{"id":14480,"date":"2017-07-03T11:50:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T18:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=14480"},"modified":"2017-07-10T09:31:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T16:31:03","slug":"welcome-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=14480","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Home."},"content":{"rendered":"

We left friends and family in charge of the place while we were gone. \u00a0I roped a friend’s teenager into house-sitting and barn chores, assigned my dad the duty of watering the tomatoes, and tricked another friend into garden care.<\/p>\n

The teenager did an exceptional job, especially considering that when I offered him the job I told him that there were automatic waterers in the barn. \u00a0Then Bruno the Great Pyr chewed up all the hoses so that when the teen actually arrived, he had to haul water by bucket every morning. \u00a0I mentioned it to the teen in a text as we were leaving town. \u00a0That seemed like the only reasonable way to handle that situation.<\/p>\n

My dad was left with watering duty because he grew up on a farm. \u00a0So I knew he understood watering the tomatoes at the base of the plants to avoid splashing the leaves with dirt and spreading blight or fungus on the leaves. \u00a0Apparently he did an awesome job of carefully watering the tomato plants on the first week. \u00a0Which triggered an immediate deluge of rain that started as soon as he finished watering and lasted the rest of our time away. \u00a0Really. \u00a0One day we got over 5 inches of rain. \u00a0Since Mother Nature was handling the watering, he and my mom were then left with dead dog duty. \u00a0Because parenting never ends, people. \u00a0You just go from taking your kids to their extracurricular activities to having to bury their dead pets while they’re on vacation. \u00a0They don’t put that in What To Expect When You’re Expecting<\/a> do they?<\/p>\n

I also managed to talk a friend into covering the mowing and pest control in the garden. \u00a0Last year I lost most of my crops to squash bugs while we were on vacation. \u00a0Anything left behind was finished off by an infestation of Japanese beetles that erupted because the grass was so high and brushy. \u00a0My friend lives in a townhome and remarks regularly about how she enjoys not having the maintenance of a yard anymore. \u00a0So I figured she was the perfect person to recruit for the job. \u00a0I assured her that all she had to do was mow once a week. \u00a0Plus pick all the vining plants off the ground and wrap them around their trellises before mowing. \u00a0And prune the tomato branches to keep them out of the paths before mowing. \u00a0And tie the pepper plants to their cages in order to mow around them, too. \u00a0You know, just mowing. \u00a0Since all she had to do was mow I also asked her to spray some organic pyrethrin on the zucchini plants while she was there. \u00a0And on the squash, of course. \u00a0Probably the gourds, too. \u00a0Maybe the eggplants and green beans for flea beetles. \u00a0On the potatoes for potato beetles. \u00a0You know, just here and there…and there…and oh yeah, there, too.<\/p>\n

It was a lot of favors to pull in.<\/p>\n

But it was worth it.<\/p>\n

The barn animals survived. \u00a0(Although I still need to fix those waterers!) \u00a0In what seems as miraculous as 3 weeks of rain in June, the new Mallard duck lived, too. \u00a0He was dropped off by a friend a few days before we left town. \u00a0Instead of mingling with the rest of the mixed flock, he hovered around the front door and quacked around our feet as we got in and out of the car in the driveway. \u00a0It can be a tough adjustment when pet ducks and chickens arrive at the farm. \u00a0This is a farm<\/em>. \u00a0If you want to eat or survive, it’s always best to follow the flock. \u00a0Hint: We are not your flock. \u00a0If he found the pond, he was good. \u00a0If he found the barn, he was good. \u00a0If he kept wandering in the front yard, not so good. \u00a0We wished him luck as we loaded up the van and rode off down the driveway. \u00a0He stood there in the gravel, watching us go.<\/p>\n

I didn’t give him good odds.<\/p>\n

But he found the pond. \u00a0In the front yard. \u00a0And even though I fenced off that pond specifically to keep ducks out of it, he looks too perfect in there to chase off.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of looking perfect….<\/p>\n

When I left, the summer garden was only in its early stages. \u00a0The transplants were mostly just leafy and squat; the flowers were spindly seedlings. \u00a0Spring crops like peas, lettuce, onions, kale, and spinach were finishing up, but zucchini and squash were the only summer crops close to harvest.<\/p>\n

Then June happened. \u00a0And when I got home I discovered the perfect amount of rain and a weekly spray of pyrethrin had produced a perfectly amazing garden.<\/p>\n

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I arrived back just in time for summer. \u00a0And summer’s harvest! \u00a0It was a wonderful welcome home. \u00a0I have a lot more work to do in the garden. \u00a0But thanks to friends and family, I’m already reaping the rewards….<\/p>\n

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Thank goodness for friends and family. \u00a0They’re perfect. \u00a0Just like these Costoluto tomatoes that are so amazing that I will never have a summer garden without them again. \u00a0The bright red, the cool curves, the delightful ridges. \u00a0Almost too perfect to eat.<\/p>\n

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Almost.<\/p>\n

Someone get me the white bread and the mayo…..<\/p>\n

(Thanks friends and family!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left friends and family in charge of the place while we were gone. \u00a0I roped a friend’s teenager into house-sitting and barn chores, assigned my dad the duty of watering the tomatoes, and tricked another friend into garden care. The teenager did an exceptional job, especially considering that when I offered him the job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14480"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14536,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14480\/revisions\/14536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}