Happy May everyone from Lori and Crew at HEP in hot as Hades; McDowell County, West Virginia! The days may be getting longer but there is still not enough hours in them.
A typical day for us has become as follows: Get to the office, catch the pig and any chickens that he let out. Feed and water the animals, catch the pig and what ever else he lets out. Check for eggs, check the greenhouse and water as needed. Water the raised beds, catch the pig. Notice a goat is out, catch her too. Send the crew to finish up the plowing that hasn’t been done yet, see the pig loose and wait til the guys come back to catch him. Plant some plants and seeds, run the dog out of the sunflowers, watch the dog run around with the pig. Do a little office stuff, maybe answer a phone call or two. Once the guys get back from plowing, watch them put the pig up, feed and water the animals. Think about going home, find more things that need to be done and do them. Update the honey-do-list. Make sure the pig is still secure, finally get home. Spend half the night answering work related texts, emails and Facebook messages, check the cameras at the office through wifi, see the pig running loose. Plan for bacon and eggs in the morning!
We got all of our participants plots plowed for them and will see if we need to do any for the next wave. One of our participants had to redo her whole potato patch thanks to her neighbors pig rooting them up. I told her to eat the pig, and she said she would if it wasn’t for the fact that the neighbors put up with her 9 kids. She feels it’s a fair trade. I feel that pig is a meal for at least 11.
The photo above is of David, one of our crew, and a participants son. He is one of the younger brothers to the boy that nearly drowned last month. Thankfully David didn’t have a typical day for him and break something, like the fence or house or child. He’s a great worker, but he’s an accident waiting to happen.
Our plow is doing a weird thing with the gas, it turns it black. We called Earth Tools to see what it could be since there is no oil in the gas and it still runs like it’s supposed to. He said he has never heard of a new plow or an old one doing that so he wanted a picture of the gas, which I will be sharing with you all. If you have any ideas on what may have caused that, please let us know.
That’s not root beer, y’all.
We have gotten our bees and hives ordered, the hive kits will be here in the next few days and the bees by the end of the month. The participants raising them already have a list of people wanting to buy the honey!
We may have had beautiful weather outside for the past little while, but we had a flood inside the center yesterday. One participant came to the center to plant his potatoes and corn because his home garden is too small. Once he got them in the ground, he had me turn on the spigot at the back of the building that runs to the top of the hill. Next thing I knew, I was walking in Lake Premier. Not just in one room, but in five. The same spigot had to be replaced last year because it broke inside the wall. Apparently it froze over the winter and ruptured again. I don’t care how much you try, you can not soak up water with a wet mop. Thankfully we had a bunch of clothes that were going to be thrown away as they aren’t fit for donations. We threw them down to soak it up, and for the time being the center looks like a rummage sale gone horribly wrong.
I don’t think there is another group of people that have more fun than us at our jobs!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mother’s! Mother’s of human children, or animal children, or hey plant children as far as that goes, and to the daddies that have to be mothers too.
Happy Growing!
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