In the Weeds!

What a week! Be forewarned, this is going to be a short blog...like we used to say on a busy Saturday night in the restaurant business, when there were several order slips hanging in the window, and several more that just came in...I'm in the weeds! If you were in the weeds, there was no stopping or slowing down. You kept moving until you made your way out. At times, my colleagues and I might even joke about being in the weeds. When you were truly in the weeds, you knew it though, and it was high energy and focus that got you through. Well, this week, I was feeling both physically in the weeds and metaphorically as I looked around at the number of tasks and projects not yet finished. I'll admit that I may have even added a few unnecessary items to my list. 

We were on nearly two weeks of trying to break a broody hen (which can be really stressful for the chickens and the owner), when I saw that someone no longer wanted their hens. Within an hour, I had made contact, and was en route to pick up eight more hens to bring them home and  introduce them to our established flock of 15.What was I thinking? It's what some, like me, call chicken math. Something comes over me when I see those fluffy buts. We had room for more...the more the merrier right? Not always so, but because we introduced a relatively large group, ya know, as they say..birds of a feather, flock together. I've become accustomed to hearing the egg song in the morning and through the early afternoons. Now, we have nearly two dozen hens all singing their own egg song, and its beautiful! Trust me. 

Hens have over 24 distinct sounds. Egg laying is akin to a ceremony of sorts with the hen that is laying sounding off first, and then her sisters joining in the chorus. If a hen sits too long in a box or takes the nesting box of another hen, then you hear unhappy bu-gawking, and less clucking. Where was I before the chickens? Oh yes, in the weeds. 

We don't really need to have them, but in pursuit of our goal to increase the amount of food that we grow on our property, we added fruit trees this week. The area was cleared, fenced and  two of each - peach, cherry, apple and fruit cocktail trees that provide peaches and plums, were planted. 

Finally, we made our way into the garden which is full of plants that are taking off thanks to a good mix of rain and sunny days. The other thing that is plentiful in the garden amidst all of the bounty, is...you guessed it-weeds.

I hate to weed, really I do, but the end result is satisfaction and exhaustion. Every weed that I pull, I imagine it being one less weed in my life, one less distraction, one less thing getting in the way of positive growth. It's crazy the stuff I think about in the garden. Maybe it's the heat. I rather enjoy the quiet, the solitude, the sound of an occasional bird sweeping in for a snack, a mother bird feeding her young as it pokes its head out from one of the bird houses, or the songs that our own hens make throughout the day. For me, this is peaceful, and feeds my soul in ways I can't fully explain. The aromas too are without end. There is the smell of dirt, fresh compost, chive flowers, savory, lavender, basil leaves that I pinch to remove the blossoms, and the smell of sweet wild geranium that I decide to leave alone.

Asparagus ferns 
taking over

I'm not so sure that we ever get rid of all the weeds, but after a good weeding out today, my piles are more manageable. For certain, there will be more tomorrow.