6:34 pm

I'm just in from a walk in the rain. Sounds like a line from a personal ad, doesn't it? "I am looking for someone who likes to take long walks in the rain." Have you ever noticed that when it rains, you usually don't see lots of folks out walking in it, particularly people who are on a date? Rain is seen by the postmodern world as a bad thing, no matter what people might say in a personal ad or an internet profile. Just watch people walking across a parking lot when it begins to rain. Most of them (particularly men, which irritates the living crap out of me) will duck their heads and hunch their shoulders, as if the rain were made of hydrochloric acid. I rarely see men walk through rain with their heads held up. They flinch from the rain as if from a beating. And when it does rain - even in an area like this which has been beset by severe drought for two years running - people invariably whine, "Oh, it's raining. I wish it would stop. I was hoping it would be clear for the weekend." Yes, it's quite a burden to endure when one has to activate the windshield wipers when one is heading to the mall or to some sporting event.


Well, it's raining here today, and we are enjoying it thoroughly. It was clear yesterday, though. Very sunny and warm. It started out that way for breakfast:

And it continued on through the afternoon. While MeeMaw slaved away, setting out vegetable seedlings in the raised beds and while PeePaw slaved away, cutting the grass and making compost, the two nonproductive members of the farm busied themselves in their usual fashion.

MeeMaw and PeePaw had the decency to postpone our naps until this afternoon. The rain does make for a nappish atmosphere.

I took this photo when I came back down from the woods. If you look carefully, you'll notice a new object sitting next to the yard barn.

This is our new superduper fancified compost bin. Not long ago, it was a nine dollar trash can. After about ten minutes with the drill (you may notice the dozens of holes in it if you look closely), it was quite perforated.

My dear friend Doug is a gardening/composting dervish. He uses this type of system to make compost in a relatively short period of time. "Get a 32-gallon trash can and a pair of bungee cords. Drill holes all over the can. Put in approximately equal parts of manure, grass clippings, and other organic matter. Sprinkle it with water until it's as moist as a wrung-out sponge. Put the lid on it. Affix the lid with the bungee cords. Tip the can over onto its side and kick it. Kick it and roll it across the yard several times to mix the contents. Stand it up. Leave it alone. When you check on it in a day or two, the composting process will be well underway."

Well, I did everything the way he told me. The contents of the bin are pretty much equal parts Domino & Shorty manure, pine straw, and grass clippings. Also, some potato peelings, cabbage leaves (minced) and coffee grounds. I wet it down, rolled it around, and left it alone. Just now when I came back from my walk, I took the lid off and here's what it looked like:

The sporty thing about it is that it's already heated up. The microbes are doing their job, and the whole mass has compacted down to less than half of what it was originally. There are some splendiferous red earthworms in the batch, too, and I know they're loving what they're in. Doug says that if I kick the can around for about 30 seconds once a day and make sure the contents stay slightly damp, it'll be useable compost in less than two weeks. We'll see...

We've come to some sad but necessary conclusions in the last week here at Possum Cough. No matter what our plans or enthusiasm called for, we've realized that there's just no way we can accomplish everything this spring/summer that we'd hoped for. If we were able to do this full-time, we could do it. But with both of us working, we simply don't have the time to do everything. After a nine-hour day at work, I have limited energy and daylight hours for doing things during the week, and Saturdays just don't have enough time in 'em. So we've prayed and talked and made some decisions. For this year, it looks like the priority will be gardening. We need to get a good feel for how productive our land will be, and this is our learning curve. We will try to fence off the raised bed section of the yard, and will also fence off a plot up in the south pasture after Gabriel plows it for us. All this fencing will involve quite a bit of time and effort. I'll have to dig post holes, cut posts (I ain't about to pay eight bucks per post for storebought fence posts!), mix concrete, set the posts, run and stretch fencing, build and hang gates, etc. And this doesn't even include the other plantings, weeding, watering, etc. that will be part of the package. So the goats, bees, etc. will have to wait until another time. My friend Harry has offered to provide us with some laying hens, so I may try to build a chicken coop and run for them. If I can get that done, we'll take four to six hens from him so that we can have fresh eggs. And we also need to put a line of fence across each side of the house, separating the front from the back. This is so that we can get a puppy at some point and begin training him/her to be a farm dog...in other words, a working dog, not a worthless "pet." Like two cats I could mention.

God willing, we will, at some point in the future, have more critters and more projects going on. But we don't want to fall into the trap that so many folks have talked to us about: immersing ourselves in too many projects and finding ourselves unable to keep up with what we've committed to doing. For now, Possum Cough will continue to be a slow learning experience for us. And it's a beautiful place to learn.

The previous owners of our land left a considerable amount of trash up in the woodlot. Old tires, discarded vinyl siding, etc. This coming Saturday, while MeeMaw is working, I plan to take the wheelbarrow up there and clear some of it out and take it to the landfill. Some of it will be useful for projects in the future. But that which is truly trash (including a disturbing number of bottles and cans....why on earth would someone litter his OWN land with trash???) will depart these acres.

My frequent walks up in the woodlot are always soured a bit when I see a beer can or a Coke bottle lying in a bed of ferns. I prefer to see a mild pathway. It's the better way.

When I got back from my walk, MeeMaw and I were sitting in the family room and talking. All at once, two hummingbirds swooped down on the feeder out front. MeeMaw only put it out yesterday, and they've already discovered that Possum Cough Cafe is open for businesss. From what we've read, hummingbirds return to their favorite places year after year, and they "tell" each other about places to feed on the migration routes. We like the idea of being a topic of discussion.

MeeMaw almost has supper ready (fried chicken and mashed taters!), so I must attend to my gustatorial duties.

Rest well, loved ones.