Amber Waves of Grain

This is why I love living here (even if it is raining AGAIN). Isn't it beautiful?


And yes, I know that it's not amber. It's not actually grain, either -- just grass. But the grain around here is still too short to wave so dramatically. And it won't be amber until fall. Don't harsh my buzz.

Minor Setback

We dug out the garden with a backhoe.

We've known since winter that we had some drainage issues (see: Sea of Mud) that sooner or later we would have to deal with, and we also had some giant piles of beautiful topsoil that we wanted to spread around. One of the piles was where we put the garden -- we thought that we would wait until next year to do the excavating.

But the drainage issues turned out to be a bigger deal than we thought they would. Add to that the limited time we've had for upkeep, the smothering of our property with weeds, and the cherry on top -- the terrible weather we've had. Seriously, it's been Biblical. We had to fire up the woodstove two nights ago. It's the MIDDLE OF JUNE!

So, reluctantly, we called the excavator. We could have had them move everything but the pile the garden was in, but that would have meant calling them back next year, which would mean extra money, which would have made A very sad.

So we had a pea shoot, tiny green onion and broccoli-green stir fry (it was actually very good), and several salads of spinach, beet greens and teeny tiny lettuce. We had the excavator make us an actual garden location, so we'll put the peppers and eggplants and peanuts there (they are all STILL languishing on the ledge), get some tomato starts from the farmers market, maybe toss in some beans and zucchini, and accept that we really are the idiots that we thought we were when we started.

It's not a total loss -- we still have strawberries (although we won't if I don't get some bird netting on them), parsley, rhubarb, fruit trees (those sticks are looking positively lush) and chickens who might start laying any day now. We are learning many many things about soil management, weed control, topography and drainage, albeit the hard way. Today is a gorgeous day; the sun is shining, the birds are singing and a breeze (not gale-force winds) is blowing. We abide.