6-4-07

whoo-hooo! i found my packets of prescott fond blanc AND the french charentais melon seeds! i'm not sure what the difference between these two are, as i was under the impression that the prescott was a charentais melon, but i've started seeds of both and hopefully i will get to find the answer to that question sometime late this summer :)

over the weekend i did get a lot done. saturday morning was spent at the doctor's office waiting room, waiting to get my son worked in for a poison ivy shot. poor thing had a severe case of poison ivy rash and it was getting worse not better and by saturday morning he was ready for a shot. that's when you know a kid has reached his tolerance of misery - when a shot is considered a GOOD thing, lol. he has learned how to work the tiller and last weekend he tilled a few rows up to plant his corn and beans. lots of roots kept getting stuck in the tines and he kept pulling them out. apparently, the roots were poison ivy :( but he got a good garden in before the rash set in, and he thinks it was worth it. he is 10 years old and the doctor was pleased to hear about his interest in gardening. my oldest son likes to garden, too, but he only plants for the deer these days. i hope one day he'll get back to growing food for people.

so i didn't get much garden work done on saturday. on sunday morning as soon as i got out of bed and had coffee, i went up the mountain to look for some goldenseal roots for a friend. now, this is not the right time of year for harvesting roots, but if a person needs a certain herb for a certain need and you have to have it then, then any time of year will do. sometimes it's better than not getting it at all. it's a really hard hike to the goldenseal, about 300' straight up behind the house, and then it's all level to the west side using the logging road. once i make it to the water tank, it's real nice up there, but i sure wish i could hike it without getting winded and sore. i guess i need to do it more often, don't I? it was cool and breezy, and i always love being up there. i did get full of ticks, though.

after the hike i came back down and got to work on my garden. lots of seeds to start (yeah! melons!) and another trellis to make. this time i recruited my oldest son to cut the saplings for me, so building this trellis went a lot quicker than the bean trellis. my daughter doesn't like to hang out in the garden much, but she does like to ride her horse. i might have to put those two to work in the garden...she can get her horse to run errands or something - i'm always having to send one of the kids to the house for water or a hat.