Apifera Farm - where art, story, animals & woman merge. Home to artist Katherine Dunn

Apifera Farm is a registered 501 [c][3]. #EIN# 82-2236486

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©Katherine Dunn.





Monday, February 20, 2006

Everyone needs a hat made of a bucket

I love hats, and last week made some pieces based on unique farm hats - I can't wait to make them in 3-D and offer them at the local farmer's market. I just think farmers can use more options to seed hats. In the meantime, you can buy these pieces online.

I awoke at 2am with chills all over my body and a fever. I haven't had the flu for awhile. I think I'll curl up with a pad of paper and revise for the 100th time our farm goals. We had a local lavender grower stop over yesterday to look at our antique seed cleaner gleaned from an old farm up the way - He has about 500 plants, compared to our 4,700, and gets a chuckle out of our non-weed barrier, non-spray approach [another thing on my list this week, getting our organic status started]. A nice man, and has been very generous to share his growing experience. What I walked away from after our meeting was: 1] We have a lot of lavender 2] We have more plants in ground than any local grower - most have about 500-1000 3] We need to find some big companies 4] If we do, things will be fine 5] We will. Somehow, I feel calm about it.

In the meantime, it is one more cold day - for Oregon - and one more day of hauling water to the barns in buckets since we turned our pump off so as not to bust it. Hauling water is not pleasant, especially with the flu. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and this is weeny, as today I could fall on a rock and die, so I should enjoy this one too - funny how the day after you feel lousy though, you feel so darn good.

If you want to lift me up, treat yourself to some online items newly loaded on the farm site.- like these sweet little sachets. Tell someone you live on a 22 acre lavender farm in the wine district and are an artist and grow lavender and sheep, and they make all sorts of assumptions about your income. We live month to month like most everyone. It's tight. But we scoped out our vegetable bed on Sunday, and we hope to be more self sustaining by fall. I just don't know if I'm up to culling out some meat lambs - yes, the re-occuring challenge for me - Eating my own livestock. One friend recently shared what an old farmer had told her : "If you have live stock, sooner or later you'll have dead stock. " I'm too tired to write about this eloquately - is that spelled right - too tired to spell right. Buy something or tell a friend to. Reach out through the lines to a shepherd girl all sick and feverish.