Summer Plantings

I'm still pulling ticks out of my skin.  I'm getting pretty good at detecting them within seconds of a bite or scurry, but some still elude me.  Today was planting day...well the last planting day before we wouldn't have a chance to plant our summer garden.  Every year the summer garden is the bountiful harvest that we can and carry over through the winter.  Usually however it is small and what I can get put up is smaller still.  Imagine trying to subsist on 12 pints of green beans which is all I got put up one year.  Generally, my summer garden is in before my spring one is done harvesting.  Most years I am pulling peas off while bean plants start to take off.  This has not been the case this year.

This year we have had nothing but rain.  Heck, the only way we got a summer garden in at all is between rains.  If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have tried to put it in as early as possible.  Anyway, no point in saying should've or could've.  It's in and it's not too late to get some good food out of the ground.

It was no small task either.  It took every person in the house to get it all done in one day...well almost all of it.  We did some earlier before the rains got in the way again that is.  We had to plant 200 sweet potato slips, 400 feet of green beans, 200 feet of sunflowers, a total of 200 feet of corn (planted in a block to help pollination), and 200 feet of winter squash.  This is on top of the 100 feet of cucumbers, 50 feet of summer squash, 100 feet of okra, and 35 tomato plants...which they look like they will never grow.  If the deer leave it alone, we should get some food to can and maybe a little bit to sell.  That's the plan.  Of course, my plans never turn out the way I envision them.

First, my husband went out to prepare the ground with our hand me down tiller that is constantly needing new parts.  In fact, just yesterday we had to rush to the part store before it closed, just so it could be fixed and operational for the morning's planting.  I hate rushing to the part store for last minute needs.  It's always the same...at 4:00 pm, you can set your watch by it, my husband will have finally figured out the problem and realizes he needs a part which is only found an hour away.  Oh and that one and only place that carries this essential part closes at 5:00pm.  So now it is a mad dash to the parts store, crossing your fingers, and praying you don't get stuck behind grandma, don't get a speeding ticket, or they don't close 5 minutes early.  I cuss on days like this...a lot.  I cuss, I yell, and I generally let the world know I am sick and tired of being told essential things at the last freaking minute.  I get so flustered that even the day after, I feel upset over it.  Why?  I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I suspect it happens so perfectly at just an hour before every time, it can not be coincidence.  FYI, my husband hates gardening.  He is the child of a farmer and hates everything to do with it.

So why rush anyway?  Why not just get the part in the morning?  (This was my husband's question)  Why?  Well, it's raining Saturday and it won't dry out again until June 5th at the earliest.  That's the forecast folks.  That's much too late to plant a summer garden.  The repair would take too much time and we wouldn't have had it all tilled, hand hoed, and planted in time.  As it is, working from sunup, to sundown, we almost didn't have enough time...with a working tiller.  Again, see why it's suspicious these coincidences.  Anyway, that is neither here nor there.

He did go out at the first lights to break ground with the tiller, even if he hates it, because he does love me.  He knows my garden gives me joy.  He found me out amongst the pea plants talking to them and checking each over as if it were a child about a year ago.  He laughed and said to me, "you really do love plants as much as children."  I quipped, "sometimes more, because they don't talk back."  I was joking, sort of.

I haven't had that peace this year because the rains prevented me from planting a spring garden.  I missed my peas, turnips, beets, radishes, mustard, lamb's quarters, lettuce, spinach, etc...  I missed going out to garden, to just sit in the quiet, away from the teenage quarrels my daughter's have hourly.  I missed having an excuse to walk away for ten minutes and get fresh air.  It has taken a toll on my nerves too.

Finally, though, I have my summer garden.  The bit we planted first looks weak.  I have few plants coming up well, except for okra.  It's rising well.  I will probably fertilize by side dressing after this monster rain coming up.  I wish I had time to do that today, but all we could manage was to get our seeds in the ground.

What an "adventure" getting it all planted was too.  First, from sun-up until about 2pm, my husband tilled.  Why did it take so long?  Well imagine land that has been reclaimed from the wild, covered in 3 foot vines, and prickly things.  The old tiller lurches forward chewing up dirt behind it as it goes, but also wrapping those lovely, prickly vines around the tines.  After a couple feet, the tines won't move, so my son goes in and cuts the vines off the tines and frees it to till once more.  They had to do this for a plot 20 foot by 150 foot.  Fun right?  My husband was about cussing by 2 pm.

From 2pm on, we hoed rows.  We had to take turns as that kind of work done by hand is tiring...especially when one of our hoes has a very dull head.  So back and forth, Nilla, Lucy, Sona, Bubby, and I traded places at the hoe.  There were shouting matches over who screwed up the straightness of the row.   (For the record, I don't care who did what, just fix it)  There were children threatening to give up and walk out of the garden (No sir, get your butt back here because this food is for you!).  There were tears because I ruined all their plans with my stupid garden and now they couldn't go to their friend's house.  I'm a mean mom, because I make them work.  I don't care if I am a mean mom.  They know how to plant a garden.  They know where food comes from.  They can put up food too.  How many kids can do that today?  It was a test of every fiber in my body, physically and mentally.  I don't regret it a bit.  Though I am certain, some certain little girls do regret being mouthy to me because I ruined their day with my stupid garden that keeps them from starving.

