Memphis Democrat Column from May 21, 2006

Most of our conversations at breakfast, lunch and supper these past two weeks have featured the word "planting" prominently. This is a hectic time of the year for us, as it is for many of our neighbors. We hit the ground running and keep up a steady pace for most of each day. But there is a lot of satisfaction when evening comes around and the feeling that we have done a good job.

We have just finished up putting in half of our sorghum crop as transplants and the other half direct seeded. We hitched our almost antique four-row planter to a tractor last weekend and visitors, interns and members made up the crews riding on it while the transplanting was done during the past week. This is a high point of the spring for folks at Sandhill Farm and there is no lack of volunteers. One crew in the field got caught in the heavy rain the other day and came back looking pretty sodden.

We have also been busy getting some of the vegetable transplants we have been so lovingly tending set out in the three gardens.

The brassicas being done, there has been a big push this weekend to get the tomatoes in. It started with putting up fences for them in the garden by the Dharma residence. Michael has had lots of help and by the looks of things this afternoon, the end is in sight.

Jo and I set out the second batch of lettuce in the North Garden yesterday. We have been enjoying lettuce from Gigi's patch with our meals this week and my first planting should be ready to begin eating soon. Speaking of salads, we have had a nice crop of spring spinach this year and there was even enough to put some in the freezer this time around.

More planting and necessary garden maintenance is on the list for the upcoming week, so I don't think we will run out of things to do.

Jessie has taken on getting the herb garden in shape for the upcoming season. With assistance from some of the visitors, it is looking really beautiful. We grow both perennial culinary and medicinal herbs. In addition to drying herbs for the kitchen, we make our own salves, tinctures and herb tea mixes.

We have been fortunate in having lots of help the past two weeks. I mentioned in my last column that we had a visitor from Texas. Sue was joined by two more women from Arkansas, Betsy and Sue, on the 9th and all were with us until the 15th. The two Sues took being called "Sue One" and Sue Too" in stride.The three women brought a lot of good energy to our scene and we really enjoyed having them here.

Another one of our interns from last year, Justin, arrived from St. Louis on May 9.He arrived the day after Joanne left to return home to New Hampshire following her visit with us. Justin plans to be at Sandhill until the end of this month.

Matthew stayed on after our May Day celebration for another week to help with the planning and work involved in the start of construction for our remodel of Sugar Shack. Ceilee came up at end of that week to help out, too.

The project started off with preparing space next to the south wall of the building for a concrete pad. This will form part of the shed the boiler will be housed in. The preparation involved digging, digging and some more digging before the concrete pour could happen. Laird headed up the crew to get the work done on schedule. After the pad was in and had a chance to set up a bit, a start was made on building block walls. All this is just the beginning and there is more to come.

Laird took the train to Colorado on the 15th to teach another session of the facilitation training course he is doing there. Ma'ikwe is taking the course and they will drive back to Sandhill together later this week.

Jo left this morning for a trip to the Northeast. She is going to spend some time with her mother in New York and then she will go to New Hampshire to attend the graduation of some of her friends. She will be back with us on June 1.

Gigi drove down to Columbia Saturday. She did deliveries and took care of some recycling and other errands. However, it wasn't all business. She attended a birthday party for the son of Rob and Trina, who came from New Mexico to visit us last summer. They now live in Columbia. In one of those small world coincidences, Trina's niece Tara is a close friend of my daughter Melina.

The larger numbers of folks on the farm during the growing season also means that there are lots of opportunities for social time. There has been visiting back and forth between Sandhill and Dancing Rabbit, game nights and trips to Kirksville to listen to music and see a movie. There has also been more conversation and evening hangouts on the front porch and in the sitting room. All this is part of the seasonal cycles here at Sandhill Farm.