Today was a great day!

Bob has been on vacation this week.  So today he  cleared another area for me to plant while the geese supervised…  When Claus showed up, they got after him because they thought he was a distraction.  After all, he was taking Bob’s attention off of them and his work.  I’d  have to say that Claus was pretty brave as he held his ground at Bob’s feet!

While they worked the soil, I  did something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.  I built  a scare crow!  I started with an old blouse, well OK not so old, but definitely not worn anymore (teacher wear).  I then added a pair of Disney overalls and a wretched looking straw hat I had  procured from the thrift store (spent a whole $5.25). But the finishing touch was the boots that Bob is wearing in the photo above.  He had to retire them at the end of the day because the toe in the left shoe had a blowout.  Guess he got his money’s worth out of those Redwings… they were over 20 years old!

But,  once again the geese stole the show when they tried  kissing  their reflections in the Truck’s bumper!

One of my favorite movies is the Secret Garden.  I like both versions but it is the Warner Brother’s version that has the haunting line above.

You can watch the scene here:  The Secret Garden

NOTE:  It is a ten minute clip and I found out that, if you like, you can slide the bar up to minute nine and bypass all but the scene I mention .

I used to have a secret garden when I lived in Claremont, California.  I used to invite people to come into the back and it was always fun to listen to them audibly take in air when they saw it for the first time!

Now I am in another place, this garden is left behind and in the loving care of new owners who appreciate the hard work that went into my little secret garden.  I am carving out another garden where none existed when I got here.  It will be one of a different sort.  This one is for self sufficiency.  It is our vegetable garden.  It is a bit rough around the edges, but all things that are worthy and good take time.

There are, or soon will be peppers, corn, squash, tomatoes, beans, cantaloupe potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and more.  The soil will be worked, and amended with all the compost I can make from kitchen scraps, and the henhouse straw.  Also cared for is my little orchard of apples, figs, muscadines, and blueberries.  I tend them in their infancy and they will feed me even when I am old.

That is a comforting thought… and that keeps me at it every day.  I look at my pictures from yesterday and far away in California and I get sad for what I left behind.  Then I think about all that I have here, and what I will grow tomorrow and I smile and thank God for the gift he has entrusted into my care… my “…bit of earth.”

Let me explain… and no Alison, I am not making “Baby Brother Stew!”  (I’ll tell that story, but only if I get enough requests from you dear readers.)

We have been doing a lot around the Farmlet and that included tearing down the old shack and lean-tos.  All the tearing down and rebuilding has left us with a chicken yard full holes… one of which is big enough for the geese to swim in.  This might have been a good thing  if it were big enough.   Well it just isn’t,  and it is right in front of the roll up door of the garage/barn.  Now way back when, the builder of that shack had set the supports for the lean-to onto very large cement blocks that he’d buried in the clay.   Fast forward:   when it  all was torn down somehow one block remained, and it was next to the aforementioned mud hole.  So naturally, before I could bury the mud hole I had to dig out the cement cinderblock.

Yeah right!  No mere shovel was going to penetrate that clay, wet or no!  So I grabbed my handy garden fork to do the job.  Working with force I managed to nibble out bits of the red mass and eventually free the block.  But how to get it out?   HEAVY, packed with mud,  I imagined it weighed about 4o pounds.  It is a very LARGE cinder block.  I didn’t know they made them that big actually.  But I digress…Coming at it from all sides I try to work it up out of the hole using the garden fork and it slipped, thus I stab myself in the shin with a blunt end of a fork tine.  OUCH!  “Well actually what was said was more along the lines of  “@#$%#&@##$$%@!!!”

Into the house I limp looking for an ice pack and of course there is no ice.  I’m digging in the freezer when I spot it, that old forgotten bag of cut okra.  I investigate its contents and sure enough it is compost fodder!  So I wrapped  it in a dishtowel and used it.

Lesson for the day:  Never throw away those old half used bags of ice encrusted veggies.  They are actually quite handy on a bruise.

Yeah, I know…     “;<>