First Sprouts in the Big Garden

Lettuce I planted last weekend has started sprouting in the big garden!  Also, the tomatoes I transplanted in have not been munched on by anything.  In my history of gardening nothing really eats tomatoes but bugs caterpillars and other such "pests", so the real test will come when the lettuce gets a little bigger and the beans start growing.

Here are a few more shots of the big garden.  I'm on schedule to finish planting by the end of this week.  It isn't exactly smooth, but the soil is very workable.  It's come a long way and I'll hopefully by rewarded for all my efforts with a lot of good things growing from it.

A far away shot...

and a close up shot of one side...

The View Out Here

I must admit that I'm still adapting to the humidity.  It has a habit of sneaking up and biting me, I suppose because for so many years I got used to living without it.  It rained a lot last week.  I spent much of it out in the garden anyways trying to get things cleared and planted.  By Sunday it was a muddy mess and I finally had to admit to myself that it was time to stop around 2:00 in the afternoon when my mud boots were being sucked almost up to their tops in the cleared garden soil with every step--the tiller had been retired earlier that morning because it kept getting stuck.  I was thrilled to get out Monday in the newly blue sky and the already draining soil.  Around mid morning a haze formed on the skyline, and this should have been my first warning, but I carried on through late afternoon, and then it hit me that I was really hot, and had completely done myself in.  Even though I had tried my hardest to hydrate myself and keep my head covered, with 95% humidity I probably should have gone and jumped in a lake around midday.  I don't take heat well if I don't take proper precautions, namely keeping my head cool.  I always prepared for it down in the desert, and had a whole system of freezing bandannas and frog togg chilly pads.  Time to get back into that habit for sure, because I plan on being out in the sun all summer long, especially with this big house garden.

So, today was a day off.  When I get "overheated" like this it results in something like a migraine.  When the migraineishness goes away, I'm left feeling pretty good, but kind of weak, and if I push myself too hard, the headache comes back and I have to go back to laying around with an ice pack on my head.  Luckily this only lasts one day if I can keep myself cool and rested.  Right now I'm starting to feel pretty good and ready to get back at the big garden, which is almost done!

In the mean time, I'm going to post a few pictures of the area surrounding the garden, because it's absolutely beautiful.  It's just me out here right now.  The nearest neighbors are something like 1/2 mile away and I'm not that far off of a main road, but there's no traffic or people action in this little meadow.  Wild animals are everywhere, I'll have to try to get some shots of them with my new camera if I can get close enough or actually have it on me when I make contact.  This morning I was almost ran into by two trumpeter swans as I went out to the barn.  They were flying low for some reason and quickly veered up sharply when they realized I was walking in their flight path--me and my headache didn't realize we were on a collision course until they were about 5 feet in front of me.  There are several black bear roving around {one knocked over the shelves in my greenhouse last month}, wolves wander through about every other week, coyote sing just about every night, but luckily haven't frequented the barn area since last February, a bobcat also lives around here--although I haven't seen it since last winter I see its tracks all the time.  Of course the skunk that sprayed me last fall is most likely still around, but fortunately we haven't met since, and the deer are best friends with Gypsy and come through nightly.  I'm hoping they stay away from the garden, because I've decided not to fence it.

The tent is at the end of the garden closest to the forest.  I've been intermittently sleeping out there just because it is so wonderful.  This is also the spot the tiny house will go once it's done.

I'll be back at it tomorrow.  I'm thinking the humidity shouldn't be too bad, and really it's not that hot, but I'm going to be prepared this time.

Planting Time in the Big Garden

The garden at the house {the 150' x 50' one} is almost accomplished.  No doubt it will continue to be a work in progress.  I strategies my prepping so that it focused on the planting zones.  My "walk ways" will be dealt with this week, but the important thing is to get things planted.  Working with this soil brings back memories of South Dakota.  It's not the sandy soil that I have at the community garden or at the cabin.  It's a dense, almost peat-like soil, dark brown in color, similar, but not the same as my Dakota dirt.

