Really, I'm Not a Pig

Farming has been good for me.  It has taken me out of my comfort zone numerous times, and I’ve learned over the years that a shake up every now and then is a good thing.  Think about a tremor or a tree-toppling, power-outaging storm: once the dust settles, don’t you look around and ask, “Everything o.k.?”  When you discover it is, great, and when you see there’s work to do, then that’s what comes next, no questions asked.

It's easy to be zen-like when the animals are plastic, 1/64 your size, safely behind solid wooden barricades, and polite enough to let you finish your cup of tea

Every once in awhile I’m left in charge of the farm, and let’s just say, I pretty much count the days until I’m not ranchero-numero-uno anymore.  The work is good, don’t get me wrong, but the responsibility can be daunting.  Once, while sitting comfortably reading a book and enjoying a nice hot cup of tea, my oldest, then 8, ran in yelling, “The pigs got out!”  Not taking my eyes from the book, I replied, “Honey, daddy’s out of town...”  His eyes widened as he replied, “That’s why I’m telling you.”

Slowly, I felt the gears grinding to a halt, and it registered.

Is it so wrong for a mother to cry out, “CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!”?  I know the foot stomping probably set a bad example, but it’s not like he hadn’t already behaved that way himself many years before.

Just like in the storm analogy, I started looking around, wondering what to do.  I could call the neighbor, but then that would mean I can’t even handle my own farm, and why should a woman have to call a man for help?  That’s what that would be, right?  I could send my boy out to catch them, but he actually came to me for help, so scratch that.  Plus, back to reason number one...well, you get it.

There was no choice but to deal with it, and in the true inconvenience we call farming, the need was immediate.



Not a pig, and I am oh, so grateful



I recall the day my younger son was born.  My reaction when my older one ran into the room wasn’t, “Hey sweetie, come meet your little brother,” but rather, “Good God, you’re enormous!”  Well, I felt the same way about the pigs looking at them roaming outside their gateless pen.  I won’t bore you with the details of the capture which included my fearless dog, but will take you to the punch line…theirs, not mine.

In fact, I’d be lying if I attempted to give you the lowdown, because truth be told, I can’t remember the details.  Sort of like getting teeth pulled, falling from a tree house, or spinning off the road across oncoming traffic, the numbing haze of post traumatic stress has erased the sequence of events from my brain.  Only the highlights of my anxiety remain.

Which is why you find me screaming, holding a pig semi-aloft as the writhing muscular porcine vessel of testosterone attempts to devour my ear, knowing I have to do this one more time so BOTH of them will be back where they belong.  I vaguely remember screaming at my son for advice, which I’m sure I didn’t hear or listen to due to either the squealing pig, the crashing white noise in my head, or the cacophony of the two.  As I hurtled the beast back into his enclosure I caught the stunned expression on my son’s face.  A thought bubble would most likely have revealed, “So that graceless being is the one I refer to as ‘mother.’  Is it possible to make an exchange?”



A nice diet of sweet potato vines to whittle away their waistlines



As I caught my breath, he offered a bit of advice.  “You shouldn’t throw animals.”  Thank god my penchant for biting sarcasm didn’t emerge to attack a person half my size.  I was able to lower beast number two closer to the ground for his final descent, which was more palatable for all of us, despite the fact that the squealing screech-fest could have rivaled the war cries of opposing cheering sections led by Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne at a tension-filled girls’ volleyball game. 

Breathing hard, hair disheveled, and wearing an expression that was, let’s just say, nowhere near runway ready, I thought of the Talking Heads as I wondered, “Well, how did I get here?”  Now with things a bit calmer as my two dogs maintained order, circling the pen while I sutured it up, I could sense my son’s strange wonder about the woman he just saw man-handling the pigs.  Could I possibly be the same person who baked bread that morning, nursed his ailing teddy bear back to health, and cheered his every effort to make a “real” video about prehistoric beasts?  Let’s face it: a kid wants to know his mommy has her shit together.  When pigs gone AWOL pull her off center, it can be alarming, to say the least.

So farming has done that for me.  I can go where I’d never have imagined, and quickly run back to sanity once escaping it.  I still have an ear, and my son has been formally introduced to my limits, and at an impressionable age at that.  To think it took me until the stately age of 11 to discover my mother wasn’t perfect.  What can I say?  My boy is advanced.

Flowers

There’s a reason the family of the deceased makes the “in lieu of flowers…” request. 

No, there are at least two reasons.   

Money spent on flowers can be put to much greater use if spent to perpetuate causes the deceased believed in or places that mattered to them.  When my father died, he had his obituary ready with the sole request for all donations in his memory to be made to the Salvation Army.  When he was a kid, this is where his family went to get bikes, toys, clothes, and household supplies.  He figured, if people are going to give money, give it to a place that makes a difference for those who do not have much to give themselves.  I know today that might sound presumptuous, but in his day and age, only the poor looked for things at the Salvation Army, and it was the poor he was looking out for and trying to help along.

I’ve just recently discovered the less obvious second reason for the request only because of a feeling that came over me.  Not everyone follows the “in lieu of flowers…” request.  Some send flowers anyway or in addition to the cause because let’s face it, flowers are nice.  At my sister’s house, near where my mother had lived, there are loads of bouquets sent in memory of my mother which were carried from the church to the place where everyone gathered afterwards.  One arrangement in particular caught my eye.  It had deep purple flowers among others in a lovely vase.  I considered asking if I could take it home with me when I left since there were so many others, but I stopped before I could even finish the thought.  I became overwhelmed with the realization that the flowers would die, and that was something I didn’t want to see happen to the beautiful blooms in front of me.  The empty vase, regardless of what I might fill it with in the future would always remind me of the emptiness I feel inside.

