Lightening Bugs (Yankees Call them Fireflies)
June 18, 2009
I will be at Charlotte and Jenifer will not be at Matthews. Ellie got selected to play on her softball league's all-star team from this area and the games begin Friday, hosted in Anson county, and go on Fri., Sat., Sun., and Mon.
We are very proud of Ellie but my opinion of youth ball is checked with a frequently bitten tongue. It is madness. Growing up playing Little League, there were few if any parents at the games, just boys playing baseball and having fun. Yeah, we wanted to win but it was understood when two team met, one would win and one would lose. No need to cry about it and you still had chores to do when you got home regardless if you won or lost.
Now there are parents and grandparents micro-managing their kids, what is supposed to be play time, as a focus of their existence.
We actually had to sign a form this year that we would not verbally harass coaches , players, or umpires during the course of a game. Apparently that has become a problem.
My point of view is that playing ball is not fair, school is not fair, the workplace is not fair, growing orgainc vegetables on a small scale and competing with the industrial food complex is not fair either.
My answer is to the above "problems" is quit whining, accept the challenge and change what you think needs changing. Just shut up about how unfair stuff is.
Limited eggs, tons of Lettuce, the last of Levi's onions, garlic, and arugula and maybe some Zephyer squash.
Arc-Welding
I have not really did much of it since high school 30 years ago, but I have always had a hankering to.
I had a potato plow that came with my BCS walk behind tiller. it did not work that well with the tiller but I had the bright idea to weld it to the cultivator frame on my Tuff-Bilt cultivating tractor.
My tuff-bilt tractor does not look quite like that, mine is 30 years old.
Arc-welding is a blast, melting steel together while sweating like a pig...By the way, pigs don't sweat, they do not have sweat glands, that is why they wallow in mud holes.
Rain
We love rain, we never complain about rain. But we would love to save some for later in the summer...
We finally got our tiller back together. I tilled and re-tilled and planted Friday, Saturday after market, and even on Sunday. I rarely work on Sunday, just cause it ain't right. But I did anyway and also on Monday till dark..
Monday evening, I was beginning to wonder why I worked through the weekend and was still working close to dark Monday evening.
Then the lightening bugs started firing off everywhere. I had just finished planting 6 200+ feet rows of Limbercob heirloom corn that a a couple from Lincoln Co. had shared with me. The corn is in late, we we see what it does. Stuff like that keeps us doing what we do.
Monday night, to quote some guys I used to work with up around Cullowhee, NC, " They hell, it fell a flood" We got 1.6 inches in about 30 minutes. We appreciate it but geez...
Great Work Crew day Thursday
First thing that happened, the post office called and said our 65 baby turkeys had arrived. We we not expecting them until Friday since they were coming from TX. but glad to get them early.
We ordered 65 and they sent 67. That is normal to account for any death loss in transit, but they all arrived alive.
I spent a couple of hours getting the turkey set up in the brooder while everyone else was harvesting and washing around 500 heads of lettuce. The forecast for Friday is 97 with a heat index of 101-103 and our thoughts were that our lettuce would be better suited in the walk-in cooler than in the field.
We then started tying up tomato plants to their individual stakes. Labor-intensive... Erin and i were pulling off the suckers and Jen, Pam, Charles, and CJ were following being doing the actual tying.
It takes about 10 man hours to tie up our 600 tomato plants and it happens every week.
Then we moved to the garlic patch and started pulling up garlic.
Around 4 pm, everyone started to fade. Complaining about minor things like open, oozing blisters, heat stoke, and other such non-sense...
Jenifer and I have been humbled by the caliber of folks that have shown up this year to work along side us.
Dean Mullis
Laughing Owl Farm
www.laughingowlfarm.com
I will be at Charlotte and Jenifer will not be at Matthews. Ellie got selected to play on her softball league's all-star team from this area and the games begin Friday, hosted in Anson county, and go on Fri., Sat., Sun., and Mon.
We are very proud of Ellie but my opinion of youth ball is checked with a frequently bitten tongue. It is madness. Growing up playing Little League, there were few if any parents at the games, just boys playing baseball and having fun. Yeah, we wanted to win but it was understood when two team met, one would win and one would lose. No need to cry about it and you still had chores to do when you got home regardless if you won or lost.
Now there are parents and grandparents micro-managing their kids, what is supposed to be play time, as a focus of their existence.
We actually had to sign a form this year that we would not verbally harass coaches , players, or umpires during the course of a game. Apparently that has become a problem.
My point of view is that playing ball is not fair, school is not fair, the workplace is not fair, growing orgainc vegetables on a small scale and competing with the industrial food complex is not fair either.
My answer is to the above "problems" is quit whining, accept the challenge and change what you think needs changing. Just shut up about how unfair stuff is.
Limited eggs, tons of Lettuce, the last of Levi's onions, garlic, and arugula and maybe some Zephyer squash.
Arc-Welding
I have not really did much of it since high school 30 years ago, but I have always had a hankering to.
I had a potato plow that came with my BCS walk behind tiller. it did not work that well with the tiller but I had the bright idea to weld it to the cultivator frame on my Tuff-Bilt cultivating tractor.
My tuff-bilt tractor does not look quite like that, mine is 30 years old.
Arc-welding is a blast, melting steel together while sweating like a pig...By the way, pigs don't sweat, they do not have sweat glands, that is why they wallow in mud holes.
Rain
We love rain, we never complain about rain. But we would love to save some for later in the summer...
We finally got our tiller back together. I tilled and re-tilled and planted Friday, Saturday after market, and even on Sunday. I rarely work on Sunday, just cause it ain't right. But I did anyway and also on Monday till dark..
Monday evening, I was beginning to wonder why I worked through the weekend and was still working close to dark Monday evening.
Then the lightening bugs started firing off everywhere. I had just finished planting 6 200+ feet rows of Limbercob heirloom corn that a a couple from Lincoln Co. had shared with me. The corn is in late, we we see what it does. Stuff like that keeps us doing what we do.
Monday night, to quote some guys I used to work with up around Cullowhee, NC, " They hell, it fell a flood" We got 1.6 inches in about 30 minutes. We appreciate it but geez...
Great Work Crew day Thursday
First thing that happened, the post office called and said our 65 baby turkeys had arrived. We we not expecting them until Friday since they were coming from TX. but glad to get them early.
We ordered 65 and they sent 67. That is normal to account for any death loss in transit, but they all arrived alive.
I spent a couple of hours getting the turkey set up in the brooder while everyone else was harvesting and washing around 500 heads of lettuce. The forecast for Friday is 97 with a heat index of 101-103 and our thoughts were that our lettuce would be better suited in the walk-in cooler than in the field.
We then started tying up tomato plants to their individual stakes. Labor-intensive... Erin and i were pulling off the suckers and Jen, Pam, Charles, and CJ were following being doing the actual tying.
It takes about 10 man hours to tie up our 600 tomato plants and it happens every week.
Then we moved to the garlic patch and started pulling up garlic.
Around 4 pm, everyone started to fade. Complaining about minor things like open, oozing blisters, heat stoke, and other such non-sense...
Jenifer and I have been humbled by the caliber of folks that have shown up this year to work along side us.
Dean Mullis
Laughing Owl Farm
www.laughingowlfarm.com
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