I did find something interesting out though.  When I am angry and holding my tongue, I can get 50 foot of row done in less than 5 minutes.  I didn't even get tired after that...it wasn't until the second 50 foot patch that I ran out of steam a bit.  I wish my children could channel their anger as effectively instead of complaining about it all.  Perhaps leading by example will help them, who knows.

So now, I can sit back for a little while...a week at least, and dream of all the lovely plants that will pop up and the tasty delights they might have for me.  I can plan how many cans I will need to put food up and budget accordingly.  I can start to plan the fall garden, the fall herb garden, and the fall flower garden.

I know, I made it sound ugly.  Who would want to do this with all the bickering?  I do.  As much as they say they hate it when they are working in the garden, come Yule, they will pull a jar of pickles, and say, "Hey mom remember when we planted these.  Man, I hated it, but boy do I love these pickles."  How do I know?  Well, they do this every year.  It's worth it when everything is so dreary and they get a taste of summer.  They smile.  They say, "Can we plant twice as many next year?"  (Which is why the garden is so big this year)  They dream about making more pickles and different kinds.  They say, "Mom, could I can some by myself next year if the garden is big enough?  Oh, and can I have a real apron?"  They dream of big gardens too, they are just too young and immature to discipline themselves to achieve it.  That's why I don't care if I am a mean mom...no one was there to push me on towards what I wanted.  I am there to do that for them.

Pioneer Day in Melbourne Arkansas and Family Fun

     It's important to have fun as a family as much as possible, especially when you work as hard as we do.  It's important to keep morale up and to keep life from being drudgery.  Late spring and summer offers tons of opportunities for fun.  One of the first opportunities in our little neighborhood is Pioneer Day in Melbourne Arkansas.  I suppose it's like any small town shindig.  You have a parade, some vendors, may be a bounce house, various businesses advertising their services, a live band, dancing in the square, and of course lots of people from out of town.  

     That pretty much covers what it's like, but if you look closer, you will see families gathered together for the first time in months.  You will see friends that haven't seen each other in weeks  You will see children running to hug their teacher or pastor.  What you see is coming together, and Pioneer Day is just an excuse to do it.  

     We went to Pioneer Day, and with in seconds of parking children were hugging friends they hadn't seen in weeks.  Heck, two tried to climb in my friend's vehicle just to talk to my girls.  They squealed, they begged mom can we please go...and I obliged.  They wanted to ride the fire truck.  The ride was free,  They had a blast.

     So I and my boys, along with my friend, walked into town looking for a spot in the shade to watch the parade from.  My son carried the folding chair for me.  We soon found a comfy spot and sipped our recently acquired soda's.  

The boys with their new sodas.

Alestria chilling with his lunch.

     We waited patiently for the parade to start, comfy, in the shade, and watching everyone get together.  While we waited, we may have indulged in some less than healthy, but none the less delicious BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.  Then, after a short period of time my girls and my friends daughter showed up to watch the parade with us.    

     Then the parade was underway.  The girls and boys were excitied to get candy.

Aukxsona and Lucy waiting for the parade to start.

There were all sorts of things that went in the parade, farm implements, tractors, horses, bulls, trucks.  What follows is a small sampling of the parade.

Alestria enjoyed this display a lot.

This truck Illyan loved.

This is a John Deer the boys liked.

This mustang is what I always wanted.

I also liked this car.

Another old tractor that Illyan liked.

     At this point, the girls mentioned they wanted to see the horses.  The girls look forward to the horses every year.  Some years we have a whole lot of horses.  This year we didn't have as many as usual, but the ones we did see were absolutely stunning.  

Here Aukxsona is waving to parade participants.

The children love seeing the horse and cart.

Some mules pulling a wagon.

Some rodeo clowns and a bull.

Then came the horses...

Last call for candy!

     What a great day!  

Mitchell Family Simple Living

We here at the Mitchell Homestead have been trying to make a go at homesteading for quite sometime.  However, for the first time in a very long time we have seen more success than ever.

However first, introductions are in order.  My name is Dody Mitchell.

That's me!

I am a wife, mother, writer, farmer, teacher, and so much more.  I wear more hats than I care to say.  I started homesteading way back in 2005.  My first start was making a small garden for my then 5 year old and 4 year old girls.  Woo hoo how the time flies.  Since then these beautiful ladies have helped me and their dad take care of goats, pigs, chickens, geese, and more.  Without further ado though, let me introduce you to these fine young ladies.

This is Danilla Mitchell.

This was her 17th birthday.  She's in front of our behemoth wood stove that we use for cooking and heat in the winter.  The little bit of mess you see is some construction materials, a backer board for the stove, and her backpack.  She works very hard all the time on her school work and chores.  We are very proud of her.

