Categories
Writing

Return to Writing

Six quarts of vegetable broth. The spring version helps clean out the freezer.

While working in the garden, hiking on the trail, cooking, or resting, I’m thinking about my return to writing once the garden is planted. It is particularly important to finish the second book this year and then decide whether or not to put both books in places where people can buy them in 2026. Having a schedule is part of the process. Doing the actual writing is another.

I mentioned that a chronological narrative beginning with arrival in Big Grove Township is not appropriate to this part of my autobiography. On May 25, I wrote:

Up to the time we moved back to Iowa in 1993, a chronological narrative seemed appropriate. Beginning here, in this place that was a vacant lot when we arrived, life got complex to an extent a time-based narrative doesn’t really capture those 32 years. There was no single narrative.

There are some stories I want to tell. Family life after the move back to Iowa is important. My work in transportation and logistics after 1993 covered a lot of territory, yet I want to reduce this to some major stories along with a summary of all I did after returning to Big Grove. Work has been important in my life, so a long chapter about that is in the offing. Becoming empty nesters was a profound change and that merits its own chapter. There was a long period when our child lived in Colorado and Florida, which made frequent visits difficult. My work in environmental activism, on the board of health and in the local food system all are worthy topics with personal meaning. When the money ran out in 2013, and how I coped with that seems important. There is a lot here, yet a lot gets left out by covering these topics. Sorting through all this has been on my mind.

Another writing-related thing is answering the question, What to do about Substack? I don’t post frequently there, but when I do, I get a lot of organic views, more than I do here. Now that the print service I was using to make hard copies of this blog went out of business, I haven’t found a suitable replacement, and maybe it is a good time to move. More on this topic as the summer continues.

Editor’s Note: Still planting the garden and making short posts as I can. It won’t be long before I’m back to normal posting.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

First Basket of Kale

Redbor and Winterbor kale from the 2025 garden.

The Tuesday forecast was for rain… all day. Before it began, I got out in the garden to measure tomato rows and inspect the leafy green vegetables. Little white moths have been busy laying eggs, so once the rain finishes, I’ll apply DiPel to take care of the coming caterpillar hatchlings that love greens as much as I do. Proper application of this naturally occurring pesticide makes a real difference. We need rain.

I picked the first basket of kale before the rain. I reviewed the freezer and there remains plenty of 2023 crop. I’ll take bags that have the largest number of ice crystals and use them in vegetable broth. There are plenty of other bits and pieces in the freezer — broccoli stalks, summer squash, and collards — that will all go into the pot. I bought a big bag of organic celery, seven pounds of organic carrots and a big bag of yellow onions at the wholesale club. Add bay leaves and a little salt and I’ll have a good spring batch of broth for water bath canning.

It looks like 70 tomato cages will fit, with enough space around them to get at them for harvest. Now it’s a question of when the rain will finish. It’s always something.

Editor’s Note: I’m still working with short posts until the garden is planted. Won’t be long.

Categories
Writing

Scent of the Earth

Plot #4 is two-thirds tilled in this image.

The garden soil is well conditioned and breaks up easily while using a rototiller. I move slowly through each row and take in the smells of this fertile soil. I probably shouldn’t breathe in the fine particulates, yet the scent of the earth is intoxicating… I can’t help myself.

The only way I can coax my 73 year old frame to do the work is to move slowly and take frequent rest periods. Basically, I till a couple of rows and take a seat on my tree stump for five or ten minutes. A couple more, then I go in the house and get a drink of water. It takes longer this way, yet I am in this for the long haul and want to live to have many more gardens. According to the Social Security life expectancy table, that means 11 or 12 more gardens if my strength holds.

Ambient temperatures got up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so I called it quits as soon as I tilled the whole plot, put down fertilizer, and raked it all in. Hot weather is forecast for Tuesday, so I’ll be up early getting tomato seedlings in the ground soon after sunrise.

