Hello Friend:
This has been a big mountain of a week on the farm. Animal sorting and hauling and processing. Hay making, and bucking, and stacking. Field mowing, and watering, and transition into fall crops. Transplanting (always transplanting), seeding, trellising and lots of weeding. The cucurbits (melons and winter squash) are beginning to run, marking the final opportunity for weeding before an impenetrable jungle ensues. The cucumbers are hitting a heavy stride, and the first rosy blush is kissing the tomatoes. The pastures are revealing their unwelcome patches of thistle and tansy, which means many hours spent cutting blooms before seed can set and spread. The sheep are settling into their hot hungry summer mischief and the pigs are doing the same, except with mud, where mud is made. Trailers and mowers and tractors and cars all need air in their tires, and grease in their bones. The shop is a jumble of projects started and finished and forgotten. Tools are everywhere...sometimes where we need them. The days are deliciously long, and the nights are too short. Cultivating and watering and harvesting sets the rhythm to our hours, the sun sets the tempo, the harvest is the melody. And all the life on the farm is the lyrical weave. This week, a Killdeer nest in our fall block (which we prepped the field around a month ago, marked by a sandbag and a little tuft of weeds), was transformed from four speckled eggs into a squeaking fluff ball of four baby Killdeer. 48hrs later, the nest was empty and the adult pair had led the chicks away to learn to forage and feed. This has been a very exciting saga for all of us, and a good reminder of why we farm the way we do. It's not just about the life IN the soil, but also the life above and around and within the fields. We want to farm at a pace and on a scale where the killdeer nests can be seen and the volunteer flowers can be left to bloom and the fields are left to rest and the food is harvested at just the right time, with all the love and intention that defines our devotion to this place. And to each other. And to you. Thank YOU! We love all the feedback, positive and constructive and philosophical and curious. We take your participation to heart, and we appreciate the time it takes to reach out and offer your minds. They are a gift.
In Gratitude,
Conner + Sarah
