Whatcha Gonna Do?

Ever had one of those days where EVERYTHING went wrong?  That seems to be the story of my life sometimes.  Often it’s nothing too traumatic, just little annoyances along the way.

Then…sometimes you encounter a stretch that makes it hard to remember the last time something DID go right.  …and that seems to be where I am stuck right now.  I’ve been sounding a lot like Charlie Brown lately….oh ARGH! (or is it AUGH?)

The winter season has seemed incredibly grey and dark…and cold.  The combination has made hoophouse work difficult at best.  Things that should be growing are not…and the weeds that should NOT be growing have taken hold and are multiplying exponentially and threaten to overtake the entire operation.  While the weeds are a lovely shade of green, they just represent one more area of the farm that I have failed to keep under control. The opening day of the Market is bearing down on us, too.  Oh ARGH!

To add insult to injury, when I walked in hoophouse 1 the other day, I noticed a creature INSIDE the structure.  At first I thought it was one of the barn kitties.  When I said, “hey kittie…what you doin’?” it looked up.  It was NOT a cat.  It was a groundhog!  INSIDE the hoophouse!  Now, we’ve been down this road before…read this...  The startled groundhog bolted for the far end of the hoophouse where he wiggled his rotund little body THROUGH the tiny gap in the CLOSED door. Then, I noticed a number of holes dug under the sides of both houses.  This after all the work we did back in the fall during the whole groundhog invasion.  Oh…oh…ARGH!

All the fluctuations in temperature and light have also wreaked havoc in the greenhouse.  I don’t know if I just had a senior moment, a momentary lapse in my vigilance or what…but, somehow I managed to “cook” the vast majority of the broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage plants in one fell swoop.  Oh ARGH!

I’m fairly certain there are more…but, whatcha gonna do? 

I mean it.  WHAT?  I could sit around and mope…I could rant and rave and grump about it all (okay, so I did do this) or I could just get after it…do what I can…and go on.  Oh, yeah…that’s the Boss’ advice over and over when I find myself in this state of mind. It’s kind of annoying, but reassuring at the same time…knowing I can count on him.

I re-seeded the broccoli.  While it will put us at least two weeks behind…it sure beats being out the entire crop.

I spent the afternoon pulling stuff out of the hoophouse.  While I didn’t get anywhere near finished…at least we can now get some new crops planted.  …and the hens REALLY seemed to enjoy the fresh greens.

maybe I should have baited it with LETTUCE!

As for the blasted groundhog…I set up barriers at each end of the house, and baited the trap.  Now, we’ll wait. Once the Boss recovers completely, he will be building doors for that structure, too. 

For the record, there are things that are going well…it just takes some effort to see them when other stuff is going wrong. The lambs look great.  The greens in the hoophouse (where the weeds have not overtaken) are beautiful.  The broilers are growing larger by the moment.  …and there are more positives…I am sure.

So, we'll just keep working the list...trying to stay ahead of the disasters and being thankful for the successes.



...'cause what else can we do?