Thursday of week 3, I got the text that my horse was a little off in one of her hind legs, and so we took a look at her for our ride on Saturday, and decided that she was not too bad, maybe just a little sore. She felt great to ride on Saturday, which was a huge sigh of relief. Tuesday of week 4, I pulled her out to get the wiggles out before she went for a ride with a friend, and she was actually very lame (limping) in that hind leg. So started our quest to get her better. It’s been almost 2 weeks, and she’s still not better. We’re on the right track and have a plan though, so hopefully it comes through.

The big gardens got cleared out over the last two weeks. We pulled the rest of the carrots and the beets from the middle garden, and then we turned the sheep out onto it. They have been working diligently, and it will be ready for us to use again come spring. As soon as we get everything cleaned up in the spring, we will place the landscape fabric, and we won’t have to worry about the weeds! This was one of my biggest issues this last season, and I can’t wait to be able to stop worrying so much about them, and just let my plants grow.

Iwigara is such an interesting book so far, it is a mix of ethnobotanical knowledge, cultural and spiritual significance, interactions with nature, modern scientific explanation, biodiversity, conservation, and traditional healing.

“Corn is the only traditional American Indian food plant that needs humans, planting its seeds, in order to survive. This is because humans created corn: […]” this quote is so fascinating. The corn is part of the 3 sisters, but it is also the only one that needs humans. Where would it be if there were no humans to plant it?

It does go through a lot of plants very quickly, and I wish it would spend a little more time and go more in depth about certain plants. Once I finish this one, I’ll move onto either Rooted or The Seed Keeper.

I’ve had a lot of bad happening over the last couple weeks, but I’m holding onto the hope that I can pull through it and get back to my full force of work. I’m doing plenty, but it never feels like enough! I’m working through the garden plan, planted some tulips and saffron crocus, and I changed where the garlic is going to go. I didn’t get to planting it before this random freeze, but it warms up again in a couple days, and the garlic is my final project before I go into full planning and reading mode. I hope to have a bunch of plans ready to share soon!