It is a gorgeous day and I'm in at 2:30 taking a quick break. I took my phone down into the fields today while I mowed. I have to say you get some pretty cool effects thee days with phones and I rarely carry mine with me except in the car. I am not a texter or iphoner zombie and mainly use it for emergencies. However, I'm playing with Instagram and it is sort of fun. How many ways can a freelance-artist-farmer-writer stay connected? But any way to show photos of Marcella!
We are taking the plunge and mowing down one block of the lavender-the Provence variety which does not do well as a dried bundle but is suited for bud-and we have plenty of bud in the Grosso. We decided we will fence this section and re-plant our struggling fruit trees from the current Donkey Hug area. They are struggling not from neglect, but from the admiration the goats, pigs, sheep and now Aldo give them. My gosh, we have worked so hard to help these trees over the past years. They have been head rubbed by the pygmies, stood up to the wrath of Lucy the 300# pig, survived sheep and goats getting into their fenced cages...and more. This year I sort of let go, and I am finished with trying to grow things in an area that has evolved into a second barnyard for elders. The poor little dears [the trees, that is] will be transplanted and we will hope for new and continued life. I also want a Translucent apple tree for pies, and some filberts too. We decided we would do this so we can let the pigs out there at a certain time of year to eat fruit and nuts.
We're also going to plant some vegetables down there since we have water access. It will be yet more fencing, more work, but it is part of farming- evolving your needs and fields.
I think that is the biggest challenge-and joy-of farming for me. It is always evolving. It is always work, always something new to be challenged by. This year we are also going to get one of the upper fields ready for the sheep, to take pressure off the other fields. We cross pasture, but I need that extra land put to use, and now with Marcella, I feel better about having the flock up there out of my site.
So when I went down to the field to mow, there she was. She shows up out of nowhere. We call her a shape shifter. She followed me back to the barn, but before I even got there, she had somehow managed to place herself between me and the barnyard gang. She is a wonder. I loved how the light was bouncing off the barn on this photo of her, somewhat of a mystic she is.
So now I'm off, back out to the field to till the area where I just mowed, a woman and her tractor...and magical shape shifter. A beautiful day to be a farmer!
