May 26, 2011 (OK I know this is a little late but I am posting it any way)
I know it has been several weeks since I have posted to my blog, and I feel somewhat guilty to not be keeping up with it. When I started it I made a commitment that I would keep it up but…… sometimes I just slip into a place where computers and technology is the farthest thing from my mind and that is where I have been.
Water, water everywhere,
water, water none to spare,
And the chant goes on……………..but I will not share the rest.
The farm is suffering from the heat and the lack of rain, yes I feel we are in a drought. We have already burned up one pump and used our reserves that are due to be rebuilt. Noah had to buy a new one and it is just not putting out the volume we need. Water is a concern with us between watering all the horses and other farm animals. We have plans in the future for a solar powered pump and tank set high enough on a platform to get enough pressure to water the vegetable garden, the green house and the herb garden. Right now it is several hours a day of switching sprinklers off and on, timers off and on and watering all the plants and fruit trees. We are more that 10 inches below normal for rainfall. And with the cool nights up till a few weeks ago when we got down to the 40’s in May, which is unheard of in north Florida, it has been a hard growing season already.
But look at the changes in the world, just this year, floods, earth quakes, tsunami and killer tornadoes. And once again I will say, the animals are acting strange. Our chickens are laying half what they were a few months ago, horses and goats are dropping off weight and we are feeding more. I saw another bear last week and a huge coyote yesterday morning on the edge of our land, he was as big as my beloved Zeus. It makes me uneasy and I guess since I am very attuned to the Earth and the Spirits of the land, I feel the changes, I feel helpless and want to help if I can. I know the transitions are happening and we are all changing but I still find it hard understand. Next weeks starts hurricane season, and it has been several years since we have had one in the Florida panhandle. Each year it seems that the winds take them out to sea but with the heat and changing currents…well, it is coming. But at least you know when a hurricane is coming. It doesn’t just sneak up on you while your at the Home Depot in Joplin Missouri at 5:00 in the afternoon. At least we have time to prepare and or get the hell out of the way. I guess you can tell I am a true Floridian and I take storms and hurricanes pretty seriously.
When I was a kid my family owned a beach house at Alligator Point, in the years maybe 7 or 8, they put in three seawalls and in 1972 sold the house. The following summer it was on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat with one wall standing in the sand and the gulf lapping where the house once stood.
Back to the Garden…
You would think with all the work I did in the garden to put in permanent beds and drip irrigation, sheet mulching and tending these 12 rows tenderly, they would be thriving, but they are not. But all is not lost, I am still observing and recording my results. And even though my heart sinks when I see curled up leaves and small fruit, most all the plants are green. And Ken’s Corn is just about as happy as corn can be growing in horse manure, and the control that has nothing but sand and water is a real test. I will post photos so you can see for yourself. I will plant the heirloom pole beans on the new moon next week. I also think I need to start some more tomatoes in the green house and set up the misters, these are just not going to make it.
We are getting squash, okra and cucumbers, the few tomatoes we have gotten out of the garden taste like chemicals which we do not use in the garden at all. But the container tomatoes were very good. Also we had little white egg plants from the containers, I just still can’t wrap my head around these cute little egg plants but they were good peeled and fried in strips. Noah’s peppers seem to love the drought, and they are getting watered everyday, but he likes them hot, I just like the big ones I can stuff and cook.
But you know it is summer when you can stand in your yard and eat breakfast under the plum tree. This year we had a bumper crop of plums. This past weekend we had the grandkids and Leslie spread sheets under the tree and shook it till we filled two buckets full. I started jelly but decided to freeze the juice till I could boil down more to juice in the next few days. I have never had enough to make plum jelly. But our Blue berries bushes are loaded with green berries, if we do not get rain in the next few weeks we will lose them all, since our bushes are out in the woods we have no way to water them. Our pear trees are full and the fig trees look like they are also going to be plentiful. The grapes are just now starting to show and I have two nectarines on my tree I just planted this year. So we will have fruit if nothing else. I give thanks to the Bees for that. We have already collected 8 gallons of honey this year and our bees are happy and busy.
So this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the yellow flies are really bad and the horse flies are coming. Oh, to be a horse in the chicken yard. I just had a good laugh watching the chickens run around catching horse flies buzzing our miniature horse, Stoney and the Zebus. Every Memorial Day since I have lived here on the farm, 25 years now, our Gardenia Bush blooms. I call it a tree, since it is at least 15-20 feet high and maybe 30 feet around or more, it is huge. When we were first starting our horse farm we had the horses in the yard for a while and they ate the bush/tree down to the nub. Even though gardenias are said to be poisonous to horses, it did not kill a single horse, but came back strong. The scent is so heavenly and it fills the air, I just love them. I remember taking them to a weekend getaway with Noah at Wakulla Springs in 2000, the scent filled our room and collecting them and drying gallons for Jamie’s wedding. Taking them to everyone I know when they are in bloom. And to have your own bush you just take the cuttings and stick them in sandy soil near a dripping facet and next year you have your own gardenia bush. But a warning when you bring them inside, those pesky little fruit k
gnats that are in full force right now just love them too. I just had to toss mine out of the kitchen.
