Introductions

I could begin this by saying something sanctimonious like, “As I sit sipping a cocktail garnished with my home-grown mint.” Or something earthy like, “Before I begin, let me confess that I have dragged chicken shit into the house again.” Both are true, and both tell only a fraction of the story, so let me instead say, “It all began with shucking corn.”

If I have hooked you with that, then you are a like-minded do-it-yourselfer. And you will also understand the chagrin I felt after realizing my children had spent 2 solid weeks of summer vacation playing Wii. Four days, I can understand. A week is tolerable. But the final straw was when I asked my older daughter to help me shuck some corn for dinner. When she said she would rather play more video games, and I said, “THAT’S IT! WE’RE STARTING A FARM!”

What you need to understand is that starting a farm was more of a metaphor than a reality for me at that moment. I had never lived on a farm, worked on a farm, or even spent a full day on a farm. But I had a romantic notion that farm life meant purposeful and healthy outdoor activity. Wasn’t that exactly what my kids needed? And the next moment, I realized that I had fallen into that quintessential parent trap of “You said it, so you gotta do it!”

Why oh why do parents always have to follow through.

I admit, I sort of wanted it. And sure enough, it wasn’t a day later that I packed the kids in the minivan, and drove up to the Country Feed Store and loaded 3 chicks into a laundry basket to take home. With the chicks, I had to plant corn and beans, and the rest is history.

So begins my little blog, where I will detail my garden, my chickens, my husbands mixed reactions to both, my inspirations (books and movies), my friends (who all have much more amazing gardens than mine) and many other related topics. I hope that somewhere among all my self-reflective babble you find some reason to sit down outside, look around, imagine a garden of your own, and shuck your own corn for dinner.