Weekly Update: 4.12.25
The whole point of earth stewardship is to show our faithfulness and to draw people to God by the sheer power and force of righteous expression in a physical, visceral way.
Joel Salatin, "The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs," (73).
Springtime has soaked our bit of earth, turning it greener every day and shaping the way we live. I start my mornings differently now -- instead of taking my coffee back to bed for some early reading under a blanket, I grab my mug and hurry over to our little office building. There, I turn on the grow lights for our more than 400 seedlings. In the predawn quiet, I sip the steaming brew while I water the tiny plants -- tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, okra, melons, herbs and flowers. What started as dozens of brown squares of dirt is now six flats of growing, distinctive plants. I can recognize most seedlings by their leaves now, and both the tomato and basil plants are turning aromatic, filling the air with their fragrance as I mist them. Watching these tiny bits of creation unfold has been a simple joy in a too-busy season.
The rest of our days have been full to bursting. Our hours have been filled with both birthdays and birthings, even as we struggle to make progress in the bunkhouse.
On Sunday, we celebrated two birthdays -- my niece and nephew asked to share a celebration. We had a little family party themed around Sonic the Hedgehog, which the kids had requested. We hung streamers, snacked on ring shaped food, and ate chili dogs (apparently, Sonic's favorite food). Grace did a terrific job decorating a very blue cake.
Just as we were serving dinner, Bonnie-Jean's German Shepherd Tilde started having her puppies. It was a very late night, but she had seven pups total -- two females and five males. Some are sable like Tilde, others black like Dagger. Everyone was wiggly and healthy, and by the end of the week, we were all in love.
It's been a bit of an adjustment for Dagger, our brother Jeremiah's male German Shepherd. He usually spends most of his time with Tilde, and now she has become decidedly territorial and unsocial. We've all tried to give him lots of extra attention.
We all started Monday a little sleep-deprived. We went grocery shopping at Walmart, and we had to make a run to Tractor Supply. While we were there, we picked up a flat of pansies to fill some flower boxes and pots. For whatever reason, we haven't had pansies in years. They've always been one of my favorite flowers, and it's been such a homely pleasure to see them throughout the day. They always make me think of my Memaw, whose birthday we will remember later this week. She passed away a couple years ago now, but we still think of her all the time. Pansies were one of her favorite flowers as well. One year, my mom made Memaw a birthday cake covered with sugared pansies. I was 10 at the time, and I thought it was the most beautiful cake I'd ever seen.
The next day, we sisters took an afternoon off of the bunkhouse project for a belated birthday celebration for Bonnie-Jean. We ate junk food, sipped gin-and-tonics, watched some TV, and enjoyed our favorite white cake recipe. It's been such a crazy few weeks, it felt good to just spend time together doing something relaxing. My folks gave Bonnie an adorable grown-up Easter "basket" filled with a gift card, perfume, lotion, and more, and the rest of us showered her with small gifts.
When we weren't having birthdays or taking care of pups, our big project in the bunkhouse this week was finishing the siding in the room I will share with my sisters. Jeremiah helped us over the weekend, and Grace and I worked on it the rest of the week.
We also took care of some smaller projects. We were having problems with the pocket doors we had already installed being scratched -- somehow they were making contact with certain parts of their frames. Our dad carefully took siding boards off and fixed the issue. We also purchased felt to adhere inside of the frames, to avoid future scratching or scuffing.
Several family members helped Jeremiah put the roof on what will be our dog run. He started the dog run last fall, but he put the project on hold during the bad weather of winter.
All week, we tried to make time to start breaking up the soil in our garden plot. We finally managed to spend a couple hours out there on Friday. It felt so good to get our hands in the dirt, and our progress was surprisingly fast, since we already gardened in this location last year. It was one of my favorite hours all week, and I can't wait to get back out there.
With all the craziness this week, I have found myself especially enjoying my moments taking care of our plants. My trips to the office have become daily bookends -- a sort of organic liturgy. They are rare quiet moments, providing time to think and pray. As I've cared for these tiny green sprouts, I've become fond of them. They seem to change each time I see them, growing a little bigger and a little more into themselves. God's world is truly magical -- or as the Orthodox say, sacramental. What an honor to be placed here to steward this tiny corner of creation. It is both exciting and overwhelming, as there is so much to be done -- but I look forward to all of it.
