Our 2015 Garden-Part 1

“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating.”   --Wendell Berry, The Art of Commonplace Essays

“One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.” --Wendell Berry

       If you have been a follower of this blog for any length of time, you probably know that we find great pleasure in trying to grow a garden, working at growing our own food, and have tried our hand in several different ways at trying to do so. We have been very successful at times and other times, if we would have had to survive on the food we grew, we would have starved to death. Literally. We have attempted to grow food items in pots of a variety of sizes with some success and we've attempted to grow things in raised beds and we've mostly had great successes. I was always and am actually still so surprised by the amount of food one can grow in a raised bed in the smallest of yards. I often think that some people don't try to grow food for themselves because they think their location is a huge limiting factor, but that couldn't be any farther from the truth. We grew almost a year of certain food items for our little family in a little 4x8 raised bed. And in a small 4x4 bed, we grew enough herbs for over a year. I think that's amazing. 

Our garden spot before any harrowing was done. 

    And if you've been following this blog, you've probably seen more Wendell Berry than you've wanted to see.  And I feel like I've used the above quotes before, but they are too good not to use and reuse. We really love Wendell Berry. Between the both of us, we've read many of Berry's essays, poems, and novels. I'd easily say that in my highly under-read opinion, he is one of the greatest and most important writers of the last fifty or so years. And between Mr. Berry and John Seymour, of England, I am very tempted to unplugged from much of modern society and attempt to become as self-sufficient as we can be here at Otter Creek Farm, but don't worry, we're not there yet. We'll settle for a small garden spot, a few cows, and several chickens for now. 

The harrow plow doing it's thing. The soil turned out to be much darker and healthier than we'd anticipated, so we're all pretty excited to see what it can grow. 

    One of the many benefits from our move to South Georgia was it would provide us with the chance to try our little hands at farming. We have loved our little escapades into urban farming with our four chickens, may they rest in peace, and our raised bed garden spot that grew a little larger each year. Last year, we didn't have much of a chance or desire to grow much of anything. We were in survival mode and the fact that we're all still living, Ford is about to turn three, Mel and I are still married and loving each other, and we are all talking, existing, laughing, and moving forward is the very picture of God's goodness,  great mercy,  abundant faithfulness, and grace towards and for us. BUT…we are far from that point and we are itching to get our hands dirty and we are already talking about how good our meals are going to be this summer when whatever we plant comes in. 

The finished spot. We still need to go through it one more complete time and then it'll be ready for planting. 

   So, about a week and a half ago, when Mel's dad offered to bring his Case tractor over and help us plow up this year's garden spot, we jumped at the chance. We were planning on starting off small, but after the final run was made with the tractor and plow, our "small" garden spot turned out to be big enough to grow food for several families. He came over and FH and I jumped on and we all made the initial several rows with the tractor, but then after about twenty minutes, he and FH got off and he turned it over to me. I will only say, he made driving and plowing or harrowing up the ground look very, very easy and it is far from that. I had the poor tractor up on two wheels several times and had smoke coming from the exhaust a few times, and did not do that great of an overall job, but I am learning. Slowly. Just remember and know that when you drive by a guy/girl on a tractor and they look like they have it all under control, that you're looking at a highly skilled person in complete control of their work. If you could ever see me drive, then you'd see the opposite. 

There is something inherently peaceful and beautiful about driving a tractor and plowing through a piece of land. The dirt smells so good and when you plow up the dirt, you can see all the colors of the dirt and how they contrast with the grass or weeds that once grew above it. I know that sounds odd, but it is true. 

   We have yet to plant anything and actually we still need to run through the garden one more complete time with the harrow plow to sift through the soil. We are waiting till the ground dries out a little more, but we'll probably do that within the next several days. And then we'll start planting the items we've agreed upon. I know we're going to plant tomatoes, green peppers, squash, zucchini, several types of flowers, onions, potatoes, and maybe some corn. We also have a lot of herbs in mind, but we may need to plant them elsewhere because most herbs need a spot where they get some sun rather than full sun, but we'll see. We have the room for probably 20+ rows of different things. I had originally thought we'd have a 50x50 garden, but what we plowed under is more like a 200x100 foot spot. I'm not sure how much we'll plant or if we'll actually use the whole space, but we'll see. A garden, no matter how small, is a lot of work. It requires you to do something each day and a garden this size is going to be a lot of work. It'll be worth it, but I also don't want it to get out of hand. And I don't want to waste anything that we'll have planted.

