Green and growing, opinions, unclosed gates

Mama was right; everything at the farm is beautiful. She and I went around and checked all the trees, vines and bushes and there are signs that we will have to pluck back some of the fruit the young trees are setting in order to protect them from damage. The garden is doing very well and Grandpa bought a tiller yesterday which he used on the garden within minutes of unloading. That’s the way to get things done.


Grandpa was weed eating around the garden later in the evening and I did not want the heavy cuttings to be left to kill out the grass so Mama and I got pitchforks and started picking it up. I am sure it would have made a full bale of hay – and he only did about a quarter of the area that we will have to trim back. Since we do not have a mower at the farm he has brush hogged everything else. Down here they call that “shredding”.

The driveway is cut and ready for gravel and the area where we are looking to place the mobile home is prepared for its arrival late this week. We are still debating how to set the home because Grandma and Grandpa have never seen it – and Grandma seems to have some very definite ideas about how to set it. When it arrives I think they will understand why I want to do things the way I do, but it is a small matter, really. The real issue with Grandma is where the front door will be, but in many homes the front door is seldom used.

I think that the home we had on 6 Gifford Road was about the only place we have lived that the front door was the normal access point to the house. So, whether we come in the front or back door is really a moot point. We will have a place on the farm to live in. That’s what is really important. Now, when we get moved here, we can really save some money.

Victoria’s hand does not look as bad as I was led to believe. There are no broken bones; however, it would be difficult to diagnose a fracture by any other means than x-ray. There does not seem to be the need to spend the money on that at the moment. Like any jammed finger, this one will take a good deal of time to heal. Until then, she will have to deal with the pain.

We had dinner at the farm last night. Victoria had to put up the dogs. It is impossible to eat when they are around. When we are sitting they are tall enough to have their faces right at lap level so you either have to eat standing up with your food kept at chest level or you have to constantly be pushing them away. Both ways make for unpleasant eating arrangements and Grandma really put on a show until were are penned up, but we got through it even though Victoria was grumpy about her babies being disparaged.

We stayed out until almost dark last night in the hope our gravel would arrive, it did not, but we were not home very long before our neighbor called to tell us a horse was out. It was Tio. We were told she is an escape artist disguised as a horse. It happened because Mama had left a gate open; which is funny because she is always fussing at me because I close the gates behind me. I do that because they are meant to be closed - for that very reason.

“Timothy Owen,” she will huff, “Why do you insist on closing the gate every time you go through it? It just makes for more work!”

“Because” I will answer, “the gate is here to keep the horses in this area and out of that area. Keeping it closed is what makes that plan work.”

“But the horses are all the way over there.”

“That is not the point. This gate keeps them in this area and I don’t have to waste my time trying to get them back where they belong as long as I keep the gates closed.”

“I don’t see what difference it makes since they are all the way over there.” That’s usually muttered under her breath as she walks away while I am latching the gate behind us.

Besides, if I do not close the gate behind me, I will probably forget to go back and close it later. I would rather open and close a gate many multiples of times as I am required to pass through it than forget it and have to track down a wandering horse the entire next day; or after dark that evening.

Being this close to vacation is very distracting. There are so many projects that I need to get done and I can almost get started – almost.