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?

The Odyssey

Well, we just got back from the mountains.  The husband was asked by a friend to help him with some strawberries, and of course it couldn’t be a simple there and back trip.  When we got home last night we felt like we’d never been so happy to see Goldsboro, NC (in no small part to a sea monkey who seems to think my bladder makes an awesome trampoline).  Following is a highlight reel of the trip.  I apologize ahead of time for the length...then again, it's supposed to be an odyssey.

Book 1 – How Getting A Ticket Was The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Us.

So since we were going to be in the middle of nowhere (the nursery was on Scaly Mountain and we stayed in the small town of Dillard GA, we were 2 ½ hours NE of Atlanta and 1 ½ hours SSW of Asheville), and there were (far as we could tell from the internet) no farm supply stores or irrigation supply stores around, we had to haul the supplies we needed from here.  There was no super great way to do this.  The husband got a trailer and went Friday afternoon to get loaded up.  When he came home a deep sense of foreboding settled into my chest (why oh why didn't I take a picture of this!).  The whole thing was leaning slightly in all different directions, haphazardly strapped down with three straps (I made The Husband add more, three just didn't seem sufficient to me), and was so tall he couldn’t park it around the house for fear of hitting the trees (I could just imagine going up at 10% grade with that thing and it all sliding off the trailer and crashing and burning down a mountain slope, and/or we'd be that poor truck parked on the shoulder with the hood up).  None of that was the major issue though.  The major issue was we were overweight for the amount of weight the tags were registered for.  We attempted to get a permit to carry the load leagally, but in his infinite wisdom The Husband didn’t go get the stuff until around four, so by the time he got back it was after five and since we weren’t pre-registered we couldn’t obtain this permit online.  Our only alternative: go back roads all the way and cross our fingers we don’t get a ticket.  So, as you can tell from the title of this paragraph, we did.  We went Hwy 64W, for the most part after Asheboro a winding two lane road through some pretty country that makes for a long, long drive.  We made it all the way to the town of Lenior NC before we passed a highway patrolman, the one with the SUV’s that go around checking weight.  I almost burst into tears on the spot.  We’d been so careful to go back ways, I sat with a map most of the drive trying to make sure we wouldn’t go by a weigh station, and all of our planning and stressing was for nothing, because he would definitely give us a ticket if he didn’t stop us from going at all.  We were (according to him) 7000 lbs overweight.  He gave us a fine and sent us on our way.  All in all it was the best thing that could have happened, because since we’d already been ticketed we couldn’t be ticketed again, so we headed straight for 40 with smiles on our faces because the idea of going down 64 around Lake Lure and Chimney Rock was not appealing at all to us.

Oh any by the way, we never saw another cop of any kind, and the weigh station we passed in Asheville was closed.  Of course.

Book 2: We Never Knew There Were So Many Mexican Restaurants in BFE

The place we stayed, Dillard GA, was about the size of Pikeville.  The closest town of significance, Franklin NC was maybe the size of Clinton.  There were three restaurants in Dillard, one of which was a Mexican place.  There were three places in Franklin to sit down and order, one of which was a Mexican restaurant.  Along the road in between we passed two Mexican restaurants.  I counted five in a 20 minute vicinity.  Along the way back from Franklin we passed through Silva and Waynesville before hitting Asheville.  There was at least one if not two Mexican places in those towns that we could see from the road we were on.  Never in my life have I ever seen such a concentration of Mexican places.  It struck me as odd, maybe I just need to spend more time in the mountains.  When did we eat Mexican you ask?  We stopped at Moe’s (I know, I know, it’s not ‘real’ Mexican, but it’s super delicious to me) at Southpoint in Durham. 

Book 3: How They Do It Better In The West

From the crew leader who was managing the workers that plugged all these plants we learned it was apple picking season.  That excited me, because I’m always looking for something new and different and fresh for our CSA boxes.  We decided on the way home we’d stop at the WNC Farmers Market in Asheville.  Having a coastal plain point of view, we thought it’d be smaller and quainter (is that a word?).  We were sorely mistaken.  It was twice as big if not bigger and the produce we found was some of the best looking produce we’d seen all year.  We weren’t sure if it was the lack of intense heat (I know they’ve been hot too, but compared to our heat and humidity I don’t think it’s been as intense), or maybe more rain at crucial times, but the produce was amazing.  So instead of waiting until this morning to ride to Raleigh or see what we could find locally, we decided to go ahead and purchase our CSA vegetables while we were there.  So if you get a chance to go up to Asheville stop by and check it out.  It’s not as ‘nice’ maybe as the one in Raleigh, but there are twice if not three times the vendors and everyone is very nice.