     

It turned into something much larger than I'd originally planned, but I believe it is going make a very fine garden spot. 

    I'll close for now and we'll keep you updated on our garden. We have a lot plans for our life here at Otter Creek Farm. We love knowing where our food comes from and we love the whole farm to table movement that is slowly becoming quite known. Before we left Macon and before we decided to move to Fitzgerald, we almost accepted a position to help start a farm that would supply several summer camps with fresh food in Northern Alabama, but felt God wanted us here and we hope to take full advantage of this place and our time here. We have little Pecos the Bull and we may soon sell him in order to get a cow to start breeding. We also have a large chicken tractor in the works, mental for now, for us to start a pastured poultry business in the future. And now we have this garden going. It all takes time and it all takes a lot of work and money, but it is well worth it. You always get more from it than you put into it. Or at least that's what it seems like to me. 

Happy reading, farming, tractor driving, and hopefully good eating, 

DAVID

PS: Let us know if you want to get in on this garden. We could grow you something and then sell it to you later! 

A Few Thoughts for A Monday

 

Book I

 

        Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher? and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him: for they that seek shall find Him, and they that find shall praise Him. I will seek Thee, Lord, by calling on Thee; and will call on Thee, believing in Thee; for to us hast Thou been preached. My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.

 

 

 

    At our new church, New Life Presbyterian Church, during the Sunday School hour, we are studying an overview of Church History. I will confess that on our first real visit to Sunday School, I sat there in prideful disdain wishing the topic be anything other than that and was thinking I didn't really need to listen because I had graduated from Mercer and had sat through my fill of Biblical and Church related history classes and had done well in them. I feel bad about this. I will only say, I am not a good person; even at my very best. But the more times that we've gone and the more I've listened, the more I'm so very thankful that I am there. And I think I've come full circle into the realization of why history as a subject is so important. In every age. In every time. In every subject. For all people. It is only a fool to be involved in anything and not be fully interested in the history of whatever it may be. And the level of importance of the event, club, movement, etc, then the level and need to know it's history should also increase.

 

    In 2015, it may be widespread where you see so many who want to cast off the burden of history and walk free from it, but that couldn't be anymore foolish. As it is known and quoted often, to the fools who refuse to learn and acknowledge history, their punishment is to repeat it again, or worse, have to live through it again. I know so many people who hated their history classes and I know why and get that. Most history classes focus on dates and people, which are important, but miss the opportunity to teach movements, patterns, and thoughts. And this last part is so very important for one major reason, humans from Adam and Eve till now have and will not change and it is so very interesting and vitally important to study the men and women that came before us. Each generation becomes absorbed within itself and the time it lives within and so quickly forgets what came before them and becomes historically egotistical. We all become this. It is all too easy to be. It is easy to look around and say that no time has ever been so progressive, free, burdened, evil, loathsome, critical, etc. and forget that as time moves forward, all times within history have been exactly the same because the main element within human history, humans, have remain unchanged. No, we don't speak exactly the same, or look exactly the same, or for that matter do anything exactly the same, but we are humans and humans have basically remained the same. All I'm really saying is that the thoughts you have today, were had by someone of the same status hundreds of years ago. Yes, that is weird and no, they weren't exactly the same, but they were at their very core the same. I'm in no way making light of those thoughts. They have been thought too many times to think that way about them. They are the very thoughts of humanity. It should be what binds us so wholly and closely together, rather than divide us.

 

   And that is the very importance of history whether you hear it spoken of hundreds of times or for the first time. History is what binds us. The greatest thing that confronts us in this modern age, in my smallest and unimportant opinion, is not weather changes, drought, loss of freedom, governments, economics, extremism, or anything of the sort, but rather it is this ever increasing need for individuality in the face of all circumstances. It is an impossible task and one that is nothing short of a true fools errand. In the heat of battle, there are no individuals. In the middle of the greatest of joys, there are no true individuals. In the greatest of defeats, there are no true and bold individuals. And in the greatest victories, there are no courageous individuals. There are only humans left standing there and either winning or losing, or laughing, or crying. There is only the community. There has always been community and there will always be community.

