May 24 it finally felt like summer - or at least spring - but for sure NOT winter! The snow is gone, followed by days of rain and cool temps. The earth is turning that translucent color of green once again.
The gazebo is open for summer living and dining (5/24) and our first grilling for the year. Usually I am in the Badlands at this time so summer feels early in some ways. I was here when the hummingbirds returned (5/19) and am able to watch the ferns unfurl each day. These are the little things I have missed witnessing each spring during this time.
May 15 - I finally pulled and plugged the three birch taps and finished the birch syrup (or medicine). After over 2 weeks of continuous condensing on the hot plate in the garage, we ended up with a couple of quarts of the "syrup." My idea to mix it with the maple did not work as the birch start running about the time that the maple stops! I wanted to try it. I don't think I need to do that again.
May 19 - Spinach planted outside - we are eating our indoor planting of greens. Sara raked leaves and hauled them over to the raspberry bed while I moved raspberries from the garage to the orchard area. A new Dolgo Crab tree was planted (with wedding money from my cousin in Iowa). A sweet gift that allowed us to expand the wedding orchard - 3 years and counting!
May 24 - 180 onion sets planted plus flowers in the two center beds on each end of the bench. We are cutting down this year to allow Nammah, and us, to rest a bit. Last year's harvest and canning efforts are still overflowing in the pantry. We will only plant what we can eat and share - along with a few canned items that ARE running low.
May 25 - New rough cut tamarack replaced the railroad ties on the south side of the garage. All of the raspberries there were moved over to Nammah last week, leaving only rhubarb for now. Tulip bulbs from Amsterdam were planted in the circle outside the iris ring.
And a re-design of the middle bed (which was the old fence line before the expansion.) Growing vine
crops there did not work so well because it shaded other plants in the
garden. I took the fence out and we put in new timbers for a cleaner
look!
It was my best year under the grow lights. Sara's idea to run a fan to keep the air moving made a huge difference. And I was good about not planting things too early. Just 4,6 and 8 weeks before the last frost just like the seed packets instruct! Everything looked beautiful when it came out of the protected studio environment.
Everything (except the potatoes) were planted by June 10, but no one foresaw the June 17 frost! We discovered the damage on June 19 and were leaving town on the 21 for family reunions in Iowa. We bought replacement peppers and squash - leaving the damaged.
It is times like this when I enter what my colleague Sandy calls my fruit fly phase! The cycles of life, and the seasons, seem more like a burden than a gift. "Why bother?" I can think. It is an expanded version of the childhood "Why make the bed if I am just going to sleep in it again the next night!" I can take this lack of impermanence into everything I do - especially Homestead tasks when they tend to overwhelm me. And especially when months of work goes to waist via frost!
Fast forward to July - our first strawberries on the 1st! The rest is coming along slowly but surely.And what do you know....some of the frozen peppers just might recover. The fruit fly comes to life!
