Rohde’s November Organic Gardening Calendar
Average Freeze Date for Zone 8: November 15.th
Average Date of Last Spring Frost: March 15.th
Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, 2:00 a.m., November 1, 2009.
We are in USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 8a with an annual minimum temperature of 15 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and in Texas AgriLife Extension District 4 (East Region) - North (Dallas).
Well we just lost that last hour of daylight after work. Most of us will have to wait until the weekend to work in the yard. So on Saturdays get up earlier to make the most of the sunlight. Do as much work as you can now before freezes come later on this month.
Remember, this is the best time of the season to plant. SO GO PLANT STUFF! But don’t go off Helter-Skelter. You need a PLAN! You need to have our team of Sally and Samantha help you make your landscape plans. Our landscaping crews can prepare the beds, and do the heavy planting if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Here’s a thought: What really unique Christmas gift to give your gardening friends and relatives this year? Why not a landscape plan from Rohde’s with a plant to get started. Granted it will be colder when they receive the gift on Christmas, but if you are having Rohde’s doing the work, what do you care. Now gifts are usually a surprise, so how do we measure out the yard and take pictures without them knowing? We’ll dress Sally in her kid’s Halloween Ninja costume and toss her over the fence! Hopefully no one will notice and sic the dogs on her. If they do sic the dogs, Sally should be able to keep them at bay with some of the extensive assortment of doggy treats we carry! (Ok, blatant product hyping.) Otherwise, we’ll do a rough draft and make the final refinements after you give the gift and we consult with the customer.
Vegetables
You can still put in transplants for Beets, Carrots, Mustard Greens, Garden Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Turnips, Cabbage, Collard Greens, Parsley, Lettuce, Chinese Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Mizuna, Escarole, Bok Choy, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Kale, Kohlrabi, Broccoli, Watercress, etc. Sooner the better.
Also plant Garlic cloves, Shallots, and Onion sets/transplants in early November.
Vegetable Seeds
It’s probably too late for seedlings except carrots, mustard, radish and turnips.
Garlic
For an early spring harvest, finish planting garlic bulbs in early November. Plant organic garlic purchased from a local grower or use cloves from your own harvested crop. Soak bulbs in diluted fish emulsion or liquid seaweed for about an hour before planting one inch into the soil. Cover with an inch or two of mulch.
Established Fall Crops
If you can protect your tomatoes and peppers from the early freezes, you may still be able to keep them producing. Be ready though to harvest the green ones before a hard freeze takes them. You can still cook with those green tomatoes.
Pests
You can still get the similar looking little green inchworms, cabbage loopers and cabbage worms on your cabbage, collards and broccoli. They can also eat on most of the rest of your fall crops. They leave many little ragged holes on the foliage along with little worm droppings. Use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for these caterpillars.
Cover Crops
Plant cover crops in empty flower and veggie beds and gardens. Plant Crimson Clover, Hairy Vetch, and/or Cereal Rye instead of mulching, and till them in next spring before they flower. This will protect the soil and microbes and “lockup” the nutrients to keep them from leaching away. Elbon (cereal) rye is a cover crop that can assist in controlling the root-knot nematode in the soil if it’s a problem.
Bed Preperation
Keep fertilizing every 3 to 4 weeks on established vegetables. Clean all old plant matter out of the garden and compost it. This will reduce insect and disease potential in next year's garden. Get ready to protect newly planted plants, tender vegetables and other tender plants before a freeze.
Herbs
You can still plant all perennial and cool season herb plants such as Cilantro, Dill, Fennel, Parsley, Caraway, Chamomile, Chervil, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender and Chives.
You can plant herbs in your annual beds to give you evergreen color and blooms through the winter along with fresh ingredients for cooking.
Flowers
Annual Flowers
Transplant Perennial Asters, Calendula, Coreopsis, Delphinium, Dianthus (Pinks), English daisies, Larkspur, Linaria, Nasturtiums, Pansies, Poppy, Stock, Sweet Pea, Swiss Chard, Snapdragons, Violas.
