SEEDS IN THE GROUND

Bess -- fields newly planted in canola

“Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow,” only in our case it’s canola, peas, spinach, and zucchini grow – not nearly so tuneful.

In conversation with Farmer Kyle, we learned that our fields are planted in canola instead of spring wheat. Mike’s disappointment was only thinly veiled. Since canola grows tall and the farmyard is tucked between the fields, he finds it claustrophobic. He also says it has an odor. And last but not least, it is not good cover for the game birds. But – it will be beautiful as it matures.

On Monday, with Mike’s help, I planted the raised beds – mostly peas and spinach but also zucchini and yellow crooked neck squash as an experiment. Maybe something will come up. We also felled one tree in the charred stand at the bottom of the lane. Mike said that was enough for that day.

Tuesday morning, Mike announced that we would fell another tree. In fact, we felled two, and I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but both were challenging. The first one got hung up, and we pulled it down with the pickup. The second wouldn’t fall, and we returned to the house to ask the online gurus for ideas – and that worked.

I’m not much of a farmer, and I’m an even worse logger. I’ve known from childhood that I’m a dreamer, not a worker. If I’m not interested in the subject at hand, I just retreat to my own happy place, and in this case, I mentally retired to the vintage sewing room to stitch denim strips for rag rugs. (But that’s the subject of another post.)

So, now we had three trees on the ground. I measured and Mike marked the logs into lengths for firewood. At lunch, he checked the weather and noted that the next day (Wednesday, May 6), it would rain, so we went back to our woodlot, and he cut the firewood while I made a slash pile. The wood is pine and not the best, but the trees are dead or dying and we need to take them down. As Mike says, “It will burn.”

After working a couple of hours, Mike announced that he wanted to take a bike ride. Great, I said, thinking we were finished for the day. I pulled rhubarb from the two plants and had enough to make my favorite rhubarb cake. I was just putting it into the oven when Mike returned from his ride and announced that he would now load the wood on the pickup.

Wednesday -- rainy, cold, unsettled

“What?! You’ve done enough for one day,” I exclaimed. Discussion ensued. He said he could do it himself, but I knew that he’d be better off with my help than alone. At the woodlot, he loaded and I stacked until it was time for me to return to the house and take the cake out of the oven. Back at the woodlot, I loaded and he stacked.

Well, we got it done, and indeed, today (Wednesday) it is cold and rainy.

PS – I found a tick making a race track of my arm at shower time. KW