I've always been a woman of passionate, and often disparate hobbies. Medicinal plants and dollhouses, for example. Embroidery and long-distance biking. Clogging and canning. When the time is right, a new interest can swell from the status of erstwhile fascination to all-consuming obsession over the span of just a few months. And then, sometimes, as inexplicably as it came, it will fade gently away. I'm no longer a dollhouse owner, for example. My beautiful Trek road bike hangs inverted in the garage, waiting like a patient bat for the day I'll drag it out again.
Underneath all the hobbies, however, there are some common threads. I love feeling self-sufficient. I love thrift, and ingenuity, and creativity. In the warmer months, I like to feel the sunlight, and the pull of the muscles under my skin. I've always enjoyed the weight of a well-proportioned tool in my hand, be it a seam ripper or a pickaxe. (These days, it's been more along the lines of seam rippers.) What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that I'm not as flighty as I seem. And also, that there are some things I'm into that I'll always be into.Farming is one of those.
Photo by Patrick.
For the past two weeks, Patrick and I have been logging time behind the rototiller, churning back and forth over a 4 x 20 strip of ground. I'm pleased to say, it no longer resembles the dense, weedy sod it once was. Nor is it exactly plantable yet, but we're working on that. This year is all about baby steps.
How good it feels to be moving, finally, forward into a life I've dreamed since childhood.
And how good it felt to kick my boots off on the porch and watch it gloriously pour.
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9 comments:
Are you going to plant a garden? How much of a farm are you going to have? I really want to have a garden but I'm pretty sure I'm moving into an apartment at the end of the summer.
I have a garden, but that's closer to home. And very small. The farm is further away. I'm starting really small (as you can see). If I'm successful, I might get as large as two acres of planted ground-- still pretty tiny.
Where is this field you've been tilling? btw, great to see you yesterday!
And boy how did it rain. So, do you think you'll be on the other (that would be the selling) side of the farmers markets in the future?
*p.s. I love your t-shirt in that pic.
Kami-- it's in Greene, it's land Patrick's parents own that used to be a sod farm. It was great to see you, too!
Colleen-- someday maybe I'll be selling at farmers' markets. I'm gonna start out selling to restaurants, though. Oh, at the shirt I found at Salvo. :)
I want to be a farmer too! I've always wanted to own a rototiller, but eventually found another way... sheet composting. It's also known as lasagna gardening and all you do is lay down layers of compost ingredients (starting with manure and then a quarter inch of wet newspaper, followed by leaves, more manure, straw, etc) and then walk away and let the worms and other things do all the work. We converted our entire front yard from lawn using this method. And the best part is that you end up with several inches of compost right there where you're going to do the planting.
(Or if you had chickens on your farm ;) you could let them loose and that area would be turned under in no time. That is my ultimate dream.)
Oh, and thanks for stopping by my blog.
See ya around.
i would give anything to watch it gloriously pour right now. los angeles summers make me want to drown in a pool of my own tears!
thanks for liking my blog... that makes me smile.
oh, and i want to be a farmer so bad too. and if i had a pack of alpacas, i'd be the happiest girl!
Wendy and Celia-- I'm so glad to know I'm not the only girl out there who wants to be a farmer! That beats all. Thanks.
Wendy-- I've heard about lasagna gardening, and I'm intrigued. It's something I'd like to try-- doesn't it take a season for the mulch to kill all the sod underneath?
Oh I would love to be a farmer. We are searching for our first home and want alot of land, were wishing and hoping and praying, LOVE THE SHIRT!
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