Plant Iceland poppies for blooming in the spring.
Plant ornamental plants. Dusty Miller, Flowering Kale and Cabbage.
Apply water-soluble fertilizer to get newly planted annuals off to a good start.
Seeds can still plant: California poppies, sweet peas, larkspurs, and bachelor buttons.
You can also dig up and pot or start root cuttings of geraniums, begonias, impatiens, and other tender annuals to grow inside during the winter, and re-plant next spring.
Prune back chrysanthemums almost to the ground after blooming.
Keep row covers, sheets, quilts, burlap sacks, buckets or other covering material ready to protect tender plants during cold spells.
Watch for pill bugs eating seedlings and young transplants.
Perennial Flowers
Prune back leggy perennial plants.
Divide spring and summer blooming perennials; iris, phlox, daylilies, Shasta daisies, violets, wood ferns, cannas. Transplant or trade with friends.
Move any misplaced perennials that have already bloomed.
Remove dead stalks and foliage from perennials as they go dormant unless they are seed heads for the birds, or you want the plants to reseed and spread.
Cut back salvia, lantana, and other perennial plants to the ground as the tops die back from freezes for the wintertime; mulch well. Shredded fallen leaves are great to use.
You can over-plant the cut-back perennial areas with winter annuals such as pansies, Johnny-jump-ups and dianthus (pinks), larkspur or bluebonnets for temporary use of your flower beds during the winter.
Start bringing in hanging baskets and other container plants you intend to over winter indoors. This gives them a few weeks to get use to a warmer indoors before you turn on the heater. Look for insect pests. Check drain holes for hiding pill bugs, slugs, roaches, etc. Clean all the pots and saucers. Spray with Insecticidal Soaps, Plant Oils, or Citrus Oil to control scale, mealy bugs and other pests. Drench the soil for fire ants too. Cut back or stop fertilizing. A lot of plants go dormant in the winter, even indoors, and need no fertilizing. Most but not all plants will need to be dryer between watering while indoors and/or dormant. Citrus and tropicals need to stay moist though. Know your plants.
Trim tender tropicals such as cannas, lantanas, and banana plants, among others back to the ground after first freeze. Then mulch to protect them from extreme winter cold.
Heavily mulch rosebushes in late November. Prepare new rose beds now.
Wildflowers
Last chance to plant wildflower seeds! Some spring wildflowers, can still be sown from seed in early November, including bluebonnets, Drummond phlox, rudbeckia and coreopis.
Wildflowers germinate and perform better if they are seeded into a lightly cultivated or raked soil. If planting in an established turf, chose bermuda turf since it is dormant during the growing season and bermuda is usually growing in a full sun location which wildflowers need.
Ornamental Grasses
Ornamental grasses can work great with your fall-flowering perennials in your landscape, giving nice contrast with interesting seed heads and fall colors. During the winter they can enliven your sleeping yards with their distinctive shapes and graceful rustling foliage.
As an alternative to planting a few different kinds of grasses for variety, do a wall of one kind as a backdrop for other plants, ornaments, or landscape features. They can also screen unsightly views of neighbors, sheds, fences or section of your property.
Grasses are susceptible to crown rot, especially in winter. Most like well drained soils and sun. Cut back grasses to short clumps in early spring. You can divide clumps every three years or so as some will do better.
Rohde’s carries a large selection of varieties that do well here.
Bulbs
You can still plant spring flowering, naturalizing bulbs this month. They should return each year: Daffodils, Grape Hyacinth, the smaller flowered jonquils, Ipheion uniflorum (blue starflowers); Lycoris squamigera (magic lily); Leucojum aestivum (summer snowflake); Zephyranthes candida (rain lily); and Zephyranthes drummondii (giant prairie lily).
