Inch by Inch

Inch by inch, row by row,

Oh, to make this garden grow,

All you need is a rake and a hoe

And a piece of fertile ground.

These are the words to a song that I hum a lot lately.   I wish I knew the name, or the author, but I don’t. 

That’s how I’ve been doing things at TisaWee lately.  Inch by inch, one tiny step at a time.    If I look at my “to-do” list, I’d just give up, but inch by inch I can make it.

For instance….3-1/2 acres is a LOT of ground to have to plant to something…even if it’s just grass.  It’s nearly impossible to water that much consistently.  Last year, I planted grass around the coop and in a small area between the garden and the coop.  I also planted the clover in the orchard.   That amount was manageable.   This year I planted more of the yard to grass, added a couple more trees to the orchard, and planted the wildflowers. 

I break things down even farther, though, too.  For instance, I’ve got some pretty good-sized patches of thistles.  I don’t mind some weeds….and I kinda LIKE dandelions….but thistles are another story.   I’m a barefooted-kind-of-girl….and that doesn’t bode well with thistle.   Anyway…. I have a goal of 100 thistles a day.  Every evening, I make a game of pulling 100 thistles.  And I don’t mean just tear their little heads off… I mean pull them out by the roots so they don’t come back.  I don my leather gloves and a metal weed-digging tool, and start counting.  Oh…the catch….if one breaks off and doesn’t have the root intact, I have to subtract TWO from my count (and I STILL have to dig out the root).  Some nights it takes awhile to get to 100! 

I remember when I was younger.  As the eldest of five children, my job was to get my siblings to clean their rooms.  I remember my mother saying they listened to me better than they listened to her, but I’m sure it was because I made it a game.  “OK…first person to pick up 10 articles of clothes and put them away gets 1 point!”  “OK…just clean the top of the dresser and then you get to choose the next goal for everyone….”, etc.  Never any prizes, but just being a “game” made it more fun.   Guess I never grew up because I still do it even just by myself.

Building TisaWee would be an insurmountable task for me if I didn’t break it down into bite-sized pieces.  I have learned to have LOTS of patience in the last couple years.  I’m not generally a patient-type of person when it comes to myself, but God has a sense of humor.  I thought I’d be living at TisaWee by last fall.  Ha!   Only if I wanted to live in the coop with the chickies, I guess!   

One day at a time.  First get the septic in.  Then deal with the water.  And then the electricity.  Kinda senseless to have a well without any electricity to run the pump.  Oh, yeah….that was another story!   Kinda senseless to have a well with no pump!   The first two major expenses I had with TisaWee involved big, expensive holes in the ground with nothing to show for it!   My septic tank has been in the ground for two winters now without ever being used.  I should open the lid and ….. forget it.   You get the picture. <grin>  At one point, I joked about building an outhouse right over the tank. 

Someday, inch by inch, it will get completed.  Right now it’s like a big jigsaw.  Lots of missing pieces, but you can get a general idea of the main picture by the pieces that fit together so far. 

Well, I’m sitting in my car typing at TisaWee, just watching the chickens (note to self – bring a lawn chair out here!).  I better get going and let the chickens back into the coop.  The door must have blown shut because they have all come looking for me.

And I still have 100 thistles to go yet!

Comments

[Annalise Johnnie]

It's good that you have an inspirational song out there! You can easily get the work done, without any hassle! You should always be watching your plants, anyway. You wouldn't want flood or any disaster to stress you out.

[Joe]

"Inch by Inch" is from The Garden Song by David Mallett.
A notable performance is by Makem and Clancy, I think from the early 80s, available on the Makem and Clancy Collection from Shanachie Records. It has been recorded by lots of other folks, too, including, I think, by John Denver and the Muppets. It is even the subject of a parody called the Anti-Garden Song.