I know I promised to write more about our trip to Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, but that can wait a week. This past week the weather was nice enough to work in the garden, so I headed out to prepare some of the raised beds for planting. As I walked out to the garden, I heard some of the grandchildren playing in their yard across the ravine from our place. Then I remembered they were on spring break.
"Hey, are y'all going to come help me work in the garden?"
I heard a bunch of squeals and saw them hurrying into their house to ask permission to come over. Pretty soon Jaime, Laila and Landon came walking out of the woods and, a little later, Annie, the oldest of the four, came into view. Their baby sister, Danica Jo, is just a few months old so she stayed home with their mom.
"What're you doing, Papaw?"
"I want to take some of the compost out of these beds so we can plant in them. I put too much in with the front-end loader."
Landon and I headed to the garage to get the wheel barrow while the girls ran to feed the sheep and goats. They pulled up some weeds around the raised beds and fed them to the animals. The livestock were glad to get some greens since their pasture was pretty well grazed over. They have been living on hay and grain, for the most part.
Landon wanted to "drive" the wheelbarrow out to the garden. I told him to be careful around the vehicles. I picked up a couple of shovels and rakes so everyone had a tool to work with. Landon and I worked diligently to level the raised beds. We loaded any extra compost into the wheelbarrow. We then hauled this compost back to my main compost pile. As soon as we had a couple of beds leveled, I showed the children how to plant carrot seed. The seed was coated so that they were more visible since carrot seed is so small. I used the rake to make three shallow rows in one bed and the children dribbled the seed into the row. Then I covered the seed with soil. The forecast was for rain so the timing seemed to be good. We'll know soon enough.
Linda came out to the garden and, working with Annie, Jaime and Laila, planted collard seed, turnip seed, rutabaga seed, lettuce seed, radish seed and spinach seed. Landon and I continued hauling excess compost back to the compost pile. Then he and I each took a shovel and deep dug the beds before leveling them for planting. Before long, with the grandchildren's help, we had dug, leveled and planted five of our 12 beds with early-season crops. With good weather, we should soon be eating fresh greens out of our own garden.
After working in the garden, we headed to the house for a drink. The children had cokes while I had my usual unsweetened tea. After the break, the girls and I drove over to the neighbor's house to feed one of our ewes. We are keeping her over there with their sheep because she recently had twins and they need to be protected from our ram. The baby lambs are incredibly cute and the children love playing with them. We fed the ewe and also fed the neighbor's sheep some hay.
Landon had decided to stay home with Linda. He said he was tired of feeding the sheep. Linda said he helped her set the table and put extra chairs out for them. He likes to be helpful. Linda had made chicken noodle soup. We all enjoyed the soup with fresh-baked buns and a green salad. For dessert, I had picked up a bag of chocolate chip cookies at Harp's. We love their cookies and so did the grandchildren. We had a pleasant lunch with the grandkids and thanked them for helping in the garden.
After lunch, I took the grandchildren up to my shop where I had a large wooden crate sitting outside my shop that some dust collection pipe had come in. We dragged this heavy crate into the woods behind the shop and, using scrap wood and a few shop tools, we built a fort for them to play in. The children worked just as hard as I did. We all enjoyed working on this project together. Laila and Jaime made a path to the fort and lined it on both sides with big rocks. Landon climbed around on the fort like it was a set of monkey bars. I ran home to get a branch lopper and a pruning shears from the garage. Annie and I used these to cut down any briers or limbs that obstructed the path to the fort.
We cut boards to cover the crate to make a solid wall and put more boards on top of the crate for a roof. The children really enjoyed getting into their new fort. It was rewarding for me to watch them at play. After we had finished building the play fort, I took the children home for the day. They ran down the sidewalk eager to tell their mother about the new fort. They called out their thanks and good-byes as they ran. I thanked them too as I backed up to leave. By the time I got back home, I was all tired out. All in all, it was a very good day on the farm.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 03/15/2017