Our First Random Planting with Loren!!!
It was down in the 40s as I woke up Sunday morning in Saint Petersburg, Fl where I am currently staying. I knew, as I opened up the weather app,, that the property was going to be even colder. Sure enough it was in the 30s there. So I began layering my clothes for the day. Let’s face it, I am not good with cold … a complete cold wimp. S Florida’s tropical weather is my ideal temperature and here I am living in a place that is 10 degrees colder and moving to a place with a 20 degree difference from there. Okie Dokie, I reminded myself I will learn to adapt, as I pulled the long johns over the tights, the triple hoodies and adjusted the 2 pairs of wool socks LOL.
I was so excited for the day to come. Originally I thought we would have several guests and be foraging. However one of the guests had a home emergency and the other decided to wait until we could all do it together. The good news is that Loren was still coming. Bless her!!! I couldn’t wait to see her and show her the changes that had happened since she had last been here months ago. I drove off singing to myself as Gracie, the Yorkie wonder dog, slept in my lap. Despite the cold, it was a beautiful day and the skies got more and more blue and clear as we drove north.
I arrived and checked the Rainwater Collection tank … yep still full. I need to decide if I throw up another one near the gardens or just wait to be living there to do anything else. One thing for sure is that no matter what I need some tubing and maybe a manual pump to get water from the tank since it was not US manufactured and therefore no US hose fittings will go on it. More to think about later. I also checked the tarp in the garden area to see if I had secured it well enough last week and sure enough there it was laying flat and still staked down. Good job!
So I moved onto the home area. I had purchased two 18″x48″ plastic composite pallets to be able to sit my containers of tools and supplies on so that I could get them up off the ground. So I got those out of the truck, along with some other tools (an extra rake, an extra shovel, a tamper, a post hole digger and a wood cant hook) that I wanted to store on the property and away I went. The hardest part of what I needed to do was dealing with my on-going fear of those Florida Wood Roaches that I knew I was going to bump into as I moved all of the containers. They had reduced in numbers, I think because of the bay leaf power I had put everywhere, but they were still around.
I definitely need to conquer this fear coz’ it really slows me down. Nevertheless, I took the tarps off all the containers and began to move them out of the way and away from the trees. Every few minutes you would have heard an “EKKKKK!” come out of me as one of my shiny roach friends would appear. I kept moving and got the ground leveled and the pallets placed and the two big 55 Gal containers and two of the 4 small 27 Gal containers on top of the pallets. The other 2 small containers would need to sit on the ground so I rearranged things in containers so those two had least-risk things in them.
Part of the risk is any kind of flooding and part of it, frankly, is just to avoid the roaches getting under them and somehow in them. I would finish after Loren arrived. I grabbed seat cushions and pillows for us to sit on in the Adirondack chairs right as Loren drove up.
To my surprise she drove her car right up the well worn path that had been cleared from the double gate and that I had now flattened and compressed during my tons of times driving through with the Jeep. Imagine that, I kept being afraid anyone without a truck would get stuck coming onto the property but she scooted right in and up to where I was in the home area. Cool!
It was so great to see her! We first sat for a while and chatted. The property has such great energy … and so does Loren … it felt like I could just sit and talk for hours. The fire pit area where we sat began to warm up and the sun shown on it the entire time we were there. It was so relaxing just sitting there in the sun! We got caught up and talked plants and stuff then it was a time to give her a tour of the changes on the property so off we went. She had not seen the work from Duke, or the new path from the fence, or the new gate, etc. We walked along and chatted and investigated a few things along the way like these beautiful Sand Pine trees.
Next on the agenda was a surprise. Loren had brought along some Seminole Pumpkin seeds she had saved. She said there were native and she had gotten the original seeds from about an hour away. The theory here is that, since they are native, then they will grow here with very little human intervention … so it was time to try out the theory! We went over to the garden area and Loren started making a little outline boundary of tree branches for us to plant inside of. As she was doing that she was pulling up branches and things from the ground where the original land clearing happened. It had left a ton of organic mulch on the ground from all the trees, branches, plants, etc. Loren noted how rich it was leaving the soil under it. WhooooooooooHooooooooooo!
Between the two of us we “planted” part of her bag of saved Seminole Pumpkin seeds. Then Loren and I went scanning around for containers to bring some water to them from the Rainwater Collection tank. We found some and filled them from the spigot on the tank and sprinkled it on the newly planted babies. Now we just send them love and let the natural rain and the land and the seeds do what they do and see what happens. I must admit that I was pretty giddy at the thought of one or more of them actually growing! Who knows? We shall see. No matter what, it was our first random planting experiment while we wait to be able to do “real” planting once we have electricity, water and me living on the property to tend to things.
Finally Loren helped me get the rest of the containers under the tarps and we called it a day. As Loren drove off I watched her little red car head off down the path to the gate and had a BIG smile on my face from the great day we had on the property. Soon … this will all be a way of life not just a short thing I get to do for a few hours on Sunday. Gracie and I finished cleaning up and headed home. When we left, around 3:45 it was 55 degrees! Perfect!!!
I posted videos, on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, of the rainwater collection tank weekly update again, the garden tarp again, Gracie running around in a blue sweater, Loren and I planting the Seminole Pumpkin seeds and, of course, a short exciting end of the day report. Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE. Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
We are now beyond mid January. The permits are still right where they were it appears. This coming week Nair will try to move them forward again. Jason from Guardian fencing may be the answer for taking care of digging the holes for the piers for the concrete guy, helping to get the shipping container home up on the piers and removing a few trees that are still blocking the entrance through the gate for the shipping container delivery trucks. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh! I am currently still creating being miraculously done by Feb 14th but it looks more like end of February, beginning of March now. I am definitely sending Love, Joy and Freedom to you all til I come back next week!
