[Open] Farming Club Shenanigans

[nedofpies]

Who: The Farming Club! Also open to anyone who wants to come by and harass them.
What: Agricultural avengers assembling to till some soil, plant some crops, water the ones they've already got, and converse amongst themselves in a lively fashion.
Where: A large patch of open space between House 11 and the edge of the woods.
When: Day 79-81 (please indicate which day in the thread header!)

Ned's not really one for leadership, but it isn't quite so daunting when he knows he's just acting as a kind of deputy. Erik was the one who said he should get everyone together, and so get everyone together he shall. He put out a message on the network the previous evening, naming a time and place and politely (and a little awkwardly) requesting that everyone whose name is on that trusty list for farming duties show up to help get some more things planted.

They won't be able to accomplish it in one day. Some things will need to go in other places with different soil types (according to Lydia, anyway), and some things will need to wait for the greenhouse to be built. But in the meantime there are plenty of things to be done. Grass needs to be cleared, to give them a larger plot to plant in. Someone mentioned irrigation systems. He thinks there are other things - ways of regulating sun and shade, of keeping the crops safe from birds or other dangers. He hopes he'll have enough willing hands to help do them.

Ned's brought all the tools he can find - shovels, trowels, gloves, seeds, and assorted other items. He has also set up a wobbly table that he found in the church basement, with a few pitchers of cold lemonade and a dozen or so glasses on top. There is a social component to this too, he knows. It's part of all of them working together, against the people who brought them here, looking into a future in which they aren't starving and at one another's throats, but dependent on one another to keep all this going.

Comments

day 79

[charring]

Charlie's sorting through the seed packets, making mental notes of things like sun exposure, how to get some of the seeds started. She's familiar with all of this. She spent time with Irv and Norma, helping them with their crops so she knew a thing or two. Not that she counted herself an expert.

She also brought books to the table from the library. All of them were on gardening. From expert to beginner and there was even a book on growing things in buckets. This might be useful if they ran out of room.

There were also enough sticks and things from the trees around where they can easily build things like tomato cages, poles for beans to climb up and just generally section parts out if they need to.

"This reminds me of home," Charlie mumbles to herself. Whether she's overheard or not, that doesn't matter. She's enjoying a peaceful sort of nostalgia and that's so very rare for her.

[tryingitall]

"Hmn?" Balthazar's been wandering in and out of the proceedings, doing heavy lifting here and there, but mostly just socializing. It looks like a party to him, okay?

He's added a book on wild plants to the pile Charlie brought, and picked up one on container gardening in return. He glances up when she speaks, smiling slightly. "Where was home, then?"

[charring]

Charlie looks up from the book she was reading, putting her finger in a section about how to identify edible mushrooms. She can't recall if she's met this man or not, but if he's here then he must be part of the group and that means she'll possibly see him often. So why not?

Hopefully, he doesn't mind vague.

"New Hampshire. Briefly." And then all over the forty eight states since getting to the other two is a no go. "My grandparents had a farm."

[tryingitall]

Vague works! He finds it hard to answer questions about where he's from, too. He tried honesty once, but when he answered that he was from Heaven, the woman he was chatting with thought it was a pickup line and rolled her eyes at him. Ah, well.

"Oh, then you definitely know what you're doing! That's good, I haven't a clue." He smiles and offers a handshake. "But the little green things next to the house are ones I planted, so I suppose that's a start."

[charring]

"I have a clue or two." She smiles, extending her hand and shaking Balthazars. Sure. She could do this whole 'meet and greet' thing. "Charlie."

See? That's progress.

"I've also tried apartment gardening, which isn't all that hard. Mostly just small tomato plants in buckets and herb gardens."

She shrugs, smiling a bit. "It almost never went over well with my landlords."

[tryingitall]

"I'm Balthazar. Nice to meet you." His handshake is firm, skin smooth, with few calluses.

"I'm not sure what kind of yield we can expect; we might need to do some creative planning here and there. I promised basil in a pot to one of my housemates." Perking up a little, he nods to the work underway. "What do you think about the soil quality? I'm not sure how to gauge it."

i think my email ate this reply.

[charring]

And Charlie's skin is overwarm. Not the normal temperature for a human. Just barely bordering on feverish.

She doesn't mind calluses. Her grandfather had a ton. She turns, looking at the work already done. Her nose wrinkles some before she looks at Balthazar again.

"That's a lot of rocks in the soil. It'll definitely take some work just to get things the right depth. And then there's filling the soil back in. I'm hoping it's better than it seems? I don't much trust anything in this town so for all we know, we could end up with plants that demand humans for food and promise us the world at the same time."

it happens! omnomnom

[tryingitall]

Interesting. Not your average human girl, he thinks, and then wonders if there are any average people at all in Kore. (Maybe an average angel or two, but that's not the same).

"You know, I think Loki said something similar to me when I planted my bit there." He nods at his little patch beside the house. "The little green things haven't started singing yet, but I'll keep an eye on them."