Know thine enemy...

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer...

Though I haven't been able to find a published source of this quote, I'm pretty sure who ever said it first was referring to the art of organic farming. Despite the desire to make organic farming this symbiotic act of love between each creature, plant, and environment it seems like growing food is a constant battle... a  fight with the weather, a war with critters, and an all out battle with weeds. I think over half of our day is spent either figuring out how to keep pests out of the garden (grasshopper frenzy, hungry deer, and pesky raccoons), how to keep the veggie plants from dying (too much rain, not enough sun, not enough irrigation, too hot in the tunnel), or how to keep the weeds from taking over the garden. Jake keeps trying to figure out a way for the plants to weed themselves... or at least get to know what the weeds are and which ones are the most troublesome. The number of grasshoppers increased ten-fold from the year 2008-2009 which made for a serious hardship on many farmers. Mona and Carol lost a large amount of their gardens due to grasshopper infestations in July. The grasshopper outlook for this year is said to be as bad if not worse this year. Many areas spray for the grasshoppers, but, being an organic farm- spraying is not an option...hence the turkeys, guinea hens, and chickens.

Luckily, Jake and I aren't the only one's fighting this battle...we have the help of Steve and Mona (our WWOOF hosts), Bob and Carol (Mona's CSA partner), and fellow WWOOFers from time to time. We had what will most likely turn into a bi-monthly WWOOF dinner at Carol's place. Bob made yummy chicken enchiladas (from organic chicken), salad (lettuce from the greenhouse, radishes from Carols garden, and eggs from a neighbor), and dessert with berries and pineapple (well, this wasn't local but was really good). It was great to meet Katie, the WWOOFer staying with Carol- she'll be here till Tuesday then Carol will get 3 more WWOOFers in a couple of weeks.

 Jake, me, Mona, and Steve after a great dinner at Bob and Carol's place.

Carol, Katie, and me (hmm...forgot the sunscreen)








 Good thing for friends...(including you for reading this blog :)

City Pups to country dogs

Happy and Eli have sure gotten used to spending the day at work with us, running around with Belle, jumping in the creek to cool off, and wandering around to follow all of the smells. The best thing is that they come home completely pooped, and lay nearly comatose by us for the rest of the night. This is especially good since Jake and I feel about the same after a long day working...despite intentions to do productive things like clean or learn to play the guitar, we sit or lay in a near dream-like state, trying to make it until at least 9 o'clock before we pass out for the night.

We knew that working on a farm would be difficult, and that it would take a lot out of us...but -wow- this is intense! Jake has more energy than I do, it seems like I can go pretty strong for a couple of weeks but then require a full day of nothing but laying around and napping all day. Despite the hard work (or, maybe because of it) we love it...playing in the dirt and mud, watching things grow, making things work and constructing things that we'd never done before...it's kind of like being a kid again. We've gotten into a bit of a routine here; sitting in front of our computers in the morning with our coffee or tea, then bike to the farm with the dogs running beside us,  we water the greenhouse and tunnels and take care of the birds (the turkeys, guineas, and chickens have started coming out of their coop and exploring but not while the dogs are there), then we plant or weed or do what needs doing for the day...somewhere in there we eat some lunch... and when we're done we head back to the trailer to make some dinner. Oh, and then I must lather my hands with Hand salve to prevent them from feeling like old lady farmer hands...

Mona's CSA partner, Carol, has a WWOOFer working with her for two weeks, we were able to meet and hang out with her the other night. Then on Tuesday for my birthday Jake and I went into Sheridan for lunch and to go grocery shopping. We were going to stay to see a movie but there wasn't anything we really wanted to see and we would have had to wait a couple of hours for a movie to start, so we just drove back to the farm and watched a DVD and had some ice cream.

