Tag Archives: playing in the dirt

Playing in the Dirt 4-8-2023

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It’s still a bit cool right now (44 degrees F.) to work outside comfortably, but it’s supposed to warm up this afternoon. I’m planning to prep my two brick tomato planters and then maybe head to town to get plants so I can enjoy much of my weekend playing in the dirt.

I’m enjoying the fact that we don’t have any errands we NEED to do, no appointments, no chores we HAVE to do, no bad weather, no schedule. Ahhhhh. We can do what we like WHEN we like. Sheer luxury.

When I was a child a hundred years or so ago, I always looked forward to Easter weekend. Sometimes we went to an Easter egg hunt. One time our neighborhood had one.

Easter was one of the times of the year I got new clothes – something special to wear to the church service. One year I got my favorite sweater EVER – a light-as-air pullover fuzzy pink one that made me feel pretty. My mom got me a tweedy wool skirt to go with it. I still remember how special I felt when I got black patent leather shoes with straps then went over the top. They were so shiny I could see my face in them. :0)

Sometimes we got chocolate rabbits. I always ate an ear off first. A few times we dyed eggs as a family. We had some wax white crayons we used to draw designs or write words on the eggs before we dyed them.

Some Easters, before people really thought things through, baby rabbits and baby chicks were sold at stores, usually dyed pretty pastel colors.

My parents had had actual rabbits as pets (we had two – one named “Peter” and the other “Welsh” – for Welsh Rarebit.) They didn’t like the idea of getting a dyed one, but one year all my friends and I got dyed chicks. No one thought about whether it was a good idea or not, or thought about the actual chicks, who, if they made it through, might not make wonderful pets.

Luckily, we had one mother in the neighborhood who was my idea of the PERFECT mother. (She was always welcoming to her kids’ friends, baked chocolate chip cookies, let us run a ‘camp’ one year, etc. – who adopted the chicks as they grew up, lost the dye, and became actual chickens as the newness wore off and more active care was needed.

Our church service was beautiful – filled to the brim with spirit-lifting music. Children would walk down the center aisle to sit at the front if they wanted to, carrying small baskets of fruit. We had a really good organist while we lifted our voices in song. My heart would nearly burst with the beauty of it all and the joy spilling out of me.

I wish you a joy-filled weekend.

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Weekend of Playing in the Dirt

stayathomeeducator.com via sites.psu.edu

 

This weekend we’ll be in and out, trying to get as much accomplished in the yard as we can – while living to tell the tale.

The weather looks like typical July or August for us – lots of bright sun, 90’s – 100+ temperatures and little, if any, chance of rain. The problem is that it’s only May!  We have doors and windows open most of the morning and then have to close up to run a/c for the afternoon and early evening, opening up again when if/when possible.

  • The bright sunshine after rain last week is causing our grass to grow as we watch, so mowing and weed-whacking will be one thing we need to do this weekend.
  • I need to scrub out and refill Amber’s kiddie pool. She doesn’t ‘swim’ in it a whole lot, but she rarely goes out during the day without running through it, drinking a bit of it, and maybe lying down in it enough to cool herself off a bit. (She is 14 months old now and weighs 93 lbs. To say it’s a ‘challenge’ for us to keep up with her is a laughable understatement. :0)
  • The rain and sunshine are causing the trees – and other ‘stuff’ on both sides of our long, steep driveway – to attempt to grow together, blocking anyone from coming up or going down. I’ll drive the truck slowly up and down the driveway – my husband with loppers and a ladder in the back – cutting things back. We’ll need to do this several times before it will be reasonable again. We also need to cut down things at the bottom of the driveway. Our robot is almost surrounded by greenery!
  • My raised bed square foot garden needs a lot of work. Yesterday we got some lettucy-type plants, broccoli ‘stir-fry’ plants, and some cantaloupe plants at the co-op. I got them planted, but need to harvest, prune, pull-up, and otherwise get the garden under better control. My bolted lettuce plants need to be pulled, chopped up, and added to our compost barrel.

And the list goes on. We’ll do as much as we can – resting between sessions and drinking boatloads of water.  Assuming we can do most of this by the end of the weekend, we’ll go to our local nursery next week to find some flowers for the deck and yard.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

 

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Filed under Gardening, holidays, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Playing in the Dirt

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I’m trying to spend a bit of time each day in either my veggie garden or my flower planters. Yesterday I didn’t do anything heavy, recuperating from earlier endeavors, so today I’m redoubling my efforts to get outside.

We’re having way-too-soon hot weather here, so my romaine lettuce plants are bolting. :0(    We’ve been able to harvest a couple of times, and I’ll try to save as much as I can in the few days we have left before the plants soar to the sky, getting several feet high – I guess in their efforts to live a bit longer and make seed.

My husband wanted to go today to get flowers for the deck, but I’m so behind in my garden and my flower planters I asked him to wait until tomorrow or Thursday. I usually jump at the chance to get more flowers, but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, particularly since I can’t work very long in this heat and don’t get as much accomplished as I would like.

I love spending time playing in the dirt. I’m concentrating my efforts in the morning and then in the evening, when the sun isn’t as strong. I work a bit, come in and rest and gulp water, then go out again, over and over. I love watching my plants thrive!

I’ll try to get some pictures to share with you later.

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

An Outside Kind of Day

The Herb Society of America-via-Cathy Ruggiero

The Herb Society of America-via-Cathy Ruggiero

We didn’t plan it this way, cause the heat index here this afternoon is 112 degrees F, but, for some reason, my husband and I have both been outside working.

I didn’t know it, but while I was telling you about the next step in our painting-the-propane-tank project, my husband went out to pressure wash the back of the tank! He hasn’t finished, but we’ve been reminding each other that sun stroke is no fun. We’re trying to take LOTS of breaks and drink LOTS of water between sessions.

I guess it was about a month ago that I spent about three days pruning and weeding a trio of brick planters we have on one side of the yard. I had it looking like someone actually lives here and takes care of things. THEN I got busy with the raised bed garden project and now it looks like we might be on a long vacation or might have moved away…

I got one planter on the far side of the garage done, and now I’m almost finished with the first of the trio. My goal for the weekend is to get things under reasonable control again.

I hope that you are having a fun, productive weekend!

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