Garden Fort

Hey! Wanna come play in my secret garden?

Cedric and Everett are loving it.

Here are some pictures of our deer fence we have been building around our garden. it looks a bit like a fort. We have it 3/4 finished, so I hope the deer don't hop over the weak side before we have a chance to finish it. Actually it hasn't been deer that have been the problem this spring. It has really been the chickens. They ate off all the leaves of my cabbages, dug up my squashes, and took dust baths in my carrot beds making carrots grow in the aisle instead of the beds! I can't wait until they can't get in anymore either.

Rich is such a Handy Man!

Here is Fort Woodruff. I decided I want to put a sign on the gateway that says "All the Earth's a Garden Sweet."

Tender Mercies and Angels

Last Friday was a most beautiful and warm day. It was one of those days you dream of when the weather is cold and overcast. I had a bit of a camel's hump last week, and was getting to be quite wretched, so it was wonderful to get out and dig in the dirt again. The kids and I played outside all day.

Our school was gardening; P.E. was swinging and digging and running. We dressed in gardening skirts and hats and had a picnic out at the juniper. I even planted out some seedlings using my soil blocker tool that makes little cubes of soil and you just place the seed right in the top and cover with soil. I put them all in a cardboard box and they are growing in my greenhouse. And things are growing in there. I have spinach and lettuces and all sorts of greens. We had a salad today with claytonia in it-- which is an interesting green that the kids thought looked like lily-pads. Think of that, waterlily salad. It sounds like something you would read in a Beatrix Potter book.

Saturday and Sunday were so nourishing to my soul. I felt the feast of General Conference fill my spirit to satiation and arm me against the fiery darts for another week. I loved all the talks. I kept making mental notes that we needed to do this one for Family Home Evening, or I wanted to re-read that one. Then there were some that really touched me. Two in particular. I cannot remember who gave the talks now (because we were listening on the radio, so I didn't have a visual) but they both talked about surgery and guardian angels.

First I need to lay the foundation of why they were so significant to me. The night before Everett's surgery, we gave him a blessing, and I also asked my Dad if he would give me a blessing of comfort. He did, and it was a very powerful blessing. In the words of the prayer he talked about how some things happen in our lives that we don't understand why, but then he asked that the Lord would maybe part the veil a little and let me understand more about Everett and his surgery. The next morning I awoke at 3:30 Am, the last time Everett could eat, and I fed him, then I lay him in bed next to me and just watched him sleep. My thoughts ran the gamut as I considered the possibilities of the day, but I was not sad or afraid. I felt much peace. I was sustained by all the prayers in our behalf.

As I lay there thinking, I considered the times he would be away from me, and when he would be unconscious. I had had earlier thoughts about how I could not be there for him at all some of those times, yet I knew that the Savior could. Then I also I prayed that angels could be round about him to bear him up and as I took hold of that thought I realized that they would not just be any angels, but the angels of my own family. My Grandmother Cleo Hunter, my grandfather Conrad, my cousin Melissa, my grandmother Leona, William V. and Janette Walker, My brother and Sister, Everett's cousins Hanna and Jordan, and others. I felt impressed that these angels would be there for him when I could not.

There were times during his recovery when he was very drugged and looked off into the distance rather that at anything. At one of these times Rich commented that he was "talking to Angels" again. I believe he was.

Then when I was listening to General Conference on Saturday, I distinctly remember I was doing the dishes during the time when a speaker talked about surgery and gave a story of a young girl whose father witnessed her speaking about angels in her room. She asked her father why her grandma was there, and uncle so and so and why there was a man standing next to her father that looked just like him (he had lost a brother many years before.) This talk and another one spoke of the same thing. I was very moved after that experience, and felt a confirmation that Everett was truly watched over and cared for when I could not be there.

Sunny spring days and Angels. What Tender Mercies the Lord gives me!!

My first produce

I am trying out uploading an image to the blog. It was not as hard as I thought it would be.

So here is a picture of my first fruits of our little farm. It is a lemon. From looking at my farm picture you wouldn't think I could grow something so semi-tropical. I have been trying to get several houseplants to produce for me. I have a pomegranate, a lemon, an orange (which makes tiny fruit more like a kumquat, and sour as a lemon) and a fig. I may get a lime tree, but I think all I can get is a key lime.

Yet, growing citrus, even as houseplants, may be more trouble than they are worth. They take lots of fertilizer, and I have to bring them in when it is cold (for they spent the summer in our greenhouse) and they really don't like overwintering in my hot, dry house. Perhaps if we ever build a sun-room it will be a nice place to keep the fruit trees. One more bad thing about lemons is that this variety, which is a Meyer lemon, takes 9 months to ripen. On such a small tree with so few fruits we aren't going to get a really large or sustaining harvest.