And my trip to Canada is coming up fast!!! Jump up and down excited!!! I am almost ready, last week I wrote my friend Bonnie in Nova Scotia and asked, "So what the hell does a Florida Girls wear to Canada?" Then we spent 1 ½ hours on the phone Sunday night. I am so excited to see her and her family it has been two years since they moved there and I miss her so. But I got busy and as I do, and hit Goodwill and the Thrift shops, found everything I needed for a minimal cost, a Samsonite Carry On in mint condition for $9.99 and a brand new pair of tennis shoes for $9.99. And some clothes from the thrift store. Then did a little GOOGLE travel research, it has been since 2004 when I last traveled out of the country and 2006 since I have flown, so I needed to catch up on all the TSA stuff. Check, done, everything paid for, just waiting for final instructions from Earth Activist Training and off I go. My first week I will be in Lunenburg Nova Scotia with Bonnie. I will be working there too. She has booked readings and a public demonstration at the kids school as a fundraiser. Platform Mediumship can be a lot of fun and I enjoy it if the people attending have some idea what you are doing up there, if not it can be difficult to give messages from people that don’t understand you are communicating with their loved ones that have passed over. But it will be great and I am looking forward to it. The On Friday June 24th I will be taking a 21 hour train ride to Montreal Quebec the last link will be worked out to Audet, Quebec where I start class on June 25. I am nervous but not about my travel or my trip, I am nervous about the farm and leaving for a month. I have a full time job here and it takes me working hard everyday to take care of critters and tend the garden, I am going to be gone for almost a month. I hate leaving all that with Noah and I worry about him too, that is too much work alone. But he is supportive of me making this trip, seeing Bonnie and going to EAT, he is excited for me too. But I am still worried, also I am wondering about communication too, cell phones and computers work everywhere but will they work at HEARTROOT FARMS?
So even though it is memorial Day weekend, I miss Starfest at Star Bridge in North g
Georgia. We haven’t been in two years now and they didn’t have the festival this year. For those of you that don’t know about Starfest, it is a private festival and four day weekend with the Beloved Emerald Rose a pagan rock band and just the coolest guys you could every meet and the place where they have it is equally awesome. But for now, I will just have to send the LOVE! aNd maybe see them in the near future.
I know it has been several weeks since I have posted to my blog, and I feel somewhat guilty to not be keeping up with it. When I started it I made a commitment that I would keep it up but…… sometimes I just slip into a place where computers and technology is the farthest thing from my mind and that is where I have been.
Water, water everywhere,
water, water none to spare,
And the chant goes on……………..but I will not share the rest.
The farm is suffering from the heat and the lack of rain, yes I feel we are in a drought. We have already burned up one pump and used our reserves that are due to be rebuilt. Noah had to buy a new one and it is just not putting out the volume we need. Water is a concern with us between watering all the horses and other farm animals. We have plans in the future for a solar powered pump and tank set high enough on a platform to get enough pressure to water the vegetable garden, the green house and the herb garden. Right now it is several hours a day of switching sprinklers off and on, timers off and on and watering all the plants and fruit trees. We are more that 10 inches below normal for rainfall. And with the cool nights up till a few weeks ago when we got down to the 40’s in May, which is unheard of in north Florida, it has been a hard growing season already.
But look at the changes in the world, just this year, floods, earth quakes, tsunami and killer tornadoes. And once again I will say, the animals are acting strange. Our chickens are laying half what they were a few months ago, horses and goats are dropping off weight and we are feeding more. I saw another bear last week and a huge coyote yesterday morning on the edge of our land, he was as big as my beloved Zeus. It makes me uneasy and I guess since I am very attuned to the Earth and the Spirits of the land, I feel the changes, I feel helpless and want to help if I can. I know the transitions are happening and we are all changing but I still find it hard understand. Next weeks starts hurricane season, and it has been several years since we have had one in the Florida panhandle. Each year it seems that the winds take them out to sea but with the heat and changing currents…well, it is coming. But at least you know when a hurricane is coming. It doesn’t just sneak up on you while your at the Home Depot in Joplin Missouri at 5:00 in the afternoon. At least we have time to prepare and or get the hell out of the way. I guess you can tell I am a true Floridian and I take storms and hurricanes pretty seriously.
When I was a kid my family owned a beach house at Alligator Point, in the years maybe 7 or 8, they put in three seawalls and in 1972 sold the house. The following summer it was on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat with one wall standing in the sand and the gulf lapping where the house once stood.
