Now August

 Here we are at August. I sometimes feel that August is the month, that I really try to ignore. I don't even ignore January the way I try to ignore August. In January or February there are seed catalogs, good books, and fires in the fireplace and warm cozy jackets to enjoy. There is the promise of spring. But, poor August, is right in front of September, who brings with it a promise break in 100+ degree weather. The garden is tired. August is just 31 days of days, not even a single holiday.

This morning, I went outside, secretly hoping for the smell of fall, but it was still the smell of August. The sky was still dark, but I could see that it was still going to be the sunrise of again a summer day. In September the sunrise is golden and nothing feels as good as days when I can open the windows and leave off the air conditioner. The sounds of children laughing as they come home from school or  riding bikes and birds and the sound of lawn mowers. So I will try to enjoy each day, instead of racing in my mind to fall. 

We, Ron and I got to take a drive to Shafter, Ca. Emilie our daughter manages the garden out there for Grow Academy Shafter. It used to be a private school but now is public. I wish all schools were like this one. 

The school is built around the garden. When the kids walk out of the class rooms, there is the garden.

Gardening is one of the electives and it is the kids garden for class. They plant seeds, they clean and weed. They get to have cooking classes with the food they grow and harvest. 

I just loved the little tool shed, where all of the tools are stored. The school is K thru 8. The Kindergartners get to use the little rakes. 

 The kitchen was just lovely. The list of foods the kids are going to cook this year was really impressive. Sushi, home made tortillas, lasagna. Things that they can harvest  too. They were making tomato sauce this week, from the tomatoes out of the garden.

Emilie told us about a class day, when the little kids brought blankets and rested under the grapevines and a little boy laid down on his blanket and fell asleep. When it was time for his next class he got his teacher to let him come back with his blanket and we went to sleep again under the grapevine. You just never know what home life might be and Emilie is always conscious of that. She has children, that the teachers just don't know how to handle, and they send them to her and she gives them work to do, and they are much happier than sitting in class. So they plant seeds, they harvest produce, the pull weeds. Or they just sit with the chickens.

I know that when my Mom died and I was in the sixth grade, if I had had a place to go to like a garden I would have done so much better. So I thought about that as I walked around the garden and I was so thankful that there is a place like this. The city schools here in Bakersfield are looking to implement gardens in their schools. Which I think would be so much better for kids than labels and medications. 

I loved the green house. Emilie said, that when it was raining so much that she would bring the kids out to plant seeds and they would be out of the rain, and they would be all so busy as the rain hit on the roof and it was such a nice place to have school. 

You can't really tell by my picture how purple this purple kale was, I picked a leaf and it wasn't even bitter nor had it bolted. I might have to grow some of it. It had a nice taste. Out here we have such a problem with squash beetles we have a horrible time ever  getting pumpkins or squash, unless you spray. This is a complete organic garden so they don't spray with pesticides but focus on pollinators and keeping the plants healthy 

 

My son, and his family who have The Hollar Homestead on You Tube found that by planting  Luffa Sponges around his squash plants it kept the beetles away. So Emilie did that. I was looking at her pumpkins and not a single bug or eggs. Then she said, this last year because of so much rain they had a plague of frogs. The frogs ate every single parent,and larvae. Now the Luffa is growing strong and still no bugs. 

I heard someone I was listening to last week, remark that man is always trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. I knew that when we had our garden in our other house, I spent so much time trying to do that. I am so proud that Emilie and her team have accomplished just that. She says the hardest workers are the little kids K-3rd. They will do everything, plant, weed and pull out the old stuff so they can replant. They will gather eggs and harvest and pick fruit. There is something to that phrase, "Time began in the garden." 

Its true and my happy place is still fooling around in my garden. 

One of the things I didn't get a picture was of a Gazebo out in the middle of the garden with vines growing all around it with benches in a circle and the kids for class get to sit out under there while they get taught. I just thought how wonderful it is that the kids get to be outside. Its a garden for children. So they can touch and taste and learn how they can feed themselves by what they grow. I just love that.

Okay, I will stop now, its something that I am passionate about can you tell? I always thought the best place for a child to grow up was a place that he or she could walk down a dirt road, with no place to go but to be able to see things growing or maybe having a garden of their own. To live outdoors and climb a tree. To listen to the trees as the wind blew and felt the seasons change by watching the tree sleep in the winter, wake up in the spring, bloom and bear fruit in the summer and get ready for rest in the fall.

I have had two adventures this summer with Emilie. She does really live an Extraordinary life. 

Thank you for reading along if you have made it to here. I have had this blog going around in my head since I got back yesterday afternoon.

~Kim~

  “There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.”
-- Celia Thaxter                                                                             

Odds and Ends

 Here we are at the end of July. I need to get myself in gear if I am going to get lots more things done that were on my to do list for summer. 

