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| Being outside is the best! |
Though Earth day isn’t a major holiday to us–it’s no Easter or Christmas or Halloween–it’s one of those days that we take a few moments to reflect on all the good things that come from Mother Earth. Really though, it’s like Earth Day, every day around here.
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| Snickers is disgusted with me. |
Of course, sometimes in the middle of work, it’s nice to take a break and just enjoy the warm sunlight.
Once we got the stones placed and the landscaping fabric down, we mulched and mulched until we couldn’t mulch anymore.
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| Teething on a stick and learning to walk on the grass. |
But, on the farm, there’s hardly any time to lose, even if we are tired. So, after the landscaping, we got to planting the Department of Natural Resources tree bundle we’d ordered. Nothing says Earth Day like a 100 wildlife mix trees native to Indiana that need to be put in the ground.
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| Getting started on our front hedge, made of wild plums, gray dogwood, and elderberries |
One of the many benefits of a couple of cows is the very rich, very abundant, er…fertilizer they provide. After a couple months of composting, it’s as good as black tilth and could make anything grow. I bet it’d grow a money tree if we stuck a few quarters in the ground.
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| Parton practicing his headbutting skills against the wheelbarrow. |
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| Employing his dump truck and keeping cool with a popsicle. |
One of my favorite days this spring was the morning of our last freeze. That meant a lot of the plants that were barely clinging to life atop our piano, kitchen table, or bookshelf were free to go outside.
First, that meant we had to work the garden plot a bit. Last fall, we’d used a good number of our empty moving boxes as a base layer to keep the grass down, then piled a whole lot of manure and shavings on top. Come spring and a bit of raking and a load of topsoil mixed in, voila, ready for planting.
It was Jack’s job to make a berry patch, so naturally, he got out his trusty flamethrower and weeded away.
We even recycled a few of the old tires the previous owner had left in a shed to be used for our potatoes…
Once the berries were all in, we put in the cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and other plants…
…and rotated through the ever-important job of keeping Zoey happy enough that she’s too distracted to eat dirt, one of her favorite pasttimes.
Not even running into a few thistles or burrs or wild roses are enough to keep us from enjoying the great outdoors.
And on the official Earth Day, the girls all decided to celebrate by wearing flowery dresses to church, and spending some time out in the hammock, soaking up sunlight and rocking in the breeze.
