Wanna shave my llama?

Now for something completely different.  Across from where I work there is a pasture that during the summer months is filled with a small sheep herd. Standing watch over them is 'thunder' the llama. Recently the owner sheared the sheep, and likewise the llama, and was going to discard his coat for lack of anything to do with it.  Thankfully, it was quickly snatched up and is now drying after its second wash.  This is the third or fourth fleece I have received for free and I am feeling a greater need to get a spinning wheel.  Spinning yarn by hand or on a drop spindle takes a lot of time, and prevents me from making thin yarn.


The offer has gone out to the homestead group that they can have skeins of their own!!! once I get around to picking, carding, and spinning it. :)

In other news Chef rescued some left over plants from some of her students that have been placed lovingly in the garden.  No sense letting good seeds go to waste, so now a 'bunch' of bunching onions and some specialized basil sit in the garden waiting for the thunderstorms this week.

Morning sex....

Woke up early this morning, as I do every morning in the summer.  The kitties following me from the bed to the door to let Rose out. They rub around my feet as I make breakfast, purring softly, begging me to sit down.  With my coffee cup in hand I walked out onto the 'bedroom' deck (home of the container garden), my bathrobe pockets stuffed with qtips, plant markers, a sharpie, some twine, and a pair of scissors.  It feels wonderful to dig in the garden early in the morning, feel the cool soil under my fingertips.  The first blooms of my yellow neck squash are showing and that means its time for some high quality plant sex action.  If you did not know, squash have both male flowers and female flowers.  Only the female flowers produce the fruit, but they can only do so with the pollen of the male flower.  While nature has developed this system to use birds, butterflies, and bees as the pollinators, my garden needs a little help. While I have planted bird and bug friendly flowers around the property, they simply do not come to the deck often enough to help my squash plants 'get it on'. So, there I am with a qtip in hand, jabbing the male flower, then delicately stroking the inside of the female flower. I repeat the process a few times on each flower (having some difficulty with the male ones releasing enough pollen) all the while the cats are overseeing the operation from their perch inside the door.  I feel silly, and repeat the process again.

In the main garden there is some growth from the lettuce bed.  Little sprouts stick up in cute little lines across the 'cut and come again' area, and the one of the cucumbers on the edge is beginning to flower.  The tomatoes have all grown at least two inches, their tops now lashed to the frame.  The marigolds I planted yesterday evening have brought a welcome splash of color in the middle of everything, along with the earlier planted dahlia.

As the Garden Grows

This weekend we were at my mothers for some much needed poolside BBQ time on the other side of the state.  I was a little worried that the weather would dry out the garden while we were gone, but made due with a thorough morning soak on Friday. The time away was a much needed mini vacation, as I have had a lot of negative emotions and stresses bouncing about my head.  Work has increasingly become a drain on my life, and my favorite hobby took a dive when I re injured my knee. To say the least, on Thursday I found myself a blubbering mess fully broken down and crying on the floor. Super mom was there, and was well aware of everything that had been going on in my life. She had kept reminding me to stay positive and proactive as the work world crumbled around me; my compassion and concern for my coworkers and the business having been thrown violently back in my face.  She was also there when I first injured my knee while skating, watched helplessly as I was wailed on in my first rather unprepared foray into a more complicated position.  She was there laughing with me and keeping up my spirits as I took a month off from the one physical activity I loved and did every week. (Coincidentally the activity that brought this whole homestead together) Lastly, she was there when I decided to come back to skating feeling like I had the strength and that my injury would no longer hold me back.  On the second day, near the end of warm ups, I fell, and fell hard.  A familiar pain came shooting through my body like lightning, nausea washed over me, and I couldn't stand.  I knew it, I had tore one of the ligaments in my already surgically repaired knee. 

Collapsing on the floor out of site, the fear and frustration overcame me and I fell apart.  As I sat there feeling utterly hopeless, broken, and frustrated that I had now lost the one activity I was looking forward to for relief from work (I kept blubbering something about "I just want to skate it out, I just need to skate").  Super mom sat there consoling me, and telling me that I am better than all of this.  She then said "Do you want me to call 'Power Puppy'?".  I nearly broke down laughing and crying, my first thought was a playful one "she is going to think this is a clever ploy to get her back to the track!" (as PP had moved away from the team a few months prior).

Needless to say, I found myself a few minutes later carried down the stairs to the car, and driven home by PP. The whole time I felt horrible since I knew that both Super Mom and PP had some crap going on in their lives that was just as pressing, and here I was a broken down bumbling idiot.  Yet, as we pulled up to the house, and I showed PP the garden for the first time, a new emotion started to fill me. We talked and hung out for a little bit, and after they had gone home, I signed online to find the previous post from SM. That feeling from earlier grew into an even greater overwhelming feeling.  While feeling so scared and weak, my friends and Dutch Boy had stepped up and reminded me not only to be strong, but that they could hold me up till I found my footing again.