Editor’s Note: Still short posting while I work on the garden. About another week to go before the main planting is finished.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Plot #4

Tomato Plot 2025.

When the Aug. 10, 2020 derecho blew an oak tree akilter, I had to cut it down. I left a tall stump for a seat from which I took this photo. This will be a plot of tomatoes. The seedlings are getting tall in the trays, which means they need more moisture and roots do not have a place to grow. If I can make it through a long day on Monday, I will get them in the ground. That’s a big “if.”

This plot is smaller than the one I used last year, so I may need more space in another plot. I haven’t measured and counted yet, so no worries until I do. I had hoped to leave one of the large plots fallow, but it may be required for production to fit everything in. This is what happens when a gardener just starts a bunch of seeds without detailed planning. It’s how I have gardened since I began.

So I measured and counted and came up with this planting plan:

Tomato Planting plan plot #4 – 2025.

It will be a bit crowded yet I can deal with that. I may have to take the fencing down to access the two outside rows. Won’t know that until we see how things grow with these indeterminate vines that go all over the place.

Editor’s Note: Still short posting while I work on the garden. About another week to go before the main planting is finished.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Last Day of May

The weather has been fabulous the last week or so. Mostly clear skies, moderate ambient temperatures, and normal relative humidity. Each day I begin a little earlier and work until just before I drop. That means about six hours. It is beginning to look like a garden.

Instead of working straight through on a single garden task, I have a couple tasks going at the same time. I work some on one, then another, and then another in small bits of time. It breaks up repetitive motion, keeping me healthy. It also makes garden work more engaging.

The last day of May was cleaning and organizing tomato cages and stakes, turning over part of the soil in plot #4, and then grinding all the desiccated tomato vines into the yard.

I picked a big bunch of greens: Pak Choi, three kinds of lettuce, and arugula. In the house, I managed three loads of laundry. By the end of all this, I felt tired and sore.

Here is a photo gallery of the best last day of May shots.

Trail hiking.
Canadian Geese.
Sunrise on the trail.
Transporting tools.
Turning the tomato plot.
Tomato cages are ready.
Categories
Kitchen Garden

Prepping for Tomatoes

Brush fire on the future tomato plot.

On Friday I dug into the garden plot that was fallow last year. Tall weeds took it over and died, leaving a soft place for wildlife and two feral cats to bed down and sleep protected from trouble. As I moved the weeds aside and pulled up the plastic, my feet sank into the soft, fertile loam. I worked a lot of years to get soil to be like that.

Because the pile of dead grasses was so tall, I burned it instead of running the mower over it for mulch. The fire was intense, radiating its heat 20 yards away. Luckily, it didn’t harm the nearby kale and chard plot. It burned, bright, intensely, and soon exhausted its fuel. Saturday morning I will start turning the soil over for tomato planting.

Because ambient temperatures were forecast in the low 80s, I started early at 7:30 a.m. By 1 p.m. I was tired and achy. It was a good day’s work. A six hour shift is what I can stand these days. Enough of them back-to-back and we’ll have a garden.

I found volunteer collard plants in the plot. I picked them all and we’ll use them in the kitchen this weekend. I can already sense it will be an abundant year.

Editor’s Note: Still short posting while I work on the garden. About another week to go before the main planting is finished.

Categories
Environment

A Morning Hike

I decided to call my morning exercise a hike instead of a walk. That’s mostly because when my sneakers wore out, I replaced them with a pair of hiking shoes. I don’t know if this will persist, but I’m trying it on for size, to wit:

Here are some photos from my morning hike.

Sunrise on the trail.
The trail goes on forever.
Reflections in the state park lake.
A neighbor’s bush.
Bur Oak tree leaves.
Categories
Home Life

On Self Reliance and Grease Monkeys

Kayaks stored by the state park trail.

I was sidetracked by being a grease monkey for 90 minutes at the beginning of my outdoors shift. When I removed the wheel to replace the tractor tire, I did not realize the role the key plays. It uses friction to to keep the wheel turning as gears engage and turn the axle. No key, no movement.

