Gardening; Old Stories and New Beginnings

     Gardening was introduced to me by my grandparents on my moms side of the family.  When I had lived in Stockbridge, MA, before the age of 5. I remember  my grandmother tending a flowerbed outside her home, and my grandfather taking me with him to garden on a plot somewhere else in town.  The "Gardening Bug" really did not hit me to many years later. I had moved with my family to California. I by this time was almost ready or had started in Jr. high school.
     My Grandmother and  Aunt Vic. had traveled all the way from the state of Massachusetts, on a bus to visit us. Sometime during the visit for a few days my grandmother spoke about (or seemed to have complained about) why the flowerbeds were empty, mostly dry dirt and weeds. As said before, this went on for many days (hint).
     One day upon returning from a shopping trip in town, my grandmother handed me a garden hoe. She asked me to undertake the job of  pulling up the weeds and to start chopping up the dirt, in a small flowerbed under the dining room window. This went on for at least what seemed about 3 hours. This was only maybe a 2 foot by 5 foot area. My grandmother wanted the soil to be very soft and dug deep. Later while I was loosening the soil up, my grandmother called me in for a snack and something to drink. While I sat and relaxed a bit she pulled out a couple of seed packs out on the table. She then instructed me on how she wanted them planted, and how to care for them. I then returned outside, I planted and watered the seeds into the flowerbed. I had planted marigolds and nasturtiums.  Many days had passed in what seemed like a eternity, while I watered and watched over the flowerbed. Later by then my grandmother and my aunt, had left California back home to Massachusetts, and still nothing had sprouted yet. I had just about loss any hope in anything coming out of that patch of ground.  Then one day I noticed some new sprigs of life, popping out from the ground I had planted the seeds in. Weeks later there were a great many flowers in bloom, and I could see where all that work had payed off. I now had a spark within me and a new love for growing things.
     Later on a weekend I had gotten to talk to my grandmother on the phone to tell her about the flowers and how great it was to grow stuff. Later in the month, I had gotten a letter from my grandmother and a gift of $10.00 (that was a good amount of money for me back then.)  I took my my gift and gotten some more garden seed and some bags steer manure (I am sure I also spent some of it on candy too). That summer I had turned my backyard into one huge garden. I had a lot of everything growing I was really happy about it. I had so much stuff I shared with my friends and neighbors on the street. That was a great summer.
     My grandmother that gave me the gift of gardening, has passed on. She was a great blessing in my life to have shared her own love of gardening.  As a adult I had done some research on my grandmother and her family. I learned of her family having a family crest, which I remember seeing on some plates in her home, and also a small one my mother had in the house. Upon researching the crest, it was given to my great or great great grandfather. This crest was given for feeding an entire town where he lived.  He did it by gardening / farming. In the country of Ireland, during a great potato famine  he planted all kinds of things. Potatoes were the main crop there, and many farmers there used to grow the same type of potatoes. One of the main types of potatoes were prone to a disease that either rotted or killed the plants. My great  or great-great grandfather had grown many different types of potatoes that did not get that disease that the others had gotten with their variety of potatoes. That is how he was able to take care of his family and his town during those dark days of a potato famine.
     You just never know what gardening can do for you, or for others. If your not already growing plants, try it, you may like it too.  Do it for fun, do it to save on your grocery bills, do it for health, do it to become part of your life and part of your preparedness skills. Gardening does have its rewards. Enjoy.

Thunderhawk001

A Little Bio on Me!

Well a small bit about me. Survival instinctive to me and all of us.  I had a friend that worked with me when I was about 19 or 20 years old. He had a copy of "American Survival Guide" I had read. I am now going on 45 years old. During the years I enjoyed most of the printings of it. Prior to reading them and learning other things over time. I have been into gardening,computers, hunting, fishing, electronics, camping etc; and learning many things a person could learn. I am a jack of many trades but, not all. I would like to learn from others.  I have had some time to use my outdoor skills in the trinity wilderness at age 22-24 years old. I spent 6 months the first time very new and hard time at it. Then went again for another 8 months, this time with some better supplies and a few new things to keep me busy and make things a lot easier. I have been around and had some life experience thru out my life.
 
Now days I am like most men, have gotten married, have children, grown a bit older and hopefully wiser; But I have become a bit rusty and maybe have gotten into a lazy way of living day to day life.  Sure I still store some extra supplies and water and read once in awhile on skills of survival.  Now on the front burner of the mind and not taking for granted anymore is not just everyday survival of life. It is a quality life of survival.  There are many aspects to survival in our current time.  Some persons think of just some supplies are all they need. Some believe they just need some weapons, others a knowledge of books. To others its gardening, or building some other skill. It is that all type of skills and trades are needed for quality survival.

The truth be said, for many when the lazy-boy stops vibrating and the remote control stops working it is the end of their own world. A time to get into trouble in invade someone's else.  There are natural and man made disasters that can happen at anytime. Survival really depends on a few things. Preparedness, Keeping a clear head and your wits about you, and community. Community could be family, friends, and maybe just someone your just met or trust around you or your family. Why, you might ask. Number one, no man or woman is an island to themselves. Examples ... I have a few.

Once alone I while I was doing something simple in the mountains by myself, I was cutting kindling for a fire and missed the wood I was chopping and cut through my thumb. It was 2 days before I could get any kind of outside medical help. Things did not turn out too bad for me but it could have. Case taken maybe I could have gotten a bad infection or what would have happened to me had I had cut an major artery and lost my blood. Me or even lets say someone else had a fall where legs could be broken or back injured. Way out in the middle of nowhere.  Just as easy as happening in the wilderness things could get bad in a city with riots, or the aftermath of some natural disaster.

Here we all have the opportunity to become a community. It takes the skills of a community to rebuild in any aftermath of any disaster. I could say jack of all trades, but that would not be true. I am just like the next guy, learned a lot of things that I cared to learn, and not cared too much about the rest. Until the real thought of survival it takes a lot of skills from a lot of different people to have good quality survival.  I hope to post some useful information that someone here will be able to use. I also look forward to learning some new stuff too. It has been a few years since I have done some heavy blogging and hope to do some catching up on new things as well as see some re-posting of some great things I have missed. Thanks all for reading my ramblings, post at you all soon.

Your Friend,
ThunderHawk