Gardening

Yesterday I wrote a second part to my writing about Farmers Cheese. Well, my email machine got stuck when I was sending it out. So I had to unplug it and I lost my writing. So I am going to write about Farmers Cheese again.

Good Morning.

It got really cold last night here in Iowa. I bet it got to about 30 degrees. So I am glad I didn't get my tomato plants in yet. This is unusual, to be this cold this late into May. It will warm up, though, hopefully soon, and I can't wait to plant my tomatoes.

Good Morning.

Yesterday I had to be all day helping my Mother at the hospital. Baby had to go to a babysitter that her dad and mom didn't know very well. I was very concerned ... we all were. Baby's mom, Tiff, called the sitter six times throughout the day to make sure all was well. I talked to Tiff last night on the phone and she said that Baby didn't nap all day. I pray to God this never happens again. I don't want her with strangers that we don't know. I couldn't take her with me to the hospital. But the next time, if this happens, I will take her, no matter what.

I am up in the night doing the wash. Just as Papa and I were going to sleep last night, I said to him, "Honey, do I have a clean work shirt for you to wear tomorrow?"

And Jim says, "No, but I can wear the same one. It isnt dirty." Why do men always say that stuff?

I said, "No, I will get up early and wash your shirt." So I am up in the night doin' the wash.

My Mom was having tests at the hospital yesterday so I was there most of the day. I was really tired when I got home.

As I write, I am drinking a cup of Rose Hip Tea. I have the most lovely bushes of rose hips growing only about 10 feet from me outside my door. My old wooden black door here in my dining room is screened in for the summer. My e-machine is on the cupboard close by. I can turn around from my typing and see the lovely branches. They are so pretty right now as Autumn is coming.

Yesterday, I had some cucumbers that I cut up to soak in cold salt water. (Today, I will make pickles.) Then I made a fruit cobbler with some of the apples Jim had picked from our tree. Also, I had a few peaches I put in, too. The cobbler was delicious. I knew I was having Baby in the afternoon, so I had to hurry and fix supper early before she got here. I made baked chicken and then put potatoes and carrots in the pan and baked it all in the oven.

I always plant sunflowers and then the birds eat the seeds and drop them hither and yon in the yard. I just let them come up wherever they wanna. One thing I do in the fall is I cut some of the big seed heads off and nail it to a tree outside my window. This way, the birds will come and eat and you can see them. Some folks take all the seeds out and dry them and put them in sacks. But I don't -- I just leave the seed pods whole.

I just wrote a whole thing on herbs and lost it. Mary (19) wanted a copy and, by faith, I tried to work my printer. I unplugged my e-machine accidentally and lost the whole writing. So I am beginning again. I taught Mary, when she was little, about all the herbs, and she loves the herbs and gardening. Anyway, here I go again.

We have many wild herbs in our yard that I don't tear out, and they have been here for the 30 years we have lived here. They are:

• wild chamomile
  
• plaintain
  
• white clover and some purple
  
• shepherd's purse
  
• milkweed
  
• bloodroot
  

Our huge bridal bush just bloomed beside the corner of the house, it seems for Mary's graduation. At the side of the yard are the big purple iris blossoms. They smell just like grape bubblegum and they can fragrance a whole room. Mary made bouquets with the irises and the white flowers from the bridal bush.

Well, today I got most of my garden planted.

Then I put different kinds of peppers in two big pots, and I mixed sweet basil in the pots, too. One is a really old timey pan, not really a pot, with a bale handle on it. It is that gray marbley color? It was probably made in the 1920s. It had holes in the bottom, which was good for the water to drain through.