Growth vs Comfort

A homestead happenings post complete with dirty DIY pics, jungle-garden updates and my attempts at calm amidst the chaos.

While I see others around the world are thrilled with finally warm temps and blossoming gardens, we’ve already hit the hot mess stage. I’m embarrased a bit to include pics of the jungle that just a few weeks ago had several brag-worthy elements.

It’s so hot, wet and fertile here the seeds are coming up anywhere!

Oddly, not the cucumbers nor the onions. We’ve had bad onion years before, but cucs are our biggest no-brainer. I can’t recall ever having a bad year, normally they are so prolific they become pig food by this time, but this year we haven’t even had a big enough harvest to pickle, and they’re already dying back in the swelter. I’ve succession planted and can only hope whatever fluke has hit them, the youngens will bounce back by next month.

I guess it’s relative, when I see the onions displayed like that in Hubby’s hand-crafted bins, it seems ok.

The green beans in Hubby’s monster row are producing by the bushel and I’m already sick of them. We’re too unsettled with the bathroom DIY to do any canning and have even stopped harvesting them. Such a shame, I do hate to see them go to waste, but it’s all I can do to keep up with all the other chores.

Like the flowers! I know, it sounds rather frivolous compared to beans, to devote my painfully precious hours of manual labor to flowers instead of food, but they make me so happy I’ve gotten over it.

These Black Hopi sunflowers were actually volunteers from last year’s seed gift from Gavin Mounsey who sends heirloom seeds to those who buy his book or become a paid subscriber to his Substack newsletter–so worth it, a gift that really does keep giving! 😘

They are so rewarding and of course very functional as well. These giant sunflowers are not only gorgeous, but they serve as mid-day shading for the tomatoes and there are pollinators all over them. I even saw a squirrel up there eating the seeds. Too bad I didn’t have the tablet, it would’ve been a great shot, but I didn’t even see him until he started barking at me when I was picking tomatoes right underneath him.

First bloom of the lovely Blackberry Lily

Meanwhile, while I’m goofing off, Handy Hubby gets to experience male priviledge. Mr. Know-it-All likes to impress me and the dogs with all his savoir-faire. I know he secrectly delights in sweating and rolling in the dirt under the house with Buttercup. He’s totally thrilled that the bathroom remodel has turned into dirt to rooftop overhaul and his fancy tile project has been delayed by a month and tidy unplanned sum.

But not only was the subfloor coated in mold and mildew, but the piers and beams were sagging and unaligned and the drainage was partially blocked. He had to dig all that out and replace some and add more and while unexpected, it wasn’t terribly surprising. It was built as a camp cottage in the 80s, no one ever lived here full-time until us.

Considering that, Hubby says they did a good job and that the quality of materials for a camp cottage back then was leagues better than what goes into the pre-fab modern construction. We’re really lucky we got on this whim to remodel when we did, because that mess was only going to get more ugly with time.

That’s the bad news. The good news is the other development that grew spontaneously out of this project–I now have a real flex-room–a place for fermenting and seedlings and maybe just lounging. Considering how small our place is, I know it sounds a little crazy, but considering we’ll most likely never move again, why not? There was a big bed in there that just made for useless space, now it’s full function. Or rather, it will be, whenever the bathroom gets done.

Hubby is never so impressive to me than when he is in Mission-Man-Mode. He has a single-minded, goal-oriented side to him that perks up with such vigor suddenly you’d think he was once again a 30-something in hot pursuit of a sexy young thang (and by that I mean me). 😂

Seriously though, it is impressive and he can work leagues past my breaking point when he’s in the zone. And Youtube is another godsend sometimes, the two of them in lockstep is like any DIYers dream couple. Between that and the regular influx of inspiration from the home shows on TV, there’s really nothing a devoted follower can’t learn, it seems. How marvelous to be learning so much still at our age!