Crocus, muscari and snowdrop are first to appear in the spring. Then, daffodils, jonquils and tazettas, followed by Chinese ground orchids and oxalis. Other bulbs for the North Texas soil and weather conditions are candy lilies, blackberry lilies, crocosmia, oriental lilies, Madonna lily and crinums for summer color. Plant rain lilies for spurts of color after thunderstorms. Purchase anemones and ranunculus for January planting.
Plant bulbs in beds or let them naturalize in an open area that doesn't need regular mowing, Like a shaded area under a deciduous tree where grass is slow to grow.
Non-naturalizing bulbs will not return each year and must be re-planted. They are the classic Dutch tulip and Hyacinth, for example. Our winters are not cold enough nor long enough for these bulbs to bloom properly here, so we must supplement their winter cold period. Bulbs require a particular cold spell, like fruit trees, in order to form their flower bud. You must put them in the refrigerator for about 45 days before planting or forcing. Plant them when soil temperatures stay in low 50’s for several days. This maybe sometime in December.
Trees and Shrubs
The fall season is also the best time to plant new trees, shrubs, and vines. Plants endure less drought and heat stress, and their roots have months to grow and become established before spring growth begins.
Come to Rohde’s if you're planning on buying trees and shrubs. Ask about our delivery, planting, and warranties. Don’t forget the soil amendments; Green Sense Kelp Extracts for root stimulation, Green Sense Mycor granules to inoculate the plant with mycorrhiza fungi, compost, and a variety of mulches.
Trees are changing into their fall colors. If you have been considering a tree for your landscape, and would like one that has brilliant fall color, come to Rohde’s now to check the tree inventories. A tree’s fall color will vary greatly between the same type of tree and from year to year on the same tree. By selecting a tree with good color in the fall, you'll have a better chance that it will look good in future autumns. Most dependable fall color trees in Texas, are Shumard Red Oak, Ginkgo, Chinese Pistachio, Sweetgum in sandy soils, various maples and Crape Myrtles.
Consider some rarely used trees this fall. Larger trees to consider; Montezuma Cypress, Cedar Elm, Lacey Oak, Chinkapin Oak, Texas Ash, or Bur Oak. Some smaller trees to look at; Texas Mountain-Laurel, Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum, Desert-Willow, Eve's Necklace, Goldenball Leadtree, or American Smoketree.
Hollies and nandinas are good for foundation plantings. They come in manageable heights and have a variety of different leaf shapes, colors, and styles. These along with Pyracanthas, Cotoneasters, and Beautyberry have fall/winter berries for contrast.
You may have read that you can transplant trees and shrubs from November on, if you want, as long as they have gone dormant. For me to even consider doing this, the bush or tree would not be any bigger than a 5 gallon container plant. It may be a better idea to plant a new plant and dig up or chop down the old. The new plant would probably establish itself faster than the root damaged transplant and the price wouldn’t be so much that I wouldn’t pay it in trade for not digging up a 25 or 35 gallon size rootball to preserve the roots. There’s a small tree at home like this that I am debating digging up. Grew it from seed I brought back from southern Mexico. A Bird of Paradise it was. Planted it in a too shady spot. I thought I had to dig it up to kept it, but lo and behold, Rohdes has 3 gallon plants! Got one in a 15 gallon pot waiting to get big enough to make the decision on digging the old one up or not.
Clean up fallen leaves, fruit, and nuts, old mulch, and other yard material, particularly around fruit and nut trees, that may harbor wintering pests and disease. Compost the yard litter well to destroy any pathogens. May need to shred the litter and subject it to solarization prior to composting. Solarization is commonly used to control weeds and pests in the soil prior to planting. Expose the well-moistened crop or yard residues, layered and sealed between two sheets of clear plastic, to several days of sunshine to kill pests and disease organisms.
Reapply any mulch taken up and add to old mulch to bring to a 3-inch layer. Keep the mulch from contacting the trunks or stems of the plants to prevent rot.
Do not throw any fallen leaves or grass clipping away. Either compost them or shred them with the lawn mower and use as mulch.
