Showing posts with label pond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pond. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2020

Morning Musings

Saturday was an incredibly beautiful day outside, quite different from today! Saturday morning we had frost, and a thin layer of ice on the water tanks in the horse pasture, but it quickly warmed up. The air was so still, the water on Mom's pond looked like a mirror, perfectly reflecting the deep blue of the sky. Even the walnut trees had a perfect mirror image in the water. I found this little cedar tree growing on the bank of the pond, and there is another growing up from underneath Mom's propane tank. I'm going to ask Bill to dig them both up and move them to better spots on the farm to grow. We have a lot of volunteer willows and mulberries starting to grow all along the banks of the pond. They are becoming a nuisance and make it difficult to fish, or look out over the pond and enjoy the pretty view. I guess we will need to spend some time this winter cutting out trees so they don't come back in the spring. We also need to plant a couple new pine trees up on the bank to keep the soil in place, as two big pines died last summer and had to be cut down. When I was a little girl, we had dairy goats, calves, horses, and a pony out in the pasture across the pond. The goats ate down all the blackberry bushes, mulberry saplings, and young willow trees. The horses, pony, and calves kept the grass well trimmed. Everything looked so neat and tidy. Grandpa, who lived across the pond from us, kept things trimmed with his weed eater and his weed hook. He also kept the pond well stocked with catfish, large mouth bass, sunfish, and bluegills. We used to have some really great family fish frys. My great grandma (dad's grandma) would drive up to help with all the cooking. She was an excellent cook, and loved a good fish fry. Grandma, my aunt, and mom would make so many good things to eat. Dad, grandpa, and my uncle would clean the fish and fry up whatever they caught that day, as well as whatever they had been stocking up all summer in the deep freeze in the shed outside. Sometimes Mom's side of the family joined us, and sometimes my Grandma's and Great Grandma's siblings joined us. I loved having such a big extended family to spend the day with. Today the wind and snowflakes are blowing against my window and there is a bite to the air. There is ice on the porch, and a mug of hot tea in my hand. I plan to stay inside today and continue editing articles for the January issue so we can get it printed and distributed after Christmas. Bill is out trucking, and the boys are all working at the farm store today. I feel bad that they are all out in the wind and cold, but very thankful they have jobs that seem to not be affected by the craziness of 2020. Factories, stores, and homes still need goods shipped out and delivered, and ag related businesses are always going to be deemed essential, no matter what our governor might think. People should never be told garden supplies, plants, seeds, and such are non-essential! They are absolutely essential to keeping families fed during difficult times when supply chains may become disrupted! I'm so thankful that people chose to take a stand, demand the right to agricultural products, and common sense prevailed. Nurseries were able to open and people could get their plants and seeds to grow gardens this spring. I put extra seeds into air tight containers to make sure we have seeds in the future, should this insanity continue.
pond and blue sky