Summertime, When the Living is Easy...?

Seriously?!?

I would love to know…just WHO makes up these sayings? Are they all just a very vivid figment of Hollywood’s imagination or a part of Madison Avenue’s skewed view of American life?

The living is never easy on a farm. I am not complaining, nor am I bragging. It is a simple statement of fact. While today’s farmers have it much easier than our forebears, we still face life and death struggles on a daily basis. In our case, it is a matter of choice…a choice that we made with some cognizance of the difficulties that we would face. Personally, there is nothing else I would rather do. I also readily acknowledge that other folks work much harder and longer than we do.

However…

In the past week, we…

-took the spent layers to the zoo to become tiger food

-pulled out the spent lettuce and greens from the hoophouse to become chicken food

-spent at least 4 hours making the fallen corn crop stand again


-fed our own flocks 14 times

-collected, sorted and washed eggs 7 times

-moved the broiler chicks onto pasture

-picked up day-old chicks from post office, put them in the brooder

-picked hundreds of pounds of produce


-cleaned those hundreds of pounds of produce


-re-organized the cooler to hold more veggies

-did the feed store/bank/grocery run

-took a load of farm trash to the dump

-planted 200 pounds of potatoes

-hauled a load of hay


-stacked the hay in the barn

-made numerous odd repair jobs around the farm

-started more lettuce/greens/squash and cucumbers

-did battle with the bugs

-planted more cucumbers and squash

-mulched in those cucurbit crops


-checked the peach crop, picked peaches, found a pest issue

-made plans to freeze the rest of the peaches for winter sales

-mowed the garden paths and other grass around the place

-rose at 4am,

packed for Market, attended the Market, finished #1 in sales

I am sure I forgot something.

On a personal note, I did laundry, made a stab out housekeeping, baked bread, worked on the books for the farm, paid bills, made pickles and relish and baked a dessert for the weekend. I even found time to buy a birthday present AND treat myself to a milkshake. It has been a good week!

This week was not unusually busy. Next week, we will be pulling onions instead of planting potatoes and planting broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower instead of hauling hay. The following week we will be hauling lambs to the processor again. And so it goes.

Farm life is a lot of hard work, especially in the summer. You know the saying “make hay while the sun shines”? There is a reason for that one. In order for all of us to eat, farmers need to know how to utilize the somewhat short summer season to its best advantage to produce abundant food.

So, call living in the summertime productive, challenging, inspiring, taxing, hot, amazing, sometimes fun, tiring, rewarding… …anything…ANYTHING… just not EASY.
Seriously!

I HATE Bugs!

I can’t stand flea beetles, Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, squash bugs,cucumber beetles, and all the rest of the little creepy, crawlies that I find eating in our gardens.

I truly hate them. It is not annoyance I feel, nor discontent, nor even frustration. No, it’s cold, calculated, murderous hatred. Yes, I would like to see all bugs stone-cold dead! Worst thing is…I really don’t think that makes me a bad person.

The hungry bugs can completely destroy a crop with a meal or two.
The plants become weakened and cannot produce up to their potential. In some cases, the plants actually die before they ever become mature enough to produce a crop. The fruit of these plants is often small and deformed, totally unfit for sale.

Not only do the bugs eat things, but they leave behind a great deal of “droppings”, too.

This causes extra work in getting the crop ready for the Market, as we must clean it carefully. Sometimes, we don’t even attempt to sell the crop, as the damage is so great. The "gross factor" also must be considered. No one wants to eat bug poop!

My desire for methodical annihilation must be tempered by reason and greatly restrained. If we were to kill all the bugs…well, we would kill ALL the bugs. If, for example,
we were solely focused on eliminating the little striped cucumber beetle in this picture, we could very well kill the pollinator bee as well.

Without pollinators, our work would cease to exist. Growing some crops would be virtually impossible if we didn’t have the “good” bugs. The honeybee population has dwindled greatly in the past few years. There are some folks who would link this decline to the massive use of pesticides in the US.

Any pesticide, organic or not, is toxic. The very word pesticide means “any compound killing insects.” The labels all warn of unintentional killing or sickening of pollinators and fish. This knowledge truly tempers my murderous urges.

Serious consideration needs to be given to the other elements of our environment whenever we attempt to solve a problem. All too often, our “solution” creates a number of other problems.

