Farm

Transformer Robot in the Garden
Twyla

A snippet of my morning to do list: deadhead flowers, then water all containers and tomatoes.  I love making my rounds throughout the yard watering can in tow each morning.  I feel as though I’m getting something accomplished long before the real work begins.  Scents abound as the dew slowly lifts and flowers share their unique fragrances.  I groom pots and quench them for the day ahead. Making my way to the tomatoes, one of my favourite garden plants.  Some may disagree, but I enjoy the pungent aroma that these babies emit, and even more-so, I love the fall bounty they’ll produce.

I enter the garden, shears and watering can ready.

Instinctively I take in that something is amok.  I drop the tools in hand and approach the heirlooms with trepidation.  Scanning the area, my mind racing, I realize an epic battle has taken place.  The Early-girls and Romas quiet sentinels.

Quite obviously Jess has been in the garden!

Debris lies scattered along the broad black space between the tomatoes and potatoes.  With a nod to my Dad I always leave plenty of space between the two!  Tiny pieces of white and navy blue plastic everywhere I look.  Judging by the surroundings this was quite a match.  My eyes land upon a mangled heap of dirt and white plastic.  Obviously dead.  I survey the area for more casualties.  None. Clearly this creature met his demise against whomever shed the blue bits during battle.

This scene, I swear encountered just this morning, takes me back in time.

Jess loved loves transformers!  And what better play setting than in the garden plot?  Where dirt, rocks, sand and gravel await his imagination.  I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve happened upon similar scenes, or worse, taken out a robot in disguise with the rototiller.  Oops!  A great gardener in the making, the boy is a good hand throughout the gardening season.  I marvel that all these years later, he’s 20 now, I’m finding remnants of his play.  Still a little boy at heart, do they ever grow out of it? I doubt it.

As I take it all in and debate grabbing the camera, I flashback to the days when he would list off all the members of the opposing clans.  And then quiz me on it!  An accepting interest in his passion, kept me in the game.  He loved to draw audiences in to his world.  I gladly went along.  Always cheering for the heroes, I knew just what to say when he asked who my favourite character was.

As I examine the fallen soldier, dusting away the dirt and grime, I’m relieved to see that he is not one of the good guys.  Another villain taken down, good-bye Decepticon, may you rest in peace.  I chuckle as I say out loud for all the fruits and vegetables to hear.    Call it habit or a Mother’s heartstrings –

Yes Jess, Optimus Prime is still my favourite!

 

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bales in the field
Jim

I love baling hay.

I love the smell of it when it’s freshly cut.  I love the smell of it when it’s being wrapped into bales.  I love the smell of it as I haul it down the road to the hay-yard.  I even love the smell of it when it is first stacked, awaiting its winter use.  Haying is fun for me, there’s no doubt about that.  However,  there is one thing about haying that can be a little less enjoyable.  The heat!

Of course to make hay you need that heat.  Those warm breezy mid-summer afternoons help to dry it for several days so it can be baled without spoiling.  Everyone has heard the phrase “Make hay while the sun shines.”  Actually I think it’s probably less of a saying and more of a rule.  Yeah, let’s call it a rule.  The first rule of making hay, lots of sunshine!

Now with all that sunshine, comes some pretty warm temperatures around home.  I’ve spent many days baling hay in an open station tractor with the sun glaring down, or in a cabbed tractor with no a/c and no working fan.  It can get awfully warm, dusty and sticky, baling hay.

As those hot days start coming one after the other, after the other my mind always wanders to the very same thing; water.

A lake, a river, a stream, a dugout, even a pool.  Always filled to the brim with nice, cool, refreshing, dust removing, life-giving water!   Once the thought of water enters my brain there is no getting rid of it.  I become fixated.  Normally that’s as far as it goes until I end the day.  I simply pass the hours day dreaming about swimming in some perfectly clear lake.  In reality at days end I wind up in a shower to rinse off all the dust.  But this year was going to be different!

I decided to put in a pool!

Nothing too fancy.  A small pool for sitting and visiting.  You know, sort of like a big hot-tub but without the ‘hot’.  I’ve been dreaming about it forever, but this year I was biting the bullet and installing my very own fresh water pool.  Something I can jump right into when the haying is done for the day.  I was so looking forward to it.

