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June 17, 2021: Off the Grid, On the Clock

Every year I indicate in my dispatches how ambivalent I feel about gardening. And it’s now déjà vu all over again. I don’t like or dislike gardening. I suppose, if I lived alone, in a small house, and had a small plot of land, I might toss some seeds in the ground and weed what I hoped to sow.

Pete maintains a hoop house garden, an orchard, a root crop garden, a greenhouse garden, and a greens garden. It takes him on an average a month to prepare the soil and get all the plants in place. Then, he spends the next two months weeding. Me, I assist with the harvesting.


Alys and Becky in the raspberry patch


The problem is the immensity of the project. I see no end to it. I have to feel a sense of completion when I do outside tasks. Picking up manure, this is a finite task, as is cleaning the chicken and goat pens. I do it, and it’s done. And in being done, I feel a sense of self-satisfaction. There is never an end to gardening or yard work. There is always something else to do.

Well, in the next few days I am going to do some landscaping work. There is a sectioned off area, adjacent to the Playground of Higher Learning. It’s a semi-contained area. This is where we are going to plant the trees, that our friend Becky gave us, and as well, some lilacs that Pete purchased this spring. It is sort of sectioned off, and will be further sectioned off, so that the moose and goats don’t nibble down what we plant there.

I am going to cut down some alder trees and remove some weeds. The question, of course, is when am I going to get to this? The book project IS taking up quite a bit of my time, as are the horses. Oh yeah, and I’m milking Swamp Thing, which sometimes (depending on her mood) takes up any remaining time.

And when I get done with the landscaping, I’m going to assist Pete in building an addition to the Playground of Higher Learning shed. This is so that we have room for our dog agility equipment.

So gardening tasks (Sad to say) don’t even make it on my list of things to do.

I know, this dispatch is much like one that I wrote last year at this point in time.

I am really glad that Pete enjoys gardening to the degree that he does. I become aware of just how much time and energy he puts into the garden when we have visitors, and he shows them all he’s done. I then see the gardening project through their eyes, which means that I see it anew. I’m then reminded that his gardening efforts take a lot of time and energy.

And in just a few days, we’ll again have strawberries for breakfast. I ,of course, will then praise him to the skies, for garden produce is the gift that keeps on giving.

Next: 168. 6/18/21: Duly Noted, Again

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