Watching My Corn Pop Up In Rows

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Just a little update on the farm & family side of things; the garden is finally taking off! I hesitated to give an update too soon because it was a pretty frustrating start over here at “the farm”. The first planting was a go – I wrote about it over in new beginnings and three days later we had very chilly weather. We think that was the culprit for many of our seeds not germinating, because I will tell you it was one of the most carefully planted gardens I’ve ever done. We replanted where there were holes in the row and then, if you can believe it, we had another couple chilly nights! I’m not sure what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but our spring has been very abnormal for South Carolina! Now as a person, I am totally game for chilly weather. I don’t think I have ever gotten as much use out of my hoodies as I have this year! The weather is amazing for outdoor play but as a gardener, I wonder what gives. After the second planting, we weeded the entire garden except the beans, as they seemed to be on their own sprouting schedule. What a happier place a weeded garden makes. Look how happy the potatoes look in the lower left pic!

And the corn, which was a total last minute entry to the garden plan, is doing great..so we are literally watching our corn pop up in rows! When the first planting was such a flop, the kids speculated it was because we have previously decided not to have a garden this summer and God was on board with the original plan. 

The quarantine blues started seeping in this last week and we thankfully had a camping reservation that started on the very first day that South Carolina State Parks opened. Whew! So we were able to take our stay at home orders on wheels to Edisto beach and have an amazing beach vacation with our family. It was very socially distant – we felt like we owned the beach!

It’s funny how our older kids are now at the age that we can ocean-supervise from a distance, but the four-year-old has discovered that she loves playing in the waves and is still very much in need of oversight – it’s kind of like starting all over again in some ways. We are in a different stage of life than most of our friends with kids the same age as our older ones, but I wouldn’t take it back for an instant. This little girl has brought so much joy and entertainment to our family. BTW, May is National Foster Parent Awareness Month. If you were ever thinking of opening up your home to a foster love and had some questions to ask of someone who’s been there, feel free to contact me. Also check out my insights to fostering, and give a socially distant hug to your foster family friends. 

The ducks are coming along – it’s amazing the difference that a month makes. Their feathers are just starting to peak out of the fuzz.

In the pic above they were squawking at my presence. The “love on the them and hold them so they bond with us plan” isn’t really taking root.

We decided to order some more meat birds for the farm – they should be arriving soon. I think my farmer husband wanted another chance to use his EZ Plucker. He was so excited when this bad boy arrived. It takes the chicken processing time down greatly. 

We had some unexpected furry visitors to the farm this past week. While my husband was mowing the lawn he discovered, a bit too late, a rabbit burrow in the tall grass. So he brought the survivors down to show the kids and they promptly named them Peter and Benjamin. If you’re looking for a family friendly movie and have not seen the new movie Peter Rabbit, I highly recommend it. It has a great soundtrack that will leave you bumping to the music and the storyline is entertaining for young and old alike. The kids asked me if I would sew a miniature jean jacket for Peter, but I put my foot down on that one.

Grandma came down, took one look at the bunnies, and suggested that they would be a great snack for her cat, Pumpkin. Grandma has a good understanding of farm life…the kids have started calling her Mrs. McGregor. We knew the survival rate for helping these little bunnies making it to maturity was slim, so we let them go in a field (away from the garden) that had taller grass to hide in. If Pumpkin wanted this snack, she would have to work for it.

So I hope you don’t find yourself in quarantine blues these days, and if you do, hopefully you can plan some socially distant activities. We have started to take advantage of the walking trails at the local park and even made it out to the swamp rabbit bike trail this past weekend. As for the garden, I’m hoping the second planting will be sufficient and I won’t be updating this entry with “third time’s the charm” in the near future. I just wanted to share that even though we have had a garden for 10 years in SC, and my husband has had many more in CT, that the best laid plans don’t always work. 

If you’re new to gardening, don’t give up too easily if things don’t go exactly as planned. I’ve seen many aspiring gardeners chalk it up to brown thumbs and walk away, but sometimes it just takes learning from mistakes and trying again. Thankfully seed packets are pretty cheap! Check out the verse below…turns out replanting is biblical!