Olly Olly

It’s July, and so your mind mustn’t go there.

“Well”, I says to me, “We find us here again, crouched in a field of weedy onions. You know, things could have been different. If only you had APPLIED yourself! You wouldn’t be here, which is where exactly? Where have you brought me?? Rural Wisconsin!!? Way to go pal! Think of all the places we could have gone! Whew…rural Wisconsin. Brilliant!”

Ori, Daniela, Kelvin and me finish weeding the onions.

“Onions are done.” me says to I, “Olly Olly”

We head out to trellis and mulch the tomatoes. We start out with Kelvin driving tractor over the beds with a pallet load of fence posts, Ori places the posts every 4 plants, and Daniela pounds them in.

“This is kinda a lot of work for tomatoes my friend, don’t you think?” I says to me. “Crap, I mean, how many person hours are you even going to put into this thing?”

Posts get pounded and we lay first lines of trellis and spread out the rye mulch that we cut last month.

“For real” I says to me, “Do you think any one will even buy your tomatoes?”

We finish up with the first line of trellis. “We’ll come back next week for a second line“ me says to I. “But this still counts…Olly Olly.”

For another week, we direct seed. Every week, we direct seed. Kelvin was on the seeder this week, and the rest of us covered the plantings. Remay for the crops that the flea beetles like, and burlap to help germinate the salad and basil.

We have to shovel in the edges of the remay…fast if you can do it.

“You feel that?” I says to me. “Ooh, better slow down! You know, in another 15 years that pain…it’s going to be the only thing you feel!”

I and me think back to last year when we joking egged on Daisy to use the Army mantra “What is pain!?” “PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING MY BODY!!”

“Bwaha! You’re gonna have to really use that mantra later!” I tells me. “I’m gonna be all like ‘What is pain!!?’ and you are probably going to start crying right there!! And you know what I’m gonna say? Do you? I’m gonna say ‘told ya so!’”

“You might be right. We’ll see”, me tells I. “For now, we’ve finished another planting…Olly Olly”.

“Don’t you think people will get maybe like, I don’t know, sick of salad?” I says to me as we cut greens on an early Friday morning. “What are you going to do when that happens?”

“Don’t know” me says to I. “I hope they don’t get sick of it I guess”.

“And arugula! Belch. No me gusta.”

“Hey! I like arugula.”

“You would.”

“Listen, we’ll bring the greens to market, okay? And people can show up, or not. They can buy our greens, or not. But for us, that’s an Olly Olly either way. Okay?”

We finish up the harvest, wash it and pack it into the cooler for a night before the weekend.

“Time for bed already!” I cries.

“Olly Olly”

Early Saturday morning…coffee with cream…eggs over easy…load vans…double check…lock doors…turn off lights…leave for market. I stays back sipping coffee, but me goes to the city.

“Oh no! You are crazy! I’ve been dragged around long enough for one week” I gruffly tells me.

“Fine. I’ll be back. And I’ll bring an Olly Olly with me”.

In July, you are your own worst enemy. In July, your mind can go anywhere else but there. In July, and the only thing that counts is racking up Olly Olly’s. That’s it. That’s all. No matter what. Olly, after Olly, after Olly. Count them, or not. It’s July, and if you wander too far from Olly Olly’s you’ll get lost because, it’s July, and Oxen Free is still a long ways off.