We have lived on this land and farmed it since September 1999. In 2002 I began keeping a journal of tasks to be tackled or completed, observations of weather or people, and general reflections. The entries don’t cover every day; indeed, sometimes a month or more may pass before I take pen in hand and again make more notes. Often the journal contains long lists of things to do or of seeds planted. What follows is a small selection of entries that gives a sense of our day-to-day life.
This is the first in a short series that looks back at what we did (and what I thought) at various times over the past two decades. As my old boss once said, “If you want to predict the future, look at the past.” That future apparently has mending fences and broken equipment apportioned in equal measures. Yee-haw!
2002
July: Squash, Costata romanesco, very prolific. Did well until mid-July; some problems with pale white beetles. But honestly, I essentially just got tired of harvesting. (Some friendly jerk left a bag of zucchini on our porch! I wonder if it is the one I left them?). Tomato transplants did not go in until July. Only Yellow Bell produced, tasted lousy. Too much rain?
October: Using garden to fatten holiday geese. They have effectively eaten down the grass and weeds.
2003
March: Need to plant the four new fig trees. This is our third go in trying to get them established. All sources report that any idiot can grow figs.… Need. to. Find. Idiot. Garlic, planted in fall, coming up nicely; need to get it mulched, again.
June: Received call from Knoxville Zoo. Would we like a registered, full-grown Milking Devon bull? Yes!
Zoo delivered Art (Milking Devon) last Saturday. They told us he was “a bit of an escape artist.” I woke up this morning to find that he had lifted three gates off the hinges [with his horns] and was grazing in the front yard. Spent the day reversing gate hinges.
August: Art spends more time visiting neighbors than servicing our herd.
December 27: Mulling over buying a new tractor (Kubota M4900). Tired of spending my limited time keeping the Ford 800 and 4000 operating. They both seem to call in sick more than work. Finishing up the equipment shed, put tin on back side. Chopped wood, butchered chickens.
December 29: Sold Ford 800; sad to see it go. Sold Ford 4000; glad to see it go.
December 31: New tractor bought and delivered.
2004
February 22: Up at 6 a.m. — still can’t find missing steer. Met a somewhat infamous neighbor. No luck with steer. Breakfast listening to Charles Osgood. An hour spent cutting cedars out of fencerows. Lowell [a neighbor] came over with his dump truck and helped me load up old construction materials before he hauled them away. Visited Mr. Kyle [another neighbor], bought some feed, talked politics. Headed into town in the evening for dinner with Jack and Deb.
June 12: My much younger brother (19), Daniel, is visiting. Each day I leave him an intensive to-do list and go to work. Each day at 5 we come home from work and find him clearly just getting started. That boy can sleep!
August 27: I seemed to be unfocused with the day-to-day, easily frustrated. The new (used) disc mower has a hydraulic coupling that doesn’t fit my Kubota. Instead of solving the problem, I did little bits and drabs of other jobs, none completed! My back health has me worried.
August 28: Picked up a replacement coupling and finally began hay cutting. Disc mower worked like a dream … until I started the second row. Bearings burned up in spectacular fashion and started a minor brush fire in grass. Hurt my back, again, kicking goddamn machinery.
October 23: Butchered chickens in the early morning. Followed with a big country breakfast. Squirrel hunting in late morning. Cleaned and froze a half-dozen; put four more in a marinade for dinner. Spent the afternoon pruning fruit trees.
October 29: Drove to Kansas and picked up two Devon bull calves from Mr. Fells. Drove straight back and got home at 3 a.m. The boys from Mulberry Gap came over and bought one of the calves.
December 31: Still reading Epictetus daily. If nothing else, it helps me keep my temper in check.
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Reading a lot of easy mysteries this summer by Georges Simenon (Maigret).
Farmer deserves a kiss.
Find. Idiot. Garlic.
I haven’t seen it. At least not this year.
Oddly, last fall was the first since 1999 that we didn’t plant garlic. We are going to rectify that lapse this fall.
I did put some cloves into the ground. Then the murderous drought came, and they closed shop early. First one I pulled out afterwards had done the ‘I’ll stay in one piece’ bit (forgot what that means).
So Art was a handful. And bearings often die in a spectacular manner. Pasture fires can be serious. Life is full of “interesting” twists and turns.
Next month marks a full 19 years on the farm. Congratulations might be in order, but I’m more inclined to say thanks for the memories and send along best wishes for many many more seasons in the sun. Perhaps one day there will no longer be a challenge the resident idiot can’t master (and a time when the back won’t hurt).
I’m surprised I haven’t written the full story of Art, the bull. We had a nice eight-foot livestock gate bowed in the middle to the bottom rail, where he had lumbered over a gate he couldn’t lift off the hinges.