saturday…

so on Thursday… i was wishing for more jersey knit for my waistline.  Friday I discovered new muscle groups and then there was Saturday.

the plan:  My mom was coming over to help me with the Kids and the compost.  We were to drive to my Brother-in-Law’s house to commandeer his Old Chevy truck, drive it to Singh Farms and fill it with a ton (no seriously, a TON) of amazing, your garden can not live without it, compost.  Then we were going to slowly and very carefully drive the poor truck to my house and then unload it one wheel barrel at a time into the garden.

7:40 am – My mom arrived.  She was there to assist me with compost procurement.

8:25 am – I wake my Brother-in-Law to warn him that we are on our way to steal his truck…

8:30 am – We arrive to steal the truck.  After a quick once over of the little “quirks” the truck has, we are off.  Stop for gas and we are on our way.

9:00 am – We pull into Singh Farms.  I follow the sign to the compost pile.  The grounds of the farm are amazing!  Plenty of trees, and greenery, a wonderful little house and the soil… I feel the squishyness in the truck…  And I don’t mean squishy like the place it over watered… it is the feeling of an earth that has life.  Where things grow because they have something to grow in.  I am even more excited to be bringing home some of this rich earth for my own 729 sq feet.

9:15 am – I request a fill up with a smile… And the tractor begins to dump.  The compost smelled rich and magical.  And it was hot.  I knew this was the stuff…

9:30 am – My mom asks if I should rethink this.  I pay the man in charge ( he smiles and asks if I’m going to make it home.. “I hope so..” )

9:45 am – We pull around to the parking area for the Market and get out to explore.

(note:  By now I had so many people tell me I was crazy to load this truck up with 1000 pounds, no really, of compost that I was starting to have some anxiety.  For me, this and two wild and crazy kids made for a little bit of a distracted visit.  So I pledge to go back to Singh Farms, a few weeks from now, when I don’t have a little less than a Ton in the back of a truck with the thought of what do I do if it doesn’t start hanging over my head)

So, into the market we went… Which was really just a lovely walk through the gardens that make up the Farm.  There is a little “log cabin” where you can purchase vegetables, fresh bread and even maple syrup in recycled Coke bottles.  There was a chef cookin’ up goodies and other homemade goodness… (Next time I will take more market pictures…)

But what blew me away was the gardens… remember the squishy soil… now it was under my feet.  I wanted to kneel down and hug this earth.  Trees and garden rows… time and love live here.  This is what I strive for…

10:30 am – Peas were one of the things that I know have been backordered on my seed order ( which I was totally bummed about) so when I found transplants for sale… I bought the whole flat.  Then we were off… for the long (and seriously stressful) drive home.

(Other than the risk of breaking an axle… the real danger with a load like mine is stopping.  No matter how much you want to you just can stop a seriously loaded truck with drum brakes.)

So about this time I lost track of time..  On the way home, I thought about slowing down, about the physical effort of bringing this dirt home… and I noticed (more than ever) that people in Phoenix are not friendly drivers. (Boo!)

In less time than I thought it would take we were home.  Now, we had to unload.  Because of the load I made the executive decision to park on the street… we would just have to hoof it.

So, we got the wheel barrel and the shovels.  After one load, I texted the neighbor for another wheel barrel…  We got that and two sets of hands to help unload the truck. After about an hour we were unloaded.  A quick spray down, a drive back to my Brother-in-law’s, the work was done… and the chickens were happy…

And that was Saturday..  I discovered new muscle groups in my back… I was dirty, and so were the kids…