Snow... and hopes of spring

It's late March, we've welcomed daylight savings time, and Easter is just around the bend. It's almost spring and a time of hopeful rebirth. We got a huge snowfall the weekend of March 8-9. It's the first time in 50+ years that they cancelled the worship service at our church due to inclement weather. Just look at the deck behind our house! It was a good weekend to stay home.

Most of this has since melted and we just received our spring seeds and plants for our garden expansion project. Last night I potted up the new raspberry plants, cherry bushes, grape vines, pear tree and plum tree. We'll keep them wet and hopefully they'll stir to life and become well established in our expanded garden... just as soon as we expand it. Next on the to do list is starting seeds indoors.


To us, growing more of our own food is another step along the path to being more intentionally simple. Some of you might wonder, "Isn't it a lot more work to plant your own seeds and plants, build fences and gates, and have to water and mulch and weed?" While it may require some additional work, it is work that puts us in touch with our past and our planet. We think it's intentionally simple because historically people have grown their own food. Simple because it puts us in touch with the natural rhythm of the seasons. Simple because it will be chemical free. Simple because we put it there and we will pick it and eat it. And by relying on ourselves more and multi-national corporations and agri-business less, we look forward to getting cheaper, fresher, and more healthy fruits and veggies compared to having them trucked in from other states or countries, which also uses a lot of gasoline. We'll still buy a lot from our area grocery stores, but each little step helps.