Farm Heritage Days, Labadie, MO

The ad said, "Labadie Station Antique Tractor Farm Heritage Days, April 28 & 29, 2012. Antique and vintage tractors and implements of ALL makes, models and conditions to be displayed and demonstrated." Well, resistance was futile. These things, like old cars, make me happy; they were thoughtfully designed and made to last, pure love-letters of American engineering, and my dad built Case tractors on their assembly line. Sunday in the little town of Labadie I saw mostly FarmAlls, but some John Deeres and one Allis-Chalmers, and the gas-powered 8-inch diaphragm water pump (view it in action) and the 1870s freight wagon, plus I watched the blacksmith at his forge. What you see above is a 1953 FarmAll B, a two-seater. Also displayed were several FarmAll Cubs with single seats, and a stunning bright-yellow FarmAll, 1946. The bluegrass band was kickin' out some John Denver and Woody Guthrie despite the cloudy chilly day. The little girl was put in the 1957 FarmAll tractor seat by her grandaddy. Ain't she a punkin?

Tommy Toes II

The Tommy Toe tomato seeds planted last Thursday looked this way on Monday. I'm thrilled. New life! Summer tomatoes!

Ye Shall Know Them

I plant arugula, a peppery little salad green, always, because it's easy to grow -- like a weed, the more you ignore it the better -- and because it's expensive at the store. The seeds resemble poppy seeds. In March I poked a pencil tip into the cold ground, dropped a seed in the hole, and after 30 days, ruffly healthy plants. Clip the larger leaves to eat and the plant will generously make some more.

The most helpful quotation I know comes from gardening: "By their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7:20). It reminds me that we are what we do, not what we say. You can gauge moral character by the results of people's actions, by the grace or disorder they leave in their wake. Just sayin'.

Tommy Toes

 "Tommy Toes" is a real Ozark heirloom tomato, a bush that pumps 'em out til the last week of October unbothered by heat, droughts, frosts, and the soil around here. Demetrius grew and fed us heirloom tomatoes named Boxcar Willie, Mister Stripey, and Mortgage Lifter, but only Tommy Toes grow like mad. I got it from the catalog Totally Tomatoes, which sells only seed packets, not plants. Demetrius grew all his vegetables from seeds but this is my first time, and I did what I had watched him do, and felt the same holy love.

One tiny ivory seed per pocket

Grape-sized tomatoes means squirrels and hornworms don't wreck them before we get some, and we can pop 'em into our mouths anytime we're nearby. So the Tommy Toe is the right tomato in the right place.

How to germinate: Poke holes in all 12 pockets of an egg carton, fill each with organic potting soil, set in each one tiny ivory seed, cover 'em up with soil, water, and set in warm sunshine 70 to 80 degrees. Cartons are easier than flats to carry and manage. Our frost-free date is May 15 so seedlings won't be planted til then. I'll have extra for the neighbor's garden. Happy Earth Day.

St. John's Church, Mount Hope, MO

This gorgeous April day I found St. John's E&R Church of Christ, a 1905 country church along Highway 47. Although it's labeled "Mt. Hope, MO" it's technically in today's St. Clair in Franklin County. Behind it is Mount Hope Cemetery with a great vista, and some of the gravestones facing the vista (nice). The church looks fragile but it has a ramp so it must be in use. The windows are covered with wood painted a beautiful soft green. The unlovely outhouse is separate, as it is in all good classic wooden country churches.

It Called Me "Earthling"

This crawled out from beneath the dishwasher. I was at the table eating chicken salad, which, at the sight of this rather large plump entity, suddenly tasted unpleasant. I took another sip of wine, wiped my spectacles with my napkin, and looked again and darned if it wasn't still there. Heavy rains probably drove it indoors, but exactly how it got in I don't know. I believe it is a "Broad-Headed Skink" (Eumeces laticeps) and the book says it lives "near dilapidated farm buildings," which well describes the Divine Cabin and environs. It is unlike the Five-Lined Skink, with which I am very familiar because it plays MahJongg at the Community Center every Monday night. During droughts, lizards and skinks will also frequently seek the Divine Cabin's hospitality. I'm sending this photo in as a cover photo for Midwest Living magazine.

View From Hughes Mountain

Some of the oldest exposed rock in the world, 1.5 billion years old (that's old!), can be seen on Hughes Mountain, an ancient volcano in a Natural Area south of Potosi, MO, in Washington County, just off of Highway M. Most people don't know that this area of eastern Missouri, the St. Francois Mountains that you see, so rich with lead and iron, is not your mother's Missouri. It's igneous or volcanic rock: lava. This area was once a bunch of boiling volcanic islands that blew their tops. On the trail, keep going, keep going, up the stream bed; it takes about half an hour from start to to the big open glade at the top. You'll see rocks and columns six-sided or four-sided, like cubes, crystals, bricks, Lego pieces.

This area is locally called the Devil's Honeycomb (geologists say, "polygonal joining") and geologically it's like the Devil's Tower in Wyoming. The Hughes family came from Tennessee in 1810 and bought 120 acres of the mountain, but couldn't make a living out of the soil here so John Hughes and wife Suzanna ran a grist mill. The Department of Conservation has added 306 more acres to the area. Not too far away is a better-known Eastern Missouri volcanic-rock attraction: the Elephant Rocks. But Hughes Mountain and perfect weather suited me just fine on a day that I got my work done early and said, "Let's go somewhere I've never been." Click on the photo for the full panoramic view.