 

    I know this is starting to sound like a, "one people, one world", post, and that is not the point. The only point is we all need our histories and people's histories are no different than anything else. There are those moments when we rise so very high and become the greatest visions of that part of Creation that was formed within the image of God and then there are the moments where we too would have lost the right to exist within the Garden and become the vilest of human beings. And this is why we must listen and study the history of who we are and what we are involved in. We are slowly, but ever so rapidly becoming what we will be remembered for. And that is true for us as individuals and for us part of larger wholes. And just because we decide we are not part of a certain part of history does not mean that, that is actually true and it is also true that all people are forming history. We cannot exist without it, be removed from it, or act separate from it. There are all those who came before and what they did, they said, how they acted, or didn't act, what they wrote, what they struggled with, what they used their power to do, it all means something and it all effects us in all we do. We are all shapes of what has come before us.

 

   We must not forget what has come before us or we forget who we are. We must not look at those in the past and wonder why and how did they struggle so. We must not look at them in our present lenses of life and history and say how wrong and blind they were. All of those things will be thought about us by those who are coming. We are currently shaping who they will be. That terrifies me.

 

    We must not also join the hordes within the current Church who look back at all the tragedies, fights, schisms, crusades, racism, sexism, etc. and question why and how could they have been so and attempt so hard to distance themselves from the past and try to pretend like they can exist alone in the here and now while all they claim to believe and support came about at the hands of men and women who struggled and fought and disbelieved and had faith in the process of what it takes to make a movement. And these are the same things we are struggling through and amongst. Ask yourself if you'd be willing to believe something or put faith into something that wasn't a struggle. If you were wise, you'd quickly say you wouldn't be interested. This is our history. And a lot of it is ugly, but it is all so very important. There has always been this giant and monumental struggle to attempt to shape an earthly version of God's Kingdom on earth. It has been done wisely at times and it has been done with the most sinful of ambition and motive. We cannot and should not separate those items. There are very valuable lessons to be learned from both and neither side is perfect. There is only one true Kingdom and it is here and it is coming. We the ones who wander and attempt to live in the already and not yet. And we are not alone in this. This has been all humanity that has been and is yet to come.

 

     Augustine of Hippo wrote, The Confessions, sometime between 397 and 400 AD. They were applicable then. They were applicable a thousand years later. And now 1617 years later, they are still a wealth of wisdom that we so badly yearn to hear today because we have not changed. All truth is still God's truth and it is still so very hard to contemplate and think about higher thoughts and it is a struggle to contemplate truth, beauty, goodness, love, etc. within the realm of the constantly changing definitions of a modern world. It was hard for Augustine. It was hard for Luther. It was hard for Spurgeon. It is hard for us. It will be hard for all those who come after us. They shaped us and we are shaping them. May we struggle to do it wisely and carefully.

 

DAVID

        

My Night with the Ben Hill Hash House Harriers



          This past Monday night, FH and I headed out to meet up with a group of folks who call themselves the Ben Hill Hash House Harriers. They are a running group, but not the type you'd ever find training around an oval track, running repeats of any sort, comparing race times, talking running shoes, bragging about training techniques, discussing the Daniel's Formula, or ever even using the dirty "r" word: race. "Hashing" as it is called is not about racing, it is about chasing. Hashing, or at least the game it was modeled after, is a very, very old pastime; older in fact, than the very country we live in. Hashing was derived from the game, "Fox and Hounds" or "Hares and Hounds", that was played in England, Ireland, and Scotland as early as the early 1700's. Those games became somewhat official in the early 1800's and hashing was officially founded by an Englishman in 1937 who was stationed in Malaysia.

The Ben Hill Hash House Harriers gather, sip, and gab before the hash. 

      If you have never had the privilege of playing chase, I'll say sorry first and then I'll give you a quick primer. One person takes off and everyone attempts to catch that person. In the case of "fox and hounds" or "hares and hounds", one person plays the role of the fox or the hare and takes off marking their trail in some noticeable fashion, with paper, flour, leaves, paint, etc. and in due time, the "hounds", the other people, give chase and attempt to find the trail and then in the end attempt to catch the fox or hare. Hashing follows the same basic format. And in most places the trail is marked by flour. And each mark is left behind with a certain purpose to tell the pursuers something specific about the direction in which they are going or should be going. Here is an example of a few known marks:

     In the case of marking the trail, the fox or hare will attempt to lead the pursuers in a totally wrong direction and hoping they lose their way or "lose the scent". And if you've ever watched an animal, except a raccoon, or actually hunted an animal, they do not choose a linear path or one that is easy to follow, it is a trail that goes in, around, over, through, and under anything and everything. It is a path or trail of pure fleeing. And that is the type of path or trail that is marked by the proverbial fox or hare.

The first mark at the beginning of the hashing trail.

