On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: Perfection Is Overstated

Friday, June 19, 2009

Perfection Is Overstated

Right: The watermelon, are climbing up, over, and through the garden fence, reaching across the path toward the outer chain link fence. Lord knows where they will run to if they get through the chain link with a whole field out in front of them!

Below:The watermelon are also getti

ng chummy with the yellow squash.

The beautiful, leafy tendrils of the melon plants have been slithering quietly through the squash and are now reaching for the eggplant and okra!

Below: Beautiful little watermelons are starting to show among the leaves. With 9 watermelon plants, I anticipate at least a dozen melons to share with family during this hot Georgia summer.

More than that would be an added blessing that I can share with others as well.

The tomatoes have been allowed to grow uncaged and unchecked only because of time and weather. Too many appointments away from home, and climbing temperatures prevented us from getting cages up early when we s

hould have.
Once the weather turned hot and the temperatures climbed into the 90s, I refused to
work outside during the day. Even in the evening the heat is still oppressive. So I rise just before dawn every day and put in two hours outside, feeding the chickens and watering the gardens before the sun comes full up and the temperature rises above 75.

Above: The sprawling tomato plants have completely overwhelmed a whole row of peppers.

Below: This morning, John joined me in the garden to work on getting the tomatoes up off the ground. They had been doing okay, but a strong wind came through the other night and blew them all to the ground, even those that were caged. The tomatoes aren't really coming in yet. Just one here and there. I anticipate a huge harvest all at once at some point.

Below: The eggplant and okra are growing nicely. We've harvested only two eggplant so far, but there are many small fruit developing. No okra yet either, but we hope for a lot. This is our third attempt at growing okra, and I hope there will be enough to harvest and freeze for win

ter soups.

Below: Baby Ichiban eggplant. John loves growing eggplant, but I've yet to find a recipe for this vegetable that we both can enjoy.

Below: I've never grown pumpkin before, so it is delightful to see beautiful young Buttercup pumpkins establishing themselves beneath the gorgeous giant leaves. Since John and I are diabetics, I try to avoid sweets. So I'm looking for savory recipes for the pumpkin and the other vining squash I'm growing.

Shortly after we married five years ago, John's health, which was already challenged, began getting worse. His declining health interfered significantly with his ability to earn a living, and our financial struggles began in earnest. We thank God that two years ago he started receiving excellent care at the VA (Veterans Administration), and his health since has improved significantly. He's picking up a little work here and there now, but spends much of his time trying to catch up on the things that have been put off around the farm.

Growing a garden has been very important to us financially. In years past, it has often been difficult for us to afford the plants to work with, and production in previous years was never what it should have been. This year we took a deep breath and "created" a little more financial flexibility, so we could have chickens and expand our gardening efforts. I'm also learning to grow plants from seed,which will help cut the cost of growing significantly, and I'm already planning our fall/winter garden.

Our garden, and our gardening efforts are far from perfect with everything sprawling across the garden bed, and our health issues a significant deterrent at times; but I want to say how pleased I am to see the garden flourishing anyway this year, with the promise of a large healthy harvest. I have the hope of filling our freezer and pantry with enough to carry us through the winter so we won't have to pay outrageous prices in the grocery store or go without certain foods we love.

The American economy right now is in a precarious place, and things are still looking rocky for the near future. After this recession ends, a new era of inflation will begin. The price of goods and services will rise sharply, and our president's multi-trillion dollar spending plan for "fixes" is going see all of us paying more taxes (income, sales, and embedded). It may all become more than John and I can afford on our limited income if he doesn't get more work.

We're doing all that we can to stay ahead of our circumstances, but it isn't easy. Everything is on the line for us, and it gets to us sometimes. We argue under the stress, and my own health has been suffering, but when we catch our breath, John and I hold on to each other and reassert our love for one another. And we pray. We lay all of this, good and bad, at the feet of God, and we put our trust in Him. He has a plan for our lives that we are doing our best to discern and follow. It doesn't have to be a perfect plan, but then, with God designing it, it is a perfect plan for us.

1 comment:

AnonymousMarch 17, 2010 at 7:40 PM
Beautiful Photos very interesting blog post, its nice
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John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.