The farmette is a place of wonderful possibilities. And challenges. And, if you have an imagination and a will for it, the land has the ability to inspire you to run free with ideas on how to improve it and how to stay sane while you live and work here. Ed is a source of constant quirky ideas. And we are embarking on one that on the one hand makes sense, on the other -- well, it's quirky.
It comes from me gently prodding him to think of ways to improve our parking situation. In the summer, the afternoon sun comes in at just the wrong angle and it heats up the cars tremendously. No big deal for him -- he hardly ever drives anywhere at all in the summer, but a real nuisance for me as I cart the kids home in an overheated vehicle. In the winter, the problem is with the snow build-up. What lands on the cars can be swept off without much fuss, but the snows settle by the doors and over time they form a sloping mound of ice. It's slippery for the kids and it's slippery for me! So I've been suggesting for a while now that we put up some kind of roof or cover.
In your average outdoor parking place, this should be easy. There are any number of sheltering option out there for cars. But the problem is that we routinely have huge truckloads of wood chips dumped at the end of the driveway. There's no other place for them. Big trucks have to be able to safely unload a cargo there, so that any thought of a permanent car shelter is unworkable.
Ed never gives up that easily and lately he's been thinking that perhaps we could put up a very very sturdy and very very large shade umbrella over just my car. You know the type -- people use them on their decks for shade over a seating area or a swimming pool. The important thing is that the arm on which it rests can be anchored at the side and the whole thing is collapsable.
So now we have a new project: to clear the space by the parking area and to see if we can dig in an umbrella stand there. To do this, we have to pull out huge ancient hydrangea bushes. We did that yesterday and it was painful! Those bushes have runners like you wouldn't believe!
What to do with the bushes? Me, I would have dumped them on our wood pile. Not so Ed. He begged me to come up with a landscaping idea where he could put these bushes in. I finally chose a space at the edge of the property, right by the prairie that the town is planting to the east of us. It's an inhospitable place to say the least! Clay soil, with thistle and wild parsnip growing like crazy. Today we tried to dig out all that crazy stuff and put in these poor bushes. Well, Ed did a big chunk of the work. I chased away deer flies and occasionally relieved him of the digging.
Stage two of the project will be putting in that umbrella. I honestly have a hard time believing that this will work, but I never say no to an offer of a solution to a vexing problem! (Umbrella is on order. Stage two will follow once it arrives.)
Breakfast, somewhere in there, between the digging and the mowing and the replanting.
The rain had given the flower fields a nice bit of moisture, but of course now we have the mosquitoes again. Not terrible, but still, very present. Nonetheless, I take a long stroll through the flower fields because finally, at long last the lilies are beginning to pop out!
And so I have my seasonal job: snip the spent flowers and admire the purity of the new blooms!
It truly is magnificent out there! We are just starting the color-filled flowering season, how good is that!
In the afternoon, the young family stops by (on their way home from Chicago) and Snowdrop stays with me for some missed hours of play. As I wait for them on the driveway, I notice (and the cheepers notice) that the next farmette fruit is ready for picking.
(She is shorter than a sunflower!)
I can't say we stay a long time in the great outdoors -- it's hot and muggy once again. Besides, she started a book here the last time and she was anxious to finish it.
While she reads, I bake some cornbread.
No, it's not Thanksgiving! It just struck me that I ought to include a bean salad in our supper repertoire and a plate of bean salad seems like it needs an addition of something. Cornbread seems sensible for it, no?
Okay, pause in cooking so that I can drive the girl home and visit briefly with her brothers and mommy.
Back at the farmhouse, I'm in the kitchen again. Here's the newly developed salad, with black beans, corn, peppers, green onions and avocado. In a lime and olive oil dressing. I know, I know -- it will be even better with the fresh Wisconsin corn, coming to us in a couple of weeks! I had to make do with last year's stuff.
I think that using canned black beans is a bit of a cheat, but I feel noble enough making my own salad dressing. Besides, who's to know!
Storms outside, calm and quiet inside. A typical summer combination.
A typical summer day.