Spray weeds and grass around tree trunks with vinegar. Use 8 to 10 percent with one ounce orange oil, one tablespoon molasses and one teaspoon liquid soap per gallon. Better to physically clear the grass away from the trunk of trees as far as you think is visually appealing (more the better for the tree) and replace with compost &/or mulch, leaving a clear area directly against the trunk. Clear away soil to expose the root flare if the tree is planted too far in the ground.
Do not drastically prune trees and shrubs now, but while you can see which limbs are green or not, do prune broken, dead, diseased or dangerous limbs. Do not make flush cuts and use no pruning paint or wound dressing except for Green Sense Tree Goop. Wait until trees and bushes go dormant in January or February to do major trimming and pruning,. Pruning now can cause new growth to freeze later or become infected with disease if insect carriers are still present.
Root-prune wisterias that have failed to bloom. This may or may not help.
Do not prune knees from bald cypress trees; they are part of the root system. Instead change the root zone areas from grass to ground cover or mulch.
Reshape shrubs with light pruning as needed, but do not prune spring-flowering shrubs or vines until after they bloom.
Continue to keep vigorous-growing shrubs, such as pyracantha and ligustrum, pruned to maintain desired size and-or shape.
Pick up pecans as they fall to the ground to keep them from molding.
Lawn and Turf Grasses
Plant
Quality sod can be planted anytime that quality grass is available. Be sure to wet the soil of the sod before planting. Apply a thin layer of compost to the surface after planting.
It's too late to plant Bermuda seed.
Plant ground covers and borders.
You can still plant cool-season grasses such as rye and fescue now. They can competing with your warm season lawns in the late spring and early summer. The warm season grass will take longer to establish and may be less healthy or more disease and pest prone in the early summer. Perennial rye or Fescue grass can be used to quickly cover bare soils to protect from erosion though.
Rohde’s also have green manure crops to plant in your fallow gardens this winter. We carry “Dixie” Crimson Clover, “Hairy” Vetch, and “Elbon” Cereal Rye.
Fertilize
If you didn't get your lawn fertilizer down in October, do it now. The Fall Fertilizing is the most important lawn fertilization of the year. It will promote root growth through the winter and help the grass survive some watering neglect. The nutrients will be stored to give the grass a quicker start in the spring and help it compete with weeds.
Fertilize cool-season grasses (rye and fescue) to give one last burst of growth prior to winter.
Spray your lawn and landscape with Green Sense Kelp Extract. The Kelp’s potassium, minerals, and growth hormones help harden your plants for winter. For the same reason Kelp Extract is used for a root stimulant, it will increase root growth during the winter for better spring performance. A foliar spraying of Kelp also improves fall flowering and helps with disease and pest control till the freezes come.
Apply Greensand at 40 pounds per 1000 square feet now if not done in the spring. Can do this once a year, but as with all fertilizers, you can put too much down. A soil test is highly recommended. Greensand is important because it contains many trace minerals. Iron may not be (probably isn’t) the only deficiency.
Apply pre-emergent Corn Gluten Meal to prevent winter weeds from germinating. If used with Humate, it is also an excellent fertilizer for the established grass, gardens, and plantings, so it will constitute your fall fertilizing.
Watering and Mowing
Don’t stop watering, but cut back to an inch every two weeks if it doesn’t rain. Better to water in the morning. Letting the grass go a little dry is better.
Water plants and turf before freezes. Hydrated plants are hardier, especially evergreen plants. Moist soil also holds more of the daytime warmth.
Keep mowing at same height until first killing freeze. Collect fallen tree leaves with mower bag, then use them as mulch or in compost.
Pests, Disease and Weeds
Watch for grub worm damage also. Grub worm damage results in yellowed areas, less regular in shape than brown patch, and more damaging since roots are eaten. If runners and blades pull easily from the soil and if you find 5 to 10 grub worms or more per square foot, you should treat the area with beneficial nematodes. Grub worms can attack any type of turf grass. We don’t recommend those sandals with spikes on the bottom for aerating, but it’s been suggested that they can diminish your grubs if they are plentiful, by stomping around in the grass, impaling them. If nothing else, revenge will sooth your psyche, and the neighbors will be entertained.
