Beautiful Day

Note: For whatever reason, I could not post this blog entry with paragraphs. Instead, they were all combined into one. I did correct them. But Blogger had its own idea about what it wanted to do. So I just decided to leave it that way. ~~~~ Today was a beautiful day on the Farm. Temperature was warm, although cool in the shade. Richard worked on constructing shelves in the Garage. Order in chaos is always a good thing. I suppose it takes a while to live in a place where one's lifestyle has changed substantially before the needed order becomes apparent. Plus, an impetus for the work is the upcoming Seed and Plant Exchange in 6 weeks. Melanie worked on weeding her garden beds in the veggie patch. The Chamomile was mounting a takeover; Melanie was able to find a better balance. She used the "broad fork" that Matt made for her to fluff up the raised beds. Her raised beds look lovely as they await Gardening Season 2011 Adventures. Things change so fast around here. I worked on the Grandmother's Flower Garden on the west side of the house. I just love to putter around weeding. I love to see what's growing. I love to be able to identify the wee small plants or the plants emerging after their winter slumber. I found some Arugula. The Seedlings are prolific and they already know how to have that intense aroma of the adult plants. I even noted that we had 1 plant coming up the 2nd year. I wonder if it will produce seeds. Or is it perennial? We have a lot of Echinacea Purpurea (Purple Coneflower). I can never have enough of that beautiful plant. Soon, I will be digging some plants out, moving some plants, and potting up others for sharing. While communing with the plants, I decided to put out a call for "old plants" with histories in Adair County for the Grandmother's Flower Garden. I wonder what I will find. I moved the Sweet Potatoes into the South Window. Tomorrow is a Root Day. I will be peeling off shoots to root in water and putting shoots which are well rooted into moist sand. Melanie and I spent some time working on organizing details of the Seed and Plant Exchange. She finished her part of the flyer and I need to add the embellishments. The Austrees are in full bloom. Standing underneath them, we could hear the hum of the Bees buzzing about their yellow catkins. Welcome back, Bees! We are always so grateful when we see Bees. We like to plan for Flowers for them over the Gardening Season. Holly called. She is setting up "work parties" for our fellow homesteaders in the area. We are all a bike's distance apart. For one day a month over the summer, we will convene at a fellow homesteaders place ready to assist on a project of need. Our month for a work party here on the Farm is August. That is a super busy time. We should have no trouble at all coming up with projects needing assistance. We are entering the time when things will be picking up speed. We try to stay focused on the present tasks before us. To look at the big picture is to get overwhelmed. It's a lot more fun and effective to stay grounded in the present moment. We'll get done what we get done on each of the beautiful days we are gifted to be a part.