Day Twelve: Singing To My Garden
In our holler we have very slow internet and almost no cell service. This is fine for e-mailing, blogging (thank goodness, I know you're saying) and streaming Netflix, but for uploading large files it is useless. So today I had to save a bunch of videos I was working on to multiple jump drives and drive them to my office for my coworker to review and upload. I spent the morning getting everything ready before my trip to my long lost office. The kids watched educational videos while I worked, learning things like why do people fart, what are parasites, what are black holes, and how were chocolate chips invented. I learned that ticks are called ectoparasites! That's a fun term, as we live in tick country and they are out in full force already.
Jeremy went on a massive shopping trip to Lowe's for some building supplies and to Walmart for
everything we'll need for the next, oh I don't know, three months? It seemed like a ridiculous amount of groceries, but since we're not planning on going anywhere for a while, it was necessary. He got stuff to make the kids happy (Teddy Grahams, Scooby Snacks), to make me happy (dark chocolate, three more kinds of tea), and to make himself happy (Reese's peanut butter cups, coffee). He got loads of stuff to keep us healthy and well-fed too, but the luxury items will be important for morale.
With all hands on deck we put our ton of goods away, somehow finding room for it all on already stuffed shelves. Then it was my turn to venture out into the world. My errand was easy: drive to Fayetteville, drop off three jump drives on my coworker's desk, then drive home. I didn't have to stop for gas or anything. It was weird being in the dark office on a Friday afternoon with no one else there. The errand went smoothly, and I got two hours of listening to an audiobook about British aristocracy falling in love with each other. My favorite kind of escapism.
I returned to the kids upstairs watching Tom & Jerry and Jeremy on the porch reading the news. While I was gone, one of our puppies was adopted. They are seven weeks old now so they're going to start going to homes over the next few weeks, including Daisy the white fur ball who will be coming to live with us at our house, not on the farm with the goats.
It wasn't long before the show was over and Taiya and William were back outside playing. They helped me plant the potatoes I'd cut up two days ago, and then decided that weeding the garden sounded fun. They worked on Taiya's flower bed while I worked on my volunteer bed, a garden bed that I've given over to volunteer plants. I have yellow cherry tomato plants come back from seeds dropped the previous year, so I can count on a hedge of those. Mint has also stretched its roots throughout the bed, but it hasn't taken over completely since peak summer heat always knocks it back. Marigolds I planted with the tomatoes a couple years ago also come back from seed, so I have companion plants coexisting without my having to do anything. Today I pulled out the carpet of chickweed and the spires of purple dead nettle. I don't want to interfere too much with this bed in case I jinx its natural fecundity, but I thought that if I cleared it off a bit, the mint could give a burst of growth before the heat, and maybe the sun would warm the soil faster and give the tomatoes a head start. I sang it a little song of thanks as I worked, to tell the soil and the seeds buried within that I am grateful for the gifts they offer every year. I only started talking to my gardens last year, after reading two of Robin Wall Kimmerer's books and an interview with Leah Penniman. They both talk about showing gratitude and reciprocity with the land, and it resonated with me, so now I sing thanks as I work.
It was hard to stop to go inside to make dinner. So I didn't. We grazed on crackers, bell pepper slices, homemade hummus, teddy grahams, and apple slices. Jeremy baked some more of the no knead bread dough that we had put in the refrigerator, so we had warm slices of bread with butter for dessert. Taiya and William watched the end of Frozen 2 as their evening show. They were hard to wrangle when it was time to get ready for bed - they were still quite "energetic," to put it kindly. William, who had been naked all day, decided he wanted to turn a plastic grocery sack into a bathing suit by poking two leg holes in the bottom, putting the handles over his shoulder. Somehow we managed to get him and Taiya to brush and floss and upstairs for stories while he was jumping around singing a song about butts in a plastic bathing suit.
Taiya and I read further into Danny, Champion of the World, and I read William some of Arnold Lobel's Fables. I remember those illustrations from when I was a kid. Certain books have always stuck with me, and that is one, for some reason.
So, that was our Friday. That makes two work-weeks at home.
Two other things I should note that happened outside the borders of our life at home are, we got news that Jeremy's aunt broke her femur Thursday evening and is in the hospital. Now is definitely not a good time to be spending a lot of time in hospitals, and so we are sad and worried for her. On a happy note, it is my brother Thatcher's 40th birthday. He lives in Hawaii, so we wished him a happy day from afar. It'll be a birthday he'll remember, I am sure.
Jeremy went on a massive shopping trip to Lowe's for some building supplies and to Walmart for
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| My once and future - but not present - office. |
I returned to the kids upstairs watching Tom & Jerry and Jeremy on the porch reading the news. While I was gone, one of our puppies was adopted. They are seven weeks old now so they're going to start going to homes over the next few weeks, including Daisy the white fur ball who will be coming to live with us at our house, not on the farm with the goats.
It wasn't long before the show was over and Taiya and William were back outside playing. They helped me plant the potatoes I'd cut up two days ago, and then decided that weeding the garden sounded fun. They worked on Taiya's flower bed while I worked on my volunteer bed, a garden bed that I've given over to volunteer plants. I have yellow cherry tomato plants come back from seeds dropped the previous year, so I can count on a hedge of those. Mint has also stretched its roots throughout the bed, but it hasn't taken over completely since peak summer heat always knocks it back. Marigolds I planted with the tomatoes a couple years ago also come back from seed, so I have companion plants coexisting without my having to do anything. Today I pulled out the carpet of chickweed and the spires of purple dead nettle. I don't want to interfere too much with this bed in case I jinx its natural fecundity, but I thought that if I cleared it off a bit, the mint could give a burst of growth before the heat, and maybe the sun would warm the soil faster and give the tomatoes a head start. I sang it a little song of thanks as I worked, to tell the soil and the seeds buried within that I am grateful for the gifts they offer every year. I only started talking to my gardens last year, after reading two of Robin Wall Kimmerer's books and an interview with Leah Penniman. They both talk about showing gratitude and reciprocity with the land, and it resonated with me, so now I sing thanks as I work.
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| Beautiful weed: purple dead nettle. |
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| My fourth attempt at growing rhubarb in Arkansas. |
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| Lemon balm grows all over my garden. |
It was hard to stop to go inside to make dinner. So I didn't. We grazed on crackers, bell pepper slices, homemade hummus, teddy grahams, and apple slices. Jeremy baked some more of the no knead bread dough that we had put in the refrigerator, so we had warm slices of bread with butter for dessert. Taiya and William watched the end of Frozen 2 as their evening show. They were hard to wrangle when it was time to get ready for bed - they were still quite "energetic," to put it kindly. William, who had been naked all day, decided he wanted to turn a plastic grocery sack into a bathing suit by poking two leg holes in the bottom, putting the handles over his shoulder. Somehow we managed to get him and Taiya to brush and floss and upstairs for stories while he was jumping around singing a song about butts in a plastic bathing suit.
Taiya and I read further into Danny, Champion of the World, and I read William some of Arnold Lobel's Fables. I remember those illustrations from when I was a kid. Certain books have always stuck with me, and that is one, for some reason.
So, that was our Friday. That makes two work-weeks at home.
Two other things I should note that happened outside the borders of our life at home are, we got news that Jeremy's aunt broke her femur Thursday evening and is in the hospital. Now is definitely not a good time to be spending a lot of time in hospitals, and so we are sad and worried for her. On a happy note, it is my brother Thatcher's 40th birthday. He lives in Hawaii, so we wished him a happy day from afar. It'll be a birthday he'll remember, I am sure.
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