Before I left last week for New York City, I had slaved two evenings after my 9-5 fortifying a fence against my friends, the wild jackrabbits. I had planted some spinach, kale and chard over a month ago now. And now, they're gone. Just like that.
It's hard not to get discouraged when this happens. Actually, it's rather maddening. When I was little, I never completely comprehended the animosity between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. After three years of fighting with rabbits in my garden, I'm becoming intimate with that acrimony.
So I was in need of something cheerful today.
Hence...
The 2013 Banff Film Festival is on its annual world tour right now and last night, they stopped in town to an audience of 1,500 outdoor die-hards. It is my second year catching this road show, and each time, I leave more inspired to chase dreams and to see more of the world. One film called "Spice Girl" was about 20-something Hazel Findlay, one of the very few exceptional women climbers in the world. There was a dramatic scene in the film where she was scaling a massive rock in Morocco, a point on the climb so challenging her fingertips barely grasping the crevice on the wall, and eventually, the wall would just crumble. So she kept falling. But she persisted and in the end, she made it to the top.
Well, this silly gardening business isn't anything quite earth-shattering like that, but the point is not to abandon that which you love doing the most, despite the challenges flung your way. The drought in Western United States is projected to get worse in the next few months which will raise food prices by as much as 30% as reported by the Wall Street Journal. I am passionate about clean, honest food and I will defend my right to garden against those rodents in my yard.
And what do you know? Home Depot is running a "Black Friday" sale through April 13: adolescent seedlings (they're in 4" pots, bigger than sprouts, and thus less vulnerable to predators) for $2 a pop. And some hardware wire for some more fencing for $6. I could not pass up on this great deal!
I'm making wire cages all afternoon and these young guns are going in the ground. Persistence!
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