The first CSA delivery should be happening in a couple of weeks so we are anxiously awaiting our little veggies to keep growing. The past few weeks have been pretty cloudy and rainy so we're hoping that the warmer temperatures and increased sunshine in the forecast will help them grow. Until then we'll keep planting, keep weeding, and keep on truckin'...  :)

Perspective

                           It's all a matter of perspective...

 I guess I'm somewhere in the middle;

always growing,

always reaching





It's kind of funny- we've been here for well over a month now and just today we ventured out to see the blue heron roosts. They are a mere half mile away from were we've been toiling away each day, but it's taken us this long to 'take the time' to visit it. In just this short distance it felt like we'd discovered an entirely different place. Instead of pasture, garden, and dirt I saw tall grass, enormous trees and  beautiful birds. In the place of cattle and straight fences were downed trees and huge mushrooms... this little oasis had been there the whole time we had but we hadn't seen it. It wasn't hiding itself from us and we didn't need an invitation to go there, but we went along with our busy days, not even thinking twice that there was 'more' out there...

How often does this happen? How much do we take for granted and miss out on just because we are too busy with our day to day routine that we fail to explore and realize just how much 'more' really is out there. Then not only do we not ever experience that 'more', we just don't care about it...we could care less what happens to those places out there that we'll never see or feel. We become apathetic to the very existence of those creatures who depend on us to -without a better way to put this- not destroy their homes.

Going the distance

Jake and I (and the dogs) made a trip back to Salt Lake over the weekend. We left Friday morning and made the 9 hour drive to Utah in the trusty mini-van... Geez, that's a long, boring drive...
Jake's sister Jen, her husband, and their daughter were having a going away party since they're moving up to Alaska as I type. It was nice to be back in civilization and to be able to visit with family, despite the shortness of the trip.

Jake and Xim playing in the dirt

Ian Slackroping... he was the best, the rest of us had to use something to hang onto.

Jake, his sister Jeannie and niece Caydantz, his sister Jen and niece Xim







 Monday morning we drove back to the farm and by this morning we were back to work. In just a short 4 days the turkeys, guinea hens, and chickens grew like weeds (and the weeds grew like weeds as well). While we were gone the turkeys and guineas were moved from the greenhouse into their new, fancy coop, (which by the way they love!)

Happy and Eli came to work with us today as well... such hard little workers they are:

All 'cooped' up

I'm sure I'll be cursing the never-ending sunshine and heat come late summer but at this point in time I could really use more than one nice, sunny day. Between rain, snow, and wind, the weather here has been anything but predictable...but I suppose that is the only thing that is constant- change.

Despite the crazy weather we have been able to get quite a bit accomplished; one of Jake's big projects being the chicken coop. He started it over a week ago and due to the --weather-- is just now getting close to finishing it. I think it is looking pretty cool, hopefully the turkeys and guinea hens love it too!!

 The very beginning

 Getting the frame up

 The back and bottom sides up, and the door is built (I built the door :)  )

 Getting close to completion, chicken wire is on the door and upper sides to allow for vents...Jake just needs to finish the front and floor!







 In addition to coop building we have been up to ...more planting, yeah!!! Cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and trees. When we planted trees on Sunday in the 'other' garden (the 14 acre fully fenced garden/orchard across the creek) we were able to bring Happy and Eli with us since they could run around and we didn't have to worry about them running off. It was cool to bring them with us and let them tire themselves out!! Too bad they don't listen very good or we could bring them with us everyday...just too many exciting sights and smells to worry about listening to us... 

We also finished up the drip irrigation system for the new high tunnel over the weekend. Jake did lots of gluing of PVC pipe and I did lots of cutting of PVC pipe and drilling holes into it... there are a few leaks that need to be fixed but it's almost totally done now!! The water will be pumped in from the creek and we will be able to turn it on and off with a switch- so much better than spending over an hour each day hand watering the tunnel!!

Barn Kitty...

Ode to Mud

Oh dearest Mud...

