SuperWeed

• Seed starting set from the discount hardware store: $9
• Mini-greenhouse from the fancy garden catalog: $99
• Starting seeds you saved last year in cut-up salvaged soda bottles lined with pages from back issues of the EarthFirst! Journal: truly priceless

I’ve been offline for what I now realize — from the panicked calls from people wondering if I’m okay — has been something like two weeks rather than the couple of days I originally planned when I shut down the computer to concentrate on midterm grading and getting the garden started. (Thanks for those calls, by the way: It’s nice to know people are looking out for you.) I’m fine. I guess I needed more of a break from words, words, words than I realized. And once I got started on the springtime outdoor chores in the garden and around the sanctuary, I realized how very many such chores there are for me this year here by myself. So, I’ve been digging garden plots, breaking up compacted ground in preparation for reseeding the chicken yards, mending fences, hauling compost from place to place, etc., etc.

Speaking of such chores, Deb and Rich came by last weekend to pitch in at the sanctuary. Deb posted some lovely photos on her blog. Let’s hope she comes back to snap some more shots when it gets a bit greener, because heaven-only-knows when I’ll get around to replacing the worn-out battery in my camera.

I just stepped outside and, amazingly, the chicken yards are already discernibly greener than when Deb took those pictures 7 days ago. Spring really is something.

So, I’m surrounded by springtime cuteness in the form of chubby chicks and nodding daffodils that always look like they’re talking with each other. But not only.

Right now, the air outside smells like feet because they manured the nearby fields earlier this week. On the day they do it, the stench of of the excrement of captive animals is choking. Also earlier this week, the transport trucks were going back and forth all day long as I did my outdoor chores, coming up the road empty and then down the road loaded with young chickens seeing their only snatch of blue sky before being shackled upside down, electrocuted, and cut up into bits. I can’t… quite… describe the feeling of sitting on the front steps with the warm sun on your arms, resting for a moment after a bout of digging in your veganic garden bed, enjoying the company of the anarchistic band of chickens who’ve taken over the front yard… as one of those trucks comes rumbling down the road loaded with confused and terrified young birds who cannot imagine the horror that awaits them at the end of the ride.

I tried to write about that for one of my earliest posts, Beauty and Cruelty Are Having a Fist-Fight in My Front Yard. You might want to check it out if you missed it. And, since it’s garden time, you might want to check out my how-to posts on cruelty-free gardening here and here.

PS — I’m slowly, slowly working through the mountains of spam that accumulated in my inbox while I was outside. If you’re waiting for an answer from me and it doesn’t come quickly enough, please don’t hesitate to write again or give me a call.

March 29th, 2008 | Category: Gardening, Sanctuary, Vegan Bliss | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL