Tornado Flies the Coup
The funky old chicken coup, roof removed by tornado-like conditions.
Venerable huge and beautiful oak tree, broken at the base by the wind.
At the edge of the creek, this old sycamore has been de-limbed by nature many times. Again in this storm.
We are very grateful that the winds, which sounded and acted like tornados, on a day of many officially sighted tornados, skipped over the house and gardens.
The wind made the decision that, after all, I would not go ahead with keeping chickens any time soon, as the roof of the coup "flew the coup"!
I had been debating about having chickens since the huge population of grasshoppers ate so much of the garden last year. Chickens would eat the grasshoppers. Then fewer grasshopper eggs would mean less food for the larvae Blister Beetles, and presumably fewer Blister Beetles. All of which would make a happier gardener.
However, only the gardener would be available to take care of the chickens. No dog to guard them. No fences to keep them off the porch, the flower beds. One thing leads to another, and we left the funky chicken coup as a leaky storage room, pending further inner debate.
Imagine how freaked the chickens would have been, during the middle of a dark and wind roaring afternoon, to have the dubious safety of their nests wisked away by the tornado.
We'll take some of the materials for other projects and perhaps keep the chicken wire part in readiness for the birds.
May the wind blow away from you only that which is no longer needed.
Testing Testing
As you might imagine, this post is to test if the post is posting.
To thank you for your visit ...
Here's a basket of Spring Beauties
Salsify seed head opens
May you pass all tests in Joyful Repose!
See The JOY - 4 Best Photos
Above is the Mid-August Garden, in its first year of growth!
Above are lovely Anne yellow raspberries with a late October frost upon them.
This winter squash harvest is my joyful delight, my vegetable, cookie, cupcake, quick-bread even pancake staple. Even with the great numbers which were given away, there’s more in the larder and some steaming, fresh out of the oven, in the kitchen right now!
This little friend never came to my gardens up North. Diligence every day helped me learn to find him, his friends and family, and not willing to share everything with them, I did frequently interrupt their dining experience.
Thank you for joining the Celebration on this newly renamed journal, from GROWING FOOD to GROW JOYFUL !
New Title Has Arrived!
Of course, what is real is that I am Learning to Grow Healthy Food.
Hoping for a sustainable organic garden.
And here I will share some of the experience, the questions, answers and most importantly,
what didn’t work.
Real Snow! Lasting for days, what a treat!
Freezing Rain Falls
the sullen skies pour forth
a gentle even, inexorable flow
of tinkling sparkling ice.
It sticks to earth, dried grass and steps
and hides the greenhouse roof.
I’m glad I took the seedlings
to a warmer upstairs room.
The stream had ice a couple of days ago when the temps went up to 70 degrees.
What to Expect?
What to Expect in this Journal?
Are you one of those folks who reads the directions on the seed pack when its time to plant?
Or have you learned to read it months in advance, to be able to plan for when IS 4 weeks before the last frost?
Its a good thing that I don’t live up North anymore. Some places you can’t find a date that isn’t a few weeks before a frost. But I’m so grateful for the long hot muggy buggy growing season down here in the hills.
I’m not sure what to expect either. The title of this is not right yet, the format is not right yet. Heck, I’m not all right yet - but why wait around any longer?
Let’s get cracking!
I make a lot of errors in my rambunctious way of tending the growth of the garden. I read the books and ask for guidance from the Garden Club, seed providers and neighbors, and then of course, do what intuitively feels right.
Sometimes I ask the plants, when they are big enough to know what’s really best for them. Sometimes I follow directions.
Often, I realize after a while that I didn’t pay enough attention, or that my reasoning skipped a few steps and I am left to figure out how to fix the problem I created by being a bit too “free spirited” or just thoughtless.
More on that later, I don’t feel like confessing right now. Time to post and learn how to let comments come on board!
A grasshopper shelters under a bean leaf on a rainy day in mid-August ’08.
Welcome To an Ozark Valley Garden
Welcome to Adventures in Organic Ozark Gardeningl
This is the beginning of my second gardening year in the Ozarks, and my first year with the garden and green house already up and “working”.
All that has happened here has been assisted by the wonderful Organic Garden Club which meets twice a month in the lovely little town about a half an hour away from home.
Our place is not quite secluded, but is quiet and peaceful. We are in the frost valley area, low and moist and lovely, like this:
That’s Mid-Summer (Early August) ’08
