So it’s, uh…been a minute, eh?
Things got pretty crazy between November and March. School got busy, with Meg being in High School and Calvin being in 5th grade, meaning that both kids have orchestra concerts and piano lessons/recitals, Meg has band and musical, and Calvin now has robotics with GATE. Maybe I’ll circle back to the winter months, since we actually had a decent amount of snow and cold.
For now, though, we begin with this year’s garden plot! We’ve had some weird “heat waves,” of sorts, on and off these past few weeks. We were up to 77 F yesterday, so we took the time to get some yard work done.
I went and secured the burn permit for the garden and Brooke got started taking care of the plots. She and Calvin raked the leaves and detritus up from the yard last week and got it ready to go, but it’s been so windy these past few weeks, we weren’t sure when we’d be able to actually burn. Thankfully, we hit the sweet spot: an overcast Saturday with low wind and somewhat elevated humidity.
The burning itself was done by 10:30ish, so we took a break and went outside to hit some of the other plots, pulling up some weeds and cutting some small trees that were going to create problems in a few months. Our neighbor was outside and we chatted a bit, and he reminded me that he bought a tiller for his tractor that he had offered to share (really, I think he bought a toy that he doesn’t have many excuses to actually use, so we present an opportunity for him!). He kindly came over, we moved the edging bricks out of the way, and he went to work! We used Brooke’s Dad’s rear tine tiller years ago to establish the gardens, but since then, we’ve used our other neighbor’s front tine tiller to reset the gardens each year. The rear tine variety just goes deeper than a front tine, so it’s been a few years since we got a really good turn-over of the garden. We were very appreciative!
Regardless, the plots look really good now! Brooke went ahead and planted some kale, lettuce, and parsley to get the season started, but we’ll wait to put beans and such in. I don’t think we’re going with anything “exotic” this year, but Brooke’s talking about putting popcorn in the ground again. It’s been since 2017 when we last planted it, so excited to see how it goes.
In other news, Meg got her driver’s permit a few weeks ago, on account of her turning 15 this year (!!!!!!). Calvin is starting to run an engine of his own, now tall enough to move the push mower around! Granted, he isn’t quite tall enough to maneuver the mower around the yard, but he’ll get used to it as he gets bigger. We aren’t planning on him making this a regular chore or anything this year, but we’re moving slowly in that direction. He’s at least showing some interest in helping out!
Onward, 2025!