Over and Out

Well, it's official.  We're closed for the season.

Funny how I can remember every single opening day for the past four years, April 17, April 16, March 31, April 15 but I can never remember exactly when we close.  I attribute it to being so excited to open for a new season of strawberries in the beginning and then by the end being so worn out and tired and hot I'm just ready to throw in the towel.  I've always said the corn maze is fun but strawberries are work, and boy have they ever been this year.  Between the strawberries and CSA and The Boy and The Girl (especially The Girl.  I was not at all prepared for how hard running a business would be with a 'new' baby.  Wow.  That's all I can say) and The Husband and running for him and all the other incidental drama that comes with being an employer and dealing with the public.  I find myself feeling the same thing I always feel at the end of a season, just times ten this year.  Bittersweet because it's over and relief that I don't have to get up and work out there in the 80-90 degree heat and sun all day (I mean will I get to a point where I stop sun-burning, or will I just successively burn every single day?   And honestly it hasn't even been that hot yet).

My step-dad cut this out of last Sunday's paper for me.  It about sums up the last six weeks or so.

It was a pretty good season.  The cold spring and a late start made our yield not where we really wanted it but in the long run I think it was a good thing this year.  We set a goal after last season to move all our berries retail, and we managed to do it.  there was one day we had to cap berries.  Other than that we sold out and/or picked out, and that has meant the world to us.  We feel like now, finally, after four years, things are starting to come around and people are understanding more about what we're about, they're understanding that we're here not only to be your local berry farm but to provide an experience for your family, and apparently they like it.  Which is great.  The average person is not going to drive out to our farm and up our path to buy a bucket of berries (even if I was told we had the best berries in America!).  They can do that at any local fruit stand.  The person coming to our farm is coming with their family to pick and then their kids can play and visit the goats and maybe they can bring a lunch or eat a cup of ice cream.  That's the idea we're going for.  

Nothing a little ice cream and a laugh can't fix!

Making new Friends

So with that in mind we're looking forward to some changes in how we do things this fall.  We're completely changing the pumpkin patch, to a real patch where families can come cut their own pumpkin.  We're going to be adding more attractions (I'm trying to talk The Husband into building teepees.  So far no luck but hopefully I can persuade him!)  We're going to make the educational aspect of our field trips more hands on (it's a farm, if you don't go home covered in hay and dirty I haven't done my job).  We're also talking with Rosewood High's FFA about an Ag Day where local elementary schools can come and be out on the farm.  There is lot's to be excited about for the fall.  All we have to do is make it through this long, hot summer!

A Bee Story

So last year The Husband got the bee bug (pun intended).  We had six hives on the farm to pollinate two acres of berries, and they hung around for most of the spring and summer.  They swarmed several times, as anyone who's read this before knows, and that attracted his attention.  Then the owner came out and showed him a few things and he was hooked.  Of course the fact that I get constant calls for local honey might have had a little to do with it too.  And I might have encouraged him (just a little).  

I've always been scared of bees, wasps, hornets, bumblebees, pretty much anything that makes a loud buzz. Blowflies can unnerve me.  It's really the sound that gives me the heebie-jeebies more than anything.  I think I associate it with pain since I got stung by a wasp and a yellow-jacket once (on separate occasions, ten years apart).  As I've gotten older I try to hide it, but I'm still a little scared (especially of wasps and yellow jackets, not because I've been stung, but because those suckers will chase you).  I've tried to take an intellectual approach to bumble and honey bees.  They won't bother me if I won't bother them, that kind of thing.  And I'm just a little fascinated by them and their behaviors (which are so freaking neat!) so I make a big effort to overcome my fear.  I've been two feet away from the hive with no protective gear on and they've never bothered me.  Still, when I hear that sound my instincts kick in and I get scared, which they can smell, which sets off their instincts, you see where this is going.  

The Husband wanted to paint them Island Orange,
but after the pullover incident I

convinced him bright orange probably wasn't the best color.

Building the Hives

The Husband has no fear, despite being stung a number of times (it's really his own fault, he was wearing a bright orange fleece pullover while disking [not sure of the spelling on this one, and Google's not helping] right up next to the hives on the loudest tractor on the east coast, what did he really expect?).  So him and Cousin Alvin took the beekeeper class that was offered by the Beekeepers of the Neuse (basically the beekeepers association of Wayne County), and what started as 'I'll just take the course so I'll know more about it' turned into 'we're buying five hives.'  Just like that we were in the bee business.  After a couple trips up to the bee store in North Wilkesboro and a couple Saturdays spent building and painting hives, the Sunday came when we were to get the bees.  I was excited.  While I am technically a little scared of them (or rather the sound they make, honestly we should tape it and play it in the haunted maze.  I'm sure it would freak me out to hear a swarm coming at me in the dark in the corn.  Heck it would freak me out to have a swarm coming at me in the daytime in the wide open field), I like them at the same time.  I just like the idea of having our own hives here on the farm, hives we've taken care of and that we know all about, and honey that was produced from the trees and plants right here.  It's as local as local can get.  

