Rocksalot Urban Farm: Fall Preparation

Fall's official arrival date is fast approaching, but winter prep has been underway for a few weeks.

Kale still stands proudly in the garden waiting to be baked or blanced and frozen.  Beans dry.  Sage, Rosemary, Lemon Thyme and Mint await their time on the drying rack.  Tomatoes processed and frozen.  Winter storm windows came down.  The furnace cranks to keep Mom warm and toasty (not an easy thing to do when medications drive you to a sweater in 100 degree weather). 

High on my list is pruning.  The back yard has "jungle" written all over it.  Taking care of Mom and Dad over the summer has put me way behind.  Now I need to catch up and fast.  The blackberry bushes, honeysuckle, and currents all require my attention.  The yard itself longs for a good, old-fashioned weedwhack.  The sheds need to be reorganized and doors replaced to diswayed unwanted varmints.

It sounds so very overwhelming, but when I'm out there, covered in dirt, smelling the sweet earth, I feel a oneness with the earth.  It's done its job all summer, but I'm tasked with keeping the soil sweet with compost and laying the straw to protect tender roots for the spring to come.

The hardest task emotionally for me has to be cleaning out the sheds.  Dad built them a number of years ago.  Painted on the walls are heraldic shields that he took hours upon hours to craft.  They, too, are a part of this land.  A part of home that says, "I was and am here."  Perhaps it is good to launch into this cleanup, not to get it over and done with, but to face my loss head-on.  To admit to myself that no matter what I did in the last few months the battle could never be won.  Never save him from passing.  That time also led up to a season of eternal rest. 

All in all I believe I'm afraid of another form of shedding...of tears that sit right at the edge that I bat back telling myself there are important things to do.  That I do not have time to weep...to mourn.  Fall brings many revelations to me.  It always happens.  Winter preparation has a deeper meaning to me this year.  Ecclesiastes had it right, it just feels that everything has happened within the same timeframe; nonetheless this verse speaks to me of Fall. 

 

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.