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The Aardsma Weekly
May 4, 2008
Writer: Rachel Aardsma
How Does Our Garden Grow?
Quite well, thank you! The vegetable part of our vegetable business is growing and green, and I know for sure that the garden year has started! Whenever rain or the lack of it becomes national news for the Aardsma's, you can be sure that the garden is growing! I find that we spend all spring and summer fighting the rain. Either it comes when we don't want it, it doesn't come when we do want it, we get too little, or we get way too much. Rarely do we get the happy medium---although this spring has been tolerable rain-wise.
We planted corn and more onions this week. The potatoes are up, and the apple trees have burst into bloom overnight and bowed out again just as quickly. I hear that the first blossom has been spotted on the strawberries. I love walking out to look at the garden in the morning. Beka agrees with me that the neat, white-flagged rows of green sprouts are a very satisfying sight! Of course, that is before the weeding, watering, cultivating, planting, marking, and tilling of those neat, white-flagged rows begins for the day.
Our asparagus has popped up. We have already been selling it for a few weeks. The rhubarb is not going to be outdone for long and is working overtime to catch up with it, so I expect rhubarb jam making will start very soon! I’m also looking forward to making some rhubarb punch soon.
After a rain, Beka took some pictures of our beautiful apple tree.
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As usual, Beka is ‘manager’ of the garden this year. Each of the kids above her (starting with Mark, I believe) was ‘manager’ of the garden for the last few years of their stay at home. Beka took over from Matthew about two years ago. Her duties as manager include making sure everything happens when it is supposed to, organizing and directing ‘the troops’ (us poor slaves, Caleb, Timmy, and me), keeping an eye on the general health of the garden, and reporting the progress to Dad. Dad serves as ‘General Manager’, and he gives Beka her instructions, enabling her to be manager. He also helps her keep tabs on what is supposed to happen next. As for the rest of us…well, I’m chief slave, and Caleb and Timmy are slaves-in-the-making. I find that Beka and I make a pretty good team: she can get me to do stuff (against my will most of the time) and I can do it! Don’t ask me how she gets me to weed those confounded raspberries. If I had any mind of my own I’d never do it.
Humorous happenings are a must in the garden to keep all the workers sane in a far from intellectually stimulating atmosphere (we talk a lot and that’s about it for intellectual stimulus). Beka has provided me with many laughs so far, as she keeps reminding herself that this is her third-to-last summer at home, so she needs to enjoy the moment! At first, she kept saying that it was her second-to-last summer, but as I practically burst into tears every time she mentioned going off to the university, she kindly did a little math and found out this is only her third-to-last summer. I can live with that...for now.
As far as the business side of our vegetable business goes, we are doing well. I’ve spent a good part of my time today (Saturday, May 3) serving customers and re-stocking the stand, even though it is overcast and chilly! We generally don’t get a lot of customers when the weather is unfriendly. Mom usually does a good deal of the selling, but since she’s gone today I have to take over. I’ve sold a dozen of green onions to every customer that came today. I also sold all of the asparagus, a jar of our homemade buttermilk salad dressing, several jars of strawberry jam, some big Mn’M cookies, and eggs. So I’m not doing half bad for a cloudy Saturday!
Can you see the rainbow? This rainbow was the most perfect arch I have ever seen. Unfortunately I couldn't get the whole thing on camera. Photo by me.
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Serving customers has proved a trial for me this year, on account of the cash register we purchased late last winter. Always before, we used a hand calculator to add up our customer’s purchases and make change, but as the only people who served the stand are self-admitted Math failures this was a problem. So we purchased a handy cash register that not only automatically makes change and adds up the total, it also keeps records of all purchases made. It’s really nice…if you can get it to work! I hold my breath every time I serve a customer, just hoping I can make the sale without making a mistake on the register. I have had to ditch the register once and just add up the sale by hand, but for the most part I am stumbling along fine. I just have to ring up a few orders two or three times over before I can get the little ‘Error’ light to stop flashing at me. I expect it won’t be long before I have mastered the art of pressing all the right buttons at precisely the right time, but in the meantime I am perfecting my “Hmm, there seems to be an error with the machine here” speech that I deliver to the customers as they watch me ring up their orders again and again and again…
Another point about serving customers that has always been a hard thing for me is the art of small talk. For any of you who have ever sold to the public, you know what I’m talking about. I can generally keep the flow of conversation going (“You want onions?”, “Yes, we have asparagus.”, “Sure, I’ll put you on the list for strawberries.”) until it comes time for the customer to take out their wallet or purse and hand over the money. Then I always find myself awkwardly standing behind the counter, watching them and probably looking like I just can’t wait to get my hand on that money! So this year I decided I was not going to stand there and watch them fumble through their wallets searching for bills and coins. Instead, I started preparing a nice list of topics to discuss. And I’m really proud of myself. With all the customers I have served today, I haven’t had to just stand and watch. Instead, I stand and watch and TALK!! I discussed the weather (“Yes, it really is cold!”), potatoes (“I’ve never heard of planting potatoes in old tires, but it sounds like an interesting method.”), past interactions with customers (“I do remember you coming last year.”), and Mom (“No, she isn’t here today.” “Yes, Helen is my mother.”). Once I even discussed piano music! One customer apparently thought I was Beka. He complemented me on my piano playing, so I guess he was at Beka’s piano recital last month and mistook me for my sister (don’t ask me how; we don’t look a thing alike and I have glasses). It took me a few minutes to realize his mistake, and by that time he was gone. So anyhow, I think I’m starting to get this small talk business down pat.