Overall the trip was nice.  The weather was fantastic (I might just move up there until I have Sea Monkey, The Husband can just manage the Maze himself).  The scenery was amazingly beautiful (I don’t know how those people go to work everyday and get stuff done.  I guess they get used to it, but I think it’d take me a long time to get used to that).  I got to take a nap without feeling guilty about all the things I need to be doing other than sleeping.   The trip home was basically uneventful (except that I rode from Hickory home with tomatoes and squash at my feet because it started raining, needless to say when I got home last night I didn’t think my back would ever be the same).  So my advice on mountain trip:, make sure you leave enough time Fri. afternoon to get a permit, hope you like Mexican, and stop at the farmers market, you'll be glad you did!

Amazing.

These were in the console, tomatoes were under my  feet, cabbage, apples, and peppers were behind my seat.  By about Smithfield I could no longer feel either of my feet no matter where I found to put them.  If that's not dedication I don't know what is.

Making Ready

Well, my last blog was a bit dry. I’ll admit it (I felt the dryness as I was writing, so I broke bad and asked The Husbands opinion.  That should have been my first indication to give up.  This is a man who willingly watches Ag PhD and Successful Farming and Agribusiness This Week or really bad reality shows where you can't understand what they're talking about because every other word is bleeped out.  He shouldn't have been my judge for entertainment value).  It was kinda one of those things where I saw I hadn't blogged in a month, felt guilty for neglecting it, and wrote about the first thing I could think of to write about.  Sometimes you’re on fire, sometimes you just aren’t.  This week I have fodder for a much more entertaining blog, so hopefully I'll get more smiles than yawns. 

It’s August.  Less than two months ‘til corn maze D day (yikes!).  So of course the place looks like the surface of the moon, or an atomic bomb went off.  I’m sure any of you doing drive bys thinking about booking a group is thinking we’re crazy.  That’s okay.  I promise it will be ready.  If you look at our track record we’re actually getting started on this a whole lot earlier than last year.  That’s what The Husband’s been working on this week, disking up the existing rye grass (if you can call it that), leveling out the ground (again with the Gator and a chain-link fence), and planting new grass.  It’s a rather big area of grass, and my father-in-law had the idea that if The Husband sat on the front of our Gator (can you tell I’m a little obsessed with the Gator?  Forget diamonds, get me something like that I can ride on and I’m happy), he could get it done a lot quicker.  I’m all for efficiency, so I figured we’d try it.  Well, it was an epic fail.  Apparently the spreader requires pressure to do the spreading, and while attempting to hang on to the Gator The Husband didn’t have the force required.  So it was back to ole Pat & Charlie.

Gator power!

Forget Mars, they could have launched the rover at the farm.

Baby Maze

After grass planting, The Husband decided to go cut trees down.  I was not involved in this, since felling trees was taken off my list of duties while I’m in my current condition (granddaddy calls it an ‘ailment’, Frank H says I’m ‘in the family way’, I like either of those way better than the word pregnant.  I just hate the word, kind of like moist.  The only thing worse is pregnancy.  Ugh) and it was really humid and since the baby has decided to park itself (update on this to follow) right on my lungs and/or diaphragm humidity makes my already compromised respiratory system have to work that much harder.  We've been wanting to cut down a couple trees, most of them dead ones, to a) make the place look better, b) provide more room for bonfires/picnics, and c) make room for the fence for the animals we want to get next month.  The Husband comes in sometime around 4 and his hands resemble baseball mitts they are swollen so much.  Apparently while cutting down one of the already dead trees he disturbed some yellow jackets and was stung at least four times on his hand.  All the good stuff has to happen when I’m not around.  His hands are still swollen today (I told him he now had man paws).  The only thing funnier is that a tree almost fell on him (apparently he didn't account for the wind, or the fact that the tree is dead which supposedly makes the fall more difficult to aim).  Both of these were prime moments that I happened to miss.  The good news is he didn't get them all cut (due to the yellow jacket attack [is it weird I want to call them tracker jackers?  D*** you Hunger Games!]) so hopefully more shenanigans will ensue that I can photo/videograph.

As promised – baby update for all of you interested readers.  So last week we had our halfway point ultrasound, and I’m pleased to announce Sea Monkey is a GIRL!  I guess that solves the mystery of a nickname.  If we'd had another boy I'd hate to call him number two, for obvious reasons.  I think The Girl will suit just fine.

