Trends…

VFMK is hosting yet another guest blogger entry... enjoy! :)

The seasons are changing… and the end of summer is not always a smooth transition on the farm. This was readily apparent when it began raining and turned cold this past week. Unfortunately, for those who are making a livelihood from the produce of the land, this - quite nicely - is crappy. I would use stronger adjectives but in a public forum (and based on my abhorrence of bad words) it seems to be pointless. I am learning that there are many things I cannot change. The weather, it seems, is one of them.

My sister thinks that she can change the weather. She, I have learned, is highly superstitious. How to avoid the rain:

1. Take the laundry off the line
2. Clean out the eavestroughing (even in the middle of a rain storm)
3. NEVER wash the car
4. Don’t kill spiders
5. Always make sure that there’s nothing to water
6. NEVER water your garden if you want it to rain
7. NEVER say it doesn’t look like rain
8. Pull up all the root vegetables
9. Don’t look at the weather; look at the weather every two seconds
10. Curse the weather network. Sit at your computer obsessively clicking the mouse and telling weather systems to dissipate. Little did I know that my sister (who hasn’t read Harry Potter) knows incantations. She uses them on the computer. They’re not in latin, they’re in Lindaese and I dare not repeat them here lest I unleash some weird weather system somewhere in the midst of Northern Alberta.

Bad weather for most of us means griping. I am not immune to this as I do my share of complaining when I’m stuck four inches in mud due to a downpour on my long weekend camping trip. For farmers, showers mean stress. Lots of stress. The swathing that had been ongoing for over three days nonstop was adjourned completely. The crops are currently in amazing geometric patterns across the field getting wet. This is bad. Very, very bad. Thousands of dollars in loss bad. The words disastrous, tragic and agonizing come to mind. And there’s nothing to do but hover over the weather reports hitting the refresh button a hundred times in 10 minutes.

On that note, many people write laurels on the multi-tasking mom. The multi tasking mom is nothing in comparison to the multi-tasking farm based mom. I have watched my sister be meteorologist, mechanic, operator, book keeper, business manager, co-ordinator as well as domestic engineer (which, as we all know, involves a myriad of talents and abilities… and in her case it means growing a large part of the produce she uses in her meals as well as organizing all of the extra-curricular activities her daughters are involved in). It’s nothing short of impressive. We were stuck in one of many black outs (storm related) and yet she was still in charge of multiple forecast assessments made by looking at obscure colour blotches reminiscent of an impressionist painting.

School in Sentimentality

Last week highlighted the first day of school for my dear niece Charlotte. I was, admittedly, sentimental to see my niece in her first day of school outfit ready to go off and join the ranks of kindergarten. I don’t have to reconcile with this emotive spirit – it’s who I am when it comes to big benchmarks… particularly things like school. There’s no doubt that I was very excited along with my Char about her next adventures… but the fact that she’s already making a transition into school is something to reflect upon. I myself realized that this was the first time since I was Charlotte’s age that I was not returning to school in September. I have decided that I am institutionalized (and nerdy… I love school supplies and the smell of pencils.)

Salsa (because it’s not Wednesday, it’s Tomatay)

We’ve stewed tomatoes. We’ve made Greek salad. We’ve covered the tomatoes a quilt of mismatched blankets to protect them from frost. Yes, we must protect the tomatoes. At all costs... save the tomatoes!!! I believe that we’ve only harvested approximately 300 of them and that – apparently – just isn’t enough. Evidently it takes 30 pounds of tomatoes to make one batch of Linda’s tomato sauce. That’s like a John and a half (though that sounds so wrong). But that many tomatoes is just that wrong. After watching veggie tales I feel somewhat sickened to be part of the tomato carnage. I do not want to see another fruit after this experience. Ever. And forget apples. But that’s another post.

Saunahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I have thoroughly enjoyed my sauna experience here on the farm. As I was not here for construction, I cannot give the details about that. I can, however, provide a photo as well as a description – Sauna = contentment.

This could be a post that would involve you being the recipient of a *prize* for decoding the trend in this entry. I, being the letterphyle that I am, can’t help but make this an alliteration based blog post. I just can’t help myself.