So, I won’t be killing all the bugs. But, we will make judicious use of natural pesticides in order to be able to continue to raise food for ourselves and others.


…and I will feel some twisted sense of justice when I squish a few bugs as I work.

"Faith like Potatoes"

Early July finds us in the “fall potato” patch, tilling, planting, and raking for the new crop.


Generally speaking, this is a great leap of faith. In July, the garden soil is dry and dusty; the promise of rain is always somewhat elusive. But, we plant the seed potatoes, praying all the time that the rains will materialize to allow us to see the fruits of our labors.

This year, for the first time I can remember in the many years we have been doing this “potato thing”, the weather was actually TOO WET for us to get the potatoes in on time. That big rain we had Monday evening meant we had to wait an extra day until the ground was dry enough to till. Then, yesterday afternoon, we received yet another big rain. There were puddles in the newly hoed potato patch. We won’t be worrying about rain for this crop.

“Faith like Potatoes”, is also the name of a movie. The 2006 movie is based on a true story of farmer Angus Buchan in South Africa. The movie is quite evangelical in tone, and portrays with harsh accuracy the brutality of farm life in South Africa, and I was deeply moved by it. Not to spoil the movie, but the upshot is” faith is like potatoes”. Just as potatoes grow beneath the surface…only found upon digging, faith is built in the deepest parts of us…we only become aware of its strength when our comfortable lives become disturbed. Personally, our lives have been disturbed (numerous times) and it has been amazing to see how our faith has grown. …and God ALWAYS provides… Sorry….didn‘t mean to wax philosophical.

Back to the potatoes…
in about 60 to 80 days, we will begin to have new potatoes, for the second time this season. New potatoes are those with the delicate skin and the fresh taste. As the potatoes age in the ground, the skin becomes thicker, allowing them to kept in storage longer. We have found that the potatoes planted in July keep so well that we have potatoes until the next harvest time the following year. If all goes according to plan, our winter customers should be able to get potatoes from us all winter. And Tom and I will also be able to enjoy all the potato recipes that we both love so much!

Last year, we had what was quite possibly our worst potato crop of all time. We planted 100 pounds of one variety, and harvested about 15 pounds. Not the return on investment anyone would expect! We returned to our regular supplier this year and are hopeful for much better results.

Quite honestly, looking at those long rows of hilled earth, it takes a great deal of faith to even begin to expect that there will be potatoes out there sometime this fall. But, based on past experience, there will be…wait and see!


Keep the faith…it is a recurring theme.

The Aftermath

After Monday’s much needed, much appreciated 1 ¾ inches of rain…we encountered a new problem. The heavy rain came with a LOT of wind. The corn went from tall and beautiful
to flat and matted.


Tom was hoping that it would stand up on its own, so we left it for a while. As the soil dried, the plants became somewhat more stable, but they didn’t stand upright. While I was in town getting supplies, he spent the better part of two hours going through the corn patch, stepping along the side of the plants, tamping the soil down so the plants would stand straight again.
As the soil was still very muddy, this only worked to some extent.

When I got back, I spent another two hours tamping down the other side of each plant,
in hopes that this would make them stand upright once more. It was slow, painstaking work in the heat of the day. But, corn plants must be upright for pollination of the ears to take place. If the tassels are not above the forming ears so that the pollen can fall down on the silks, you won’t have corn.

When I finished, the stalks were looking fairly good. We both decided that we should have gotten the corn thinned out, and maybe we would have avoided the problem. It seems that some jobs just fall through the cracks sometimes. This year it was thinning the corn. Next year, that one won’t get overlooked.

However, it looks like we got the corn back on track. Now, we just have to hope we don’t have any more wind storms before harvest.


We did get another 5/8 inch of rain after the straightening project, and the corn is still standing. Whew!

This place definitely takes a good deal of teamwork!

Feedin' the Cats

Finally! The old, spent laying hens are gone. Tom is oh, so very happy!


For months, they have caused him numerous headaches and eaten far more feed than they were worth. He has been trying to get rid of them all this time, but things just hadn’t worked out until today.

Usually, when we get rid of old hens, they are still laying some eggs and we sell them to folks looking for a few more hens for a backyard flock. We had hoped to do that this time. B & J had even offered to take them to a sale for us. But, when we began to realize how very few eggs they were indeed laying, that didn’t seem like an ethical thing to do. Yesterday, there were 17 eggs from 76 chickens. They also looked terrible. They had never recovered from their battle with the mites.

