Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Garlic, fire ants, and pitchforks




The hard thing about farming isn't just the work. It's not the work, actually. That's the fun part. Bugs (ticks, no-see-'ems, bumble bees, fire ants, huge horseflies, etc) are the tragedy, here. The heat is secondary. Sometimes the heat is hot: hot heat-especially when you are squatting over black plastic planting eggplants. But it is so rewarding to save the lives of greenhouse eggplants that were wilting in the sun. The heat that reflects off the plastic into my face is no big deal whatsoever!
On the "eggplant planting day," Alex
also taught me how to
prepare garlic for drying and this was a very enjoyable task because I got to stand in the shade of the barn and listen to Band of Horses and CCR while tying bushels of
garlic together with wire to hang up to dry.
After garlic-ing for an hour or so, we mulched the okra and got stung by many many fire ants. Those dang things are much more bothersome than anything I've encountered in this Tennessee country!
But after the days work ended around 7, we made pizza with garlic and basil from the gardens and Hattie, Henry, Lori, Alex and myself sat around the table playing cards.
At the moment, I'm able to get online because we came into
the small town, Savannah,
about 30 minutes away to drop off the CSA food for the locals, here. This library doesn't have the best connection, so I hope the photos get posted!
P.S. Hattie (she's 6) thinks she invented apples with cinnamon sprinkled on top. If I get into any arguments on this trip, it's going to be over the issue of who invented apples with
cinnamon. Clearly, I did.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The road to memphis




The drive to Memphis was a long one, especially considering the fact that I had never even driven to Denver by myself... I got some good practice in, driving to Nederland, but even that was only about 45 minutes away from home. But with Dad's atlas and some familiar stops along the way, (Braum's, in Salina)
I managed to make it to Tulsa with no problem.



On Thursday, I drove from Boulder to Tulsa and stayed with Uncle Steve and Aunt Rita and my cousin, Ashley.



They took me to Pryor, OK on Friday to visit Granny and do a puzzle. I think I've done more puzzles with Gran than with any other person.



On Saturday I met Lori at their house in Memphis and she took me out on the town. Today, after lunch, we'll head to Olive hill, where the farm is and my first week of farmin' will begin.