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Growing up in Upsala I was a “town kid” not a “farm kid”, but I learned the joy of “tilling the soil” through gardening. I got into gardening by helping my bachelor brother-in-law Jackie with his garden.

Jackie and his parents had moved into the original Swedish Mission Church parsonage in Upsala in 1971.  It was built in 1892 by members of the church. In the 50s the congregation built a new parsonage east of the original one and they sold the old parsonage to Mary Heisick, my wife Marcia’s grandmother.  Her parents Irene and John Rudie inherited the house from Mary Heisick.

Jackie got permission from the church to create a vegetable garden west of the old parsonage. Many years later Jackie was forced to garden with a three wheeler because of bad knees so I offered to help with the tilling only to get yelled at for running over some of the seedlings. The rows that he planted were not straight and I did not know how to distinguish between a weed and a seedling.  The next spring I drove stakes in the soil exactly 36” apart and used heavy string to define the rows. I didn’t get yelled at that year.

In 1999 I bought the old parsonage from the estate of my mother-in-law, Irene Rudie, and started to garden in earnest. Most years I had lots of vegetables.  Now the garden is taken care of by my daughter.  She bought the old parsonage from me a few years ago.   We are not likely to get the Yukon Gold potatoes in by Good Friday, as the Farmer’s Almanac suggests, but maybe by May 2nd. There are few joys better than freshly dug Yukon Gold potatoes baked or boiled, with real butter.

Today is the 17^th birthday of Allie Sherlock.  Allie is a busker in Dublin, Ireland and she has 5.1 million followers on YouTube.  This is still one of my favorites.  She was only 15 years old when this was recorded.  Enjoy.

“Three-fourths of the people that you will meet tomorrow are hungering and thirsting for sympathy.  Give it to them, and they will love you.”  Dale Carnegie