I started the tractor and put it in reverse: nothing. A couple of YouTube videos later I understood what was wrong, retrieved the key I discarded from the trash and reassembled everything. The grease on my hands won’t come out using special soap, so I will have to wear it off. I drove the tractor to mow a patch in the garden… good as new.

My father eschewed being a grease monkey and encouraged me to find a different way to make a living. Toward the end of his life he was assigned duties as a forklift operator in the meat packing plant. He made a point of wearing decent clothing as he hauled pallets of meat around the warehouse. Decent meant a minimum of homemade repairs. His message was we could rise above the quotidian circumstances in which we came up and found ourselves. He graduated from college at age 40 as an example.

I was glad to resolve the issue created by mounting the wheel improperly. I resisted an urge to call the repair shop and ask them. I just solved the problem using tools available. Self reliance is essential if we will survive the authoritarian regime in Washington, D.C. We need to save our money for more important things like taxes, food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare. Today’s political trends have me living closer to the means of production. That’s a good thing.

Editor’s Note: I finished planting most of plot #3 on Wednesday. I’m waiting for the hot peppers to mature before transplanting them into the final row. Next step is preparing a tomato patch. In the meanwhile, my posts here will be shorter than normal. I do plan to return to “normal” at some point after the garden is in.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

May Garden Update

Plot #3 is ready for planting.

When the repair shop returned the John Deere yard tractor, the right rear tire would not hold air. I removed it and ran it across the lakes to the tire shop. The diagnosis came back air was escaping through the sidewall due to rubber deterioration and the tire needed to be replaced. According to the tire’s date code, it was older than the technician that worked on it. The guys (and they were all males) at the tire shop had fun talking about that.

The garden is proceeding on a reasonable schedule now that we are past the worst of spring weather. This week has been about tilling the soil in plot #3, covering the surface with plastic sheets recovered from last year, putting up a fence, and then beginning the work of clearing out the greenhouse. I made good progress by Tuesday and should finish planting seedlings ready to go into the ground today. The next big project is clearing a space for the tomatoes. I know just where that plot will be this year.

I harvested arugula and spinach. Under the covered row everything grows well and soon there will be Pak Choi, lettuce and more arugula. Picking kale is not far away as it is growing well in almost ideal conditions. Already it is feeling like a productive garden.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping after garden work was done. I had a dozen items on the list and quickly got them into a shopping cart. Just as I finished gathering the last item, I realized I didn’t have my wallet. I left the cart near the frozen foods section in the health market and ran to the car to see if it was there. It wasn’t. I returned to my cart and calmly returned all the items to the shelves. Shopping will have to wait for another day.

Editor’s Note: I am short posting when I get time until the garden is planted. It is taking longer than expected, yet I am determined to harvest produce from this soil, this year.

Categories
Sustainability

Looking Forward

Forking path.

We must get on with our lives. There is no better time than right now to lean into empowerment of ourselves and our identities in the face of trying times. These are trying times. From the uncertainties of markets to the fragile nature of our environment, it is always something new, different, or difficult. We didn’t ask for this, yet it is our gift from the body politic.

I’ve been thinking about the trees on our lot that were damaged during the August 10, 2020 derecho. The mulberry tree, with a big crack in the main trunk, is beginning to lose branches. The Autumn Blaze Maple also has main trunk cracks. It is only a matter of time before they will have to come down. In addition, the two Ash trees are already dead from the Emerald Ash Borer. How does one deal with climate change? By getting a decent chainsaw, obviously.

I continue to lean into the garden and work until I can’t work any longer. The shifts are shorter than they were ten years ago. Nonetheless, it is beginning to look more like a garden.

Editor’s Note: I am short posting when I get time until the garden is planted. It is taking longer than expected, yet I am determined to harvest produce from this soil, this year.