Maybe You Shouldn't Grow Cowpeas in Montana

Saturday was a beautiful day. I got out to the garden while it was still cool (50 degrees is shirtsleeve weather in Montana), carefully prepared a bed, built the frames for the hoop house over it—and took a hit to the chin when a piece of the flexible conduit we use for the frames slipped out of my hand and snapped back—planted the cowpea seedlings, and watered them in. Later in the day, the husband brought out the roll of row cover, we cut a piece to length, pulled it over the frame, and secured the bottom edges with long 2x4s and metal T-posts. I was satisfied that I had provided the most hospitable environment possible for these delicate little zone 8 plants. I extended the growing season by starting them in the greenhouse. I planned for cold temperatures. I gave them every advantage I could think of.

I did not anticipate hurricane force winds.

I hate the wind. And hate isn’t even a strong enough word for how I feel about it. It sets my teeth on edge and makes me cranky. When we woke up Sunday morning, the covers were off all the hoops. Thankfully, it had only dropped to the high 30s. The cowpeas seemed a little shocked, but not frozen.

And still the wind blew. All day. Huge, swirling gusts. It took the covers off all the hoops again and again and again. It is 5:09 a.m. as I write this and I fully expect that when I go out to the garden this morning to check, there will be no row cover on the hoops. The wind died down overnight, but is supposed to start up again this morning.

Sigh.

Perhaps this is a message from the universe that I should not try to grow cowpeas in Montana. As long as the plants are not frozen, however, I am going to hold out hope for a crop.

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Someone on one of the homesteading groups I belong to noted a few weeks ago that canning supplies were starting to sell out. Indeed, when I checked at our grocery store—which usually has a decent supply of lids and rings—there were only a few items available. I have plenty of jars thanks to Margaret, who gifted me hers when she moved. I also have plenty of rings. I try not to buy lids until I need them because I don’t want to risk the rubber seals drying out. However, it seems prudent to stock up now in case they aren’t available in August.

I went to the Lehman’s website. They sell bulk lids in sleeves of several hundred. (That’s not excessive; I do at least 75 jars of tomato sauce alone every season.) The lids were listed as unavailable, but I could still order them and Lehman’s would ship when available. I ordered a sleeve of each and got the shipping notice last week. Whew.

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The pieces for the GOOT bag body are quilted and cut:

The cutting part is always nervewracking, and it was made especially so with this project because I only had a 34” long remnant of that Alexander Henry butterfly print (“Chiara,” from 2014, by the way.) The pattern calls for a full yard, but the designer builds a certain amount of slop into the pattern and I was confident I could get all the pieces I needed from the length of fabric I had.

Of course, that was predicated on me not screwing up any of the subcuts. I somehow managed to cut one of the outside pockets width x height instead of height x width, which doesn’t sound like a problem except that the quilted lines were running horizontally instead of vertically. I always have a contingency plan—eliminate that pocket, make it from another fabric, etc.—but I managed to get everything I needed cut from the original fabric.

I know, “Measure twice, cut once.” Believe me, I hear that all the time, either in my head or from the husband.

The next step is to cut pieces from the contrasting fabric that make up the handles, pocket bindings, and other bits. I prefer to cut parts that way rather than cutting every piece from every fabric right at the beginning. My fear is that I am going to lose something if I am unable to work on the project continuously from start to finish, so I only cut parts as I need them. That makes more sense to my concrete sequential brain, too.

It’s supposed to rain mid-week, so I should have time to work on this again.