The Package

The Queen and her Ladies in Waiting.
Her  majesty has a red marker on her
abdomen that you can just barely see in this picture.

So the packages came in small cages, with the queen and a couple workers in their own little compartment.  First they removed the queen and put her in the hive, then they dumped the cages out into it.  It was all going well until the bees became agitated.  They sprayed them with sugar water in an attempt to calm them, and on one package it didn't work.  The husband (who has always bragged that he could get close to the hive without a veil, got stung three times.  It was pretty hilarious.  He ordered a veil the next day).  They must have done something right though, because they all went in well.  We only lost one hive, and it flew away destination unknown.  We aren't really sure why.  Luckily we had a helpful customer with a swarm in her backyard and a party planned who called asking for help.  Cousin Alvin caught the swarm and that replaced them.   So if you are not a beekeeper and have an unwelcome swarm in your yard, call us and if we can't come catch it we'll pass along the info to the bee club and hopefully someone will.  You can never have too much local honey! 

PS, if you know someone with local honey (within 20 miles or so of Goldsboro) they want to sell, give us a call also.  I would love to take it off their hands!

The Brave One Dumping a Package

The Smart One dumping a package

Hog Scouting and Other Things I Did on My Maternity Leave

When I had the boy, I took all of my FMLA allowed 12 weeks and it was so awesome.  It was the first time since I was sixteen that I wasn't working and not looking for a job or going to school.  I think I looked forward to the time off as much as having the kid.  This time I own my own business, so a week after having The Girl I was back at work.  I was just doing paperwork, and no one wants to read a blog about me doing paperwork.  Heck I'm bored just writing it.

But never fear, this blog is not about paperwork, because I went hog scouting.

So we rent some land over on Arrington Bridge Road and over there we have a bit of a wild hog problem.  They come out and get in the field and root up places looking for delicious things to eat in the dirt.  I'm not even sure I know what they're looking for.  They cause a lot of damage and we have some trappers that come once a year or so and trap some of them.  Right now (as you can see in the picture below) there is nothing planted so it's not crucial, but in a field were you might have wheat planted the entire field would have been a loss.  Well The Husband came home a couple weeks ago and said he saw a couple sows with about twenty piglets and I got excited, because all I've ever heard was how dangerous and big they were and I wanted to see one.  So that weekend after dinner we rode over to the field to see what we could see.  I was hyped up, all excited.  Finally.  I could see the elusive menace.  We pulled up to the field and cut the brights on and I was holding on to the oh s*** handle and ready to see one...and nothing.  It was the biggest let down.  We went all over that field and two others we rent over there   Nothing.  Only rows and rows of rooted up soil.  We were so disappointed The Husband took me for a latte (which did cheer me up but before you get too impressed I had a gift card that some of my Posse friends gifted me for my birthday last month and he got one too).

Last weekend we went for take two, this time with The Boy in tow.  It was around 7:30 so I knew for sure we were too late.  As predicted, we pulled up to field one and saw nothing but a deer.  We went to field two, which was finally dry enough and saw fifteen deer.  While I was impressed by the number of deer, I was not impressed by the animals themselves.  I can go out my back door and see deer.  We have their favorite early spring treat planted a hundred yards from my house, strawberries (and yes, the sap suckers have been indulging).  We went to field three and saw yet another deer (population control anyone?).  This field is L shaped, with a path going around the edge of a pond that fills the area inside the L.  We turn the corner of the path and drive down the hill and surprise, there are four huge hogs.  Now, I don't have pictures because it was dark, but they were huge.  I didn't see their faces, so I plan on returning to see if I can catch them again, but they were so big and furry they looked like bears (granted I've never seen a bear in the wild either so...yep, it's on my list).    

This is a tame picture.  Imagine 8-10 foot wide swaths the length of the field.

So nothing else I did can top the excitement of finally seeing the hogs.  Sorry.  It's all creating CSA forms and figuring out spring farm tours and planning long term goals for the farm.  The Husband did some excavating around the pond, sloping the sides down so it's no longer a dangerous ten foot drop into it with no way of pulling yourself up.  At least on two sides.  We're taking the dirt and putting it to the side for the giant slide we're planning on installing.  Eventually we want to open it up for fishing, since my Youngest Brother in Law put catfish in it over the winter.  

