Dear Family and Friends,
A thunderstormy evening has me in the house writing this letter to you. There are weeds to root out in the tomato bed and the next baby step in completing our front room to work on, but neither are easily compatible with wet conditions. So here I am.
I have the feeling that as the years pass on this place, I will come to appreciate more and more the changes of pace that weather can bring to people whose activities are affected by its vagrancies. Living a life for which weather mattered has been a life goal of mine. I feel fortunate that our present state of being reflects a degree of success in achieving this goal.
It makes sense, I suppose, to talk about what’s on my mind: gardening, chickens, building project, parenting, community building, politics, quantum physics at its intersection with theology…ok, so I’ll have to pare it down a little; my mind is always pretty full! We’ll start with the gardens.
Kali has been such a good garden helper this year! At least 90 percent of the gardening I’ve done on the property this year has been done while I am caring for her here at home. At times she sticks with me for two hours straight as we clear weeds, prepare soil, edge beds, plant seeds, water plants, etc. At other times she helps by playing in the sand pile while I accomplish something that fails to excite her interest at the moment. Her favorite task is probably planting bean and pea seeds with a length of copper pipe. We use a pipe so that I can specify (with my end of the pipe) where the seed ends up, while she can have the important job of putting the actual seed in her end. Also the seed rolling down the pipe makes a fun sound.
Anyway the pea seeds we dutifully planted in the cool weather of spring and protected from critters as they grew are now rewarding our care with daily pickings of sweet, crunchy sugar snaps. We also were richly rewarded with our first major planting of spinach. Six forty-foot rows yielded uncounted salads for us and friends plus around 10 pounds for the freezer. Since this was soil that hadn’t been tilled for probably 25 years, I was fairly impressed with the harvest. In that same area the tomatoes are growing quite well. Some Kali and I started from seed and some were given to us by a neighbor. Both have been saved from mortal danger by way of an electric fence for the deer, but we’ll see if the groundhogs let us have any ripe tomatoes. The rabbit that spends virtually all of its time there has caused little damage so far (we caged the spinach and edamame soybeans), and has actually become quite unafraid of my presence. It seems to like to sit on the bare soil in the “three sisters” bed (cucumbers and squash, sweet corn, and Grandma Bucher’s beans). I think the soil is warmer there in the evenings after the sun has beaten down on it all day.
The rabbit in the little garden has become even tamer, allowing me within six feet of it at times. I have said to myself that one of these days I’m tempted to take a net with me and try my luck. Maybe it’s the profusion of clover in the paths between beds keeping this rabbit busy (plus its respect for wire barriers on the susceptible crops) that has kept its damage level low. The only thing it totally mowed off were the carrot tops and some prize red oak leaf lettuce, but caging them has allowed a full recovery. The local groundhog is not as timid about pushing over wire cages. So far its damage has amounted to more or less one full salad, but who knows where it will stop. Nothing bothers the garlic, of course, and we are seeing a good harvest. The last thing to go in the ground will be sweet potato starts, which I hope to plant tomorrow, June 20, which is either the last day of spring or the first day of summer, I think.
In chicken news, we’ve seen a few thin-shelled eggs (which encourages egg-eating by the hens) with the chickens eating so much vegetation. But the grass, leaves, and bugs translate into healthy eggs, so we’re not about to limit their access. We just have to learn how to deal with it. I butchered three hens on Sunday (the culling process) and we had chicken gravy on waffles—a Myers family tradition—last evening for supper made from the canned meat. If we do say so ourselves, it was mighty tasty! I really think that pasture access makes a huge difference in chicken health and that translates into improved table quality. We are surprising ourselves in one way with our chickens: we find that the meat we get from them is about as important as the eggs (and probably somewhat healthier to eat). We find that canned and frozen chicken meat and broth disappear quickly from the pantry shelf and freezer. This makes me think that my choice of a breed to stick with will be affected by the following priorities: good meat from big, healthy birds that can rustle grub effectively from a pasture, are easy to butcher and lay a decent quantity of eggs without going through exorbitant quantities of feed. My three primary candidates for the job currently are Buckeyes (we have 8 hens and 2 roosters of this breed), Chanticlers (a Quebecois breed known for cold weather endurance), and Cornish (the all-around gourmet eating champ, and the most common chicken around central and south American homesteads).
All of the previous news and reflections are what I’d rather be spending my work time on, but that is not to be for a few more months. We have a room to finish. But the woodstove metal chimney cap is in, the soffits, fascia, and porch ceilings are up, and the footer has been re-exposed for the installation of a foundation drain. It’s progress. Janelle is the cook (with Kali as her assistant) at her department’s “curriculum camp” again this year and will be going away for a few days to Mom and Dad Myers’ Mountain House starting tomorrow, so that should provide an opportunity for me to get something more accomplished. We are feeling that adding the pressure of a big party to celebrate the house and our 31st/29th birthdays is going to be unwise for this fall, so regrettably we are not currently planning on doing that after all. Rest assured we WILL find an excuse to have a big party as soon as we feel ready. We need to focus on finishing the project with enough time to do a good job of moving in before the baby comes!
And when that happens, we anticipate a change of pace and focus. It will be cold and inhospitable outside for the first few months of the baby’s life, but we hope it will be a sort of springtime for our family. We want to take the time we feel it will deserve to help us all transition to our new family configuration, and to get to know the new one. I wrote a poem the other day that I will share with you:
Circle
Those many pairs of eyes
those hands
those smiling lips
are all for
you.
Are you chilled? Find here warm arms.
Have you thirst? Among us you will find a breast.
Your skin needs touch, your mind must feel
us notice
you.
We are here. We were waiting. You are
no burden. You are
a fire for us to stand around; we make
a place for
you.
The circle referred to in this poem includes all of you, each in your own way. Thank you for being our community.
Love, Jason
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