The goodness of the earth is reaching for the sky!

   God's Bounty is gloriously growing!  We've had the perfect combination of sun, warmth, rain and....hard work.  Saturdays, of late, have been reserved for gardening and the work is paying off.  Donna and I tried our hands at using the tiller and slowly  made a difference down the wide-spaced rows.  It was almost pleasurable to see the grass and weeds  tilled under leaving deep, rich soil.  We took turns tilling with Donna finally taking that job over.  I grabbed the hoe and began the chore of 'hilling' the beans and peas while adding a little fertilizer to the mix.  We were both tired and sunburned by the end of that day and the following week brought a lot of growth.  The next Saturday was even better.  Gene joined us and because the pole beans were sending their long tendrils every which way, we added panels and twine and posts so they could commence climbing.  Gene staked the tomatoes and we all spent time tilling and weeding and fertilizing that which had not yet been done. 
   The change in  the garden in just a week's time is amazing.  Cucumber plants are spreading and butternut squash plants have shot out of the ground.  The corn is 2 feet high and the peas and burgundy beans are blossoming.  Speaking of blossoms, the potatoes plants are also blooming and there are gorgeous yellow blossoms on the squash and plants -and there are also tiny squash growing too. There are very small tomatoes displacing the little yellow blooms and the onions are thickening and taking on that braided look near the bulb.  It's truly gorgeous!
   We've enjoyed it on the supper table too.  Radish are coming out of our ears and we make a bee-line for the lettuce and spinach almost every evening.  It's such a joy to have fresh, fresh, fresh food......grown by your own hand. As a matter-of-fact, we're having grilled chicken in a lush salad for dinner tonight.  Won't you join us?  Both at the table and in the garden........

2 Samuel 23:4 (NIV)

He is like the light of morning at sunrise
    on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
    that brings grass from the earth.’

Digging in the dirt

We had an adventurous weekend, Gene and I.  Saturday morning started early when we loaded up calves to take to the sale.  Our grandson, Zeb, pretty much camps out at his ‘country home’ on weekends so as Gene pulled away from the pasture with a load of calves in the cattle trailer, Zeb and I pulled out of the yard with a load of pullets (young female chickens for those who aren’t hip to country-speak) in a cage in the bed of my truck.

Zeb and I parked the truck at the sale barn where a lot of trading and wheelin’ and dealin’ was going on.  There were folks there with seed, chickens, pups, grown dogs, rabbits, goats, fresh eggs….all kinds of interesting things and a whole lot of haggling was going on.  We didn’t have to do anything really.  I just sat the cage loaded with pullets on the ground and they sold themselves quickly.  I will add that Gene and I ordered these sweet chickens from a very well known supplier in February (first hatch).  Half of the order was Buff Orpingtons and the other half Jersey Giants (black) and they sold like wildfire….and brought a sweet price.  We made enough on the sale to not only pay us back for our initial investment but to also buy a used tiller for the garden!  Oh, and we still have 13 pullets to add to our flock.

Once home, and after a big breakfast, Gene and I headed out to the garden to try out that tiller.  Oh boy, did it ever get the job done.  Gene tilled up one side and down the other until the rest of the garden was ready to be planted.  That’s when I broke out the fertilizer and the new Earthway Garden Seeder, a gift from Gene.  This contraption is incredible.  It’s lightweight, has a big wheel on the front, a smaller wheel in the back and a hopper in the middle.  On the inside of the hopper, to the side, is a gear that you attach various plastic wheels to that have the capability of grabbing seed and dropping it in specified intervals onto the ground.  Each plastic wheel is for a different size and kind of seed…..corn, beans/peas, lettuce…etc.  There’s also a chain that hangs down behind the hopper and drags on the ground.  So it works like this:  Pour in the seed and start pushing the Seeder down the row.  Seed drops, chain drags over it covering it with soil, back wheel sort of tamps it down.  What a back saver!  I planted corn, purple hulled peas, pinto beans and pole beans that way.  We also planted watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers.   

It was a long, beautiful, glorious, hardworking day in God’s Bounty and we loved every minute of it.  Oh, did I forget to mention that the peas and beans that I planted last Monday are sprouting?  And the potato plants are reaching for the sky?  And the turnips…….well……you get the picture.

“The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes”

Matt Redman. “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord).” Lyrics.  10,000 Reasons.  Sparrow. 2011. 

Rapidly warming ground

Leslie says:

April 1^st and the only one fooled was me….. I was deceived by the weather.  The day’s high on the ranch was in the low 90’s and it felt even warmer in the garden which has no shade for respite.  Of course, I didn’t make it to God’s Bounty until after 1 when the sun was at its most brutal.   I turned on the music and started working, practically dancing around the rows.  I was soon joined by Donna and we commiserated about the early heat as we began hoeing and planting. 

The nicest thing happened today when Gene brought the little hand plow into the garden in the back of the Gator.  He hooked up the plow to the Gator and I drove while he steered the plow.  We made short work of three very long rows.  Gene’s motto is ‘work smarter, not harder’ and it saved us much hoeing and sore muscles.  We planted more lettuce, sugar snap peas (and are both wondering if it’s too warm for them to grow) and dropped beautiful Contender beans into the newly plowed rows. 