Try to eliminate non-grassy weeds in your lawn, clover, dandelions, henbit and chickweed, with 8-10% vinegar before it turns cold. You won’t get another chance till spring, and by then the weeds may have gone to seed before you can get pre-emergent corn glutten meal down.
Once leaf drop begins in earnest, do not let wet leaves stay on the lawn. Wet leaves block beneficial sunlight and keep grass wet, increasing the chances of disease. Mow the lawn regularly to shred leaves into the turf, or rake them and add them to your compost pile.
In sandy soil areas, late fall and early winter is an ideal time to adjust highly acidic lawn and garden soils. Most grasses, except centipede, and most vegetable garden plants prefer a slightly acidic to neutral soil pH. Many locations in East Texas have soils which are strongly acidic which limits the potential of plant growth. The only way to know for certain whether your lawn or garden needs an application of agricultural lime, and how much is needed, is to have the soil tested for pH. Most soils, however, do not require yearly applications. Test to be sure.
General Pests and Diseases
To reduce feeding and breeding sites of pests such as crickets and cockroaches, remove any dense vegetation that is right next to the house foundation and clean up piles of bricks, stones, wood or other debris. If you store firewood outdoors, get it up off the ground and away from the house and oak trees to help keep bugs out and to keep pest and disease in the wood or bark from infecting your landscape. If possible, stack it with the bark side up or cover the wood to repel rain.
Insects can still be a major problem this month, particularly if the weather is hot. Watch for whiteflies, spider mites, aphids, and scale.
If you have nematode problems in your garden, forego a fall garden and go with Elbon rye. Add compost, fertilizer, till and seed.
Apply a band treatment of DE around outside of house, also along baseboards, to kill household pests before they come in for winter.
Other Things to Do This Month
Mulch all bare soil with an organic mulch. Hardwood , cedar, and pine needle mulch are best. Pecan Shell and Cypress mulch is also good. If it is partially composted or mixed with compost, is better. Don’t use the rubber, colored wood, and pine bark mulches.
Make a compost pile.
Prepare new planting beds for the spring.
If you are having continuous problems with your lawn, garden, or other plants, do a soil test to see if your soil is ok. Try “Texas Plant & Soil Lab” at 5115 West Monte Cristo Road, Edinburg, Texas 78541-8852, 956-383-0739. They can give you organic recommendations.
This is the best time of the year to design a new landscape. Current plantings can be moved if need be, it’s not too cold to work the soil, and the holidays haven’t used up all of your disposable income. Come to Rohde’s and let Sally help you with your designs.
Feed and water the birds! Rohde’s has a large selection of birdhouses, feeders, water baths, and bird/squirrel foods, seeds, and suet cakes. Consider a second birdbath to fill with play sand for birds to “dust” in. This is as popular an activity as bathing is to birds.
Root and top-prune native plants that you want to transplant in winter.
Do maintenance on your garden tools. If you’re not going to use your gas powered tools again this year, wash the dirt off, run them dry of gasoline and/or add gas stabilization liquid stuff to the gas cans and gas tanks to prevent the gasoline from turning to varnish. Change oil in motors. Remove spark plugs and squirt some new motor oil in the cylinder(s) and turn the motor over to lube the cylinder walls. Sand your ruff wooden tool handles smooth and wipe with a penetrating wood oil or sealant. For the metal end of your tools, clean, sharpen, and wipe with a silicon rust preventative; 3-in-1 oil, WD-40, Gun oils, etc. Drain, coil and shelter garden hoses and sprinklers. Anything with rubber tires on them, cover, shelter or protect from the sunlight and the elements.
Most of this calendar is design for Dallas, Tx in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a, where the predominant soil type is blackland prairie clay.
Pyramids
In the early 1960 I traveled with my family to Peru, by car.
