You make me feel like a natural women???

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Only I don't think this is what Aretha had in mind.....The other day Dave and I go in to town to run some errands. It was a beautiful day and I mention to him about getting a pickup load of dirt and compost mix for the new herb beds I'm building. (We don't have any good soil on this hilltop). So we drive to the place to buy it. This place has piles of mulch, stone, compost and dirt. Heavenly, my kind of place to shop. They loaded it in the truck and away we merrily went. While driving home I'm as happy as if I just won the lottery. We get a few miles and the truck starts making a really strange noise. uh-oh. Here we are driving through town with the truck screaching like a stuck pig and Dave looking at me like my compost is the cause of his truck acting up. oops. We're limping toward home, he's thinking it's the clutch, me..I just want to make it up the hill and fill my beds up! Hey, what's more important. We make it up the hill and back up to the beds. While unloading, he's shoveling and I'm raking, I (accidently he swears) get a shovel load of the compost mix tossed in my direction which ends up all over me. It's not bad enough I'm standing in this stuff where I can't even see my boots, but now I'm wearing it. hummmmm, he's got to get over that clutch thing, I'm thinking. We get the job done and he parks the crippled truck. Puts an end to getting another load, so I happily tell him we can rake up the beds in the garden. uh-huh. He's thinking, she's ruined my truck and if that wasn't good enough, she's going to kill me with manual labor. We finally get that job done then he tells me he's calling the neighbor to come look at the truck and get his opinion on what could be wrong. While waiting on the neighbor, we take a look at the truck and I end up getting oil all over my hands and coat. Now, not only do I have compost and dirt on me, but oil to make it stick better. Is that a smile I see on his face? We're sitting on the front steps waiting for the neighbor and up the driveway he comes...with his wife. She's definately not the outdoorsy type. She gets out of their vehicle with every hair in place, manicured fingernails and not a speck of compost or oil on her. After chatting for awhile (and I'm looking real lovely with nowhere to hide) we find out it's just a loose belt, and they go on home. Dave and I are sitting on the steps till almost dark and I'm dreaming of how beautiful the garden will look this summer. ahhhh.... I'll have a long cotton dress on, a wide brim sun hat, a basket under my arm to put all the fresh produce I gather while I'm merrily strolling the grounds. Yea right.... Reality ....bugs, virus on the tomato leaves, scorching heat and I'll be covered with dirt. I pat Dave on the knee, tell him we need to gather up the garden tools and assure him his truck will be alright. When I stand up, I notice all the daffodils blooming and will surely die from the cold front coming in if I don't pick them. I'm not in a cotton dress or sun hat but that doesn't make the daffodils any less beautiful while I gather them up. I proceed to the house to put them on my counter to make me think of Spring when winter is still blowing outside. The true joy of gardening.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 02, 2002

Answers

Hey, am I on candid camera? Sounds like you've been video taping my life. LOL.... :)

-- Kristean Thompson in indiana (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

Annie, I bet you don't subscribe to Organic Style, do you??

(Hee-hee - ducking and running for cover!)

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), March 03, 2002.


Hey Polly, I think Organic Style would have a fit if they knew how organic some of us gals were!!! hee hee I'd be a sight on the cover. One of very few times I put on some perfume, it was even Channel No.5, we're driving in his truck and he gets a funny, crinkly look on his face and says "Whats that smell? Last time I wore it. I think I've ruined his olfactory senses with manure or else he's gettin to like this natural look of mine! :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 03, 2002.

Hey! Now there's an idea! Maybe we could come up with a cologne, say ummmm...Eau de Chickens***; take out an ad in Organic Style and make us a bundle! Whatta ya think?!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), March 03, 2002.

You sound like me! Last spring, I was so happy about my new orchard-- finially getting things started and my kids(all three are living away from home and not so sure that I haven't gone off the deep end!) decided that they would come home and help me haul and put compost around my fruit trees. We started at around 8:00 am, hot and windy! We worked pulling weeds, putting compost out ,painting birdhouses! I was as dirty as any piggy ever was! At 5:00pm I was sitting on the porch, taking off my boots. Up the drive comes a beautiful black car which we had never seen. Out steps--some of our oldest friends who we haven't seen in 6 years!!! She has on the newest fashion, nails done, hair perfect, with the cutest little pair of sandels! He looks like a picture out of GQ! Boy, did we have a goood laugh! Don't you hate all these books that show these beautifully dress gardeners!!! Get dirty- get real!!"Just do it"

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), March 03, 2002.


Yup, Annie..........gotta love your style. LOL.......you are just missing a smear of goat snot on your jeans dearie and you would look like me!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

Alright I'm feeling left out. First of all there is no hope of daffodils blooming unless I buy them to help cancer patients (which I usually do). Next what is Organic Style? Did Organic Gardening change it's name? As far as the scent, how about o'd goat? Nothing like the scent of a good buck in rut. Horse isn't bad either come to think of it.

I had fun dreaming with you Annie, yours is closer to reality than mine.

Susan

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), March 03, 2002.


Eau de Chickens, Eau de Buckrut mmmm...we gals might have something here. Still working on the ideas for the snot, Diane. Face cream? hee hee They'd never know.......Debbie, I am one of those kind of people that if I go outside, dirt just jumps on me. I'm a magnet for it, but I can't figure out any other way to truly bond with the soil without looking like I've wallowed in it all day! Yep, watch out and suspect clean gardeners especially with manicured hands!

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 03, 2002.

And I almost forgot.....17 DAYS TILL OFFICIALLY SPRING!!!!!! YEAH (Susan hold on, Spring's a comin with the daffodils). :)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 03, 2002.

Oh my, Susan - you mean you missed the whole Organic Style debacle?! Oh my...

Maria Rodale decided to launch a new magazine, called Organic Style. Slick. Ads for expensive stuff. About as far from down home as you can get. They sold ads by promising the advertisers a huge audience. What they didn't mention is that they were going to use a form of slamming to get that audience (readers). They - using highly discriminatory criteria - switched thousands of Organic Gardening subscribers over to Organic Style - without their knowledge or consent. Big, big mistake. Lots and lots of unhappy subscribers, including me. Oh my....

-- Polly >^..^< (tigger@moultrie.com), March 03, 2002.



Why can't more ladies in Alabama be like ya'll. My kingdom (well up to half a homeplace )for a woman that appriciates worms, compost and Alabama gardening in the summer :>)Most that I see around here now just want to look like those magazine models with the bun hairdos and sparkly tops.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 09, 2002.

I understand how you all feel !! Me Too !!! I'm happiest when I'm digging in the garden and shoveling the new compost around. But I won't tell you what my "home business" is...you wouldn't believe me...and I'm a homesteader too...hard for people to believe. Guess it takes all times to be a homesteader !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), March 09, 2002.

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