The radishes are coming up as is the spinach and some lettuce.  All will soon need to be thinned.  The turnips are trying their best to make an entrance and the garlic appears to be very happy growing in the new corner of the garden.  The potato plants are rearing their regal leaves leaving us surprised at their very early appearance.  Onions and chives are thriving too!  Oh, and we found the ever invasive mint and some of last year’s lettuce sprouting and reaching for the sun at the east end of the garden.  We’ve decided to make a rock bed around the herbs to try to keep them in check, in the garden and to prevent them from making their way into the pasture.

Speaking of the pasture…..God is shining all around us and the pasture that surrounds the garden as the grass is reaching skyward.  What was so very dead and dry and grasshopper eaten last year….what crunched under tired feet and had no life whatsoever has responded to a warmer winter and rain after rain and is now lush and green, thick and growing.  We are praying for a bountiful hay harvest that might, just might, come very early this year.

So now I head to the shower which reminds me that there’s nothing in the world like a cool shower after a long, hot afternoon working in God’s Bounty. 

“I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours”

Casting Crowns. “Who Am I.” Lyrics.  Casting Crowns.  Beach Street Records. 2003. 

And the rains came and the wind with it



Garlic!



Leslie says:

Donna and I are rejoicing in the warmer weather, in the early spring and are especially thankful for the mild winter  but, of course, the wind and rains of spring have interfered with our best-laid plans.  So today I suited up in old jeans and tall rubber boots to attend to chickens, chicks  and the garden.  Once the chickens and chicks were moved and situated, I made my way to God’s Bounty and feeling the sun on my back as I worked pulling a few weeds I managed to perform a little work. The onions and garlic have been planted and today, thanks to a comment made by a friend, wild onions (chives) have found their way from my yard into some semblance of a neat row beside the onions.  Looking around I noticed that tiny turnips are peeking out and the garlic is coming up!  This evening I planted two long rows of spinach and tomorrow hope to get the lettuce and radish in.  Salad days will soon arrive!

 You might be interested to know that I live on a beautiful hill in a breathtaking valley.  There’s little to break the wind from the south, west and north so, in our century old house, we are accustomed to feeling the strong gusts.  And so it is in the garden which is just south of the house…..and if the wind is howling, even on a beautiful day, planting seeds is almost impossible.  And we’ve had strong wind almost continually this month.  And rain.  Lots of rain (but after last summer’s drought, not one word about too much rain has been uttered around here).   This week alone the rain gauge measured 4.5 inches.   I’ve worried that we are late in getting cool weather crops planted but then I am reminded that it is still March and we are usually waiting for the next frost at this time of year. 

And the sisterfriends and seeds wait for the ground to warm, the wind to slow and the rain to stop for just a bit……

“The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”  Numbers 6:25-27(NIV)

March 5, 2012

Leslie says:

And so yesterday began with strong, hot coffee, a quiet morning devotion, a later breakfast and another foray into God’s Bounty.  The fence that Donna and I struggled to put up last year was leaning in (most) places and Gene helped us strengthen it (well, he actually did the work and Donna and I handed him tools).  It’s amazing what well-placed wood screws and braces and a little brawn do.  The wind was fierce today and prevented any other kind of outside work so the rest of the morning was spent poring over catalogs and making what we sisterfriends are most famous for….endless lists! Our lists are a thing of beauty…..seeds that we saved from last year, seeds that we bought but didn’t plant, seeds that we want to buy, places we want to buy the seeds, plants we want to buy.  We can fill page after page with our lists and plans.  Our garden journal filled with those lists is a ‘someday dream’ at the moment that will eventually, in the months to come, turn into a very sweet blessing. 

PS.....we planted 2 varieties of potatoes today.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11 NIV

Leslie says:

Donna and I have been sisterfriends for years and although we've both been interested in and have each had gardens, we didn't undertake a shared garden until 2011. Of course we started a big gardening project during the hottest summer on record in Oklahoma in the midst of a crushing drought. And, of course God blessed us with a lush, green oasis in the midst of a parched pasture that, despite hours and hours of work......produced very little. In retrospect, we believe God grew the garden last summer to serve as a haven for His creatures. It was alive with bees, wasps, hornets, butterflies, a fat rabbit, several dogs trying to stay cool, frogs, lizards and probably a snake or two. There were what looked and felt like millions of grasshoppers in all colors and sizes and they feasted on anything green. We named the garden God's Bounty because the blessings, while not always of the vegetable kind, were plentiful and, of course, always bestowed upon us exactly when most needed.

So, we find ourselves once again longing for dirt encrusted fingernails and hot summer mornings. The gardening books and journals are covering many surfaces and seed packets are stacked haphazardly on the table and today, March 3, 2012, we spent our first day in God's Bounty.

Donna says:

God's Bounty. A place of life and hope and healing.  There are few places where that is more evident than in a garden.  As is often the case, what was harvested over the course of the season wasn't entirely what Leslie and I expected when we began diligently researching and dreaming on a bleak January day.   What an experience it was - from the chilly grays of winter to the scorched browns of summer.  I'm sure we will be reliving our times in God's Bounty 2011 on these pages just as we did while we worked today.   Join us in God's Bounty.  A place of life and hope and healing