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.