         Without you
our shoes would be clean,
our floors would shine,
our knees would be dry, and
our pants would weigh less than 10 pounds...

we could walk (and drive) without slipping,
our bums would stay dry,
doggies wouldn't bring you in, and
our hands could get clean

    But with you
we are not in drought
the alfalfa is green and flowers are purple
the plants and trees can drink up your excess
and all is well...


Well...ok. Between the snow we got last week and the rain we are getting today we have been engulfed in mud over the past week (not to mention most of the past month). We walk in it, plant in it, slip and slide around in it. The dogs run around in it and track it through the trailer, we tote the watering hose around in it, we drive the van around in it...sometimes it's wet and sticky while other times it's deceiving and looks dry until you step in it and go sliding around...









 

Time

I think there is a bend in time that appears when you are in the country. There is this other dimension that you step into where time either goes by extremely fast... or it doesn't move.

That is what I've experienced so far in this month that we have been here. Yes- we have now been in Wyoming for a month... see, crazy, it's gone by so fast!! 

So....in this last month what has changed?? My body has become accustomed to waking on it's own, not to the sound of a screeching alarm or the need to be somewhere at an exact time. Time itself has become more relative since coming up here. When living in the city I always needed to know what time it was...I had to catch the bus or trax at an exact time, be at work at a certain time, see a patient at a specific time, get home to feed and walk the dogs...and so on and so on... but here I wake when the light comes up, we head out to work after we've eaten and checked our email, come home for lunch when we're hungry, and leave work when we're done. All of this being done without any clocks or alarms...just doing what feels natural and right. The only 'clock' in our trailer is that on my computer (and one on the itouch), but other than that we just use the amount of light left in the day to judge things...

Time seems to go by pretty fast when we're working outside or in the greenhouse. It doesn't trudge along like it used to at 'work'...waiting for the hours and minutes to pass so that I could go home... time just flows; we work, we eat, we sleep, (and do other things in-between), but it doesn't feel choppy and disconnected like it was just a mere month ago.

We don't lock our doors. We don't use our turn signal or even wear seatbelts driving in town (cause we're on a dirt road- if we go onto a paved road the seat belts are clicked in place :) ). We cook more and make extremely good meals (when we have the energy). We're very thankful for the mud room. Almost all of our clothes head into the washer caked in dirt and our tan lines are starting to show. We piss each other off daily and have learned that we work and think very differently, (but can work together despite that). We still stare at our computer screens way too much.

We are heading back to SLC in less than 2 weeks for a visit...should be interesting to see how time changes when we leave our country vortex.

Signs of life

Slowly but surely spring is making it's way known around here. The insane wind and spring showers have outnumbered the clear, calm days but that hasn't stopped nature from awakening.

We spent several days this week just securing things down from the often 60+ mile an hour gusts of wind.  On Wednesday it attempted to uproot the 96 foot high tunnel, which was housing onions, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, and peas. Luckily, with the help of a tractor and massive amounts of muscle power we were able to get it back into the ground and secured so that it didn't take off like a huge kite.

We have also been doing more planting and transplanting...and watching little sprouts emerge from the soil. It is a pretty cool feeling to see all of these little green plants come to life from where you buried their seeds just a short time ago. It's amazing how seeing these little blossoms and sprouts can awaken your own soul...

Unfortunately amid all of these new lives springing up we lost a little black hen. Yesterday we made a little pen in the greenhouse for the turkeys since they are getting to big for the tub (and the coop hasn't been finished yet)...plus they kept flying out of the tub and eating onions in the greenhouse- silly turkeys!

They look like little prisoners, but soon enough will have free range and all the grasshoppers they can eat!!





We've also been planting trees outside; apple, wild plum, cottonwood, aspen, and cherry. Soon we'll finish planting veggies in the tunnels and begin planting outside when the threat of frost ends. There will be strawberries, melons, rhubarb, corn, cucumber, more tomatoes, peppers, and much more!!