The Husband & The Girl

Looking towards the picnic area

I do have an awesome mom moment.  When we saw the hogs The Boy went crazy and we were talking about how big they were, in perfectly pg terms.  Then The Boy breaks in with "those were some big a** hogs".  Yeah.  I felt like an a-plus mom at that point.  Part of me was trying really, really hard for him not to find out I was laughing.  Part was semi-proud he used it in context.  Part of me was super guilty because I knew exactly who he'd learned that word from (insert knowing cough and red face here).  Most of me was cringing hoping he's not going to his church-affiliated preschool showing off this robust vocabulary.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Okay, so I won't even pretend this isn't a big chance for me to show off pictures of the sea monkey, but I will talk a little shop since I haven't been able to turn spring ideas off in my head.

Business first.  So, like I've kinda mentioned a few times, we want to make some changes on the farm, increase activities, basically step it up a notch.  In that spirit, I've been spending the sleepless nights thinking about field trips at the farm.  I love having groups out.  I like teaching kids about plants and bees and where food actually comes from.  I like watching them be able to run around and just be kids.  But I also want to offer more things to do on the farm.  I'm thinking about offering birthday packages this year, maybe have a somewhat education experience picking berries.  Maybe, if (and this is a super, super big if) we're able to get a kitchen out there this spring, offer a package for older kids where they make jam.  For schools and daycares still do the tours that we offer, I'm thinking of having the option to just pick and play (mostly for younger kids who might not have the patience for a longer lesson), or have a more detailed tour, or (and this is an if, since I'll need cooperation from my local beekeeper) have a tour guided more towards bees and pollinators.  Anyway, those are some of my ideas for the spring, in addition to adding more playground equipment and animals (I've put it off long as I can, we're gonna have to get some, just NO pigs!).  What do you guys think?  Is there something you'd like to see/learn about on the farm?

Pleasure second.  The sea monkey is permanently (reluctantly on her part) out of the sea, and I posted a pic on Facebook but I hate to post a lot of personal things there.  It's not that I want you guys to not know what goes on in our family, I just think you liked our farm page to learn about the farm, not to be blitzed with family pictures, anecdotes, and minor annoyances I post on my personal page.  So, I limited myself to one of The Boy and The Girl, and decided to post a couple more here for your viewing pleasure.

The Husband and The Girl - he's already talking about teaching her to drive a tractor

Where are the strawberries?  These long fingers were made for picking!

I very rarely post pictures of myself, even on my own FB page, but The Boy was so cute I couldn't resist.

Update

First, I should really apologize for neglecting my blog.  I keep meaning to post every week, and I've had plenty of fodder, but no energy.  By the time I've had time to sit down and get focused on blogging, I'm dead tired.  Consequences of sea monkey I guess (31 days or so but who's counting?).  Anyway I had a group cancel this morning (f you could hear me talk you'd note the false cheeriness with which I say that last phrase.  They gave me 15 min notice, but they called, so it's better than what I have received before) and I'm feeling focused right now so here's November blog for your reading pleasure.

So I guess we ought to start with a season re-cap.  Overall the season was great.  We had nice weather for most of the time (other than the Superstorm Sandy episode, which I can't really complain about since I have a nice comfortable home to live in and electricity and heat while there are many who are still without that).  We had some new groups that were great and some returning groups that we enjoyed seeing again.  We learned some big lessons (it seems like every year we do, will we get to a point where it's all old hat or will we constantly be learning lessons?  I think it's the latter) about what we will and will not be doing again (apparently I assume a lot and am naive, two things which will be changing).  We're very excited about what 2013 has to bring and even though it's going to be a much different year than we've ever had (we are adding a newborn to the mix, sometimes I still question my sanity about that decision, especially after going through the corn maze 7 and 8 months pregnant) we're ready to see how things are going to come together for strawberries.

Proof that I can, in fact, drive a tractor - anyone
remember the potato planting blog of last spring
(Plan D)?  Flip to it for a laugh.

I want a giant pumpkin for next year!

Speaking of strawberries, we got them planted finally (a little later than originally planned).  We cut back on the amount we planted this year.  Last year it was craziness the amount of berries we picked (200+ flats per day most days!), and even though we had a market for all of them we could reasonably get to (huge thanks again to my capping crew!) it costs so much to get them picked and washed and capped and all that we decided to cut it down to a more reasonable amount and see what happens then.  If we're as busy as we were last spring there may be days we sell out (here's hoping).  I hate the idea of not having things to sell when I have customers who want to buy, but, I'd rather sell out any day than have flats and flats of berries to sell and not enough customers (supply, demand, you get the picture).

