Thursday, October 17, 2013

Rewind to Summer


Alas, a whole darn summer has slipped through my blogging fingers! Do you want to know why?
Or maybe you didn't notice the silent VF bloggity blog blog. That is fine, too!
I will tell you.
One part technological frustration (weird assortment of cranky cameras), one part old fashioned busy, and one part giving myself a break. The first two you get, the last one is, of course, the story of our business and life here. 'Giving myself a break' stems from the crazy winter of hospitals we had last winter and the promise to myself somewhere in one of those corridors that I would, well, give myself a break whenever and however I could for the next year. So I let the 'you should write a blog entry' voices go right out of my brain. All summer!
Here are a few summer shots I did manage to capture.  The above one is Joseph walking Lucky, our spring born steer, in the Freedom Bicentennial Parade. It was a highlight of my summer. That boy walked and talked to that calf all spring to ready themselves for the parade. Good to have a goal. And a pal.

And this is farmer Prentice, driving our Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor in the same parade. I think that is an American flag stuck in the back toolbar there.

And below, Brownie, who seemed to be in this state quite a bit this summer. A few weeks ago, Prentice had the boys rolling in laughter as he sang to the tune of any-old-tune, "Someone has busted brownie's door. It won't shut. The poor old door." Prentice thought there was a barnyard collision, perhaps--a tractor back-up into the door or something like that. But, no.
No collision. No errant motorist.
Just sag.
The frame is so rusted, the driver side door just won't shut anymore.
This will not make Brownie weather-tight.
This is yet another of Brownie's many problems.


The To Do List as of July 10 or so. You see all the gaps where things done got erased? The crew and Prentice make a To Do List every Monday morning together as they think about the week. Any one of us can make an addition as new jobs are noted.


We grew some beautiful ginger in Hoophouse 1 this summer. This is about half sized, I would say. It was a trial for us. We have sold all of it to our wholesale accounts. We did not give any to the CSA members but plan to next year. Much more to come next year, for sure. What a delight! The hoophouse smelled like warm ginger tea all summer.



The flower and pepper house--Hoophouse 2.

The newly expanded Hoophouse 3. This year it was full of tomatoes. Next year we will expand hoophouse 2 to 100ft long and fill that space with tomatoes. The winter brings the laying hens to the barnyard and they get moved into one of the hoophouses.  This year they will inhabit Hoophouse 2 for the deep winter months, feast on dropped peppers, bugs, worms and grubs and soak in the sunlight. We love that our animals are part of our farm system. As with any interconnectedness we allow or cultivate, mutual benefits abound.
One last summer shot before we fast forward to Fall with the next post. Travel safely, be well and our very best to one and all,
Polly and co.