Sunday, July 01, 2012

For a little patch of green...

 When I was a young bride and had just moved to the ranch with Hubby, my dear mother-in-law used to tell me about her own mother-in-law who didn't like to garden or grow flowers or keep a lawn.  She thought it was a waste of time, but my mother-in-law loved all these things.  She told me, "Sometimes keeping a little patch of green keeps a woman sane out here when all around is dry and brown."  She was right.  So right.  A couple of days ago the fellas rigged up the trash pump for me and set it at the stock pond by our house.  Most years, I can pump water out of the pond through my hydrant, but the water is too low this year for that set-up so the only way to get a good soak on my lawn is to use the fire hose and flood the yard. It's an all-day process that requires a lot of moving of a heavy hose, but it is so worthwhile.  That brown grass is much greener today for the effort.

 Here is the pump.  The yellow hose sucks water up out of the dam and the gray hose brings it to me.  The guys can use this pump when they go to a fire so they can fill a pumper with water directly from a stock tank or reservoir.  It works so slick, and the pump is easy enough for a woman like me to run.  One pull on the rope, and it purrs.  It's got a good Honda motor.

The pond is lower than usual.  See all those green pond weeds around it?  The water level used to be way up the sides and clear out in the distance where it is still green-ish.  Hubby says I might as well pump all the water I want out of this pond since the evaporation is taking it down daily.  We have a good stock waterer for the horses that are sometimes in this pasture so it'd be ok if the pond goes dry.  Sometimes when our stock ponds and reservoirs go dry, we hire a Euclid to come and clean the bottom and dig it down deeper so it can hold more water.

Right now my yard looks decent.  It's not a bright, healthy green, but more of a struggling, browny-green, but I'm thankful for my patch.  The garden flowers are trying to push forward, but it's so dry and the wind is so harsh that they don't have near the gumption to keep going.  Some flowers come up, but just can't bring forth much of a bud and then fizzle out.  The lilies are just now blooming and bringing much joy to their gardener.  I'm allowing anything (flower-wise) that wants to grow in the flower beds go right ahead.  I'm not being selective.  Any little bit of green or pretty blooming color is welcomed to live in my gardens this year.  I see that the gladiolas have pushed their spears up in the veggie beds.  Their blooms always look so exotic in my rustic, country garden.

This week we are expecting temperatures to stay in the 90's along with winds.  The poor fire fighters in the forests are really struggling.  Today we have an east wind and there is still a strong smoky smell in the air, but tomorrow when the wind switches to the west, it will be even stronger.  It reminds me to pray.  I hope you have a nice little patch of green around your home that you enjoy tending this summer. 


10 comments:

  1. So glad I came to visit. Love reading about your hard working days and am amazed with you, and your family! ;) Prayers for rain, and no wind....;) The majority of our firefighters in Alaska are in Colorado, and other states. We have been blessed with more rain this year.
    Enjoying the long days, and sunshine!;)

    Love,
    Debbie

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  2. G'day Gumbo Lily. It's amazing how good that little patch of green will look and how it will brighten your day. When we had the farm, I had a special patch of green that I looked after religiously, when everything else was brown and dry. It was near my cottage garden and I had a little wrought iron table and two chairs on it and hubby and I would sometimes sit there in the early evening and have a cool drink. It was just lovely. Take care. Liz...

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  3. Beyond the pond looks like the sea. This post makes me thankful for gulps from my purple water bottle that satisfy my thirst. The ground is so thirsty. I love the lilies, too. Last year I planted the glad bulbs late so they did not flower and this year they've sliced through the rocky part of my little flower bed, so I'm hoping for some exotic blooms myself!
    Your mother-in-law gave good true advice, didn't she?
    Prayers lifted for the fire fighters.

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  4. Praying for all of you going through dryness and fires! I think we've been blessed with more rain than most. Thanks for sharing your appreciation of the little things such as flowers and water pumps! You have a great outlook on life and it's an encouragement to all who visit your blog! :)

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  5. I'll pray for your part of our country and your particular patch while I'm out mowing. I hope cooler days and some moisture comes your way soon...

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  6. I was relieved to get home from vacation and see that the high temps here (106!) didn't burn the garden to a crisp. Fortunately, it looks like there's a good chance of daily storms this week, so things should stay green. We've had a few summers of drought where everything was brown by mid-July.

    xofrances

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  7. We're a brown green here too. What a summer this is shaping up to be -- and not in a good way. I hope you get some rain and cooler temps soo!

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  8. Oh I hear you on that "patch of green." I was hoping yall were having a nice wet summer sad to hear otherwise.

    I am struggling to keep my yard and flowers alive and the garden is all but gone, didn't have much of a chance with the wind and the heat was into the 100's.

    Praying for the Lord to send rain on all this dry and partched land!

    God Bless

    ~M~

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  9. I agree that little patch of green is very important. Similar thinking is what led me to start buying flowers at the grocery store :)

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  10. That is a lot of work, but sure worth it. Glad you have that pond and are able to use it like that. I wish you rain, lots of green grass and cooler temperatures.

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