Journal - A Stormy Week

So this has been a pretty enjoyable week.

Sunday night we had some pretty intense storms. I generally like storms, especially at night, but I was worried about my pumpkins and other plantings. We got an awful lot of rain, pretty hard at times, and it also hailed for a few minutes although the hail was not very large. Also, the wind blew so hard that the rain was blowing straight across the yard at times. I just wasn’t sure if the garden would survive at all.

Monday morning I went out to take a look. The pumpkins were kind of beat up but it looked like they would survive. None of them were broken off anyway, and the hail hadn’t stripped the leaves very much. Overall I thought they would probably bounce back just fine. I did lose a sunflower and I’m pretty sure one of the two watermelons that came up won’t survive. I seem to be missing a cucumber or two as well.

Monday afternoon we went to Mom’s house. Aunt LeeDel, Uncle Marvin, and Uncle Butch were here for their annual Memorial Day visit. Mike and Bobbi were there as well, but had to go shortly after we arrived. Mike said about half of his tomatoes had been destroyed by the hail. It was a fun afternoon with the family. Uncle Butch, Uncle Marvin, Joni, Adam, and I played three games of croquet in the back yard. Mom has a large pile of bricks that were there when she moved in I think, and she said I could bring some home. She also had a few bricks from the old school building and she let me have those as well.

So on Tuesday I got to work with the bricks. The ones from the school still had a lot of mortar stuck on them so first I had to clean those up with a hammer and chisel. The mortar came off pretty easy for the most part. Then I finally finished up the brick border that I had been working on along the north and west sides of the patio. When that was done I planted some marigolds along the new section I had just put down. Joni and I really like how the brick border turned out and if we can get some flowers to come up it will be even nicer. Actually we do have a few hollyhocks coming up but they’re not very big yet. It doesn’t look like the catnip I planted is going to come up, and I’m still having trouble getting any mint to take. That stuff just doesn’t like to be moved. The other day (was it Monday?) I gave them some plant food we had on hand so maybe that will help them along a little.

Wednesday we had more storms, but nothing like the storms of Sunday night. There was plenty of lightning and thunder and rain, but not wind or hail. It rained off and on for most of the morning and afternoon. We enjoyed that but now I’m starting to worry that the pumpkins are getting too much water. Always something to worry about. I can’t imagine how farmers must feel all summer long: not enough water, too much water, wind hail, weeds, insects…

Anyway I looked at everything today it looks like they’ll bounce back just fine. They seem to have enjoyed the rain at any rate.

Nehemiah 9:6You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. ESV

Job 26:8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them. ESV

Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke. ESV

Job 26:14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? ESV

Pumpkin Chronicles Day 10

So here we are at day 10! The little pumpkin seedlings that I’ve moved away from the main cluster are doing reasonably well so today I decided to get the last of them moved and spread out. I did a little reading up on growing pumpkins this morning and hadn’t realized just how much space these things need. They need an awful lot and our garden is only so big. So today I dug up a new plot and dedicated it solely to pumpkins. This is on the east side of our house, across the driveway in the area where we park the truck. You can see Joni’s country fence at the top of the pic. I raked up the leaves and trash, turned the soil with a shovel, and planted pumpkins seedlings in eight different spots. For good measure I threw in a few sunflowers here and there around the edges. I think this will be a good spot because it gets full sun all morning and afternoon. From what I read, pumpkins like lots of sun, at least 6 full hours a day.

So we now have two pumpkin patches, Pumpkin Patch Central, and Pumpkin Patch East. Altogether there are more than 20 little seedlings growing so surely some of them will survive to maturity. Also, these pumpkins came straight from God as we did not plant them ourselves so I’m thinking that will work in their favor. I hope I didn’t jinx it by moving them around. So far, growing pumpkins is exciting!

Pumpkin Chronicles Day 7

I’m pretty stoked about these pumpkins that are coming up in our garden. As I mentioned in an earlier post, last fall we had a couple of pumpkins on our front steps. After they sat there and got soft and mushy, we scooped them up with a shovel and tossed the remains into our garden area. At the time I was thinking it might add some nutrients to the soil. Then this spring when we cleaned up the garden in preparation of the spring planting, we found this! We weren’t sure what it was until we discovered that these little sprouts were coming up amidst a scattering of dried up pumpkin seeds. I think it was about a week ago that we first discovered them so I’m calling this day 7.

This is one little seedling that I separated out from the bunch. I figured they would do a little better if they were spread out a little, so I picked out three and planted them in a new area with plenty of space between them. I did that on April 25. On April 27 we got a good rain. This pic is from April 28 and the little sprouts have nearly doubled in size since being transplanted. I forgot to put something in the pic for a size reference but these little guys are a couple of inches high and a couple of inches across. I mentioned before that the sprouts each had two little rubbery leaves, but as you can see they’ve added a third leaf which is shaped differently than the first two. How interesting! Now that I know they can survive being moved I’ll try transplanting some more. As you can see from the first pic, there are plenty of sprouts here to make a pretty good pumpkin patch. I just know the Great Pumpkin will come this year!