Another blossom picture by Beka.
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As I have been writing this article, I’ve been thinking about the little poem that I got my title from. I have suddenly begun to understand it. I’ve heard it all my life, and never understood it until now. In case you don’t understand it either, I’ll explain it to you. It goes:
‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary [You’d be contrary too if you had to work in the hot sun all day.]
How does your garden grow? [Mary must have been an organic gardener! People just can’t comprehend a commercial garden growing without the ‘help’ of sprays.]
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row. [Mary probably marked her garden into rows just like we do. You can’t to anything in our garden without being ‘all in a row’. ]’
All for now, folks. I’ve got another customer in the driveway who’s probably looking for the asparagus I finished selling at ten this morning.
The Weekly Bible Verse
Philippians 4:6: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
The Weekly Poem
This week's poem is hardly one of my best, but it is humorous. A few weeks ago, after a late Saturday night spent working on a stubborn article for my Weekly (Dad edits it on Sunday, so I have to get it done by Saturday night) I was positively exhausted, and fed up! My cat was sound asleep, and I knew the rest of the family was too. And yet, I still needed a poem for my 'Weekly Poem' section. I rooted through my box of poetry, and found nothing worth printing. Feeling like the life of an author was not what it was cracked up to be, I grabbed a pen and paper, and by lamplight, expressed my frustration in the following poem. I rather liked what I came up with. Although I didn't end up using the poem that week, I decided to this time, because I am too tired on this late Saturday night to write anything more brilliant.
A Poem By A Sleep-Deprived Author
Though now all the house is sleeping
Still my pen is moving on.
Only lamp and me are waking
For my cat to sleep has gone.
Still I sit and write on paper
Though the sky has long been black;
Though my hand with cramp is aching
And with same my aching back.
I can hear my small cat purring,
All curled up upon my bed.
But a poem I must be writing,
So, no rest, my weary head.
Well, I think I will retire
From this world of ink and pen.
So I guess I'm off to bed now
At this hour, ten past ten.
(© Copyright Rachel Aardsma, April 2008.)
Bits and Pieces
I can't believe it's May already! The month of May holds a few special things for us: Mother's Day, Matthew's eighteenth birthday, Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day...all good reasons for celebrating! May also means that summer is right around the corner. Just think, one more month and then it's June, and Beka is turning 16! And then one month after that my favorite holiday shows its face complete with flags and fireworks and cookouts, and Mom turns ____ (well, we won't say; I understand ages over 50 are classified information). Just a month after that my own birthday comes around and I'm 14. Wow! What a busy summer we have planned!
Beka made a HUGE batch of banana bread last week. I've never seen so much banana bread before! Photo by me.
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Before we plow headfirst into the rest of the summer, I'll just take a minute to review this week. Matthew took his SAT test this Saturday. I don't think I've ever seen anyone study so hard for anything before. He has been absolutely glued to his SAT preparation book for the last month, and we've all been learning all sorts of things in the process. Dad helped prepare him for the Math section, Mom and I gave our two cents as far as English goes, and we all helped out with a great deal of positive thinking. (Matthew says if positive thinking has anything to do with the grade he'll get, then he will have no trouble getting the highest grade possible. We've all been telling him "You can do it, Matthew!" for the last several weeks.) Matthew has been busy doing preparation tests, improving his vocabulary, writing extra essays to help him improve his writing skills, working out Math problems, and discussing strategies for quite a while now. Speaking of vocabulary, I've learned a thing or two there myself. Do you know what 'juxtaposition' means? Matthew taught me that one and it is my new favorite word. Cacophony was for a while, but that's old news now.
Matthew amazingly remained quite calm and collected during the last hours before his test. I think we were all more nervous then he was! When I attempted to squeeze the details about the actual test out of Matthew when he returned home after taking it, I found that he had been so centered on his test that the details had completely slipped his mind. I guess that's a good thing. We won't be getting his score for another three weeks, but Matthew is currently predicting that he did 'pretty well'. For now, Mom and I agree we don't want to hear 'SAT' until next year, when Beka takes it.
A bad storm we had recently brought down a big tree in our neighbor's yard. Photo by Mom.
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We were all fairly busy this week. I kept hacking away at my website, which is almost finished now. I can't wait to do something besides website stuff again. I don't think I'm going into web design when I grow up. Computers give me headaches.
A Word About The Weather
It has been pretty cold all week. Friday night we had a little change with some real almost-tornado-but-not-quite storms. We enjoyed a blizzard of rain so thick we could not see to the end of our garden. A tree in a neighbor's lawn was snapped off a few feet from the ground, leaving our neighbor with no power and quite a mess blocking her driveway! This was all topped off with the most beautiful, perfect rainbow I have ever seen.
"Dad, The Cows Are Out!"
There is no "Dad, The Cows Are Out!" this week. Come back next week...
A Word Of Humor
Caleb dislikes the scents of perfume, deodorant, and soap. So during a game of rough-house with Matthew, when Caleb got pinned down, he managed to get free by rendering his captor helpless with laughter by disgustedly remarking: "What kind of smelly stuff do you stick on yourself?"
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