{"id":1734,"date":"2011-04-08T11:43:54","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T16:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=1734"},"modified":"2011-04-08T12:43:07","modified_gmt":"2011-04-08T17:43:07","slug":"field-of-dreams-and-the-tools-to-tend-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2011\/04\/field-of-dreams-and-the-tools-to-tend-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Field of Dreams–And the Tools to Tend It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The landscape of the yard is surreal right now. We spent the week building the vegetable garden (and a few other things\u2014including a rabbit hutch and bluebird nesting boxes), and tools and equipment lie everywhere. Despite the disarray\u2014every day we tidy one area and mess up another\u2014it doesn\u2019t feel so much chaotic to me as comforting.<\/p>\n

I am captivated by the well-worn handles and the crusted tines of old rakes and hoes and shovels. I\u2019m fascinated with the patterns and textures that rocks and bricks and twisted chicken wire make against the crumbly earth and the cloud- and cedar-studded horizon. When I look around at all this, I associate the tactile pleasures of working with my hands with all the other sensory stimuli of being outside\u2014the warm sun on my face, the blustery breeze tangling my hair, the pleasant tug of my straining muscles. I\u2019m calmed by the rhythm and ritual of it all. And everything seems so much easier this year. Digging the paths, mounding the raised beds, marking the troughs for planting lettuce and radish seeds\u2014the working sequence comes back to me effortlessly.<\/p>\n

And there have been far fewer trips to the garden stores this year. Much less new, much more old. Recycled hinges and latches; an old door for the garden gate. Between what we cobbled together for last year\u2019s garden and the leavings of this old farm, we have most of what we need. (And more. We inherited a lot of stuff you might imagine would be strewn about an old farm\u2014things like rusty harrows and old window frames. It\u2019s just too bad that all that remains of a once magnificent barn on the property is the stone foundation.)<\/p>\n

Most arresting for me when I look around is the realization of time passing\u2014my own personal time. I look at the odd collection of beat-up garden gloves I\u2019ve amassed\u2014and at the peeling sole of my favorite work boots. In one moment, I can\u2019t believe those boots are already giving out on me; and in the next moment, I realize I bought them four springs ago, when I first stumbled on to the Vineyard\u2014a time when I wasn\u2019t even conscious of the healing power of dirt and lettuce seedlings and baby goats. Huh. Life is funny. I\u2019m still hoping this isn\u2019t all just a mirage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The landscape of the yard is surreal right now. We spent the week building the vegetable garden (and a few other things\u2014including a rabbit hutch and bluebird nesting boxes), and tools and equipment lie everywhere. Despite the disarray\u2014every day we tidy one area and mess up another\u2014it doesn\u2019t feel so much chaotic to me as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1734"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}