She is a lot of the muscle in the field.  Before we had a tiller and on those times it was malfunctioning, I could count on Danilla to be right by my side shoveling the garden up.  She hauls feed sacks and plays with baby piggies too.

This is Aluciana Mitchell.

She's a brilliant artist that loves baby animals and will entertain you for hours.  She isn't much of a farm girl, preferring to follow national trends, instead of local, but she does have emotionally insightful thoughts on all things.  

She is more the visionary.  I hear, "mom could we do this..." more than chores get done, but that's ok.  She is trying out her wings in this big old world by trying new things.  

However, even though my girls have helped me for years on the little homestead, all this would not be possible without the man that keeps all the machines running, builds all the structures, and keeps the big animals from getting out of hand.  That man would be my husband.  His name is different than ours, because he wasn't the man that made my girls, but he is the one that raised them.  

This is Paul Clark.

You may notice his right eye is a bit "squinty" and that's because he suffered Bell's Palsy a few years back.  He never completely recovered.  He has a completely blown shoulder, but he still does everything in his power to help around the homestead.  

After I married Paul, our homestead grew in more ways than one.  We started adding chickens to the old place.  Then before long I got ducks.  Then I had a baby, the first of his children a daughter.

She's the one on the right of her sister Danilla.  Her name is Aukxsona Mitchell-Clark.

After Aukxsona was born the building on the homestead took a pause.  A long pause.  First we found out she contracted Transverse Myelitis from a common childhood vaccine.  So, she didn't walk until almost 5 years old.  Before I knew just how extensive her disabilities were I had another child.

 His name is Alestria Mitchell-Clark.

He was the only boy in a house full of females.  He loved hanging out with mamma, watching Popeye, drawing pictures, playing with his big truck, and helping collect eggs.  He was always outside when we were planting.  We are blessed he is so healthy.  In fact, when he was born we still didn't know what caused his sister to be paralyzed, so we were very thankful.

Nowadays he prefers comics, shooting games, and helping with the animals.  He is solely responsible for many farm chores and has not failed me yet.  

Nothing still happened on the old homestead besides the chickens and ducks because I was so busy.  We planted annuals.  Then I planted a few pear trees.  Then just like that, we found out I was pregnant with the last of our kiddos.  The baby of the family if you will...

This is Illyan Mitchell-Clark.

He is my shadow.  He is my wake up in the morning, my helper all day, and my last goodnight.  He sticks to me like white on rice.  He is never out of eyesight or earshot.  I feel honored that he adores me so much.  The feeling is mutual.  I love this little bundle of energy.  He was born two months early and never went to NICU.  He is now 8 years old, small for his age, but so lovely when you meet him.  He has never met a stranger.  

I was very busy with a disabled kindergartner, a preschooler and a new baby...not to mention a 9 year old and 8 year old.  Oh, I was home schooling them all too...so yes, homesteading took a huge back seat.  My days consisted of art projects, science experiments, reading and math practice, and music.  We still found time to homestead, making our garden a little bigger every year.  We added a few perennials, mostly jerusalem artichokes and a few more trees.  However, I didn't feel I had the time to do anything more at that time.

Then a few years later, in 2013, I felt I had enough time to start expanding the homestead.  We bought two goats.  We had one of those goats until about just last week when we sold her.  She in turn gave us three goats, who gave us two more.  We now have 4 goats and would have 5 if we didn't sell the original.  We have 4 goats that are all female and we plan to breed them this fall.  

Then in 2015 we added pigs.  At first, we were just going to raise one to butcher every fall.  However in the spring of 2016 Danilla convinced me that perhaps breeding pigs from babyhood would be a good idea.  She has been the mover and driver behind this endeavor and really deserves all the credit.  I only risked 60 dollars.  We bought and raised two pigs, which mated and produced a litter of piglets just a week ago.  

 This is our pig immediately after birth.

As you can see life on the farm is messy.  We were concerned she would be aggressive towards the children so we had to separate her.  It turns out we were worried for no reason at all!  She is so gentle.  Those piglets, should they all make it to adulthood, I plan to sell them off after being processed at the Farmer's Market.  

Then this spring we decided to bulldoze about 5 acres and plant it with 50 different fruit trees.  In between the rows of trees are where we decided to put our animals in fencing.  In addition to that we purchased additional chickens, geese, and ducks this spring.  Next year for the Farmer's Market we hope to offer eggs, USDA inspected pork, vegetables, and eventually when the fruit trees produce, some fruit.  

So now that introductions have been made, let me introduce you to the season.  It is May 4th and nothing except our perennials has been planted.  I sound like an AWFUL homesteader.  However, it has been raining non-stop since the end of March.  In fact, as I type this, it's the 4th straight day of rain.  We have had historic floods here in Arkansas this year.  I am hoping the rain will stop long enough that we can plant something before mid-May.  

Until then, it's homeschooling and playing with baby piggies, chicks, ducklings, kittens and goslings.