During this trek we were lucky enough to have enough time to veer of the Pan-American Highway in search of sites to be seen. Our major stop in Mexico was The Big City of Mexico.
After two weeks in the capital we headed towards Guatemala with a stop in Palenque, Mexico where we saw some big Mayan Pyramids. I remember that we were the only “gringos” on site and got a lot of attention for that. As an eight year old I do not remember being impressed by the size of the structure or the fact that it was made out of heavy stones without the use of heavy machinery.
From Palenque we headed back to the Pan-American Highway and south to Guatemala. We arrived into Tikal Park late in the morning and knew that we were not going to have a lot of time to spend at this site. That was a shame too!
We were able to climb up to the top of the tallest structure and looked around.
I was impressed, even through some vegetation still partialy covered some of the pyramids you could see what I thought were hundreds of structures near each other. I was told that each pyramid was built for a king or one of their family members.
We wanted to stay longer, but my dad said we had to go after only a few hours at this site. We were still four hours away from the capital city where and we were supossed to meet some old friends of my parents. That plus driveing after dark on the narrow highways was not very safe.
My siblings and I were dissapointed since it seemed like a fun place to spend the day, so much to see, so little time.
After two months in central America and the Northern part of South America we finally arrived in Peru. My brother Laurence and I did find several pyramids in and about Lima. At first the pyramids seemed exciting as we dared to imagine what riches were burried deep beneath these stoned covered structures.
Howevere, our excitement of discovering gold and becoming famious young “gold finders” never panned out, as we gave up our quest after only one days effort, several blisters and thirst for water.
Several years would pass before I saw any other Pyramids.
When I did I was in my thirties and more immpresed then previous encounters. On a trip to Cancun with with my family we took a tour to Chichen Itza.
Really, one of the most amazing sites I had seen up to that point of my life. I was in awe of the straight lines, the level rockwork, the quantity of stone used. The wonder of where all the materials came from?
Victor and I raced to the top of the pyramid, where I was stunned by the view of the jungles that surrounded us. I kept looking out at the distance wondering how far away the pyramids were that I had visited with my parents and siblings.
However, it was not long before I noticed that something was wrong with my son. He had stopped sweating; his skin had turned red and seemed to be getting brighter by the minute. When I tried asking him if he was well he could not answer. He tried taking a step towards me and almost fell.
I touched his cheeks and felt so much heat that I thought he was going to burn up.
I looked for some shade and could not find ant on top of this stone structure.
"Water, water?" I screamed to other tourist around.
Nobody had any to spare.
“I will buy your water!”
Nobody offered.
Finally, I lifted Victor’s t-shirt over his head noticing that it was somewhat damp. I wrapped it around his neck hoping to cool the blood as it pumped through the veins running under the skins surface. “Water? Please, any one have some water?”
After a few minutes Sandra made it up to the top of the pyramid, noticing a crowd had gathered at the opposite side, she walked over thinking that it was a tour guide explaining the details of the pyramid.
And then she saw Victor sitting down on the ground with people near by shading him from the hot sun. She saw me next to him holding the t-shirt around Victor’s neck and slowly pouring water from a bottle that some other tourist finally gave to me.
Sandra approached us fright in her eyes, a bottle of water in one hand her other hand twisting the cap off. As soon as she was near her son she started to pour the water over his head, slowly not wanting to waste any of this life saving fluid, stopping periodically to make sure that the water was not being wasted as it ran down his head. She would move her hand through Victor’s hair trying to cool him off.
As Victor’s color began to change back to his vampire white skin, the crowd began to disperse. The excitement was over for some; others seemed relived that the young boy would not die.
Within a few minutes Victor was on his feet still a little confused , but talking coherently.
“I want off of this thing. Let’s go,” complained the unexcited young boy as he reminded me of my first unimpressed view of a pyramid.
During March of 2000 I took my family on a trip to China. There we saw more pyramids. From a far they looked like mounds of dirt built up to store soil for some reason or another.
As we approached the pyramids looked like mounds of dirt built up to store soil for some reason or another.
