2nd day of Fall

I usually try to get on here and write something on the equinox but it has just been a very tiring week. So I made my weekend as restful as possible.

Fall is here and you can definitely tell, all the plants have slowed their production noticeably and this morning it is 36 degrees (Fahrenheit) out there. Also there is that autumn feeling in the air. We're already taking pumpkins and corn shocks down to the stand for the early decorators.

Gotta go cut squash and grapes soon. Hope your day is comfy and stress free.

Busier, less money

Been a rough week. Mentioned the road problems already, seems to be a bigger problem than just traffic. People are spending less, maybe a reaction to the high price of school materials this year.

Even though less spending is going on, we have still been busy. Lots of people coming in and just buying 1 thing. Eats through bags and uses up labor but puts little in the pocket. Especially when they just buy corn, which makes me the least amount of money of anything I sell. About 30 cents a pound, hardly worth picking but I have to have it or I lose about one-third of my visitors.

My blister is healing very nicely, thanks.

Watermelon are probably gonna be a bust this year. The loss of early water cost us so much early vigorous growth that now the cool days are cutting down the sugar content. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about picking them, uhg! my back is happy.

Listening to a someone or ones called Basia, super great upbeat music. Love "The waters of March" and especially "A new day for you" totally uplifting.

Still no visit from the sunshine smile lady. Sometimes such mysteries are lost in the rush of life. I can not regret what is fundamentally uncertain no matter how my imaginings might meander. A happy life to you my freckled phantasm.

And to you my intrepid reader, a fine and felicitous day.

Busy Staccato

I'm not sure if that is exactly the right term. There have been multiple traffic stoppages on our stretch of Hwy 99 for the last couple of days. Three different ones today. With the result that business has been coming in shorter, more intense bursts of people arriving. Less steady business and more rushes with long lulls between traffic breaks. During which one just barely has time to lay out a fresh supply of corn and tomatoes and restock the bags.

Dad found this super cool huge puffball mushroom over in field#4 (planting #11 of 12) I got a picture of it, but don't have my camera here right now. Will try to get the pic up tomorrow. I'm certain this type of puffball is edible when harvested young enough but all these are too close to spore to be very tasty. Probably getting a tarry taste. Still looks really cool.

My blister is still bugging me, getting a bit sore as the body attempts to mend and fight infection. And I'm still disappointed that Sunshine hasn't been back by during my shift. If she's around she's probably stopping by in the morning while I'm picking. Ships in the night, indeed! Hopefully she is well.

Wishing you all wellness and strength.

Blister beetle bedamned (icky! pic warning)

Got a blister beetle trapped beneath my sandal-strap a couple days ago. Hadn't heard of those dang things since I was a kid but apparently some are living in my tomato patch (they feed on solanacea ) so no more sockless sandals for me! The blister is a little bigger than a 50 cent piece:



Sure makes walking all the miles I cover in a day a mighty joy.

Too much to report Sunday

So many things happened this week which I wanted to share with you but it all piled up into my brain until it squished down under the combined mental weight into a mushy mound of vague recollections and obscure concepts. A sort of cognitive compost.

I was going to rant a bit about people peeling the corn, mention the fella who brought back his corn because there was a tiny bit of worm damage (we gave him his money back and encouraged him to shop elsewhere...) complain that Sunshine hadn't been back for a visit. Regale the world with tiny tales of daily agricultural trivia.

But it is Sunday and we all need the rest.

Will sip my tea for a while yet, have a little breakfast and then Away! to pick cucumbers and squash.

Wishing you all a crystal clear and relaxing day.

Wow! so Busy

The word-of-mouth propagation curve has hit that exponential explosion. Plus having a steady supply of peaches has drummed up a lot of new business. Have noticed a diminishment of some of my old clientèle, possibly due to traffic congestion and crowding during choice times of day.

Gonna try and find some watermelons to take in tomorrow. Tomatoes are coming in gang busters, grapes are sticky sweet at their peak and the corn harvest is an avalanche of sweetness and flavor. If I have time I'll move my ladder and pick pears and apples but that will probably have to wait until Sunday.

Hope you all have a delicious and delightful day.

Labor Weekend

Not Labor DAY weekend, just Labor weekend.

Whew! has it been busy. Traffic is up loads. Lots and lots of new customers. Which of course means many new people who refuse to read the "Please Do NOT Peel the Corn" sign. Dang! that is so irritating, so I'm making a new, bigger sign that just says "DO NOT PEEL THE CORN!" Mom wouldn't let me add "Or Guy might poke you in the eye"

And to top it all off, Sunshine didn't come in this week. Sunshine is what I call this delightful strawberry blond (since I haven't gotten her name yet...) who has been stopping by for a couple years now. She has a smile just like sunshine breaking through the clouds and a personality to match. Even though it was quite hot this week, no Sunshine made it a bit darker.

Dad is over helping his friend Terry with some landscaping and I'm going out shortly to pick cucumbers and grapes for tomorrow. Yes, we'll be open on Labor Day. It is a very busy day for us. Fortunately school starts the following day so that will be a particularly slow Tuesday with which to recover.

Hope you all have a wholesome and invigorating day.

Another Friday

Well, we had dad's birthday ice cream cake after it got dark and we couldn't pick anymore. I was so tired I forgot all the gates on our deer fence open so they probably had a "field day" out there last night. This late in the season it probably isn't such a big deal.

Grapes are coming in like a tidal wave now and next week we start picking some apples, I hope. Ate our first black diamond watermelon the day before last. Yumm! Sent a moon-and-stars to my sister's family yesterday. Hope it was ripe, the tendril had been broken off so it was harder to judge.

Gotta go pick, y'all have a great day now.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Dad turns 70 today!

