Wishful Thinking and Moon Phase Planting

This winter I spent a fair amount of time reading up on gardening by the phase of the moon. Sounded a little hippy-dippy but hey, peace love and gardening, if it works who am I to question the ways of the ancients. Well let me tell you! What the ancients didn’t have was a 21st century lifestyle. They were probably sitting there going “eh, the 13 kids will take care of everything else, the moon says I need to plant cold weather above ground plants”.

I read through the Farmer’s Almanac and matched up the phases with my planner to-do lists, marking when to plant, when to transplant, etc. So naturally, on those days, bring on the wind, bring on the rain, and bring on the hail. “Worked through the wind huh?” says mother nature – here, I’ll wait a few days and change the forecast to freezing nights. Probably wont hurt anything, but I’ll make you stew on it.

Needless to say, the moon can do what it wants, I’m planting as time, family life, and weather allows. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very consistent about being in the garden, but some things take a bit longer than I budget for when I have a sweet short helper. My helper was nice enough to organize our gardening supplies and tools so everything would be “perfect” – except he forgot where he put my gloves, and this, and that hahaha. But he looks very cute while he marches around the garden “planning things out”. Plus, sometimes he salutes me. How can I not love that haha.

The garden is coming along nice though, I’ve got lettuce, spinach, and onions planted as well as some spring bulbs in the ground. Rows are getting outlined and thus far I have row assignments written out for all current rows. This weekend the chicken coop will be placed in the garden for on site chicken egg production, and today is shaping up to be another good day for planting the spring cold weather crops.

initial tilling before planting

“get out there while you still know it all”

 

We’ve all heard the joke, “get out there while you still know it all”.

I’ve reached that point in life where I’m not the baby of the employment world. And in once sense its nice, somewhere along the way I woke up and was an adult. There are some great benefits to this. But watching the up and coming group entering the work force has had me thinking. Now obviously at 18 we didn’t really know it all, even our college degree certificates didn’t really say “hey, now you know all you need to”. But is it really that we didn’t know that annoyed our elder generations, or was it that we were still holding onto our innocence?

Watching the under 25 I’ve realized that it’s not that they don’t know, it’s more that they do. They still live in the world of black and white, right and wrong. The older we get the farther into the grey we move. As we get older we accept that things are not as simple as we would like and we adapt. Perhaps the teens and fresh out on their own are not uneducated by life, but rather not yet worn down. I think as we age our sharp corners wear down so we can work in better. At 22-24 we are still hot tempered, sharp edged, and see right vs wrong for the immediate very clearly. And yes as we get older perhaps we see out farther more clearly than our hot headed counter parts, but maybe we watch, and remember our own sparks?

Random thought for the day. Maybe we weren’t so off base at 20. But then again, give me 5 more years I might change my mind again. Ha-ha.

Redneck woman, I ain’t no high class broad

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first week that hubby is working out of town. Actually last night was the 1^st night, and let me indulge you in the mess I made….

I get home from work all “I am woman hear me roar” like and I gear up to take care of the “farm” chores. Fairly nice out, a slight breeze, but not too windy. I should have taken a picture, but then I probably wouldn’t have shared given I looked like a goober. Here I am still in my office clothes, so I have my work slacks tucked into my mid-calf muck boots, they’re really cute as far as muck books go, I splurged on these cute Bogg boots. Anyway, so slacks tucked in, Carhart coat on, with my sweater hanging out underneath, and a pink hat and scarf. I must have been something to see. I’m going about the chores feeding and watering rabbits and dogs, no biggy. When I get to the chicken coop, I had to pause.

It totally freaks me out to have chickens above my head!

I run in real quick covering my head with the bag I used to collect water bottles for the rabbits, check to make sure they have enough water, but of course the food is low. I run back out, and of course now that I’m taking care of the freaky animals the wind kicks up so now I’m fighting to keep the coop door closed to keep the dogs out, but still reaching in so I can fill the feed thing. Screw eggs! Hubby can deal with those when he gets home. I’m guessing they froze overnight anyway.

Now that I’m back in the house I let the dogs all in because the storm is getting bad. Plus my son’s dog is a wussy  who is scared of the dark and has been barking at the door since the sun went down. And is doing it again now, BLAH!

Anyway, so after the storm quiets down and I’m about to go to bed I figure, “hey, I’ll be nice and let the dogs out a minute to take care of business, maybe throw a stick for them”. So here I am in my socks & PJs standing on the front step yelling at dogs and thowing a stick, looking like some redneck momma, when I notice hubby’s hunting dog is MIA. So I go over to where I last saw him (in my socks) and yell for him. All of a sudden I see him act like he just got caught, and take off across the street! In fairness this dog doesn’t like me much, but hey, I was throwing a stick! So now I’m yelling at him to come. Dog looks at me and RUNS!!!! Seriously, in this I dare you to catch me style through the brush and mud. Like the redneck I’m currently portraying I start chasing him down the road, yes still in my socks! Its 30 out mind you, no coat, and socks. I make it about ¼ a mile down the road yelling at him. To make matters worse, we give our pets people names, so I’m looking like a crazed redneck running after and yelling at Hank. At this time I realize, wow I’m out of shape, and its dark and I can’t see anything. So I run back and try to find hubby’s spot light, wouldn’t that have just added to the picture. Couldn’t find it though, and I called hubby to tell him I lost his prized hunting dog. Again. But this time I feel extra bad, and I’m pretty certain I just sentenced his dog to death by coyote pack. Turns out, no, he went to a neighbors a couple miles over and they called Hubby.

So here I am lying in bed, sons asleep, and I’ve given up. I get a text from hubby to meet the neighbor man at the gas station a couple miles away.

So in my no makeup, bed head, and dragging a half dressed kid from bed state of redneck, I head to the gas station to get a dog that hates me. Don’t worry this time I found a leash! No more running from me.  At this point, Hank has a permanent companion, the leash, and he is staying in the dog kennel.

 

1 day down, 3+ weeks to go……

PS. Check out my projects page, I’ve added a few free printables. Project season is starting, stay tuned, I’m planning out my office/craft room space.