“What the heck are we doing out here,” I wondered?
Well the good news was that the tour bus had not stopped so that we could get out and look at these mounds of dirt built up to store soil for some reason or another.
It was several miles later that we disembarked from our bus and walked into a large covered building where an excavation was underway under what used to be a large mound of dirt. There we were in front of one of the most recently discovered pyramids. Just as all the other mounds of dirt that we passed, this one though was being excavated.
XIAN and the Terra-cotta soldiers were being dug up after centuries of silent protection over their emperor Qin Shi Huang, I was impressed.
And so were Victor, Assisi and my now ex-wife Sandra. We walked slowly, absorbedly, trying to see the differences in the soldiers, the weapons that they carried, the rankings that distinguished the generals from the lower classes.
This time the temperatures were perfect, I had no fear of any harm coming to my son, my family. We were on a tour that only allowed three hours to spend here amongst thousands, 10’s of thousands of life size clay figures, soldiers, horses, carriages, spears and swords all in place to keep their emperors enemies away, even after his death and through eternity.
My next big trip after China was back to the land of my youth.
For the first time I took my family to the country where I grew up I had to WOW! Them.
When they saw the pyramids the Incas built in and around Lima they were not impressed, and I understood why. They were not colossal monuments as those they had seen in Mexico nor did they contain chambers filled with soldiers and riches to protect and ensure the nobility of the deceased emperor were safe.
The Peruvian pyramids were boring to look at in comparison of what we had seen, even though one still marvels at how primitive civilizations constructed these monuments to their kings.
But, a few days latterwhen we arrived in Cuzco and saw the great walls raised either for housing or fortifications my kids awed.
How could stones bigger then semi trucks and because they were solid granite, heavier then those trucks, how could they be moved one inch? One foot? How could they have been moved from miles and miles away and then stacked on top of each other with such precision that not even a sheet of paper would slide between two stones?
Of course we went to Machu Pichu and saw the ruins of this ancient civilization. The beauty of it was not only the structures but also the panoramic view of the valley bellow and the mountains that surrounded this site.
Both my children realized that we were in a location that only a few world inhabitants would never see, but for those who would it was more then just a visual memory that would remain imprinted in our minds forever.
This city was mystical.
As the morning clouds heavy with moisture cloaked the valley one feels as if God is preparing you for something. Something extraordinary!
Even though there were hundreds of people the silence was evident. You could here whispers and the gentle winds, but only if you held your breath.
As the clouds burnt away by the warming sun, the “The Lost City of The Incas” became visible. The green lush grounds surrounded the stone structures allowing the moist gray granite stone to reflect the sunlight back into the heavens.
We wandered around Machu Pichu for hours mesmerized by the views. Thankful to be so near the havens. When we left I know that I felt blessed for having been there. For having been able to take my children to such a remote and beautiful location in the world.
Now my turn has come for what I must admit is my most anticipated trip ever. This will be the third time that I have tried to go, this time I am not turning back. I will let no excuse spoil my journey.
Desert Storm spoiled my first planed trip in 1991. I was to leave a week after the US attacked Iraq. Without asking I received a full refund for my already paid vacation.
Last year, I was supposed to go again and had transferred my miles for my tickets five months before my departure date. However, two weeks before I was to pay for my tour package, I received an invitation from my classmates announcing the 35th anniversary of our High School graduation in lima, Peru.
This was one that would go down in history since all graduates from our school would be attending. There were still survivors of the first graduating class way back in 1933.
This year I will be traveling to the Middle East where I will be joining a group for a tour called ‘The Exodus.” We will be following the trail that Moses used to lead his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
I will see sites and structures that will more then likely appease my desire for future travels. But, I will go anyway.
I hope that upon my return I will be able to tell you about my trip, about the grandeur of the pyramids, the lavish designs of the chambers and funerary artifacts.
I hope I get to tell you of the beauty of the desert, the colors of the Red Sea.
I hope, I hope.