Why I Don't Understand My Ancestors

Why did my ancestors settle in Western PA? Did they think to themselves “Gosh! These huge mountainsides and bipolar weather conditions are paradise living!”

I ask myself this question more often than I should. I love Pittsburgh, I really do. It has great sports teams, gorgeous mountain and river views, the feeling of being in the city one moment and the country the next, and best of all—great neighbors (Pittsburgh Dad, for instance). Still, migrating a couple more hours south couldn’t have been too difficult after coming across the pond if it meant their darling great-great-great granddaughter could grow her produce in peace.

This past week was amazing. The sun was out; the temperature even approached 80 degrees! We got lots planted. Most of our pre-season seedlings are germinating or ready to be transplanted and our cabbage, onions, and lettuce are comfortably resting in our newly cleaned and tilled raised beds. I was responsible, I checked the forecast to make sure that it wasn’t supposed to go below 32 degrees any time in the next month and did it matter?? Of course not! Not 3 days after we planted our onion starters and lettuce seed in the ground did I hear that a cold front was coming in…AT THE END OF APRIL! The garden gods must have a grudge against me for my mass murder of house plants over the last 10 years.

So last night, me in my work cloths and my husband in his pajama pants, we took to the cold to cover our plants. With an incredible amount of luck, George left behind some type of row cover—at least I think that’s what it was. It could’ve been a very thin blanket… honestly, I’m guessing here! Either way, we went out in the mud and covered our little onion and lettuce babies.

It turned out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated. First, we had one loooooong piece of fabric. Not wanting to rip it (we believe it was the length of the entire garden) we had to double back on it. This meant we had to stake it in the middle to keep the miniature tornado-worthy winds from blowing all of it off. Tell me, how are you supposed to know where you can walk if the seedlings are hardly popping up, and there’s a white sheet covering all of your row markings? Well, we just said F-It and tried our best not to walk on anything that looked like a bump… did I mention we have no idea what we’re doing?

Still, we got the cover on and are currently hoping for the best. The sun came out briefly yesterday evening but it’s still freezing outside. Fingers crossed that it warms up out there otherwise we may be S-O-L when it comes to onions and lettuce this summer.