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.