Yet more wintry weather is on the way
and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. I mean, really???
Eh … I along with all the other people who are suffering severe
winter-itis are beyond ready for spring. Shoot. The first mosquito
that bites me this year I won’t even smack it, I’ll just let it
feast until it bloats up and falls off my skin. But only the one
though.
To come out of this endless winter
somewhat sane I have taken to pretending that every new snowfall is
the first one of winter because that’s the only way I can save
myself from going bat-shit crazy. Another thing I’m doing is I
joined a gardening class! In Ojibwe language it’s “Gitigaan”
and it was great. There were Indian tacos to eat and prizes; I won
and picked out organic stuff for soil. I saw a lot of familiar faces
that already are long time gardeners who have a lot of knowledge I
need to begin my own little garden.
Last year in June I became a Master
Naturalist so I’m pretty sure I will be able to handle a 3-by-6
foot raised container garden. If and when the snow ever melts, it
could happen … maybe. Prior to this next adventure I liked to joke
about my amazing dandelion ‘garden’ and that people came for miles
around to see it but I’m serious about becoming a gardener, a
grower of vegetables and herbs so I can eat healthier. I read a lot
and what I’m reading about genetically modified organism (GMO)
crops scares me because we the public don’t really know what is in
that produce! Ewwww!!!
I want to grow my own foods, beginning
with baby spinach steps, because then I know what it is I’m
consuming will have no ill effect on my health unlike GMOs that were
created in a laboratory. Believe me I am no survivalist type of
person who expects world annihilation any hour now but neither do I
volunteer to be a guinea pig for the big food industrial companies.
One Facebook meme I read made me think more about GMO foods: whoever
controls the food controls the people. Yikes!
“It’s all about money ain’t a
damn thing funny in this land of milk and honey” … (Grandmaster
Flash and the Furious Five? Help me out here plz!) So yeah, it’s
all about the 1 percent at the top of the pyramid who is behind the
Frankenstein foods we probably unknowingly eat because they don’t
have to list it as such. So here am I, a misplaced urban Indian who
prefers fresh, unpolluted food. Gonna make me a vegetable garden!
When I was a kid, maybe eight, nine
years-old my ole Paw sent me to his garden to pick string beans. I
remember it was really hot; I was sweating and grumbling under my
breath about child labor laws. ;D Later when I ate the beans with
melted butter I could have swooned the taste was so delicious. While
I lived in the Big City I got my fresh veggies from farmer’s
markets because I came to think let them do the work. I know! Don’t
judge me, I know! Anyways I couldn’t grow anything outside when
living in apartments most of my life as I have.
All this information on how to garden
is new to me so when I heard there was going to be a presentation on
worm composting I got the creeps. Unable to stop my utterance I asked
if there will actual live worms? “Yes” was the answer but I felt
silly like I was back in school having missed the previous day’s
class. Afterwards my ears perked up when someone said ‘wolf’ so I
listened in. A woman was talking about her garden and that she saw a
wolf, the conversation turned to bobcats too and again I could not
help myself butting in. I said, “Wolves and bobcats don’t eat
vegetables!” (Dah!) The pair of them looked at me then said the
wildlife were after deer. Oh. Okay…um, just kidding?
Twenty-six years ago I was massively
and miserably pregnant for over 10 months with my only child, my son
Steven Ross. He finally made his debut on April 7, at 3:26 a.m. the
first baby born that day in the Big City hospital and he was also the
loudest! Nothing has changed that characteristic about him; he’s
one of those people who when they walk in the room you know they’re
there. Now my grown son told his ole Maw what he wants for his
birthday. He wants a tattoo. It better be a big heart with “MOM”
inside it! Heeehehee!
Happy Birthday son, I love you! Now
about that tattoo … ?
