This post covers both Thursday and Friday of this week. Chris and I finished and submitted all the remaining tax returns on Wednesday, concluding a week-long marathon of tax preparation. With those out of my hair, I was free to get back to farming duties, the immediate one being taking delivery of the new (to me) equipment trailer. Thursday I loaded up the tractor, tiller, some hay, and headed up to Breeze to (a) mulch between our black plastic rows (b) till up the corn patch (c) plant 4 rows. I got a late start, but since Chris was teaching last night, I had no deadline and got home around 8:00PM. This morning I was back up there by noon, hooked up irrigation lines, and brought the tractor home. I’m not completely happy with the hay-only mulch approach, but that’s what is in place at the moment.
akgreen Farm Journal
After church, Noah, Kyle Young, and I cleaned out the stalls so we could empty the shavings Noah and I bought yesterday. Another smelly, dirty job, but barn is much nicer now.
akgreen Farm Journal
I spent most of the late morning creating and turning manure. This is a smelly, unpleasant job, but has to be done. Maybe I’ll include some photo’s of my beautiful Manure Mountain.
Pleasanter late afternoon was spent wine tasting at the Iron Gate Winery in preparation for the next gala dinner. A good time was had by all, and then we went out to Cracker Barrel with Erin’s family.
I am making progress on taxes, but they aren’t done yet. Coming soon.
akgreen Farm Journal
After the marathon trip north the last few days for Ian Todd’s funeral, a quiet day at the farm seemed a good alternative. I spent most of the day up at the Breeze farm mowing, tacking down plastic, and planting more onions. The onions are poking up already so we may have a good crop of those.
Back at home, we are watching broccoli, cauliflower, and collards get started. The rest of the evening was mostly devoted to taxes.
akgreen Farm Journal
Not a lot of farming going on today other than the administration of said farm. It was time to catch up on financial items so I paid bills and reconciled bank accounts all morning. But I also got to deposit some receipts in the farm account, which is the bottom line. Late in the afternoon I went out to Breeze to do some irrigating.
Not much else to report. Quiet day otherwise.
akgreen Farm Journal
Up at 6:30 for the sunrise service and breakfast. Chris was sick today and didn’t go to church, but otherwise it was a beautiful Easter service. After church I went to visit a fellow ABANA member who is in Durham Regional Hospital and not expected to ever regain consciousness. I talked to him and prayed for him for about 1/2 hour, and quietly left. It was like visiting Michael, or my Mom – the person you knew is just not there anymore. I can hope that he is with Christ Jesus, as this day reminds us we can be when we are absent from the body, but I don’t know how much comfort that affords his wife.
Later today David and Tim and their families and Diane and Brooke arrived for Easter dinner. It was a delicious dinner, but without Chris (who went to bed as soon as she got dinner out).
I am grateful for the family – immediate and extended – that I live in. To me, it is the essence of the Easter message.
akgreen Farm Journal
This morning I hooked up the trailer to the tractor and created an instant float for the Easter Parade. I used a hog-panel for the baby goats and a cage for some bunnies. I added KC for good measure, and Riley and Brooke rode along as the obligatory Beauty, and we were in business. By parade time, Mykah and Jaryn showed up with Grandpa Swift, so they rode too. All in all the parade was a lot of fun and the kids loved the little mobile petting zoo we had. (I’ll add a picture when I get one).
After the hot dog lunch, I came back to the farm and worked on the water and planting some weird peas Chris had sprouted. It will be a miracle if they grow, but they were FREE so of course we have to plant them.
akgreen Farm Journal
Up early this morning to repair the bedder and get it loaded for Pass 2 up at Breeze. Ray Tice came over to help, thank God, and between the two of us we were able to get the repair complete and everything loaded by 10, and get up to Breeze by 10:30. The main problem was bearing for the right-lead harrow. I resigned myself to not being able to fix the bearing, so I swapped the front and back discs and bolted the rear one tight, hoping that having a static (non-rotating) disc would do the job. I also had to straighten out the mount, which was 1 1/2″ steel, and the forge came in handy for that. Well, it worked.
When Ray and I arrived, Marcia, Gretchen, Dave Rameriz, and Jennifer were already on the scene. Ray got busy tilling while the rest of us attached irrigation problems. Once done with his plot, Dave took over and tilled some of his, and then we bedded Ray and Marcia’s. It looks great. Then a few rows for Dave, a surprise lunch from Marcia, and we finished up the afternoon with Yingling thoughtfully provided by Gretchen. Hard work, but a lot accomplished.
akgreen Farm Journal
I am making an April Fool’s day resolution to be more faithful keeping up with our journal. I find that as mundane and repetitive it seems sometimes, being able to go to the archives is very handy, and also serves as a good communication vehicle. So: today.
This morning we hosted a field trip(?) for an Agrarian Theology class from Duke Divinity school, led by Professor Norman Wirzba. It is always fun to talk about things that are important to you, and the class politely provided us with that opportunity. Unexpectedly, their parting gift was a book of essays and photographs edited by Dr. Wirzba, who authored the introductory essay. He writes beautifully, which I probably should not be surprised at, but it is always a delight to find.
Our afternoon was consumed by planting and repairs. Around 4:30 I went to “borrow” my flatbed to load implements for Friday’s bed/mulch party up at Breeze and returned home to find the vet here with Katherine to discuss Elderberry’s fertility plan (I think). When I started loading the bedder, I noticed that one of the discs was wobbling around, and on closer inspection, found that the bearing has been completely destroyed. Great. What am I going to do about tomorrow’s work? The only ag supply store open into the evening is Tractor Supply, and their online catalog featured a bunch of different bearings. In the hope that one might fit I made the trip to Burlington, but although I bought some parts, I think the repair is going to have to be something I jury-rig in the morning. And that’s where the day ended. We’ll see how it turns out tomorrow.
akgreen Farm Journal
Connor Huntington visited us today for “farm camp”. I hope he enjoyed himself because he worked hard. We planted about 500′ of potato varieties at Breeze, as well as do a number of maintenance chores.
Our evening was very discouraging. Chris and I attended a “listening session” hosted by the Farm Bureau to discuss the potential impacts of the Food Safety Acts (HR2749 and S510). By the end of the evening, we were numb. If even a fraction of the proposed regulations are applied to small farms like ours, we will be out of business – pretty much like all the small dairy operations are gone. We just cannot afford to comply with everything. Most galling is that the legislators who are jumping on the band-wagon have no idea what they are doing.
akgreen Farm Journal