November 10, 2016

Good morning, This year started out nice enough but sure has had its moments. Both good and bad. But in reality I would have to say mostly good.. But there have been those moments that one has had to wonder about.

This year has been one of my most busiest years ever. I felt like I had to juggle several balls all at the same time and keep most of them airborne until I could deal with them.

This really is not about me complaining but really about me being fortunate and having the health an fortitude to assist and accomplish all that this year has provided.

My seedling starts were perfect and I was able to grow enough seedlings with the first sowing to have a fully stocked garden from the get go. This did lull me into thinking that this year was going to be a cake walk!!

Everything seemed to be a “stroll in the park” until July. I have never experienced anything quite like it where the heat and dryness completely shut down the garden. Looking back I have read about this happening elsewhere. I suspect in South County this is a yearly seasonal occurrence where you just don't do a garden in the hot months. I so hope this does not happen again. Although now that I know about this, I will not be so knocked off balance. Probably the biggest thing that happened was my tomatoes. They were finishing up their first flush of toms and it became too hot for them to regrow. So because they needed to flush new growth while the older growth withered, there was a high percentage of plants that just gave up the ghost. Hind sight tells me that I should have collected seeds from these survivors.

But July was just the beginning, then came the insect hordes. This was an undertaking in its own right.

August then arrived and proceeded to be the wettest and coolest August in a long time. This cloudy an rainy weather was a help to the garden but it did appear to become a 180 degree problem with too much moisture. Here again just an observation.

It is worth to note that between gardening, selling veggies, Deb and I managing the market (doesn't take a lot of time but it does take some time), building a house, trying to find a replacement for my truck that died and then the moving of the market to its new home was almost a full plate.

The market move was the result of one of those “bitter /sweet” things. Deb's Mom after many many years of declining health along with her ever deteriorating quality of life passed away. Yes a very sad thing. It is with her passing and the the inheritance that Deb received that Mary may live on. We owe everything to Mary for the purchase of the New home of the Alpine Farmers Market.

Ah yes busy became an understatement. I felt very fortunate to have assisted all of the work crews that helped make the new property home to the farmers market.

The cleanup was a job: moving pipe and railroad ties, knocking down the weed growth. The moving of the shade structure from the hotel and adding on 20 more feet, connecting rain catchment, putting down caliche, moving the storage container, erecting a chain link fence and planting trees. All of this from August to the end of October. Whew!!

Needless to say I was somewhat keeping an eye on the garden, but should have had kept a little more of a focused one. I had gotten all of my fall seedlings started in the beds where they would be transplant to. I just didn't keep an eye out for cutworms. That hindsight thingy. Some of my stocking will be lower than I like but the veggies I could reseed I have. Things are not perfect but they will be manageable.

How silly of me thinking with the planting of the market trees, that finally I would get back to the back burner items. HA!!!

So this feeling lasted until I went to make coffee Sunday a week ago when the well / pump decided to have different thoughts about my complacency.

Even though Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were hot the forecast was calling for “Yuge “ chances of rain and cloudy weather, I could live with .05 inches and cloudy weather because the garden came through Quite fine and by Friday 1 PM the well / pump was all back up and running.

I must say all of this gives me a LOT to be very grateful for, especially indoor plumbing, also to be extremely grateful for all the folks who took time out of their busy lives to help MOVE and BUILD the market. To still have a wonderful garden and last but not least a very patient and understanding best friend and wife, I have got to be one of the luckiest persons on the planet!!!!