This Week at Ramsey Farms

This Week at Ramsey Farms ~ August 11-17, 2014

The first full week of school for the kids and we missed the bus Monday! But they didn’t get too many miles away before pulling down a long dirt road and we were able to catch the bus and the kids hopped aboard!

Farmhand Chris started our small autumn garden. On Tuesday we planted roma bush beans, Sumter cucumbers, and dill. It only took four days for two cukes to sprout! Then a bean plant and before the end of the next day, another cucumber plant poked it’s leaves above soil!! He said he loves digging and tilling this sandy loam by hand – it’s so easy compared to the red clay of NC. This is mostly a gray sand with very little vegetation already growing in it (like weeds and grass).

It’s been dry and hot this week with no rain and full sun pushes the thermometer way past 100 degrees. It makes the pool even more tantalizing, but the dry air seems to be impacting the kids’ allergies or causing sinus issues. I’m trying to find ways to ease their symptoms and get them through this using natural products like vinegar, ginger, salt water, pure honey, and other herbs.

I was able to visit my wonderfully kind neighbors and take them some roses from my front yard along with a bread recipe Ms. Sue had requested. We enjoyed a good long hour or hour & a half chat! They sent me home with a cucumber, tomatoes, fresh basil, 4 pumpkin –pecan muffins, and a recipe for tomato pie! J These are wonderful women next door and I’m so happy to have them as my neighbors. They are strong and independent and hardworking as well as experienced , wise, and been around here long enough to know the lay of the land.

I made up batches of deodorant and hand soap; almond bread, oatmeal bread, and basil bread, and lots of home-cooked meals. I have yet to find someone from whom to buy eggs and fresh produce and I am anxious to get our own!

It dawned on me the other day, I left my aloe root stem pot on the back porch at the NC house. L Those old, discarded roots had already sprouted four babies and they got left behind along with the potted chocolate mint, spearmint, and stevia plants I had intended to bring with us. The moving day was so crazy busy and the space on the truck was super limited, but I’m near heartbroken that those are gone. Just have to start a band new, bigger herb garden and take care of all the aloe plants I did bring with me.

Funny the things we miss!  I miss those plants and the vegetables we left growing in the garden (I hope my neighbors picked it), but I miss my friends too. Especially Katie who would drop by usually once or twice a week for a quick afternoon visit with wine or candy or Diet Coke to laugh and catch up on the zaniness of our lives. And Stephanie – I have our bocce ball game ready to go in the front yard here! Just bring some beer and funny stories and come visit!

~ Friends come & go out of lives but we keep a cherished piece of them in our hearts wherever life may take us ~