I managed to dye wool this last week. My first batch it was nice colors but not what I wanted. So I started over on Tuesday. I went back and read Lauren's post. Rugs and Pugs. One of the things that I have never done, was used purified water. So on Tuesday, that is what I did and I got the colors I saw in my mind. 

So I finally got to start on my granddaughter's pillow for her upcoming birthday.

 

It works up just the way I wanted it to look. Letters always test me, but I think this is working out okay. I will change the hearts around a bit. 

My next project is going to be from Crow Creek Farm. When she released that pattern we were getting ready to leave on our trip and I had to wait but the first thing I did when I got back was order that pattern. It just tickles me.

I always lay my future rugs out on the floor so I can sit and stare at them and think of which wool I am going to use for what. I was doing this and my helper wanted to go outside. No matter how hard I tried, he just wouldn't leave my rug alone. So guess who won and I went and sat outside with him. He really is the boss.

He was intent on getting my attention. When I am writing a blog he comes in and walks on the keyboard and causes all kinds of mischief. You can tell he is the only animal in the house. He gets away with stuff that no other animal I have ever had did. 

The garden is going strong. 

Our teeny little garden is growing so much food. I think we only have six tomato plants. We are finally learning how to grow things in garden beds. Its been such a learning curve to go from a garden as big as this whole lot to tiny beds in the corner of a yard. So this year has made me so happy to be able to make and can food. 

I hope you are having a nice summer. Its been nice here, even if it is hot. I just have more time to putter and do things in the house. 

Have a lovely day, thank you so much for stopping by,

~Kim~

"Hot July bring,

Cooling showers,

Apricots and gilly flowers."

---Sara Coleridge

Hot Days of Summer

 You know I am only about 2 1/2 hours from the beach. Its a beautiful 66 degrees, 50 at night. Today here at my house it is supposed to be 109. Why don't I go? Because a million people have the same idea. 

So I am going to turn the house into a cave and find things to do. Its a good day to write a blog. We have a river in Kern County called the Kern River. It goes by other names like The mighty Kern but mostly this time of year its called the Killer Kern. This year because of the rain and the snow pack, it is unlike anything that I have ever seen in my life time. Yes, I was born here. My daughter Emilie house sits for her In-laws and she invited me out. It was a fun little field trip. I always wanted to live out in this area, but when we were looking at houses out there, I knew I would have children driving that road and decided against it. Its still a terrible road. 

In normal dry years, the river at this point is a safe, little area. You might see people going down this place in inner-tubes. Not me, I grew up on too many horror stories. Its higher than I have ever seen it and the wild life just love it. We walked around down there and there was so much to see. 

Its not a very good picture, but there is a beaver family, making dams in the river. We found three houses that had been abandoned as the river is changing its course, as the water levels are rising and going down. My son-in-law the night before had been skipping rocks and the beaver came out and slapped his tail really hard on the water. That was how they found out he was there. 

Along the side of their property, is this foundation. Its really old. No one knows who built it. Down the way is a old park. Its called Hart Park and the WPA ( The Works Progress Administration.) built lots of stuff in there so I wondered if that was built by them in the 30s. 

Coming up from the river is this old stairway, to kind of an island up on top. There are three other stair ways going in other directions from the top of the island. Its the same masonry as the one that is in the river like a dock. 

 Can you see that buzzard sunning himself on the fence. We had walked up to the top of the island and I could see two of these parents sitting there and when I looked up the babies were in the trees. Just watching us as we roamed around. I couldn't get any closer. In the mud next to the water I saw, a freeway of tracks, raccoon, possum, fox and coyote. There were deer and things I didn't know. My tracking skills are getting rusty. 

This is the fireplace there on the island. So does that look like a face? I didn't notice it when I was standing in front of it, but in my picture could it be a Big Foot face. ;) The top picture is the back side and the rocks that build it up you can see. The river had rose so high this was in the water. It was still muddy when I was there you can see a little pond behind it for when the water was even higher. 

 

This is one of the beavers homes that he has had to leave as the water level drops. Now you know where the saying comes, " A busy beaver." He is a really busy guy.

On the other side of the river, up on that hillside is a camp ground. I went there once when I rode my horse out there. Its been years and years since I had been that far. 

I know its not a very good shot, but there is a family of owls that live down there and as we walked under a tree they flew off. The male flew up here and the mom and baby flew down the river to get away from us. I was enthralled. Its really a lovely place and even though its not that far out of town it still took me an hour to get home. I bet this spring it was just lovely. My son-in-law grew up out here. So when he gets to house sit for him its like being at home. I enjoyed myself so much. 

I hope you enjoyed your visit too. Thanks for stopping by,

~Kim~

“July is hollyhocks and hammocks, fireworks and vacations, hot and steamy weather, cool and refreshing swims, beach picnics, and vegetables all out of the garden."