The Price of Tea in China

Is anyone else ready for fall?  I feel like it will never get here.  July has been one long, hot month.  If this is an indication of the future of climate change (which I fully believe it is) we need to seriously re-think how we're using our resources (me included).  I really don't think I'll be able to live in a world where my air conditioning can't keep up with the temperature outside for three months in a row.


I haven't posted, because we haven't been doing anything particularly interesting.  We're keeping up with the CSA on Tuesdays, that's about it around here.  I have to say I am really glad we did that this year.  I enjoy getting the boxes together and seeing the members every week.  I feel like I've really gotten to know some great families and I hope we get them and more back next year.  Other than that we're planting soybeans (or as The Boy calls them, soilbeans.  I've repeatedly tried to explain to him it's soy, not soil, but he's an Odom.  There's not but so much I can do to counteract natural pigheadedness).


Soybeans aren't terribly interesting.  You plant them, you spray them, you fertilize them, you watch them grow, they die and dry out, you pick them.  'Course to hear The Husband talk they are just fascinating.  I hate it when he wants to take these family trips to check out how the crops are doing (but, when I went to report the crops it really helped since we had some field confusion and I was able to answer questions without making a phone call that likely won't be answered), because I know it's going to be a ride filled with soybean talk.  If it's not soybeans it's pigweed.  Weeds are smart little things.  Just like viruses become resistant to antibiotics, weeds can become resistant to chemicals, namely, roundup.  Sometimes it looks like if anything it fertilized the thing rather than killed it.  Sometimes the only way to get rid of them is to pull them.  On that note, do you know anyone who needs an attitude adjustment?  Have ungrateful lazy kids at home with a smart mouth?  Tried everything?  Have I got a solution for you!  Contact your local farmer and you can get free attitude adjustments.  'Cause if there's one thing that will make them appreciate what they have, it's pulling weeds.  I'm serious, let me know.  I'll be more than glad to set you up!  

Public Enemy #1 - Pigweed

The most interesting thing about soybeans is the price we're getting on the market for them.  For row crops (i.e corn, wheat, soybeans, corn) you sell to a company based on the market price.  Every day (several times a day) The Husband gets the market prices texted to his phone (he can only get, don't ask him to text back) and he comments on how much they've gone up and down (every. single. time.).  After you watch the market get to the price you want (it's a big gamble), you call the company you want to sell with (the one offering the best price) and book so many bushels with them at that price.  


All the news can talk about is the drought in the midwest, and don't get me wrong I'm glad they are.  Usually farmers get no press so this, even if it's bad press, is good.  But they're concentrating on how the short supply is going to push up food prices, which it will.  People see these prices and think that farmers are really making a killing.  We got that a lot last year with the high cotton prices.  What the general public doesn't realize is that everything else goes up too.  Seed prices, chemical prices, fertilizer prices, it all goes up.  Then we're getting hit at the grocery store too, and having to pay high fuel prices.  So while it looks like we're getting a huge boon, it's really more like a cost of living increase.  Don't get me wrong, no one's going to complain about $16+ a bushel soybeans, but when you compare gross profits vs. overhead, it's not always the picture the media wants to paint.


Anyway that's my soap box.  Didn't meant to bore you talking about soybeans and market prices and drought.  I guess I could have written a disclaimer advising you to skip over those last two paragraphs (I know I like to tune out the soybean talk in the car, mostly with music.  Music is a wonderful thing.).  There's just not a lot going on this time of year for us and honestly it's nice to have a break.  Especially since opening day of the corn maze is less than 2 months away.  We're going to get started out there in the next week or so, so hopefully I'll have a hilariously entertaining story about The Husband cutting down trees or something.  Or if there's something you're particularly interested about, crops or maze or berries or otherwise, let me know and I'll be glad to write about that.  Until then stay cool and think fall!

Hits and Misses

Well, as if anyone needed a reminder with the 100 degree heat we're expecting this weekend, spring is over.  Today we officially ended strawberry season by The Husband spraying the strawberries to kill the plants.  If I could drink, I would toast them Irish Wake style.  It's been a good season, but I have to honestly say I am so glad it's over.  Last year we picked 6 - 7 weeks.  This year we picked 3 months.  Thanks La Nina!


