When I Was Little... I Went to the Dance to Dance

Here's a baby plant that in no time will grow up to form a hedge around the perimeter of our property.

Zeke is a big helper. He not only plants but he helps to hook up the soaker hoses.

Jason dumps the dirt into the trench and rakes it smooth. Zeke and I plant the little seedlings. 100 - 120 feet long and 3 rows wide............

The foreman is allowed to take a break whenever he wants. If he's hungry, he sits and eats. If he's tired, he sits and rests. He gets up and orders the workers about when he feels the need to do so!

Otherwise, he's all smiles in his director's chair.

And yes even the foreman likes to get his hands (umm....whole body) into the dirt on occasion. As I watched Zeke get dirtier and dirtier, I thought to myself of the adult world and how we could all take a lesson from kids.

"Wear your overalls with pride. It makes no difference if they are covered with grease, mud, perfume, or pinstripes, because underneath we are all equal."

The dump truck is a crucial element to the foreman's job. He makes sure that it's well stocked with water from the service vehicle and moves dirt as needed. Yes, once in awhile when the foreman doesn't like the job that's been done, he'll run over the plants with his truck and they have to be replaced. That doesn't happen all too often though - PHEW!

Foreman Zeke checks to make sure that his workers have hooked the main line up properly.

At at the end of the day, the workers are still smiling....this is a good sign.

And the foreman, well he is free to dance in the rain and take a bath in the bucket. He's a liberated soul!

It was amazing....as the last few seedlings were going into the ground, the sky was threatening to drench all around. It wasn't long before we got that good ol' Cayman rain. It rained hard!! The three of us dropped everything and began dancing and singing in the rain. However, Zeke WAS wondering why Jason and I were jumping up and down shouting, "Yippee!" Thanks to that rain, all of the plants have taken and are growing great.

And if the foreman wants to play a game of hide and seek, he's free to do that too!

Over 120 wheelbarrow loads thrown into the trench by Jason (if you think about that, it's a LOT. How many shovel scoops go into one wheelbarrow load?) and 500 seedlings plus planted by the Zekie and Momma team later............we are finally finished!

And not a moment too soon.......as baby sister or brother has grown to 5 months in the oven, there's no more room for bending and planting. But, with rainy season upon us, come the fall we'll have a pretty good organic hedge started and something for this family to be really proud of! Some great memories have been made over the past month and a half planting these little babies!

Because of the corner lot we had to plant 3 sides! It was lots of work but like dirt farmer wisdom of my ol' Uke Baba dictates, you reap what you sow with a little sweat and tears.

This is skevola or otherwise known on the island as 'sea-lettuce'. This is a hardy plant that can tolerate salt (which is what we need being on the sea) and makes a great perimeter hedge without putting up a costly and non-environmentally friendly fencing system. Hopefully within no time, ours will start looking like this one! The colors of the leaves are beautiful when the sun shines on them, and if not manicured, they grow like this....au naturalle. And this is another reason we chose the sea-lettuce.

"The deeper the roots, the stronger the tree..........the greater the memories."