The Lull of July

The lull of July: We enter into it with some denial that it’s really summer. “The end of June already?” we exclaim. The cicadas begin to sing and vie for courting honors. The summer thunderstorms sweep in with the strong breezes turning the leaves of the Catawba and Pecan trees upward. It is this period of time, when the thermometer registers 85* Fahrenheit at just 9:30 am, that farming seems so much less attractive than it did in early spring when the muck boots and hooded sweatshirts were in need.

Chores must be done– the weeds need to be pulled, goat & cow milked, chickens fed, eggs collected, as well as laundry hung out on the line regardless of the temperature. At least the heat assists with the radical civilly-disobedient laundry-drying apparatus in the back yard: the clothes dry at an alarming rate – much faster than I can fold it. Especially when all three lines are loaded down and I’m hoping I’ll have time to get it all taken in before the next thunderstorm rolls in. I’m not at all opposed to the second rinse cycle though, and it happens often. It has been especially common this season – we just ended a 21-day streak of daily rainfall. “Rain much?” is the most common phrase my husband and I ask one another as we don our muck boots, a seeming anomaly in the heat of July, to do our chores.

I spent the last week during the hottest hours of the day in the air-conditioning – sorting, folding and putting away the clothes that had piled up on the couch(es) for weeks on end. Really.


Occasionally, during the heat of the summer, I carve out blocks of time for reading. Having just finished Forrest Pritchard’s Gaining Ground I am seeking for more food for thought. This time it is Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. My favorite thing about Kingsolver's writing is that she skips around a bit – much like the way my brain works – and I find myself very much at home in her books. This book, although new to me, is dog-eared in about 9 different places already – that’s how much I skip around.

 

Rightfully, dubbed the “fair-weather-farmer” by Captain Strong Arms, I've accepted the idea that I don’t like to farm when it’s too cold or too hot. Actually, I’ll take the cold over the heat, but I do not care for more than 6 inches of snow. I’m stubborn: just as stubborn as the July heat and the August humidity. I’ll wake early; greeting the morning dew on the grass with my flip-flops and listen to the birds call and sing while I quench the thirst of the plants in the greenhouse and garden. Then when it gets to be too much, I will slink back into the respite of the air conditioning by 11:30 on those days admitting defeat. With raised beds, the watering schedule will increase to twice daily on those days, also.

Got Weeds?

Call it defeat, or call it the way of nature, taking the spent lettuce plants out of the raised beds might feel like giving in, but I prefer to consider it moving through. In my beginning days of growing food I had a hard time with any seedling that was tossed aside – I wanted to save them all – and the same for the beds of lettuce. Since it is only just a few days from the end of July, I’ll count my blessings that the lettuce lasted as long as it did without bolting to seed.


It’s time to plan for the fall crops. Actually, I feel a bit tardy as I’m about 3 weeks behind schedule for starting seeds. That’s okay, I’m late nearly everywhere I go, so why not late to the greenhouse too? The list of crops I want to grow for the latter half of this year is lengthy; kale, collards, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, broccoli & rabe, cauliflower, carrots, radishes, onions and on. Some will go into the raised beds and most will be tried in the greenhouse.


This summer’s weather has been unpredictable. Life can be that way also. What we need to do is learn to adapt and overcome. Those two words may not bring success; however, they will bring lessons for the next season.

Aspire to inspire, not just make a living.....

That is what I’m keeping my eyes on at this point; the next season. It’s too late to un-do what has been done here in regards to crop failures. It’s time to accept the lull of July and go with nature’s dictation.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” Lau Tzu

Can't Write. Too Nice Out. Must Garden.

Meanwhile, dear readers, have a go at these photos. Will write soon, I promise.

Local Food

Fresh Milk

Goat Hoof Work

Not a day goes by, Sis. I miss you.
April 1975 - 2012

Pasture Princess

Sam

Good Times.

Good Morning!

Good Afternoon.

Good Eggs.

From our family to yours - we hope you are enjoying your summer! Find us on Facebook and "Like" us - it's a proverbial adventure from morning until night.

What to do with your raised beds at the end of December

Of course it would be ideal to say that at the end of harvest, the raised beds were cleared and prepped for winter. Alas, if you're anything like me, they are not. So, what to do if you've procrastinated with the best of us?

First - dig in.

Clear all the debris you can see on top, removing spent plants and any leaves that might have blown in when fall came our way.

Now is a good time to get an assessment of your soil done, too.  Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for further instructions on how to get your soil tested for FREE.Ideally now is the time to do this, because when spring arrives, the offices will be very busy and your results will take longer to come back.Whether you intend to plant some early cool crops or wait to plant the main summer crops, the results of your soil test will determine what it may need if anything.

I was pleased to see this worm in the dirt!

The hardest part of this is cleaning up the piles of your labor. Currently mine are still where I left them. I had to come inside and devour a bowl of homemade version of pasta e fagioli soup leftover from yesterday.

And so dear fellow slackers, there you have it.

And, photo-bombed, bigtime, by Bob. Thanks, Bob.

And then, here came the dogs:

And this one, in particular, was very serious....

And another dog is not quite so serious....

Whatever lofty things you might accomplish today, you will do them only because you first ate something that grew out of dirt.
- Barbara Kingsolver

Garden of Weedin'

At this point in the summer, as in years past, the weeds have nearly taken over the garden.  The raised beds suffer less from the invasion of Mother Nature's misplaced flowers, although keeping them consistently watered has proved a challenge.

One of the raised "beds" - complete with salvaged headboard.
The pitchers hold water for various insects, hopefully mostly pollinators....

Every year we learn more about beneficial and unwanted pests, and continue the rather steep learning curve in regards to soil amendments, composting, and management of planting successive crops.

It seems as though we are in the mid-summer garden of weedin' blahs, though.  Not much is producing well, and although we've had ample rain and sunshine, the heat has taken its toll on many of the plants we'd placed our hopes for bumpers crops upon, and alas, one cannot begin to sell a tomato at the farmers' market - so we have taken to giving them away.

I had to laugh when I came across a freecycle post offering "homegrown tomatoes," as it reaffirmed my saying of "you can't give 'em away."

New piglets were born about a month and a half ago, mama & babies are doing well.  One piglet died, as this was mama's first litter, she inadvertently smothered him within the first hour of birth.  Sigh.

Hattie the family milk cow is doing well as are "Red" and "Pete" the beef cows (yesterday Pete was referred to as a 'beefcake' by a dear friend of mine, and I believe that shall be one of his nicknames for sure - if the shoe fits...) and because of all the blessed rain and sunshine, the pastures are thriving.

Spencer, aka: the skinned horse and April, aka: pistol Annie are tolerating the summer well.  What can we expect from 25 and 37 year old California-grown horses in this NC humidity?  They like their salt rock which makes me happy, giving me peace of mind that they are keeping their electrolytes in balance, which is so important to avoid dehydration.

The farm dogs are hiding in the coolness of the damp earth beneath the old farmhouse and the barn cat makes an appearance after his daily nap, tired out from chasing mice all night (which hopefully keeps the snakes at bay, which will eat our eggs!).

In other news, my dad is here from California, and we are enjoying his visit.

Dad relaxes while Farmer Ed milks the cow, "Hattie."