As with anything, we definitely had some hits and misses.  Overall I'd say strawberries were a hit.  Even though for me it's not as fun as the Fall activities (it's a whole hell of a lot more work, and the spring isn't my favorite season since it's heating up and getting humid), I have really enjoyed seeing all our friends from last season and the fall and I have loved making new ones and meeting new families.  Thank you all so much for coming out to support us!  We've definitely had some interesting times, from being chased by the bees to flipping a picnic table over and pulling it across the yard on the Gator (alright so before you judge, these things are really heavy and very cumbersome to move.  It was me and two other girls trying to move it.  I'm pregnant and we had to move it clear across the farm.  There happened to be a chain in the back of the Gator...I figured why not.  My motto is there's more than one way to skin a cat) to dealing with two groups showing up out of the blue one Friday morning, we had plenty to laugh at around here.  I figure if you can't have fun while you're doing it what's the point?  


Below is a lovely gallery of the many uses of our Gator over this past season (John Deere, please feel free to compensate us for this free advertisement on your part).  The (very short) video is of us using it to pull out row covers.

Dragging the field, yes, he is pulling a section of a chain link fence. 

Pulling the table

Pulling the hay trailer

As for the misses...produce was an epic fail.  The CSA has been great.  I love doing it.  I love having the members come pick up their boxes and seeing their excitement as they pull out their sheets to see what's in their box this week and what recipe I've included (on a personal note, as mentioned I have a discriminating palate so I eat pretty much nothing we grow.  Trying to come up with recipes for foods I do not eat is not easy.  I choose them based on three things, a) how hard are they to make, how much time will they take, b) how many ingredients does it take and how exotic are they and c) how awful do they sound to me.  So far I think I've done pretty good, but I'm always open to suggestions).  It's something I definitely plan on continuing next year, hopefully on a larger level (delivery sound good to anyone?).  Selling produce at the stand however, not such a great idea.  We had a lot of calls for more produce, but as with anything else, people wanting things does not turn into people buying things.  It's discouraging to sit down at the Stand all day with only a few if any customers or to spend money advertising to see no result (this is another off-topic rant, but do you know it cost at least $20 more a week to advertise in the classifieds of the News Argus vs the News and Observer...there's just something not right about that!).  So we've cut back to basically just selling the sweet corn and later butter beans and peas.  Of course we'll keep providing for the CSA (don't worry!), but working so hard to be open down there every day (especially when the temps are above 95.  I don't take heat well, and with Sea Monkey becoming my own personal internal heater it's just worse and not looking any better until Dec.) just doesn't seem worth it at this point.


Still, we are looking forward to the fall.  Today we planned out the placement of the corn maze and pumpkin patch and punkin' chunker (I want 2 this year, and maybe, just maybe, a trebuchet) and other new additions we want to add to the farm this fall.  I am really, really excited for the fall (a - it'll be cooler and b - I'll be three months closer to meeting Sea Monkey in person) and corn maze season.  So mark your calenders, we'll be open September 29 for fall family fun on the farm!

Confession

I love Pintrest and someecards.com.  Always entertaining.

Alright.  It's confession time.  I got chased by the bees (I think I promised someone a blog about this).  

Anyone who's been on our Facebook or read this blog before probably knows I'm a little fascinated with the insects.  I just think they're amazing with their instincts and social structures and little dances.  With all the swarms and the proximity of the hives to the stand I've felt pretty proud of how brave I've gotten.  I'll walk right up to the hives to take pictures.  I see them in the field and think nothing of it.  Well, on the day of our last swarm, I got a little too close.

Usually I'm not there when they swarm.  This day, they started as I pulled up.  I was excited because I've been wanting to get pictures of this since the first swarm.  it was cool until they started coming close, then my and the girls at the stand ran for our cars.  Two of us climbed into mine and I held my phone to the window to get pictures.  It took a couple minutes for them to pass over us and when they did I started the search for where they went.  I heard them on the other side of the irrigation pond, so after a few minutes when they didn't seem to be flying so much, I decided to find where they pitched.  

The view from my car.  Yes, those black specks are all bees...and this wasn't our biggest swarm.

