Farm Days

~ Garden Angel ~

Spring means work and a lot of it when you live on a farm. The garden and orchard share a field, about an acre in size, perhaps a bit more or less, and Dave keeps asking, "do you have any room left?" Geeze Louise, do I ever! I keep putting more and more seeds and plants in the ground and the ground seems to swallow everything I throw at it and beg for more! At the kitchen door, which is also our back door, a grapevine angel stands watch over the flower and herb garden. I've put lavender and rosemary into this flower bed in the hopes the house will be enough of a wind break that both will over winter; time will tell.

 ~ Larch behind the Hemlock tree ~

In the front yard the larch and hemlock trees tower over the house. The winds come from the west, roaring down the valley, and, throughout the generations have forced the trees to grow at an angle. A few years ago, the larch confier was in bad shape due to some sort of infestation. We called a tree specialist who told us, "You can't have a larch; they don't grow this far south." Dave said, "okay, will you come take a look anyway?" The guy said "yes" and when he pulled into the driveway his mouth dropped open. Yes, it is a larch, I believe a European variety, and other varieties are well known in Canada, Russia, the Apennines and the Carpathian Mountains. The larch is a conifer and a deciduous tree and loses its leaves in autumn and really is unknown this far south of Canada. After spraying an oily residue on the drip line, the larch is doing much better and is more beautiful than ever.

~ Miss Abigail Von Rotten the Terror ~

It's been a busy, long day and Abbie is plumb tuckered! She keeps up, mostly, and does extremely well for an older gal and has been my heartbeat since April 1998. She was an adult when I adopted her so her exact age is unknown. Last week, I stopped in at the vet's office and met Lucy, a stray that has adopted one of the vets. They tried to give Lucy to me but I told them her heart would be broken if she were separated from her new Mom. Lucy bonded with the vet who saved her from certain death...as well she should have bonded...and there was NO way I would have broken that bond. The vet and I were talking about dogs and how much we loved them; I told the vet, "I want to die the day after I can no longer have a dog." She looked at me in surprise and said, "Me too!" I've always thought God gave us such a marvelous gift when He gave us dogs and I've always pitied Jews and Muslims because they think dogs are unclean.

I've been busy starting seeds -vegs, fruit, flowers, herbs-, weeding beds, cleaning off porches, moving things from the house to the farm office, getting ready for the Farmers' Market, trying to get the garden shed in decent order, etc. I get up with sunrise, have devotions then burn as much daylight as possible, getting work done but by the time I come inside, it's 7 or later. Then there's supper to fix, eat and clean up and, before I'm ready, it's late and way past my bedtime. So, all that to say, blog visiting is sporadic but when you're brought to mind, you're tucked into prayer. I'm sure you'd rather have prayer than a visit anyway, eh? -smile-

Blessings ~ sunshine in the day, rain at night ~ seeds ~ four legged companions ~ trees ~ angels ~

Sweet dreams, all,

Sandra