Flight of the Monarchs

There are those things you understand at a high-level.  You read something, stick it away in your memory.  A fact you can recite when you are called upon to answer a trivia question.

But to actually see and experience something you only read about - now that is different.

The wife and I were sitting on the dock last weekend.  Autumn has been very mild.  It is mid October and I am still wearing shorts and sandals.  The late morning sun feels so nice.  We see a monarch butterfly fly across the river.  Then we see another.  And then another.  In a short period of time we see at least a dozen monarchs flying across the river.  They are heading south.  I knew that monarchs migrate south - but to see them was so special.

We walk to the edge of the woods.  Monarchs are following the treeline south to the river and then cross.  We see a few get diverted flying around some pokeweed, but they then seem to remember their task and fly south across the river.

To know something is one thing.  To experience it is the real gift!

Renewal

It has been three years since we had a vegetable garden.  We were spending time between our river house and the farm house and we did not have the time to manage gardens in two places.  We have been growing herbs, but no vegetables.  Fast forward to the present.  We have decided to sell the farm house and live full time in the river house.  Life will be so much easier (though calling this blog the Barn Board will have less relevance).

I moved all the raised beds to the river house two years ago.  I filled the beds with soil over the last few weeks and have been getting  them ready for next year.

I tried a new way to create trellises for next-year's pole beans.  I just used T-posts, zip ties, metal screen fencing and some wooden cross members.  They were so easy to set up and are very sturdy.

The autumn has me 'leaf farming'.  Last year's leaves are well decomposed into a beautiful compost.  I will fill both bins over the next few weeks as the leaves fall from the trees.

The compost is dark and rich.  It is full of worms.  I'll be moving it to the new garden beds soon.

I'll be planting the garlic in a few weeks (it gets planted in the late fall).  I then have to wait for next Spring for the rest of the plants.  We are so excited to be growing fresh vegetables again!