I could hear them buzzing loudly from at least fifty feet away, yet still I felt determined to get my picture.  I bravely (stupidly) continued stalking them down until I reached the tree on the edge of the pond they pitched on.  They weren't calm.  Some of them had landed, some of them were flying.  I slowly walked to them with a calm demeanor.  Usually, if you don't freak out, they won't attack.  Well.  This wasn't a normal day at the hive.  They were still worked up from swarming, and one (or more I really didn't take time to count) started bumping into me (kinda like sharks do before they eat you, or so the Discovery channel tells me).  Bees will run into you if they find you a threat, and this is a warning for you to leave now before they sting.  Well, my mama didn't raise a fool.  I took the warning and turned around and started walking away (disappointed, because I still didn't have a good picture of the pitch).  Apparently, I wasn't walking fast enough, because I could still hear the bee flying around me and still feel him bumping into me.  That's when reason and rationality left me, and I started hauling a** across our parking lot, shrieking and yelling, phone in one hand, pants in the other (I've been trending to looser pants, but that's another story).  I felt a little like Winnie the Pooh being chased by the swarm (except that there is absolutely no way I am jumping in our irrigation pond.  I shudder to think about what I might catch in there).  All of this is done much to the entertainment of my girls in the stand and the pickers, who happened to be in the field right there (I think I provide a lot of entertainment for them).  It's not until I get to the other side that I no longer hear the bee chasing me and I can stop, and then I stand there for fifteen minutes catching my breath and laughing at how dumb I just was.  Oh well...there's always one.  That day that one was me.  

I did go back later, when they were calm, and got my picture.  All it took was a little perseverance.

30,000 bees pitched on a tree.  At least they all didn't chase me!

So, about the looser pants.  Well, come about December 28th, there will be a new addition on the farm.  We're expecting our second baby!  I guess that means I'll have to come up with a new nickname.  Right now, since we don't know the gender, it's Sea Monkey (just add water and watch it grow!).  I have a feeling that just like The Boy for our son, it will end up sticking.  

The Highlight Reel

To say this season has been busy would be the understatement of the year.  Seeing all of y'all has been great.  We've met new customers and neighbors and got to catch up with old ones.  I love to see how children grow and families change and know I've been a small part of that.  The crop's been good too.  Our berries have produced triple what they ever had, we opened three weeks early and are looking to go to almost the end of May.  Here are some highlights of the season, since I really haven't had time to settle down enough to blog:


Every day we take the berries we aren't able to sell, or the ones who don't look the best, and cap them to freeze them and sell them to a dairy.  I took some today.  92 2.5 gallon bags went in the back of my father-in-law's truck and were then transported an hour and a half northwest to Hillsborough.  It doesn't matter how fast you go though, when you get there the bags are in various stages of melting.  So when you get finished not only are you covered in red strawberry juice, it looks like you've murdered someone in the back of the truck (the last time The Husband made a run a highway patrolman followed him for 10 miles.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  But he drives like a grandma and I've never seen a highway patrolman who didn't speed so...maybe not).

I think I need a better way!

Saturday was mother's day and our annual treasure hunt.  It was an absolutely beautiful day to pick berries.  Around lunchtime I was out getting lunch for the employees (victims) and while I was gone the bees decided to swarm again.  I noticed they seemed to be 'acting' weird all week, coming out to pitch on the hive, not flying in their normal patterns.  Instead of swarming earlier in the day when we were not as busy or later even they decide to do it right at lunchtime while we have a family enjoying their lunch underneath the tree they decide to pitch on.  

Notice the thicker blobs in the middle of the picture, that is the latest swarm

We've had some really great groups out this year.  It's been another learning experience for me (my motto is to go with the flow, and we've done a lot of that this year!).  I'm used to speaking to older groups, schools and other groups of older children who have had experience sitting down and listening to someone talk.  This year I had a number of preschools/daycares, younger children who haven't had that much experience.  The first group that came baffled me completely.  Then I realized I had a great resource right there in my hands.  The NC Strawberry Association offers Strawberry Activity books and the first few pages explains how strawberries grow in preschool terms.  From then on I read the book until I memorized it (this I can remember but I wash my phone in the washing machine?).


Our CSA boxes started going out the end of April.  Again, it's a learning experience.  That first week The Husband called everyone (I'm much more of an e-mailer, facebooker, or texter.  He refuses to join the twenty-first century and this is THE one area where I appreciate it) to make sure they were happy with their boxes.  I'm hoping in the next few weeks we can add more variety and have more quantity too (there are only so many cabbage or radishes one can eat).  So far it's been great and I really love the idea that I go pull the onions that morning and someone's eating them that night.  It's great.

Week 2 Box

So, that's the season in a nutshell.  It's been great.  I hate strawberries officially until October now.  The smell was fantastic for week one, now it makes me sick.  Now we embark on our next adventure...produce!


Oh!  And I'm already planning my new punkin' chunker'