    Hashing isn't exactly the same as the old game of fox and hare, but it is very close. Hashing is a mixture of running and socializing; much more socializing than running and it is never a race. And training for the hash is greatly looked down upon. Hashers meet weekly or biweekly and run a course that may vary in length, but usually ranges from about three miles to some over five or six. There are thousands of hashing groups around the country and around the world. Each hashing group that affiliates themselves with the "hash house" title attempts to affiliate themselves with the original hashers who were far away from home and tried to find community and oneness in around a national pastime. The "house" part refers to an old English tavern frequented by expatriates, where they would meet up in Malaysia and the "hash" part refers to the food served at the tavern. I think this part is really neat, but I'm a sucker for traditions like that. The modern hashers that continue to meet, run, and socialize today are really only doing what the original hashers did almost a hundred years ago.

A flour mark showing us we're on the right trail.

     But...I will be quick to add that hashing is not for the faint of heart, or the closest Baptist in the room, or your favorite Prohibitionist. It is a social running club like no other. One of the tag lines I have seen used to describe hashing is that they are a drinking club with a running problem. The closest thing I can compare it to is maybe if a whole bar went running one night and brought the alcohol, the music, and the craziness with them. And if the drinking doesn't offend you, then the route of the hash will make you double-think about why you are there. The hasher that is chosen to mark the trail usually chooses the hardest, muddiest, wettest, thickest, oddest trail they are able to mark. They will bypass many easy and accessible ways in order to make those who are chasing them crawl under trees, through briars, through creeks, over fallen trees, across rivers, over rock ledges, etc. The only let up from the chase is that for all the hard chasing, there will be a beer stop about every mile or so. And at the end of the trail, there will always be a party of sorts to enjoy.

FH riding shotgun on the craziest jog we have ever gone on. 

   And all this brings me to last Monday night, but as should be expected, it goes back further than that for me. When we moved to Fitzgerald in June, I was driving my car through town one night as it was getting dark and came up an odd group of adults running through people's yards and one guy was carrying a flag and I rolled my windows down and tried to follow them for a bit and see what they were up to and they were yelling and whistling to one another and seemingly trying to follow something I just couldn't see. I should have looked down instead of around. I probably would have seen a small patch of flour nearby. I went back home after the group disappeared into a dense section of woods and asked my inlaws about the group and they tried to tell me a little about the group, but made it sound like Mowgli from the Jungle Book had started a little running club and I guess that really isn't that far-fetched. I kept asking around and eventually stumbled upon the name of the club and after some internet searching came upon the Ben Hill Hash House Harriers; who were founded in 1985 and have been dedicated to hashing since then. And later that summer, while on a bike ride with FH and some students, came upon the group assembled in full fashion getting ready to head out and chase the trail.

This is the point in the hash when FH and I moved into second place and were heavily into the chase!

    I really wanted to join them someday, but between school, XC, and just life in general, I never found the time and then this past Monday, that changed. FH and I had a free night and Mel had a few things that she had to have finished before the next day, so we loaded up the jogging stroller and headed to the meeting place. Every two weeks, the Ben Hill Hash House Harriers meet downtown Fitzgerald behind the Modern Appliance building at 6:30 pm and then head out together to the head of where the trail has been marked. FH and I got there on time, but had to wait around till around 6:50 before a soul showed up. A few cars showed up and then had us get back in our car and follow them to a place called, "The Brewery". It was actually more a shed where some beer was brewed a long time ago by a bored bachelor, but rumor has it that they are going to get brewing there again soon. The crew had already assembled behind The Brewery and were talking of past events and money was collected for the beer that was to be shared. And with the talking and catching up also came the first of many beers. I found this to be very funny and very odd. I have been running for almost twenty years and I can honestly say that save milk, beer, may be the beverage I hope to never have to drink and then be made to run. But beer is almost a central character to a proper hash experience.

Short cuts and more advantageous paths are not frond upon during a hash. If you are behind and see where the leaders are running, nothing says you can't cut a lot of corners and head them off. Trying to be first doesn't benefit one during a hash much. We learned this the hard way! FH and I were first several times only to be dropped by those behind us. 