~Jean Hershey---

Traveling and Visiting part 2

 Good Morning. 

I hope you all have had a nice week. My garden is so happy and is producing so much, I am in the kitchen storing food like a squirrel. I feel like a squirrel most of the time anyway. It was a lovely week. I will begin where I left off. 

We left the Ron Coleman mine and continued our travels. That is the one thing that happens, there are so many things I would love to stop and go see but all I can think of is getting to our kids house and we end up pinning our ears back and just driving hours to make it there. 

I always take a picture of the road when we get here. It just shocks me as we look down and all of the trees! Living in the desert and in California, trees are almost worshiped. It just amazes me that out here trees just grow and grow. It must be the rain. Look how they grow right up to the road. I was also shocked at the way the tree companies trim trees. My gosh, those huge blades on booms just cutting off limbs. I had to say but this time, I felt like Miss EPA. I have never in my life even thought I had allowed Commie California to infiltrate my thoughts, but seeing tanker trunks going down the road spraying weed killer just made me crazy. But enough of that. 

When we get here, I always have butterflies. There are so many huge rivers and driving over bridges with big rivers underneath, just kind of makes me queasy. Out here we don't have water like that very often. This year being an exception. Our water goes to agriculture and Los Angeles. Always fights about water going on. So seeing things like this and the Mississippi at the same time is just crazy to me. 

I tried to keep a diary of our trip but it gets kind of sketchy here because I am ready to get to North Carolina. 

We spent so much time just hanging out and talking and visiting and just loving being with these lovely people. Its been two years since we have been here to see them. I love this picture because in my old pictures I have picture of our kids doing the same thing with their Dad hanging over the back of the couch watching him show them something. Now our grand children. Of course, Miss Buggy, is the topping on the cake. She would run down to the trailer and come in and visit with us, if we were late getting to the house in the morning. It was a wonderful week and of course like everything we have to go home. 
 

I caught this picture one afternoon. I loved seeing our oldest son and his Dad outside just talking. I spent the sweetest time with Megan, and I was so thankful for this time to spend with them. Always I think the very hardest thing in my life is saying good-bye. Knowing it might be awhile before we can see them again. 

So we left, I smiled in the picture, but I had such a lump in my throat, I couldn't have talked.

We said good-bye and I think I cried to Asheville. We wanted to go to Kentucky on the way home but there was bad weather coming so we ended up driving all the way to Lebanon, Tennessee. We got to see quite a thunder and lighting storm and sideways rain. We know that on our way now, weather would be the thing we were racing, 

 

One of the things I really enjoyed was staying in campsites. I really had fun seeing the different places and how different places can be. We stayed in a campsite that was in the back of a mans pasture. That was really interesting. I wouldn't go outside though, I could tell by looking at it there was ticks. The next morning we had to stop at the grocery store and when we came out to the car, there were ticks all over my car. I hate ticks!!

 

We went to a place called The Fire and Ice Museum. Cool place. Its in New Mexico and its kind of off the beaten track. But worth the drive. 

Caves everywhere. So much Volcanic rock. Standing in front of that cave. The air coming out felt like a deep freeze. We walked down to the big cave and the ice there never melts and its such a contrast all of the volcanic rock with all of the cold and ice. The interesting thing was this is owned by a family. Its been in their family for generations. But for some reason the government is buying up all of the land. the man whose family owned the museum, showed us a map and they are this little bit but now most of the land owners are who if we were following the Constitution, should never own land. But on our way out, we saw that there was lots and lots of mining. So gee, I wonder what that is about. 

We took this road after we left the mine. On the map it said, it was the fastest way to Arizona. We would miss all kinds of traffic. So we took that road, it took us through the Indian Reservations. Which was really interesting. They had these huge clay ovens. They are outside and they would have three in their yards. But I didn't get any pictures. So as we took this lonely road that we never saw anybody on the road, then out in the middle of no where this just appeared. Its called Morrow Rock and its huge. We really need to take that road again and go explore. 

Pretty much that is it. I should have taken better notes, but we had been gone a month and we were so ready to be home. We just drove and drove and spent the night and got up as early as we could. Its nice to be at home, but I am still trying to remember what I did before I left and what a routine I had. I was getting ready for the trip and I was making and sewing and things like that for both families and packing things to take to them. 

I ordered wool and dye so I am hoping to do that next week so I can make rugs again. I hope you have enjoyed this. I did find something in my pictures, that on our way there was this train hauling tanks. Miles and miles of tanks. Way out in the desert. It gave me such a sick feeling to wonder what and where are all of those tanks going? So much goes on out in the desert that no one ever hears about. By the time I grabbed my phone all I got was that bit of tank.

 

I hope you have a lovely day,

~Kim~

"July is a blind date with Summer."

---Hal Borland.