On a more personal note, this year I was nominated for Outstanding Woman of the Year in Agriculture.  When the group who nominated me first asked me, I thought, what could I possibly have done to deserve this?  I mean, I run a tiny agri-tourism operation and I most of the time I feel like I do that poorly.  That's it.  But what was I going to say?  No, don't nominate me.  In no way did I ever think I'd win.  Well last Monday night I did, and I found much to my chagrin that I had to give a small speech for winning which I was not at all prepared for in any way.  So ever since then I've been thinking about what I should have said, and since this is my blog I'm going to say it now (**note, if you see me on channel 10 or whatever the Wayne County channel is, please take a moment to laugh hilariously at what I did say on the fly, and note how awkward and red I was.  I do every time I replay it in my mind.)  First I need to thank all of you, our customers who come out season after season and support us.  Yes, we do this for our living, but you all are our top priority when we plan out the seasons.  We want to make sure you're getting what you pay for, whether that's a quality product or a quality experience on the farm.  No, we aren't a big operation and we don't have a lot of the amenities of other farms around (although we're adding several for this spring), but we do care and we want you to come to a farm, not an amusement park.  Second, I want to thank The Husband (if you tell him I said this I will lie) and my family and friends.  The Husband is there when I need help (which I needed a lot of this year), my family is always there for me to pawn The Boy off on, and my friends take me to dinner every now and then so I don't have to look at The Husband and hear him talk about the farm and soybeans and combines.

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging again before sea monkey arrives (I promise I'll post a picture of her on our Facebook page), but I'm hoping to have some more concrete CSA info for you guys by January including a registration form.  I'm thinking now it's probably going to be pretty much the same as last year.  We may cut the weeks a little or move it up more into April so we can finish before September, and I want to add delivery (for a small fee yet to be determined) or at least a couple drop off locations to make it more accessible to people in other parts of the county.  Stay tuned to Facebook for more information.

And as always if you have a comment or suggestion you want to let us know about, please do not hesitate to get in touch.  Give me a call, send me a message on Facebook or an e-mail, or just comment below.  We're going to be making serious changes to the farm this winter and every bit helps (good or bad!).

Epic Fail

Sometimes I think if it can possibly go wrong, it will go wrong to me.  I know that's super petty and pessimistic, but I swear, it honestly seems that way.  It doesn't really matter what we try to do, it never works out the way we envisioned in our head.  'Course, I guess it happens that way for everyone.  So if you're like me and are prone to epic failure, you'll really enjoy this next blog.

We weren't able to grow pumpkins on the farm this year (I still am super disappointed about this!).  I had in my mind this cute little patch were people could go and find the perfect pumpkin and take pictures.  I wanted to plant pink pumpkins and partner with some organization to donate some money to Relay or SMOC or some other great cancer organization.  Yeah well, that didn't work out.  At the time we needed to plant, it was 100 + degrees and we didn't get any (not a drop) of rain for three weeks.  So, needless to say, no pumpkin patch and no pink pumpkins (but I'm still carrying the torch that next year we WILL have both!)  Since we were unable to grow pumpkins, we have to purchase pumpkins. This means that usually twice a week we're headed to Raleigh to the Farmers Market to pick up a couple of bin boxes of pumpkins.

We sold out of pumpkins Sunday and I wanted to be open today since the kids are getting our of school early around here (last year I had some calls so I thought, what the heck, we'll try it), therefore we needed to make a pumpkin run.  Yesterday was the only day this week we were for sure we'd be able to go, so after my 30 week (only 10 more left!) appointment for Sea Monkey we took off.  We had to be back for Farm Bureau's annual meeting at 6.

Everything was awesome until we stopped to eat lunch.  When we went back to the truck it wouldn't crank.  We assumed it was the battery (the interior lights were on, since The Husbands door doesn't quite shut exactly right).  Luckily we had jumper cables and a nice guy at the restaurant jumped us off.  Then we stopped for diesel and it cut off again, which told The Husband the batter wasn't getting charged.  He assumed it was one of two things, the wires connecting the alternator and the battery or the alternator.  Now I'm not getting into the mechanics of how this stuff works.  He goes to explain and I zone out.  All I know is we're already pushing it for time and now we're delayed.  My frustration hits an all time high.

