Articles written by Mary Honrud
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Winging It
As I'd predicted, I have not resorted to making daily notes of my accomplishments this past week. I do know myself a little. So, as usual, I'm winging it with this column. It is Sunday afternoon,...
This And That
For the second week in a row, I was asked what I'd be writing about in my next column. And for the second week in a row my answer was, "I don't know." This speaks to my mastery of the art of...
Bringing In The Green?
I’m enjoying the indoor greenery, but I’m not talking about bringing a tree into the house. I know many people are putting up their Christmas trees at this time, or have already done so. I’m not one of those. Since we’ve been spending the...
The Green Space Is Inside
It’s definitely not gardening weather. I don’t even want to mess with my houseplants, really. Oh, I’ll water them, but there’s no repotting going to happen anytime soon. I just don’t want to deal with the mess potting soil and water makes....
Bi-Weekly? Bi-Monthly?
Lately my column has only been printed every other week. I could get used to only writing (blathering?) twice a month. Is that considered bi-weekly or bi-monthly? I didn't know, so I looked it up. It...
A Short Vacay, Then Back To Work
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 22. We took a trip out to Crescent Bar, which is just past Quincy, Wash., on the far side of Spokane. Dennis's baby sister lives there. Although we...
Doomsday (For Gardening)
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 18. The hard freeze last week has finished off my gardening for this year. I’m sure it finished off everyone’s gardening as well. We saw it drop...
It's Fall - Officially
Editor's Note: This column was submitted Sept. 24. Fall arrived with some measurable amounts of rain last week. That doesn't always happen. We'd finished our wheat harvest before this last wetting, pl...
Winding Down
A big part of ending a gardening season is clearing out those items that are done for this summer. All my cornstalks have been dug up and hauled away. While doing that, I found enough small ears to ma...
Rain Delays
The wheat harvest has been on hold for the past week. We'd had rain on the Monday of Labor Day weekend, which prevented our continued laboring. (We slept most of that day, catching up.) It rained...
Green Again
Editor's Note: This column was submitted for the week of Aug. 30. I’d mentioned a while ago that my multiple summer trips had left my lawn rather parched, with multiple brownish patches. I’ve now stayed home long enough to have kept the sprinkler...
We're Busy Laboring
Whose bright idea was it to schedule the holiday to honor the laborer right during farmers’ (our local laborers) busiest time of year? While everyone else gets a long weekend to celebrate, us farmers are laboring over our harvest. If you haven’t...
Back To School Means It's Fall??
It seems to me as though once the kids are heading back to school Mother Nature decides it’s time for cooler weather. I guess that makes the kids appreciate their new warm school clothing. That cooler weather only lasts a few days, though. The...
Getting Back Into The Groove
Or maybe it's more of a rut? I guess that depends on your perspective (or in how you choose to regard your life). In any case, I'm home and the garden is progressing into the over-productive phase....
Lollygagging – Again
Lollygag: to spend time aimlessly, idle; to dawdle I’m not sure this most recent very short vacation counts as lollygagging, but that’s what I’m going with. I did spend some slow-moving time (dawdling) in the sun, enough that I came home a bit...
Poor Timing
I’ve discovered that growing a vegetable garden and taking summer vacations doesn’t work out too well. There’s always something that needs harvesting at the same time a fun trip could be had. I may decide to not plant so many veggies next...
Berry Busy
The raspberries have really come on strong in the past couple of weeks. I can easily spend three hours in the cooler air of the early mornings picking them. Then they need to be rinsed, drained, and frozen. I’ll vacuum-seal them in pints the next...
Ooops
I’m tendering apologies. I completely forgot to write a column last week! I can offer several excuses: I’m old; I was busy doing other things (can’t remember what - see previous excuse); I was lazy; I didn’t feel like it; I honestly thought...
Back To Work
I’m sure not many noticed the lack of a Green Spaces column the past two weeks. If you are one who did, you could blame my sisters (with their husbands in tow) for coming from southeastern Missouri to see us. The first few days here were spent...
Rinse & Repeat
Mother Nature seems to be stuck in a wash cycle that features way too many rinses and repeats. The rains just keep on coming. We’re definitely not complaining about the abundant moisture after the past few years of drought. Personally, I’m...
There's Always More To Be Done
A lot more has been accomplished up here beyond the Middle of Nowhere, but the end is nowhere in sight. I repeat: there’s always more to be done, especially weeding and mowing. No complaining about the rain is to be tolerated, however. It’s...
Still Busy
There's been a lot more work completed up here this past week, some in the garden and some in the house. And, of course, as mentioned last week, there's still more to be done. The goldfinches are...
Getting (Some) Things Done
As I once remarked to my mother-in-law, there is always, always, ALWAYS more work to be done. I also once asked the in-laws, "Why are we working? Simply to work? Or is it in order to be able to go and...
April / May Mix-Up?
Mother Nature gets confused when she heads north. Our April showers are arriving in May. (April brought us lots of winter snows. Boo! Hiss!) We are still managing to get some May flowers, though, so...
Daring To Be Optimistic
Dare I hope spring is finally really here? Am I dooming us to more icky weather by uttering the word spring? To that second question, I certainly hope not! I’m pretty sure I don’t possess the power to jinx all of northeastern Montana. If I had...