As it turned out, the actual installation of the pool was rather quick.  But filling it up?  That takes a bit of time.  I can’t tell you how long I waited, as I watched it fill with the garden hose I think I may have dozed off for a bit.  The good news is – it did fill and when it was finally up to overflowing I couldn’t wait.  I ran to the house to put on my trunks and in I jumped!

And holy smokes it was cold!!  I should point out that Seamus, my fellow ‘haymaker’, was first in the pool.  I was a distant second.   But we were equally frozen by the end of it!

If I could offer some advice to anyone making a similar pool, first, put a black tarp on it for a few days to the let sun warm the water a bit.  Second, install a swim-up bar.   As you can see, I put one in and it was one of the better pool ideas that day.  Finally, third, make sure the cows aren’t already using it.  They may not appreciate you in there if it’s in use.

homemade pool

What a great way to get that hay dust off and my water fixation out of the system.

I think a pool was one of my better haying ideas this year.  In fact it may become an annual thing!

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Welcome sign
Jim

Coming from a farming background Twyla and I decided from the start that we wanted to raise our family in a rural setting.  This was not because we thought farming would make us wealthy, we knew better than that!  This was a choice of lifestyle, not riches.  And now, all these years later, even though we did not become prosperous land barons, as suspected, we can say with certainty that we actually did find treasure on our farm.  Richness, it seems, comes in all shapes and sizes.

The primary goal of our farm was to raise cattle.

Over the years while we were concentrating on doing just that, we found we were soon growing so much more.  We grew grains, gardens, pets, children, recipes, friends, stories, and memories.  It has all been quite the journey.  There can be a lot of chaos at our home but if you take the time to navigate through the confusion there’s usually a laugh or two to be had and a pretty good story to tell to friends at the end.  We hope you enjoy hearing about our farming adventures as much as we do telling them.

When folks think of the rural lifestyle they often picture these smooth rolling green pastures dotted with beautiful aspens and pines, late summer flowers in blossom sprinkled about, with all sorts of farm animals standing here and there enjoying the scenic majesty of sunny mornings.  Not far away will lie abundant fields of grain beginning to ripen looking forward to the fall’s harvest.  And there, in the middle of it all, you will find a perfectly manicured lawn and in the middle of that, stands a beautiful white storey and a half weathered but wonderful farmhouse.  Just a few steps from the house grows a lush weed free garden, bountiful fruit trees; apples, cherries, plums all lining the garden’s edge.  And still a few steps further is this mighty red with white trim giant prairie barn complete with hayloft and horse stalls.  Finally this whole package is framed with perfect white painted fences and a young girl skipping along the path to the barn, milk bucket swinging in hand and humming her favourite Walt Disney theme song.   Sounds nice doesn’t it?

This does exist and you may see it…sometimes.

But usually life isn’t all nicely wrapped up for us like this.   There are times when those rolling pastures could use a little more rain and that grain could use a few less weeds and a lot less grasshoppers.  We all love aging barns but still, it’ll need some paint and a nail now and again.   Let’s not forget that garden.   Constant attention to that and the orchard is needed if we plan to have plenty of good food for the winter.  Have I mentioned fences?  Fences are in constant need of mending.  Without good fences your livestock will soon put themselves on a first name basis with the neighbouring tribe.  Not good.  Farming is rewarding, for sure, there’s not a doubt in my mind about that, but it takes a lot of work and of that I’m just as certain.

We have strived to create that picturesque farm we have all imagined and we will share with you the stories that grow with us as we try to reach that goal.  So keep an eye out for all of the ‘sugar coated’ farming experiences we plan to send your way.  They are fun.  But keep in mind life isn’t always like that, so we also plan to share with you those little things that don’t always go to script.  In our world, we tend to experience the latter far more.

I guess we can say we’re doing ok.

Most times we can drive the road of life pretty well, but of course sometimes we do end up swerving or sliding a bit and then there are those times we end up completely off that road and right through one of those nice white rail fences we’ve chatted about.  But almost always you can find something in the whole experience to laugh about…or at least to share.  Ok, I guess that brings me to the end of my very first post.  In closing, let me say this – Welcome to our little slice of rural imperfection and the tears and the laughter that have come with it.

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