and grandkids. I need to finish the greenhouse. I want to do the goat barn correctly. It has temporary walls but needs something more permanent. I have about 2000 feet of fencing on the ground waiting to be installed. I would also like to build a small equipment shed closer to the garden for the stuff we use in the garden regularly. Finally, I would like to get a new chicken house and run constructed, something that will be a little more permanent.

This all seems doable till you factor in that I still have to maintain the current property and do all the other stuff that has to occur every year. Also, as I have gotten older I do not do as well in the cold as I used to. It is causing me to cramp up and is wearing me out. So I have not gotten out this spring at 40 degrees to work outside as much. This getting older is not for whimps. Remember I am heat intolerant because of another medical condition. So I will get done all I can get done. That is the way this homesteading stuff works. You get done as much as you can and that has to be enough. You have to have patience, which I often lack.

I hope this finds you well. We are doing good just getting older and wiser, I hope. Have you ever met people that are just getting older, you know the ones, they never seem to figure it out. Send up a prayer for us and we will send up one for you. Patience, Patience…. Patience……… the hardest word in the English Language. Always remember that Homesteading, like Life, is a Marathon Not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride.    

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