Buried treasure in the garden

Once again a week is passing by so fast that I think it must be Tuesday and my cell phone tells me it is Thursday.  Hmmm... am I the only one that uses my cell phone as both a calendar and a watch... and a phone?  Anyway, I had hoped to do a couple book posts this week but they will have to wait just a little longer.

My priority right now has to be the lawn and garden.  They are very demanding task masters, wanting their own way in their specific times and we mere mortals are to do their bidding or we find "the proper season" is no more.

Since I also have to operate in "just a little at a time" mode, it has taken awhile but yesterday I finally was able to plant the seedlings purchased over a week ago.  I admit part of the reason I was late in planting was caused by forgetting where I had placed the box of organic fertilizer which had to be raked into the soil before planting.   

Why I put it on a bottom shelf in the garage where I store craft supplies last spring is beyond me.

I will plant lettuce seeds today and then prepare the raised bed in which tomatoes will be planted in a few weeks (earlier only if there is a long term forecast guaranteeing no frost).  I've decided the very small raised bed will be used for the nasturtiums this year so it will receive no fertilizer.  They will also be planted when it is warmer... to stay.

So... I have been hoeing and raking the two raised beds which will receive cool weather crops*.  To prepare them for the fertilizer and planting, I have to rake through the soil to find walnuts which have found their way there through the fall and winter months.

Yesterday morning as I was picking up walnuts and rocks (?), I came across an interesting shape.  Although it was covered in dirt, I had an idea I'd found... buried treasure.  I put it in my jacket pocket and once inside the house, I washed it under running water and sure enough... it was an Indian arrow head!  It had to have been there at the bottom of the garden bed all along and brought up only by the hoeing.

You don't find them just laying around anymore as you could in my childhood when it was quite easy to go arrowhead hunting.  However, the soil in our raised beds came up from the dry creek bed in the forest.  Hubby received permission from the person who owns that land.  "Take all you want!" was his response when asked if we could dig up some dirt.

We live in an area where Indians (now known as Native Americans but I love the images the word "Indian" brings to mind and they are very respectful) lived and worked and battled homesteaders and soldiers.  They actually got along fairly well with homesteaders... not so with soldiers.

As a child, I played amongst the memorials of war.  Our schools are named after famous soldiers and Indian warriors.  Signs at the side of country roads remind us of battles and sorrow.

I must admit as I walk by the edge of the forest, I will now let my imagination run wild with thoughts of Indian mothers gathering water at the creek and children playing amongst the trees.  Better that than the reality of war.  Far better than seeing Big Foot among the trees in my mind. 

* Okay, so my tiny garden is only a crop in my imagination.  ;)

Picture: Grandma's Garden by Robert Duncan