Ready to Plant
We may have had a cold spring, but we’re ahead of schedule on garden prep. The husband helped me yesterday. (I do as much as I can, but some jobs just need extra muscle.) We burned a small pile of brush early in the morning and he fixed the south fence line, which has decided that this would be a good year to fall apart. We moved some black plastic to a different spot, then moved a billboard tarp to the part of the garden that will be fallow this year. Once everything was in place, I cut the grass perimeter and used the clippings to mulch the potatoes. The garden is looking good:
The potatoes are on the far left. Next to them will be the zucchini and other squash, on that piece of black plastic. The bare spot will have rows of beans, lettuce, and the brassicas—cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. Just out of the picture on the right side is the row of berry bushes. Next to them is the raspberry patch, then the strawberry patch. The berries occupy the middle of the garden. On the other side of the berries is the lavender hedge and then the spot where the tomatoes will go this year, along with any squash that does fit in the first section. I like to give the vines room to spread out. I also try to plant the potatoes and tomatoes on opposite sides of the garden if I can.
I started laying out hose, but that’s a big job and I need to think about how to set up the switching system.
Today, though, I am going to rest and do things that don’t require heavy lifting, like making labels for the plants for the plant sale.
Since about the middle of March, these are the projects I have been involved in:
The husband and I ran the equipment sale part of the fire department fundraising auction.
I wrote the quarterly newsletter for the homestead foundation and Susan and I made 2400 copies for mailing.
I made chili for and served chili at the spring pie social for the homestead foundation.
I have been planning for the plant sale (the majority of the inventory is in our greenhouse) and co-chairing a picnic fundraising event to be held in August, again for the homestead foundation.
I have continued my ongoing duties as chairman of the homestead foundation fundraising committee, webmistress for their website, and pianist for our church.
And during that time, the only things I really did for me were to teach a couple of serger classes and attend the LFTN Spring Workshop. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to see the imbalance in my schedule. I’ve already passed off the fire department job to someone else. I told the homestead foundation board that I will not chair the fundraising committee next year. I may not do the newsletter, either. I will agree to chair the plant sale and continue website maintenance and that’s it. Hopefully, the picnic fundraiser will be a success—my co-chair is a ball of fire and the planning for that has gone smoothly. Although I believe strongly in its mission, I am no longer willing to allow the homestead foundation to be an unpaid part-time job. I took on some of those responsibilities when our pastor retired from our church and also from his work on the homestead foundation board because I didn’t want us to lose momentum. Now it’s time for others to step up.
I’ve also said no to chairing our church’s leadership team, which would have been a four-year commitment. Truly, I am tired of being in charge.
[I did agree to be on the pastor search committee, but that is a time-specific commitment and one I was willing to make.]
Once the garden is in and growing, I want to spend time working on sewing projects. The word of the year is NO and I am putting that into practice.
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I’ll have to see how the week after the plant sale shapes up. I’m feeling the need for a road trip, maybe to Missoula. On Monday, May 22nd, the quilt store south of town is hosting a meet and greet with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina. I’ll be in attendance for that one.