Happy Green Beings

The curb side discount electric lawn mower has died. The bearings are gone on the electric motor, so no point in repair. The battery was loosing it’s ability to make it half way around the yard anyway. So out with the rotory mower, and back in with the reel mower. Eugene Klein, who fished our local waters, and kept a garden next door, had a reel mower that he used well into his 50’s. At some point it broke and he finally joined everyone else and purchased a Lawnboy gas mower, so the sound of cutting grass finally changed in his part of our neighborhood. All of the sudden, the late evening lawn mowing was no longer an option. City ordinances had already addressed complaints between neighbors across the region. Soon, their language would be generalized to address the use of their string trimmers, wood chippers, and other noisy two cycle motor driven power tools. Ultimately, power washers, and leaf blowers would fall under their authority as well. Instead of rakes edgers, and leaf sweepers powered by muscle, everything had either an electric or small gas powered element to it.

Mr. Klein never turned to the rototiller. He had long established a well aerated soil structure, composting his fish remains along with yard waste. My brother’s dog so loved to excavate and roll around in that stuff when I tried it in mom’s flower garden. And did he ever have the tomato and green bean crops. We always had plenty of fish in our freezer, fresh tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers on our table, followed by rhubarb for mom’s pies. Friday evenings during the summer, we ate like kings even though dad’s business was in start-up. And they were all thanks to Mr. Klein’s habitual use of a garden fork and skill with his spinning rod. The Lawn-boy and the garden fork used for traditional vegetable and flower gardening seem at odds in this time of global warming, but were completely compatible to a guy who grew up in Northern Wisconsin’s logging camps. Pick the right tool for the job and maintain it until it can’t be fixed. Fishing on Lake Winnebago from a wooden boat with an old Evinrude Motor and a pair of oars, Mr. Kline showed me how to use the wind while drift fishing for walleye pike on early mornings or overcast days, depending upon which shift he worked. He motored out until we lined up the center Elm tree with the radio tower, and another elm tree with a silo, and low and behold, the depth of the anchor went from 15 feet to 7 when he had me drop it in. We were right over the rock pile off of Garlic Island which the walleyes used like a corner hangout. He took me out to further his limit, but I was the one who took home the fillets those summer days. We used his home made jigs, poured from a piece of lead that he found at the army surplus store, and tied with care from buck tails that he brought home from deer camp.

A few weeks before he passed away, Eugene and I sat with my daughter while we visited in his living room. The house still smelled the same as it had when I was growing up. He asked about my children, and talked about his children and grandchildren. The garden was still there, though not as many vegetable plants were in residence as when I lived at home. He ordered a single box of girls scout cookies, and we said farewell for the last time. Taking out the reel mower reminds me of Eugene Klein, his care for his friends, family, and his home. I just purchased a garden fork last evening, so I’ll be thinking of him as I use it to turn the soil for our new vegetable garden plot. I only hope I can prepare the soil as well.

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I just thought this was a very inspirational poem, and I wanted to share it:When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

If you would like to see the website I got this from, go to

http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/

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Today is the day I get my backyard chicken flock underway.

Our family decided to start a backyard chicken flock for many reasons. First, we think it is important to be as close to the source of our food as possible, and who can really be against fresh eggs from the backyard? Second, chickens provide many other beneficial services other than meat and eggs - such as eating insects that want to eat our garden, provide fertilizer for the lawn and garden, and some pretty cool entertainment for us, our friends and family.

I am fortunate enough to have found a local person that is willing to set a few eggs in an incubator and watch over them for me. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of tracking down an incubator of my own - cheap ones usually will work but you really need to watch the temperature and humidity in them to make sure that the eggs are under the correct conditions for hatching, and the ones that take care of all of that for you are really expensive. Since I am only looking to raise 4 or 5 layers (chickens for eggs) and then 1 or 2 meat birds it seems silly to spend a lot of money on an incubator.

So what’s next in this process? Once he gets the eggs together that I ask for, then I have 21 days for the eggs to hatch. That means 28 days to get my act together and have a little place set up for them to live when I pick them up. They will need food, water and a heat source to keep them pretty close to 100F. They will live inside for a week to 10 days, and then they will be big enough to move outside to a coop - which I still need to build.

Once they are big enough to be outside, then they will be put to work around the yard eating the bugs, dandelions and other weeds.

So I guess that is the beginning. I will keep everyone posted on the progress, including pictures, as we get up and running around here.

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