Today De and I decided, since it is chilly and damp outside and we've had a very busy week, we were just going to call it a lazy day. We failed. Miserably, I might add. On this 'lazy day': I got up early and went into town to have breakfast with some friends and to get my hair cut. Since I was already in town I went to the local farm supply store and got two bags of chicken feed, two bales of pine chips, 4 bags of softener salt, two cases of clay pigeons, and some 12 gauge shells to break them with. While I was out, De took care of the morning chicken chores. And some laundry. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away, De and I decided to go back into the same town I just left and do some grocery shopping. Since we already in town we went to the local big box home improvement and construction material store, and picked up a few things there. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away we fixed a mid-afternoon "lunch". Then we decided to let the chickens out. And top off their food and water. While we were out we walked to the garden. Yes, the same garden about which I noted only few hours before in a response to comment, that was "done" except for a few potatoes yet to dig. The very same garden that I said was "done" before. Twice. At least. Even going in the direction of the garden was a major tactical error in the quest for slothfulness. By the time we got there, we knew we were defeated.
It started as a very innocent diversion to "just look", but quickly escalated into something much more. To paraphrase that grand and grizzled philosopher of the Dark Side (Darth Vader), "Our failure was now complete.". It started with me just yanking a few 'done' plants out a bed, and finding they were not 100% done - So we got a couple bell peppers and the compost pile got all the plants. We tried dashing off to the other garden plot but found a half dozen spaghetti squash, and one butternut squash were still good and needed to be brought in tonight. (We have an overnight freeze warning.) Oh, and 2 or 3 small melons. We retreated to other garden plot and found a small white pumpkin that I thought was too green before was just fine. And needed to come in tonight. Making a final retreat to the garden beds we found a few scraggly carrot tops with really nice looking carrots underneath. And a handful of beets. And about a half dozen little cabbages. After gathering up some melons that didn't make the cut and opening them up for the chickens I remembered the horseradish. Had I simply 'remembered the horseradish' (e.g. "Hey, I have horseradish!") I might have walked away with a tiny shred of "didn't do nothin' all day" dignity left, but I traded it for a trip to the barn to get my shovel. <sigh> I'm such a loser at being a loser. (Don't think on that too hard: It's not worth it.)
In any case, here is the haul. I'm not going to claim it's the last: I've finally learned my lesson.
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| The haul in a tarp on the floor, along with the day's eggs, because my wheelbarrow is still full. |
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| One of the Red Stars took to terrorizing the worms after I got the horseradish up |
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| Our first harvest of horseradish! Yum! |
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| De is working feverishly feverishly to pawn off spaghetti squash so we can have our living room back. (Not lazy) |
Col. 1:9-12
Mark
Oh, Mark, this was a really funny post! Even up here near the Arctic Circle, we're facing the same things as far as trying (yes, I really am trying) to put the garden to bed for the winter. We have STILL not had a hard frost. (This is starting to feel creepy.) So things are still growing albeit slowly. We had another big, luscious salad today and hubby commented he'd never seen such a gorgeous looking dish of greens and veggies . . . all straight from the garden. I guess it doesn't matter what the date is, none of us dyed-in-the-wool gardeners are going to waste a single thing the garden chooses to give us. Besides, what could be healthier?!
ReplyDeleteMama Pea - We do love all the tail-end of the garden stuff, and are amazed we are still getting it. And you are right, we can't stand to leave anything good out in the garden to go bad no matter how tired are of dealing with it, or how much is already in the pantry.
DeleteFifteen minutes after posting the "we have spaghetti squash" thing on Facebook she had to post an "it's all gone now!" message. I was amazed at how fast they went!