So we stop at the local auto parts store and the little guy comes and checks it out, sure enough, what is the problem?  The alternator.  It couldn't be some quick little wire, it has to be something we've actually got to take off the truck to fix, not to mention the expense.  So right there int he parking lot The Husband goes to taking off the part while I sit on the sidewalk (the cold hard concrete) and The Boy alternates between worrying me and worrying The Husband (bless his heart, he really wanted to help.  He kept standing there and pretending to do whatever it was The Husband was doing.  But he was anxious and kept running around and jumping and he got coordination from me so I knew it was a matter of time before he fell and scraped something [this wasn't that nice smooth concrete, it was the rough finish so yeah, it woulda really hurt] so I kept trying to get him to stop which led to greater frustration on my part.)  Eventually I give up and The Boy and I walk to Walgreens where I find nail polish 1/2 off.  Silver lining.

The Boy & The Giant Pumpkin

Cannonballs - great for chunkin'!

The Husband showing off his artistic ability

Finally, we get the old part off and the new part on and we can head out again.  Problem is we're beyond super late at this point.  The entire way there we're biting our nails that the pumpkin guy will even still be there.  Thank goodness he is, or else the entire trip would have been wasted and the Husband would have had to get up at the crack to come today to get them, therefore putting him in a bad mood which would have put me in a bad mood.  It's around five before we're ready to leave though, which means we'll be traveling home with a trailer full of pumpkins in rush hour traffic, and we'll miss the meeting which I was supposed to take a cake too.  Still, we're in one piece, my frustration has eased to humor, and no one's in a bad mood.  So I guess it's alls well that ends well on this one.  Plus a new color of polish.

Cutting Up

This weekend we (being The Husband and Cousin Alvin, I can't officially take credit for this one, see reasons listed below) cut the maze.

They look way too excited to be doing this.

I've been on The Husband about getting this thing cut for a while, but to his credit somethings always kinda come up to prevent him having time to do it.  Finally today we got it lined up with Cousin Alvin and the cutting began.  

Most farms we hear about have someone come cut their maze.  There are these people that just go around the Eastern Seaboard cutting corn mazes.  I guess that would be awesome to have them come and cut out this super complicated maze for us, but it would also cost some money (and then what would I have to blog about?).  Now, I can't claim to know how much since we've never had it done (probably not enough to warrant the hassel of doing it yourself), but whatever it is, it's more than what we want to spend.  We like to keep our overhead lower so we don't have to charge as much.  That means when the labor needs doing, most of the time it's The Husband and I doing it.  Except cutting corn mazes has been put on the list of things I cannot do due to Sea Monkey (no complaint here.  Not having to stand int he middle of a hot humid corn field while the Husband shouts directions to me in the most backwards way imaginable and I attempt to cross the double planted corn tall as my head almost without face planting sounds like an awesome idea to me, plus, when the giant horseflies come around who do they choose to harass?  Me.  Always.  As soon as I hear them I go running and shrieking [see The Confession post] which is not a good idea due to my natural lack of coordination and the sea monkey making my already shaky equilibrium very dicey.  I end up stumbling around either knocking down corn or tripping over six inch long corn stalks cut in a fashion that would have made Vlad the Impaler happy...but I digress) so Cousin Alvin volunteered to help (thanks again!).  Charlie volunteered too Friday.  Bless his heart he was drafted today.

Gator Positioning System

This was before the giant horsefly found me.

These corn maze companies (and most people with sense) use GPS to map out the field and where the pathways should go.  Well, we don't do it that way (not sure what that says about us, that we lack sense or are glutton for punishment?).  We used an image copied onto graphing paper, two long pieces of pvc pipe with the tip painted orange, a super long tape measure thing on a wheel the size of a dinner plate (I'm sure it has a name, but it is escaping me at the moment), a white rope tied to the Gator (I was told we did have GPS, the Gator Positioning System) on one side of the field and the water truck on the other, and two fellows with machetes (real high tech I know).  Now in the past we've used bush hogs and bush axes.  Honestly I'm not really sure why machetes were the weapons of choice this year unless they're practicing for the Haunted Maze.  Nevertheless, when you're walking through this year, think about the fact that it was cut using machetes.

I came back 45 min later to bring drinks and
the giant horsefly found me again.  Of course.

Anyway I guess in the end it doesn't matter.  It's cut and it's a lot more complicated so get ready to get thoroughly lost this year (even they got lost and had to refer to the map to get out, but I guess that could have been operator error).  No ten or twenty minute run-through this year.  When we started planning this thing I told The Husband I wanted it to take at least twice as long and I think we might have done it.  Of course, I say that and some eight year old is going to barrel off the hayride and make it out in fifteen flat.  But hey, effort's worth something right?