Slow start to 2014

Spring was slow to come this year, with not enough warm days to convince our plants that it was safe to grow.  The tomatoes and peppers needed to be replaced (a tough blow for a start from saved seed kind of gal) but we WILL have a garden! As July ends Naamah is looking up.

Everything has a fresh layer of bedding. Wood chips around the edge and on the paths.  Pine needles for the blueberries. And straw for the squash.

She is even sporting new arbors at each entrance. Sara got her tools out and re-purposed some of the old center bed wood.  She was looking for a place for her clematis to grow.  
The harvest has begun, with loads of fresh greens.  The spinach (3rd planting already) is loving the cooler summer. I am loving the extra greens for my morning smoothies.

Sara surprised me with some new books about Naamah.  I learned a lot: a: I spelled her name wrong on the sign.  Perhaps Nammah will become the South Range spelling. I also learned that along with the midrash that Naamah brought the seeds, she was also thought to be a great singer who sang to the animals through the night to keep them calm in the ark. Her name translates to "her deeds were pleasant."  I had no idea just HOW perfect the name Naamah was for our garden, now our place!

After a day's work tending to her, we like to sit with our gin and tonic and just watch her the way a mother might watch her sleeping child.

Malcolm's Nammah Stay

In June we had a little visitor come stay at our place, accompanied by his mother, Sara's sister Erika. Malcolm Louis Swan spent several days gracing Nammah's place with his bubbling laughter and constant curiosity. 

Here Paula is looking up at the nest with mama Robin and her brood, and Malcolm is more intrigued with watching his aunt!

We had so many opportunities for making dreams come true with all the many "wish flowers" growing throughout the estate. 

Riding the "tractor" was one of the daily rituals. 

Eating strawberries fresh out of the patch was a major hit. 

Malcolm was a great helper in the garden. Loosening the soil...

Watering the plants...

Sorting through the plant containers...building blocks for garden grandeur. 

He was a busy little gardener! 

And lots of critters were discovered to befriend! Paula is not the critter I mean. Upon her finger is a squiggly caterpillar...

Some squiggly critters were just hanging from the sky. Mac loves this. Erika is not so sure. 

Eva the cat was another good friend Mac made on his visit. Here Eva starts a new trend of live garden statuary...

 All in all, a great time was had at "Nammah's Place," a new name extended beyond the garden gate to the whole place thanks to Mac's dad, Renny.  Renny--checking in daily from Mac's hometown of Austin, Texas--would always ask how things were going at "Nammah's Place."  It made perfect sense! 

It wasn't all work in the garden. There were flowers to smell...

Benches to visit...

And 4'x 8' plywood boards discovered behind the garden shed to run up and down! This was a fave activity of Mac's! 

We hope you'll visit again next year! Hannah misses her pal. And so do we!

Come again someday. That is our truest wish!!

 

Creating places to BE

"Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” 

― Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

It's funny to me how each spring, the first thing I rush to DO is to re-establish my places to BE.  All of the chairs, hammocks, swings - outdoor locations for rest and relaxation - come out from the long winter.  We rarely see the living room in summer- choosing the screened in gazebo instead.

I even make "deals" with myself.  I will sit in each chair at least once per month this summer - turning my time for being into a to-do list.

I have been sitting in front of a computer screen all winter - my body yearns to haul water and till soil - not sit!


Still, the calling to create sacred places for respite remain. Perhaps for some of us, there is being in doing

After a long winter

It is a good thing that the larder was full this winter 2014.
We had record snow fall AND cold temps!

The new veggie drying/storage tray was most useful during the fall and early winter processing.

Instead of trekking to the studio to see what was ripe (or not) we were able to store more of the harvest in the kitchen, without the harvest taking over the kitchen!

The squash lasted until May this year, with garlic and onions still holding on. Plenty of comfort food to keep us through the long winter.








I was fortunate to scavenge some frozen citrus from a friend.  Her brother had them sent as a Christmas gift and they sat out in the freezing temps for several days.  Of course I could not stand to see her just toss them.  They deserved a chance at re-purposing.
I took them home, allowed them to thaw, and squeezed the juice into…grapefruit martinis!!  What a mid winter treat.

In February I took a Bee Keeping class at the University of MN Extension Bee Lab. I was ready to buy my bees after the first day of class.  After the second day of class, I realized this was not something I should rush into!  I DO want to keep bees.  They are amazing and brilliant collective creatures! Quotes from class: honey bees are a female based society-only 5% are male- males only purpose is to mate- "males don't work or pollinate- only eat, wait for sexual maturity and then fly out every afternoon to mate"-queens spend 1-2 afternoons mating with 10-20 males and store up all if the sperm they need for a lifetime. Amazing stuff!!! Maybe next year...

The maple syrup season was late (again) which was fortunate as March was busy with travel.  Mom moved to Duluth in November and participated in her first ever maple syruping season.  At 71 she is still going strong. She was part of each phase of the process.

We tapped 23 trees on April April 5, the day after UMD and all of the locals schools were closed with another snow day.  A record number of "closed due to snow and cold" as well!




It was a slow drip start - but a "warm" spell in mid April made for a full 40 plus gallon boil on Easter Sunday (April 20.) The sap had risen!!









The second boil Mom and Sara had to do while I was at work!  Not until May 5, record late for us.  Less syrup than a normal year but enough for us.  It really IS about the process, not the product.  Or trust me a person can buy this stuff MUCH cheaper than making it this old fashioned way!




The seeds were pulled out of the freezer on April 11. It took a couple of weeks to get the "6-8 prior to planting" seeds into pots and under grow lights.   Somewhere during the process I turned 50!! Yikes!!

Squash were planted on May 10, just as the last Red Kuri was baked and turned into a lasagna. I am grateful that my seed saving (even pulling these gems out of the compost bucket Sara!!) meant no seed purchases this year!



Now that the warm temperatures are here and I am able to get my hands into her soil (potatoes planted May 18; cold weather greens and crops May 10), I am looking back over the hard winter …




...still further back to the beautiful fall harvest... Like the earth, I am awakened once again!


Let summer 2014, and another season of blessings from Nammah, begin!