I didn’t ask to take them.  Remembering them would be so much better.

Then today, as I was in the garden, I spent time looking at all the flowers around me.  I rarely, if ever, cut my flowers and bring them into the house for an arrangement.  I like my flowers to peak in their natural environs, and rarely do I even snip off the dying ones.  I see the plants’ progression to be a thing of beauty without need for cosmetic surgery.  My flowers are abundant, and for the first time, I considered snipping a few and bringing them inside.  At first I leaned towards my usual way of doing things (in this case, my usual way of not doing it) but decided, why not?  In the garden, I might spend a few hours a day enjoying what’s around me.  The flowers could extend that time, and could serve as the memorial bouquet that I wanted. 

Yes, I know these too will die, but it’s different here.  These can be replaced with the ones yet to bloom, and after each arrangement moves beyond its peak, the compost bin will accept the debris as part of the cycle for the next growing season.  My flowers belong here, and will continue to be here season after season.  As one variety slips into dormancy, another will begin to grow in force, allowing my bouquet to alter gradually.  Plus, the pieces of the bouquet, the individual varieties, are with me in the garden.  Parts of the whole, they show me that beauty exists in different contexts, and there’s a place for each.

Soil Prep 101

I dig digging.  Getting out there and feeling the shovel slide right through the earth with my foot enforcing just the right amount of pressure is soooooo satisfying.  However, there is a deterrent to a good dig that I face on a regular basis.  That, my friend, is grass.

Nothing blocks a smooth sink more than grass roots.  "ARRRGGGHHHHHH!" is all I can say.  When I'm patient, I do the circular perimeter (aka the circumference) approach where I create a disk broader than the god forsaken clump, then slice it off underroot and feed it to my pigs (after freeing the worms).   But there are other times where I just can't face it and go to plan b.  In case you didn't know it already, I'm the self-proclaimed Queen of Plan B.  It makes life interesting and reminds me that yes, there are options.

So here's an option I just love:  lasagna gardening.  This is where grass (and all its neighbors) get smothered to the point of compliance.  All you need is some newspaper, compost, anything green (that actually grew from the ground at one time), and black plastic.  Oh, and time.  What you see below is from soil prep that began in the fall, uncovered last week; lasagna baking for about 7 months, mmmm!

So I'll walk you through the process with a few pics from a recent soil extravaganza..... And here's a secret - put the lasagna ingredients down in any order you choose.  It's like cooking - do what works for you.  I typically put down layers according to what I can do at the time.  And if you don't have everything -- no biggie.  The most important component is newspaper, an earthworm magnet (I use paper printed with soy ink, thanks Mom for saving all those papers for me!) If you don't have newspaper, go with cardboard.  Just make sure it's not lined with plastic because after decomposition, you're left with flimsy plastic bits that are difficult to extract and aren't good for worms or the soil. 

Here you see a large piece of black plastic under which is a layer of all the things mentioned above.  The plastic lets things cook.  I know it's unsightly, but, I don't care because what it gives me is beautiful to behold.  Take my advice and get the heavy duty plastic.  It's durable so you can use it year after year.

Ahhhhh.....that was grass!  Notice the moisture present and the debris that can be worked in to create a nice texture to the clay-heavy soil. 

Check out the holes in the soil, courtesy of worms, ants, and pill bugs, some of the world's greatest aerators.

If you look carefully, you can see this worm hasn'tquite finished with this paper yet....

A sign of good soil prep.  Lots of worms who are happy to stick around for as long as you like.  Time to plant!

Garden Walk

A favorite time of day for me is after dinner, when I’m showered, relaxed, and holding a glass of red wine.  It’s quiet observation time, or as I tell my family as I head out the back door, time to see what’s what in the garden. 

It’s like slow breathing.  The energy of the day has been drawn in and quiet settles the pace.  At this time of day, I can touch the more obscure aspects of gardening.

And in one’s own garden, every leaf and stem has a story.  But when visiting another, it’s interesting to see what strikes you.

A few days ago I was able to enjoy my evening garden walk at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond.  Prior to their evening event, I was able to stroll through the gardens with my glass of vino, alone and reflective.  The first thing that struck me was the thought, “what a difference!”  All prior experiences at the LGBG (a gardener’s CBGB?  WelI, I was there for a concert….) involved moms and kids, namely me and my mom and my kids.

I could hear my sons’ sandals slapping across the footbridges as my mother called, “You’re watching them?  You don’t want them to fall in!”

They won’t fall in.  And if they do, I can fish them out and enjoy the memory with them forever.

But, in her defense, I was obviously used to my kids’ ways.  Any wooded periphery to a playground proved more appealing than the new state of the art jungle gym.  Exploring the unknown, seeing what’s around the bend drew them more than the curvy slide or fake steering wheels.  In other words, they’d pick what’s real and changing over the contrived, and playtime meant being leopards in the jungle rather than astronauts on a spaceship.  The play structure is the same this week as it was last week - unless of course there’s yellow caution tape blocking access to the ladder, which all of a sudden makes it extremely interesting.

Boy in Garden

Enthusiasm on Nature

NFS

And if you think about it, kids are nature – in fact, we all are.  As we explore and interact with what’s around us, we learn so much about the world and what’s real in ourselves.  Children do a pretty good job reminding us how to do that.  Our job is to let them.  And if they do go too far and fall in, fish them out and recognize that they’ve learned something.  Like anything in nature, they’ll adapt.