One, it's raining and since our soil is so spongy we tend not to want to walk in the orchard when it's wet for fear of erosion. On the upside, the 12 trees Tim put in on Monday are doing well and he won't have to water them.
Two, so far this whole week of gardening has been rained out for me because I sustained a 5K training injury on Monday. I think that sounds more exciting than 'I slipped on a muddy hill while out for my walk and pissed my knee off.' So I've been sitting and icing and hot packing and elevating. I'm improving steadily but watching spring slide by without planting makes me twitchy.
I've also been planning, evaluating what's left to plant (some) in light of how much energy and strength we have left (little) and how much help we have coming (some) and then trying to shuffle the priorities so the vital gets done. I'm making my peace with the reality that I might have a posting here soon in which I list the seeds I didn't plant and have saved until next year. I'm trying to brace myself for that disappointment, just in case. Once we get our teeth into something, we Reisdorfs can be powerfully dogged but knowing when to let go is an important skill if we want to thrive long-term.
So, I've decided to throw up some of the funny chicken photos I've been saving for a rainy day.
Roosting on the plow attachment
(What hard working trucks do in the off season)
Homemade kefir smustaches
And in honor of rainy days and hard times, I'm going to recommend a book which really inspires me to think differently- The Resiliant Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe. Her contention is that hard times come whether it's the tectonic activity once a millenia in her area or global climate change or getting injured during gardening season or missing a key gardening moment to go to a funeral or needing to eat gluten-free in a culture which eats wheat. All gardeners experience hard times and we can choose to become more resilient through them. This hard won resilience will become a resource for the whole community in larger scale hard times. She talks about her own experiences and how she now hopes for the best and plans for the worst by planting optimistically and having both a essential garden and an 'if things go well' garden. Then if something needs to be sacrificed in personal hard times, she's already prioritized and made the essentials easiest to maintain.
I just put this book on reserve at the library for another read. Thinking about her and her ideas gives me hope.
Oh, hey, I think that's the sun peeking out. Maybe tonight, with some help from the strong-legged, we can get some things into the ground.
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