After coming back from the weekend, I was so happy to see the growth in the garden.  The garden has now taken on -or maybe always was- a metaphor for my life. From the shit spread everywhere, new growth is happening, new possibilities and hope are sprouting up. If I can keep seeing this as the new opportunities that might be sprouting in my life (even if I can't see them at first) then maybe I can keep my head up. Perhaps the world will be clearer when the whole 'homestead' group is over for dinner on the deck after harvesting our food from the garden.  That is really what ALL of this is about, life, work, play, it all comes back to being happy and developing the relationships that help engage and enlighten our lives. 

From Super Mom

This came from Super Mom.... and I smile each time I read it. 

Gardening. Homesteading. For me, they’re awesome ideas and great concepts, which have a lot of valuable lessons all wrapped up in them. They’re also very academic concepts. At least, they were until about three weeks ago.

I admit, I’m basically a city girl. Not a big city girl by any stretch of the imagination, mind you, but very much a girl who grew up surrounded by paved roads, immediately accessible chain stores, and neighbors. Lots of close neighbors. Small yards and did I mention immediately accessible chain stores? Pavement spreads quickly and people grow lawns, not vegetables. Gardening wasn’t something my family really did all that often during my formative years, other than the occasional potted tomato or pepper plant, and when I moved out on my own, gardening tended towards experimentation with flowers, along with the random never-quite-finished windowsill herb garden.

Then The Great Visionary in my life seizes an opportunity…

The Great Visionary (TGV for future reference) is one of my best friends and an unabashed opportunist. She believes opportunity knocks, and you need to answer the door with a smile and ready hospitality. So recently, a bit of land became available and she saw the opportunity to create something beautiful. Opportunity provided a chance for growing food, friendships and our own special kind of fellowship. You can’t go wrong, baby!

As for true beauty, I mean, sure the garden LOOKS cool – I mean seriously? We have driftwood fenceposts and an arched entry way and it’s terraced with little cedar walkways! How cool is that? But really, the beauty is a lot of people coming together to haul dirt, laugh about having neon carrots and pondering how devious rabbits can be and how confused lost and stuck Labradors can become. Soon, we’ll have weeds to pull, food to share, and recipes to enjoy (along with wine. I mean seriously – mmm. Wine….).

This is definitely an opportunity that was unexpected for our family and 100% welcome. Granted, we tend to wander around looking a little bit lost – “You want the dirt… where? Um, on the ground, right?” – but we’re learning. And the Small Thing is excited about a pumpkin plant named Steve. Or perhaps the pumpkin it hopefully produces will be named Steve? Or, uhm, something like that? Pumpkins! Children! Steve!

It’s been a lot of smiles, a lot of little updates from TGV about what’s sprouting, who all has visited the garden, and how much love is going into it. I’m excited to have something else that brings our little “family” together and am looking forward to time spent in the sun weeding, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of our labor. Spreading pavement? Crazy city life? Get outta here – we’re gonna watch our garden, and our family, grow!

June 11th, 2013

A few days ago we filled up the remaining of the garden beds with soil and planted the seedlings that will grow to feed the homestead.In an effort to keep the bunnies out I picked up a bag of dog hair from Power Puppy. It is yet one more step that I plan on taking in an effort to keep the garden as organic as possible. While spreading the black and white well washed locks around the fence line I noticed the first seedlings of the Broccoli Raab, Lettuce, and Spinach poking through the soil.  It is rather encouraging to see everything growing so well, and hopefully I can keep everything moving along smoothly.  With each little green leaf that pokes through the soil I see how it will mature and fill the garden, and I am anxiously awaiting the moment that the garden is a veritable edible jungle.

6 June, 2013

The growth continues!  Nearly the full 'homestead crew' was over today to finish up the last load of soil and plantings.  As a full yard and a half rounded out the lettuce bed and the three sisters bed, the seed packets sprang open and flung their contents into the precious dirt.  I was excited to show Small Thing that the onions she had planted were already rooted and standing tall, as were the peas and cucumbers we planted. In a quick inspection of the garden we noticed that her pumpkin had sprouted and was poking through the soil. 

It is encouraging to see her take to gardening like I did as a kid, it's fun and dirty.  Seeing something you planted grow and change each day makes it a brand new discovery every time you see it.

Right now I am at a loss for words as to what I really want to say and express.  There is simply too much going on that I can't seem to focus on this one task and complete a simple blog entry. Oh well, here are a few photos of the garden to hold me over till the next post.

First Sprouts 3 June 2013

I went out to the garden this morning around 6:30 to look at the sweet growth over the last week, and very excited to find that the peas that we planted a week or so ago have already sprouted up! Likewise the onions that Small Thing had planted are poking up through the ground, and the potatoes from Chef are poking their heads up through the ground.

The garden on the deck is doing nicely, and easily grew a full two inches over the weekend.  Undoubtedly,  the three days of continuous sunshine really helped. Really looking forward to getting the last few steps of the garden in place so it can be fully up and running.