october is a rainy month

So my stay here is quickly coming to end, the begining of Nov to be specific. Our 3 month time-frame will be up then and i’m heading off to a new place to learn a little something different, still in the farming category though. My overall plan is to continue to work on these farms and gain experience until which time I can re-submit my Peace Corps application (which I was deined for back in March for the TESL program) under the Agriculture program. This is a pretty long-term goal for me, who usually doesn’t plan much in advance.

Anyhow, I’ll miss the stay at my farm here, it was my first one after all and i’ve learned a whole lot. It hit me when I was doing some work the other day also, that I’ll probably never see what happens to say, the row of beets i’m starting on, or all the cabbages and broccoli I planted, or the chickens, or everything here. It’s weird, in a way, to form such a connection with the land and your work but I think it’s inevitable when you have to invest so much effort and self into it. I hope that thinkgs here continue to go better, I definitely joined up at a slower time for the farm due to all the problems with the weather and crop, but I think that we learn the most through the bad times.

And speaking of the weather, after nearly a week of beautiful sun and fall breezes we had a day of rain and what is looking like another chilly overcast morning. Yesterday was one of our CSA days (we’ve moved them to once a week in order to compensate for the poor garden turnout) and it was just a fantastic time harvesting in the pouring rain. Nothing beats getting up in the morning and walking around outside under a downpour for a few hours. I hope they enjoyed the vgetables, is all I can say   One of my friends had asked what we do when it rains on the farm, and nothing changes really, things that need done still need to get done, good or bad weather. And once you have that attitude, the weather becomes, not as much meaningless and inevitable. It’s easy for me to ignore a rainy day at home by staying inside and reading or making some soup or something, but you have to encounter it here and be ok with it, which I am learning to do. Once you learn you aren’t made of fluff life becomes more worth living for sure.

One interesting problem we’re having is with the roaming chickens, they’re getting a lot of fresh grass and bugs but they’re also getting a lot of herbs and leaves from trees and bushs we’d rather not them eat. I guess this is taking the good with the bad. We’re taking about either moving the chicken coup farther away from the house, fencing in the area we don’t want them in, or just ignoring it.

The strawberries we picked up about a week back are still growing in their pots, waiting for a dry day to plow. I think 1/3 of the field they’re going in is covered in puddles because of yesterday’s rain, so it will be a while still.

Other than all that same general thing going on here, amending rows for transplants, taking care of the animals, pulling up diseased plants (of which were a good number of the pumpkins which was very dissapointing to me personally since one of my first jobs here was to do a lot of weeding and mulching and composting to make those look good and grow big), and tilling for new rows. Today will be clean out the chicken coup day, which is a mark on my calander i hold sone reserves for as it is a thankless job, the chickens not so much appreciating the work as much as wondering why someone cleaned their house when – based on the rate at which they mess it up again – they apparently like it dirty.

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