Years ago, a friend told us how she took her spent birds to the Natural Bridge Zoo. The zookeepers are always on the lookout for food for all the creatures that make their home at the zoo. This worked out wonderfully. When we would deliver old birds, we also got a free tour of the zoo. That was quite interesting…seeing behind the scenes. We hadn’t been there in a LONG time. Tom checked with the zookeeper; she would be happy to take the chickens.

Today, Tom took the old hens (B & J went along for the ride) to the zoo. I suppose some might find fault with us for ending the hens’ lives in such a fashion. But, the hens lived a good life here, fulfilled their “chicken destiny” and now provided fresh, local food for the carnivores at the zoo.


Now, the tigers can “eat more chik’n!”

Be Careful What You Wish For

We have been worrying over the weather a LOT of late. We have been praying for rain a LOT of late. I was personally praying for at least one inch of rain.




This afternoon, we got the answer to our prayers….RAIN! Lots and lots of rain! Wind, thunder and lightning were a part of the package deal. We really needed the moisture, so we were ecstatic. Presently, there is over an inch and three-quarters in the gauge, and it’s still raining.

However, I was more than a little concerned about the corn. When it rains hard and there is wind, the corn is generally flattened by the storm. This was the case this time as well.

This morning the corn was tall and straight and beautiful.

After the rain, a flattened, matted mess.


Tom assures me that it will indeed stand back up. I reckon it’s another lesson in faith. Part of me wants to run out and stand it all upright again. I did that once when the girls were very small. It took me hours, but I was so worried and felt I needed to do something. We had corn that year, and I felt that I had contributed greatly to the crop. Although, Tom pointed out that it probably would have corrected itself.

I suppose I should start being a little more specific when I request rain. Or, at least be completely accepting of the outcome. But, the grass is already greener! That is our biggest concern this time of year. We can irrigate the crops if necessary, but the grass for the sheep is completely dependent upon rain from Heaven above. That causes some pretty tense times here on the farm.

So, thank you, Lord! The sheep will be enjoying green grass once more! As for the corn…we’ll have to wait and see.

One Day Closer to Rain

Well, it’s gotten dry again. Real dry! The grass is getting brown and crunchy, the sheep paths dry and dusty. The dazzlingly beautiful days are a product of the low humidity and dry atmosphere. Other days are stiflingly hot and humid. We are headed for the Dog Days of summer.

All the neighbors have finished haying, so I asked one of them if it was okay if we start praying for rain. He chuckled at me and said “oh, yes ma’am…we NEED rain!”

Lately, all the rain has missed us. We're that little white arrow...right outside the rain area on the radar picture.
We’ve seen the storms go all around us. Sitting on our hill, we can watch the weather ride up the ridge of the Appalachians, and see when there are storms toward the Blue Ridge. A lot of times, our particular location misses out on the rain because of the proximity to the mountains. Other times, we are just a little too far away from the mountains to benefit from the moisture. It takes a storm with a certain amount of energy to make it over the hills from West VA or up the Valley from the south.

Last week, I was certain we were gonna get “the big one”. The clouds built to enormous heights. When I was talking to an egg customer at the gate, I could hear the distant rumble of thunder. Jed was convinced we were going to get hammered. He followed me everywhere. (When his “super-dog hearing” senses thunder somewhere in the continental US, he begins to worry and becomes a 100-lb Siamese twin to any human walking about the place) He cried loudly when I walked down to the hoophouse alone. He whined around the front porch until I finally allowed him to come up and sit with me. I thought I would watch the storm roll in, and possibly take some pictures. The front porch is a good storm watching spot, as it is sheltered but exposed at the same time.
We waited; we watched…the storm fell apart as it came over the mountains…only to reform elsewhere, bringing some other community the much needed rain. It was so disappointing! While I was discouraged, Jed was much relieved that the fearsome thunder was gone.

So, we wait…we try not to worry. We know we desperately need the rain, but are helpless to do anything to bring it to our crops and fields. But, every day that passes brings us one day closer to rain...one day closer to the much needed moisture. All we can do is keep the faith! It will rain again.


“Faith is the substance of things not seen, the evidence of things not seen.”