Back to the Garden…
You would think with all the work I did in the garden to put in permanent beds and drip irrigation, sheet mulching and tending these 12 rows tenderly, they would be thriving, but they are not. But all is not lost, I am still observing and recording my results. And even though my heart sinks when I see curled up leaves and small fruit, most all the plants are green. And Ken’s Corn is just about as happy as corn can be growing in horse manure, and the control that has nothing but sand and water is a real test. I will post photos so you can see for yourself. I will plant the heirloom pole beans on the new moon next week. I also think I need to start some more tomatoes in the green house and set up the misters, these are just not going to make it.
We are getting squash, okra and cucumbers, the few tomatoes we have gotten out of the garden taste like chemicals which we do not use in the garden at all. But the container tomatoes were very good. Also we had little white egg plants from the containers, I just still can’t wrap my head around these cute little egg plants but they were good peeled and fried in strips. Noah’s peppers seem to love the drought, and they are getting watered everyday, but he likes them hot, I just like the big ones I can stuff and cook.
But you know it is summer when you can stand in your yard and eat breakfast under the plum tree. This year we had a bumper crop of plums. This past weekend we had the grandkids and Leslie spread sheets under the tree and shook it till we filled two buckets full. I started jelly but decided to freeze the juice till I could boil down more to juice in the next few days. I have never had enough to make plum jelly. But our Blue berries bushes are loaded with green berries, if we do not get rain in the next few weeks we will lose them all, since our bushes are out in the woods we have no way to water them. Our pear trees are full and the fig trees look like they are also going to be plentiful. The grapes are just now starting to show and I have two nectarines on my tree I just planted this year. So we will have fruit if nothing else. I give thanks to the Bees for that. We have already collected 8 gallons of honey this year and our bees are happy and busy.
So this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the yellow flies are really bad and the horse flies are coming. Oh, to be a horse in the chicken yard. I just had a good laugh watching the chickens run around catching horse flies buzzing our miniature horse, Stoney and the Zebus. Every Memorial Day since I have lived here on the farm, 25 years now, our Gardenia Bush blooms. I call it a tree, since it is at least 15-20 feet high and maybe 30 feet around or more, it is huge. When we were first starting our horse farm we had the horses in the yard for a while and they ate the bush/tree down to the nub. Even though gardenias are said to be poisonous to horses, it did not kill a single horse, but came back strong. The scent is so heavenly and it fills the air, I just love them. I remember taking them to a weekend getaway with Noah at Wakulla Springs in 2000, the scent filled our room and collecting them and drying gallons for Jamie’s wedding. Taking them to everyone I know when they are in bloom. And to have your own bush you just take the cuttings and stick them in sandy soil near a dripping facet and next year you have your own gardenia bush. But a warning when you bring them inside, those pesky little fruit k
gnats that are in full force right now just love them too. I just had to toss mine out of the kitchen.
And my trip to Canada is coming up fast!!! Jump up and down excited!!! I am almost ready, last week I wrote my friend Bonnie in Nova Scotia and asked, "So what the hell does a Florida Girls wear to Canada?" Then we spent 1 ½ hours on the phone Sunday night. I am so excited to see her and her family it has been two years since they moved there and I miss her so. But I got busy and as I do, and hit Goodwill and the Thrift shops, found everything I needed for a minimal cost, a Samsonite Carry On in mint condition for $9.99 and a brand new pair of tennis shoes for $9.99. And some clothes from the thrift store. Then did a little GOOGLE travel research, it has been since 2004 when I last traveled out of the country and 2006 since I have flown, so I needed to catch up on all the TSA stuff. Check, done, everything paid for, just waiting for final instructions from Earth Activist Training and off I go. My first week I will be in Lunenburg Nova Scotia with Bonnie. I will be working there too. She has booked readings and a public demonstration at the kids school as a fundraiser. Platform Mediumship can be a lot of fun and I enjoy it if the people attending have some idea what you are doing up there, if not it can be difficult to give messages from people that don’t understand you are communicating with their loved ones that have passed over. But it will be great and I am looking forward to it. The On Friday June 24th I will be taking a 21 hour train ride to Montreal Quebec the last link will be worked out to Audet, Quebec where I start class on June 25. I am nervous but not about my travel or my trip, I am nervous about the farm and leaving for a month. I have a full time job here and it takes me working hard everyday to take care of critters and tend the garden, I am going to be gone for almost a month. I hate leaving all that with Noah and I worry about him too, that is too much work alone. But he is supportive of me making this trip, seeing Bonnie and going to EAT, he is excited for me too. But I am still worried, also I am wondering about communication too, cell phones and computers work everywhere but will they work at HEARTROOT FARMS?
So even though it is memorial Day weekend, I miss Starfest at Star Bridge in North g
Georgia. We haven’t been in two years now and they didn’t have the festival this year. For those of you that don’t know about Starfest, it is a private festival and four day weekend with the Beloved Emerald Rose a pagan rock band and just the coolest guys you could every meet and the place where they have it is equally awesome. But for now, I will just have to send the LOVE! aNd maybe see them in the near future.
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