Mini Adventure...54º

Monday dawned cold and clear...Pat drove in about 7:20 for our early morning excursion...We were dresssed in layers and carried gloves, hats, water, garden tools and lunch...The "Magic Garden" was calling all extra hands to come and finish planting...Last week the garden had been a beehive of young children planting the hundreds of plants they had started weeks earlier in the Joseph Charter School's greenhouse...The Magic Garden was started several years ago with the intent to teach children where their food comes from and also to supply free, fresh, food to school and community kitchens, throughout Wallowa County...Grants were written, fences built, ground broken and hundreds of hours by many people have made this happen...Today, we joined eight seasoned volunteers to finish the planting.

Pat and I as always, smiling, and ready to start something new, even though a half hour earlier as I climbed into her car, we had both asked the question, "Who's idea was this?"...Now we were at the garden surveying the rows, marked tomatoes, potatoes, corn and cucumbers, to name a few that were planted last week...We didn't wait long for instructions as we were led to a row, handed hoes and told to start weeding and prepping a 50 foot row for planting...Next we exchanged the hoes for trowels, with instruction to plant kale and chard starts 6 or so inches apart in our newly hoed ground...Our shoulders were allowed to rest as our bending muscles took over...Soon the calf muscles were screaming but we managed occasionally to stand upright and give them a rest...This row finished we took a quick break to quench our thirst, luck was with us as a breeze continued throughout the morning...Three hours later we finished up planting long rows of winter squash and gourds...Don't get the idea that this was all work and no play because there was much visiting among the planters, most of who we had met on other volunteer excursions.

Pat and I left the garden without committing to return next week, both thinking, that we would be wise to see if our bodies were able to get out of bed the next morning...We sat on the porch of Janies Cabin and ate our lunch (prepared by Pat) before driving out of the canyon, back to Joseph, with the afternoon ahead of us...We were tired and a bit stiff and sore but felt good about volunteering our morning...Hugs To All...OWAV:)