My oh my what a spring we have had! Some words to describe it...dreary, wet, relentless. Finally, FINALLY, we are having a break in the rain for more than just a day or two. Summer is officially here! I am thrilled, as I don't do well with the cold and unrelenting gray days. I do love spring--all the life bursting forth after the grey and drab of winter--but I have to say, summer is my favorite season of all. The sun, the warmth, the life. Oh, it feels goooood.
With the turn of seasons we are finally getting our garden planted. It's so late that part of me felt like it was pointless, but I'm sure it will be fine since it's been so cold. We have a 1/4 acre property, and a number of raised beds in a specific corner of it. The last few weeks has seen us up to our eyeballs in mowing, weeding, more mowing, and more weeding. Plants we haven't seen in years are coming back up with all the rain, and we are seeing the true damage that was done during last year's heat dome that fried many plants (RIP my lavender bushes).
Our garden plan seems to change every year--what we plant, where we plant it, how we manage watering (we have one water spigot in the back yard on the opposite side of the yard so there are many hoses involved), etc. As much as I usually loathe waking up super early every morning, I do love waking up and starting my day watering the garden. It must be that essential human in me, the one that was designed to wake with the outside world.
Kate Kavanaugh (IG: @kate_kavanaugh ) wrote something in her stories today that really spoke to my heart. She had to make a decision about a piglet that wasn't doing well, and was told to "be a farmer about it." Anyone who has lived on ranches or farms knows exactly what that means. One of the parts of what she said reached right into me. Now, I am not having to deal with farming animals right now, but I have a lot of responsibilities. Normally, I am a "get up and get going" type of person, but I have been struggling the past month, and I know I have been, because I've been procrastinating on any number of things. All of the things. So this was a good reminder:
"Be a farmer about it. Do the hard things, even when you don't want to. Show up for work, for life, even when it feels near impossible to hold the weight of it all. Face with brutal honesty your fears, your heartaches, your dreams. Hold death close in a society that wants to hide from it and tuck it away in corners where it doesn't have to be confronted and faced. Feel the grief of the unfairness of it all and then go back to living with even more love."
Farmers and ranchers are the hardiest people you'll ever meet--I am so grateful to have grown up with ranchers, to have learned that work ethic early on, and for the continual lessons I learn from them. Back out to the garden for me!