But we'll be lucky if we have time for a wedge of the ice cream cake my sister made before we have to go back out and pick more tomatoes.

Wishing you all a lovely day.

Lovely overcast Sunday morning

Just a fluffy layer of low lying clouds to moderate the morning sun. How delightful.

Finally got a good night's sleep after one heck of a busy week. All the summer product except melons is in full harvest and word-of-mouth has really piled on a lot of new customers so we've been scrambling all week. So many things have happened that it all sort of blurs together and now I can't remember enough details to comment on it all.

This morning will be a little more rest time then I've gotta go out and water, fertilize and harvest. Grapes and canning tomatoes are coming in thick and heavy now so I'll also be painting up a new, larger sign for them.

Wishing you all a restful and/or productive day.

Good and busy

Had some good days lately. Tomato season is approaching its peak and we'll soon start rolling out cases of canners. Today we begin the grape harvest which should pick up our sales a bit. Gotta get signs made for that.

Would love to stay and detail stories of customer's folly and nature's wonder, but the fields await and the sun is rising.

Have a great day.

Insane in the rain

Wow! from 20% chance of rain to 100% rain.

This is a really unusual summer drizzle. Sure to crack the cherry, pear and big beef tomatoes. Bummer. It is the farmer's lot to practice acceptance. What else can one do in the face of totally overwhelming forces?

From the radar image it looks like the worst of it has passed but lots of little showers for the next few hours.

Yesterday morning a largish 4 point buck came prancing through the sunflower patch besides our selling room. Our customers and Sparky were equally excited. Dad and I were just contemplating 100 pounds of venison jerky. Well, maybe that was what Sparky was thinking of too, but probably just the thrill of the chase.

I'm gonna spend today cleaning up and resting. Glorious, glorious resting.

Wishing you a restful day too.

One more day

Our last day of the week and I will really enjoy sleeping in tomorrow.

Business has been pretty good. A little slower with it being county fair week in Josephine county. That's par for the course. But we had a lot of watering, weeding and fertilizing to do so nobody had time to enjoy it.

This next week we'll start bringing in some of our green seedless grapes. Scrumptious! And the corn is peak of the season now, big ears and oh-so-sweet. I love it when we have product which I am 100% confident in.

Well, gotta go pick squash. Y'all take it easy.

busy tired

Had to do the dentist/teeth cleaning thing this morning (thanks Kristy!) so the rest of the day I was short an hour. Extra crushy sort of day.

Would love to regale you all with tales of wildlife and the idiocies of our customers but am waaay too tired.

Have a wonderful evening.

2nd week blues

My Sunday is November.

Got 2 weeks behind us but the work is still piling up. Weed control, fertilizing and of course the convoluted logistics of watering. Bad enough on its own but add outside scheduling conflicts and it makes a Rubik's Cube look like tic-tac-toe.

Had one amazing little delight amidst the consternation. Came back from farm#2 and was refilling the settling pond and noticed some sort of large insect crawling around on the bottom. Bent down to get a closer look and the thing jetted off. Only one critter moves like that in Oregon waters: Crawdads! So that was a fun little discovery. Now I'm a crayfish farmer too.

It's been blessedly cool here this week, hovering just below 90. Perfect tomato growing weather, 58 degree nights and 89 degree days. Great for the corn too.

Gotta go. Y'all have a fine day and a balmy breezy evenin'.

Bring it on

In the article "China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales" we see that China is threatening to call in its trillions of dollars in trade deficit.

As someone who has been forced to buy the faulty, defective and poorly constructed chinese products which have displaced so many sturdy, functional and finely wrought American products due to their slave-labor low prices I would just like to say one thing: "Bring it on you commie bastards." There is nothing I would like more than for my country to be forced to STOP TRADING with you due to our inability to pay.

And while we're discussing it, how about you pay for all that technology you've been "borrowing", hmmm?

Busy Saturday

Pretty tired, had a good days run. Sold lots of peaches today. Corn sold good too. We're into the "Incredible" variety now so people are getting pretty enthusiastic. Most customers have been ok, though we have had some complainers due to our "Please Don't Peel the FREAKIN'! Corn" policy.

A bunch of hard work is waiting for me tomorrow. Mostly moving water and doing weed control in the last planting of melons, pumpkins and squash. So much for a day of rest. Glad planting is finally behind us (unless of course we lay in a fall garden starting end-of-August.)

Hope your day is restful and interesting.

Tired Friday

Pretty good day today. Busier early, a few good long spells for reading in the afternoon but lots of one dollar sales after that. Lots of work, little money.

It was HOT again today. Only 3 days left until the peak of summer is past.

The corn pollen is really bugging my eyes these days.

Hope you all rest well and dream happy.

Good day

We were delighted to discover that Charley had taken down the saw-horses and surfaced a stretch of driveway-side all across our entrance this morning. I was thinking that maybe I had exaggerated how much that interruption was affecting our business, but was I wrong! Saw a definite and clear upswing in customers today. Really a big improvement, almost back to the traffic flow we had last week. So I am grateful for that.

It is HOT! today. Only 3 more days or so to the half-way point between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. The summit of summer if you will. Damn! I'd like to take a day and go rafting down the Rogue followed by an evening at the drive-in theater. Ohhhh,, those days are gone ;-)

Wishing you each and all a spirited companionship.

Slow Tuesday

Our landlord at farm#2 black-topped his driveway last weekend and until he gets the saw-horses and other barriers out of the way our customers are having to avoid them to drive in. Net result: a bunch of people are slowing down and then just driving off instead of pulling over. I'd guess I'm losing about 80$ a day because of that.

On top of it, today, ODOT was plugging pot-holes on the road; totally killing traffic. It was a Very slow Tuesday.

Gotta go get cleaned up and do some watering.

Y'all have a great day.