This first week of June seems to be a lot of other people in this zone's planting time as well.  There are many who put their things in early due to the warm weather, but I didn't have the time to do it and it did get down to frost temperatures a few times in May {in 2013 I planted in mid-June and all worked well!}.

I've had so much fun working on this space.  It will, no doubt, be mine to plant for years and years to come, because I 100% foresee my parents asking me to use it.  That makes it more meaningful.  While I've been working on moving out sod chunks and tilling there have been the swans and the cranes flying low--not even 10 feet above my head, probably checking out what this strange being is doing.  There is an eagle pair about a half mile from the house that soar overhead as well.  I watch them as they put on their show and search for food for the eaglets camping out in the mega-nest they have going on.  Gypsy is about 100 feet from the garden and it's nice to have her company.  Jewel goes from sun tanning in her favorite spot to checking on me, then sniffing out field mice--which she never catches, to watching the renegade black and white baby rabbits play {more on them later}.  The sunshine and fresh air feel so good soaking in.

It's also been fun planting things that my parents want.  Growing for just myself has been the theme for many years, but I must admit that it's been fun planting for them too.

By the end of this coming week I'll be completely done and give you a briefing of what both gardens have going on.

Summer Vacation 2015 is Here

May proved to be a busy month full of rearranging of plans and finishing up the school year.  Now it's June and school is out, summer in, and Northern Minnesota is becoming the most beautiful place on Earth.  

Closing the school year is always a busy time.  I still feel off kilter and not quite settled at my new school.  I cannot put my finger on it, but I do know I felt at home in my old schools--like my classroom was my own somehow--a little more.  There were real frustrations and flaws, but I felt at home and it made a huge difference in my feeling that all was well with the world.  Through some reason or another I haven't been able to capture that at this school.  It is most likely my own fault, but it could also be other things too.  My goal over the summer is to get my classroom in line again by the time school starts, because I don't plan on leaving this place anytime soon.

Buying my own bit of acreage fell through in May  It unravelled when the property owner decided he wasn't wanting to sell it, kind of a maddening change of events.  I went through a few weeks of looking at every possible listing that looked intriguing, then came to the realization that I would rather just take my parents up on continuing at their place through the summer and search at a more sane pace.  This decision will allow me to travel a little over the next three months and actually have a relaxing, non-stressful summer--which I really need, plus find someplace I will really be happy with.  It should be a quiet summer, full of gardening and all sorts of other good things.  It sounds like I will be mostly to myself with my parent's travel agenda, and eventually I'll probably end up in the camper out by the garden.

Speaking of the gardens.  Above you can see the state of the garden at the house, recently tilled with the help of a neighbor.  It's something like 150' x  50'.  I originally had it planned to be about half this size, because my original plan wasn't going to go through this year with the change of plan.  While I was at work my Dad doubled it in size.  At first it was a great surprise, but as the work began to prep it, the massive space started looking like it wasn't such a great idea!  Then there's the fact that it will need to be fenced.  In South Dakota none of my gardens were fenced and all did great, despite all of them being out of town and surrounded by every conceivable garden herbivore.  I think it was the fact that the gardens were pretty close to the house and also the dogs that kept animals away.  Here, I'm not so sure this would work.  I scrutinize every single garden I pass and have only seen a few that go unfenced around here.  My out of control garden situation will hopefully be under control by this weekend.  I'm already planting at the far end of the garden.  Last night a huge thunderstorm rolled through, so everything is a muddy bog right now.  It should be a good day to get really head to toe dirty! It's honestly a good time.

On the other garden front the community garden is very satisfyingly tilled, planted, and fenced.  I like this year's plot plan better than any other, but it's also the smallest space I've had at the community garden, taking up only one plot.  I'll have to post a run down of what I put in here.  Everything went in last Sunday and I'm hoping for sprouts by the weekend.

I'm looking forward to relishing in this summer more than words can say.  Monday night, the official last day of school for me, I saw my first fireflies flickering just above the tall grass by the barn.  Tiny house construction will begin soon and little by little I'm collecting things for it.  I'm hopeful that by the end of October it will be finished and I'll be moving in.  And I'm so excited to take the garden in this year and just generally recharge.