Monday, May 19, 2008

Farmin'

Have you ever experienced the satisfaction you feel when you watch someone you love do what makes them happy? That is how I felt when Joel hopped up on the tractor and started plowing our own land for the first time. When he was done for the night he came into the house grinning from ear to ear. He is happiest when he is outside digging in the dirt or tending to green and growing things.
As you can see this is a "budget" operation to say the least. Joel is using an old Farmall tractor that he borrowed from a nice man at our church. The moldboard plow attachment is borrowed from a local pig farmer in exchange for any leftover vegetables that she can feed to her pigs. We are also borrowing a disc plow attachment from our neighbor Earl to prepare the soil for planting. Do you see a pattern here?
In case you have an inquiring mind and want to know what in the world a "moldboard" plow is (I had no idea either) I found the following description to satisfy your curiosity:
There you go. I'll bet you feel better now.
I love this picture of our kids. It just speaks "freedom" to me. Freedom to be kids, to run and dig and be as noisy as they want to be. The only downside to such freedom is all the extra baths they have to take. There is always a price to pay. ;0)
Like father, like son.
We are only going to garden about one acre this summer (which is waaay more than we have ever tackled before) but Joel is plowing under the rest of the land too just to keep the weeds down.

Here are the starts that we planted back in February and March. When I took this picture it was still freezing at night making it necessary to cover them with plastic so they wouldn't become little green Popsicles. We are getting a late start with planting but I suppose it's better late than never.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is alive....and i have proof.

Daiquiri said...

Oh Jen! I'm so excited! Your pictures make ME want to come dig in the dirt. Let me know when you're up for some evening or weekend company...we'd love to come out for the grand tour. I'm so happy for you guys. Isn't God just so good? :)

Becky Avella said...

This post did my heart good. I guess it is because I love you guys and it's that satisfied feeling you are talking about. I love seeing you living out your dream. Especially Recycling Man.....it is so great seeing him using his gift.

Love you all!
Becky