This morning I headed out to help in the main Feed Fannin Garden. You can see, this place is huge, and the pictures really don’t do it justice. You name it and they’ve planted it. Of course, the usual— corn, tomatoes, eggplant, squash—summer and winter, beans, peas, cabbage, kale, etc. and etc. with bushes of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and so much more.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the volunteer workdays. There’s a list typed and taped to the storage shed of everything that needs to be done—which plants to hoe, which to pick, which to weed. We (three of us) weeded the tomatoes. We weeded the three approximately 20’ rows of tomatoes up on the hill, not four approximately 30’ rows in the main garden.
Now, mind you, there are layers of thick straw/hay all around these plants, in some areas it’s cardboard (which eventually turns into great mulch I learned), so you would think weeding would be minimal. Either these tomatoes, these outside of the main garden, hadn’t been weeded in awhile, or the hay doesn’t work, because there were lots of weeds, especially those potato vine weeds. I’m inclined to believe the former.
I took a shower before I left the house. Why? I have no idea and it certainly wasn’t a well thought out idea. The gnats clustered round my head for my sweet-smelling sweat. And the sweat poured, even though it was a cool morning, and it wasn’t even 10am yet. (As I sit here on the back porch writing this, it’s an unusually, highly welcome cool day. All the windows and doors—without screen doors—are open.) Still, for someone who hasn’t weeded in over 20 years, it was exercise. A good feeling exercise and much better than going to a gym, and far more productive in a variety of ways.
First, I bent over to weed, and we all know that doesn’t work. Next, I got on my knees, which went fairly well for awhile, until my unused back started cursing. Then, I took the advice of my fellow weeder, and sat on a bucket. What I found worked the best to soothe the screaming muscles everywhere was to alternate between the three techniques. I know the more I work in the garden, the less I will hurt, the stronger and more flexible I will become. One of the many reasons for this journey.
After an hour or so, we finished and everyone went on the way to wherever. I was given some eggplant and that will be mine dinner. I just have to find a tasty, healthy recipe that I can make with my limited supplies.
I got a call from Dreaming Bear who is a healer in the area, and a founder of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) here in GA. She invited me to the celebration of her 70th year. Unfortunately, it is while I’m completing my move down, so I won’t be in Georgia. We talked for awhile though about how the Spirit brought her to northern Georgia 33 years ago when she, like me, was headed for North Carolina. She has many, many acres that she calls BearWalks Medicine Path where she holds sweat lodges, and healing workshops. We are going to get together when I get back and continue her 70th celebration because obviously the Spirit means for us to connect.
It’s been a good day. I made a decision to work in Mother Earth instead of on a yoga mat, I decided to write instead of chase the dollar, and I Skyped with my daughter and took her on a tour of the house and land. The wind is rustling through the trees, the air conditioner is not running, and most of all, I feel great.
