Alden

Mid-afternoon on a Saturday, i was doing laundry at my friend’s homestead one town over when i heard the blue jays outside going absolutely mental. I thought maybe a cat had tried to climb a tree they had a nest in but as the minutes ticked on the ruckus continued. When i started seeing branches …

I Know Why the Old Tree Died.

I had seen the old tree in the employee parking lot of my former job and noted that it wasn’t doing very well but i didn’t think anything of why. It wasn’t my tree. I wasn’t sure what circumstances it had lived through. so i never gave much thought as to why it was struggling …

A Battle of Wills with Poison Ivy

Last year i noted that the thing growing in small clusters on the ground and in a thorough manner up one of the four oldest trees on the property was poison ivy. It was about half way up the trunk of the tree and looking very healthy. After much research i mixed up a 3 …

A Task Long Overdue

I bought a number of fruit trees, an avocado tree, and a pecan tree in the spring of 2020. It was a way for me to address my frustration with the fact that i couldnt get any food from the grocery store. I was at work when they opened the doors every morning and so …

The First Mulberries

It was dark when i picked them. I had to get them after work because if i waited until the following day the birds would have eaten them all. So i stood out there and picked them by the waning light of dusk. I needed a light but i intended to eat them straight off …

Spring Returns

Now mid-way into April the bluebonnets and indian paintbrushes began to emerge on the sides of the highways. My pear tree put out a number of beautiful waxy pink tinged leaves. My mulberry tree flowered, became pollinated, and currently sports a small crop of bumpy green berries. The agarita bushes bloomed, were polinated, and grew …

The Last of the Satsumas

I was surrounded by 3 different types of carpenter ants. They all thought my walls looked like a safe place to store their babies when it rained heavily and their tunnels flooded. it was necessary to have pesticides sprayed twice a year if i wanted to keep them from eating the place out from under …

Satsuma

I first bought the tree in the spring, right before i came down with covid. They were closing all the businesses down and they had given us a date by which all the non-essential businesses would have to shut their doors. I was working and didn’t often have the opportunity to go to the store …

An Eventful Friday

Every Friday i received an afternoon fedex delivery of a pink box full of produce, and usually a little rice. Every friday i took great pains to make sure i was home at a reasonable time to pull the box out of the blistering sun and save some of the produce. I asked my coordinator …