{"id":18305,"date":"2020-04-04T10:51:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T14:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=18305"},"modified":"2020-04-04T11:05:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T15:05:15","slug":"its-not-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=18305","title":{"rendered":"It’s not winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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\nA tiny peach<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t often think of so-called scripture. I identify as a creature of the Enlightenment, not as a “person of faith.” Nevertheless, I know an embarrassing amount of scripture, because it was beaten into me as a child and because Old and New Testament were required courses when I was a student. But lately I have been thinking of the 24th chapter of Matthew. In this chapter, Jesus is talking to his disciples about the End Times. It’s the chapter upon which much of evangelical eschatological theology is based. Verse 20 contains the words, “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.”<\/p>\n

How much scarier would this pandemic be if it had descended upon us at the beginning of winter, rather than at the beginning of one of the prettiest springs I can remember? Things hit the fan right at the beginning of gardening season.<\/p>\n

Six years ago, we had made a valiant attempt here to build an irrigation system for the garden that drew water from one of the streams below the abbey. There is plenty of water just 500 yards down the road. That didn’t work, though, partly because we couldn’t find a pump with enough power to get the water up the hill. The water tank sat unused, overgrown with honeysuckle. It was possible to use well water for irrigation, but I’ve avoided that. Well water is pure and precious, and that water pump 305 feet down in the well won’t last forever. I don’t want to rush the day when the pump has to be replaced.<\/p>\n

Then, two years ago, a new neighbor with lots of skills and energy worked out a means of getting water up the hill for his garden and for those neighbors who need it, including a neighbor who has a field of blueberries. It’s a heavy four-wheel trailer with tanks and pumps, pulled by his elderly Jeep. We moved our water tank to the side of the road so that the neighbor’s rig can stop in the road and deliver water. Problem solved! We also replaced the old drip lines. I’d swear that the cabbage plants grew an inch overnight after their first watering.<\/p>\n

I’m determined to fight the insects, blights, squirrels, and raccoons to get as much out of the orchard as possible this year.<\/p>\n

So I have one good thing to say about this pandemic. Its timing was perfect.<\/p>\n

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\nWeek-old mustard<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nThe water tank. The stream is down the hill at the bottom of the ridge.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nThe hydrant for irrigation water, gravity fed from the tank<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nApple blossom<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nLilacs<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nCarolina jasmine<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nThe day lily bank<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tiny peach I don’t often think of so-called scripture. I identify as a creature of the Enlightenment, not as a “person of faith.” Nevertheless, I know an embarrassing amount of scripture, because it was beaten into me as a child and because Old and New Testament were required courses when I was a student. … Continue reading “It’s not winter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainable-living","category-the-house","category-the-land"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18305"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18333,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18305\/revisions\/18333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}