day two . on the farm . neglected garden beds

Everyone eats vegetables on the farm. But this year the majority of the gardens have gone to pot. So vegetables are limited. Ah well.

Huge crops of weeds. In amongst the weeds are potatoes and peppers and tomatoes. Even my mint has disappeared. This year’s great crop is potatoes believe it or not! There are tomatoes down the back and a few peppers. But most of the gardens are just enormous weeds.

With all this great technology they keep promising, I wish there was a way for a person to be in two places at once. Not yet though. This year I have to practice fortitude in the face of disappointment. I must remember that everyone works to a different level and accept that. Forcing my own expectations onto another is wrong. And gardens are a lot of work.

So I was walking the garden beds yesterday - saying my favorite saying when tho ha don’t go well - “Ah well”.

First a few farm photos - the animals always cheer us up. ⬇️ Here is Lollipop and the compost heap which I will be turning and adding to today.

I will show you tomorrow.

Yesterday I had John hang a broken gate back up - this allowed me to put the housekeeping cows into another small barn field to clear another crop of weeds. (Why he takes gates off the moment I am out of sight I will never know). But that field is secure now and the cows continue their duties and are cleaning up two small fields.

Weeds - especially the mellow and chick weed are quite high in protein. When a cows protein intake changes too fast they get runny bottoms. So I am feeding them some hard hay every morning to counteract that.

I have locked them out of their good grass fields for the week. The objective is to keep them on field grass as long as possible. Saving the hay for when the weather is too cold for grass to grow. Here in Central Illinois that is a three month stretch - at least. So we are grass gardeners too two fields were grazed early and are now shut off for late summer/early winter grazing.

This was Ton yesterday evening - ⬆️ after a hard day sleeping under the porch.

I took Boo for a walk down the back and he was horrified. I don’t think he gets a lot of walking while I am away. He has also put on weight. So, I have bought a big mouse proof container, filled it with rice and set it beside the rice maker. John can make rice every evening - it is super easy - and mix rice with the dog food.

I hope he will continue this but once again I can set up all these systems and just hope they are co to use when I am gone again. The trick is to make things easy. Fluid. Sensible. So. Fingers crossed.

Old dogs need a lower protein feed. Less fat. Rice, an egg and a cup of kibble or soft food will be better. Hopefully Our John can keep this up.

Can you see the two frogs ⬆️ in Jude’s wallow? Rhonda fills the pig wallows with fresh water three times a week. Pigs don’t sweat; ‘sweating like a pig’ is actually not a thing, so to cool off they like to lay about in cold watery mud.

Tima ⬇️ has middle aged spread too (kune-kune pigs just look at food and put on weight) and as soon as the organic soya beans start to head up (the house is surrounded in big fields of our organic small grains) she will have to be locked up in the field. But for the moment she is still free range.

Pigs and cows cannot eat mature soy beans unless the beans are cooked. So in a bean year we work carefully to keep the pigs out.

Chickens. Nosy girls.

The fish survived the winter with a heater and a bubbler in the pond. And they are getting big! They are one of the farm successes. The winters here in Central Illinois are brutal for a girl raised on a beach in New Zealand and her fish, the fish do need extra care when thick ice seals off their pond.

John’s grandkids adore the fish and spend hours searching for frogs around the pond.

Yesterday I added fresh water to the pond and this morning I will weed around it releasing the herbs from bondage, but that is all the maintenance it needs. The fish and ducks are great caretakers and there is no sign of the dreaded green weed. They simply eat it all!

Today I will keep working on lifting the potatoes. But there’s no quick fix for the weedy gardens in this hard dry earth. I will instruct Our John to mow the gardens that are too far gone. And put the cows in to clean up the dead pumpkin patch. There has been rain but long periods without. And I am not here to tend them regularly. The pumpkins have turned up their toes.

The tomatoes are hanging in there. And potatoes. And maybe that’s enough for this year. Maybe we can’t have everything.

John is just not a gardener. Ah well.

That’s enough for today! Tomorrow I will have more photos! We are being gluttons for farm photos for a week.

It is hard to be only on the farm for a short time. But I have other duties this year. I have a particular role in my family that I don’t want to resign from. That of mother. Anyone in my big family ( 5 kids and 9 grandkids now) can call me at any time and I will set forth to lend a hand for as long as it takes. I have promises to keep. My writing and teaching travels with me. And I am lucky enough that my American family and friends here are invested in keeping the farm ticking along and growing their own food when I am gone. Tending to families and gardens and teaching about them from elsewhere is how my life rolls and I am so happy to have you reading along and traveling along with me.

But I miss the farm and for today - it is best not to think about leaving the farm again. I know the general consensus is to face your fears, not stuff bottle up but I personally find that all the many renditions of me are best compartmentalized - sitting in their separate boxes. The keys jangling from a keychain at my hip like the nuns used to wear when I was a convent girl so while on the farm, you and I will just jump in and enjoy it.

And I will fill my days (and your pages) with the joy of it until it is time to leave again on Thursday next week. Then we will find joy in another location!

Best to just live the joy as it comes and wherever it is. Think like a fish. Swim. Glide. Hover. Stay right in the moment.

We can think like a cow.

We can think like a tree.

And we can think like a fish.

They are not mutually exclusive.

⬆️ Sun setting over the Farmy.

Good morning. The sun has risen - it is going to be another scorcher. As well as mowing and weeding and digging up the potatoes and continuing to clean out the barn, (scooping the poop). Cleaning up the pig pen is high on the list.

Plus I need to get more straw into Jude’s root cellar house. Jude is doing really well at the moment - photos coming tomorrow!

Take care and talk soon.

Leave a comment. I will always answer! I love to chat with you! So tell me about your day. What’s the weather where you are? What do you feed your old dogs?

See you tomorrow.

Love Celi