     After the leader, known and referred to as, The Grand Marshall or GM, decided all had arrived that were coming and the last of the initial beers have been polished off, the GM sounded off a whistle that he carried around his neck and the group assembled in the front of The Brewery and the first point on the trail was arrived at and they all yelled, "On Hunt" and the chase was on. FH dove into his stroller and we just tried to keep up. The trail went up one street, crossed a busy highway, went down a muddy alley, through a field and into a parking lot, through a church lawn, through a high school practice field, over a creek, through a little league field, behind the town's radio station, down the side of another busy highway, through another church yard, through another field, but this one was very muddy, over and through another creek, and through some of the thickest brush I have ever run through, over three fallen trees, down a muddy dirt road, and right to a barn known by the group as, "Mr. Bill's Golf Cart Barn", and then we stopped, whistles were blown, and odd things were yelled by the GM to those hashers who had taken the false trail. I was sweaty, dirty, wet, and out of breath. Pushing a stroller through all of that was crazy! And FH looked at me like what had we really gotten into, but the barn we stopped at was more of a golf cart graveyard than anything else, so he got out of the stroller and took a look around. While we sipped some water and looked around, the rest the hashers made it to the BN, or the beer near spot, and more beers were had and more stories were told. One of the men there was telling some great stories about him getting older and then they all kept laughing about one guy who wasn't allowed to come for awhile because his wife had laid down the law because he had really overdone it at a previous hash. FH and I listened in as we climbed on an old trailer and drank our water.

Follow the leader; especially if he is called the Grand Master and also serves as a standard bearer for local Civil War reenactments. 

Calling in all who had gone the wrong way on a false trail. 

    After about 10-15 minutes, the whistle was blown by the GM and again the chant of, "on hunt" was shouted" and we were off. The trail followed a muddy dirt road, and then through several people's yards, and down the side of another busy road, through the parking garage of a nursing home, and after about a little over a mile, another BN marking was spotted and the group stopped for yet another round of beers and conversation. FH and I joined the conversation, but we also walked around the place we had stopped checking out a few things and then we finished our water while we climbed on yet another golf cart. We had run almost 2.5 miles at this time of the chase. And at this point you maybe thinking that only old "frat" guys who haven't grown up yet partake in this type of stuff, but you'd be very wrong. Within the BHHHH group and most all hashing groups a wide age range can be seen as well as both sexes. And this also goes for the socioeconomic status of the hashers as well. This night there were two women, pregnant no less, and guys ranging from their 20's to their 70's.

The beer, laughter, and stories were flowing at the first BN spot. 

    After about the same duration of time, the same whistle was blown, but this time, the chant of, "On In" was shouted and signaled. "On In", means that the hashers are to make their way back to the beginning of the trail by whichever path they'd like to follow. FH and I cut through several yards of people we know and made it back to The Brewery first. I'm sure that attitude would be looked upon. I loaded the stroller up and we went inside The Brewery for a time, but all that was left of the hash was the party aspect and FH and I headed home to eat dinner with Mel. I am pretty sure that was for the best.

Our leader leading us well. It is about the chase, not the race. 

    I am not really sure how I feel about my whole experience. I'll definitely go again. I'm not sure I'll bring FH, but I probably will. I will say it was fun. And it was very different. And it was also oddly refreshing to join up with a group of people to run, but have the focus be on other things. It was as if the almost four miles we ran was a distant side product of the night. I don't love the drinking aspect, but don't find any harm in it for now. I am not a beer or drinking kind of guy, but I'm also not offended by those who are. Some people are beer people and I happen to be an ice cream guy.

The infamous, BN, mark signaling that the beer is near. 

    I don't know if I'll ever really get into the whole hashing scene, but I definitely liked the whole chasing and following the trail aspect. I also loved how the trail wasn't linear or fixed. I liked the running through water, over trees, through backyards, and through the woods. It reminded me of how kids run through the woods. It also reminded me of the old type XC races that used to be put on. XC is quickly becoming a sport where the courses are becoming more and more manicured and less challenging so the times can be faster. I'm not a fan of that. I'd much rather watch a kid run a 25 minute three mile race knowing he or she had to jump trees, cross through water, and run a quarter mile in knee deep mud and was still able to keep up an eight minute mile rather than watch a kid trot a 14:50 5K on a gravel path with no real hills or obstacles. The latter is a little boring. It's why they have a whole sport called track. And it's also why no except those who have to be there comes to a track meet.

Time to take it to the house!

     I plan on being back behind the Modern Appliance building at 6:30 or so in two weeks and I'm looking forward to it. Don't worry, I won't write another post about it. That is unless something amazing happens. Well, I believe it is time to chant, "On In", and take this post back to the house.

Happy running, hashing, and reading,

DAVID