Tire Turtles and Other Delights

I forget every season just how all encompassing farming becomes once the summer really hits a stride. It’s easy, in the winter, to think that perhaps this will be the year when I find the time, maybe not daily, but often, to do those little none work things in between farm tasks. Perhaps I’ll read a chapter in a book, watch a movie even, perhaps…cook dinner.

I once saw mention that a small farmers dirty little secret, after preaching the worldly goodness of a home cooked, locally sourced meal, is to then have a PB&J sandwich dinner while trying to get that last field prepped as the sun hits the hills. I have been there, I will most likely be there.

On the farm, it gets to be the little things to remark along the way that soften the constant to do list and make life feel like it’s not just work. Most of those things revolve, for me, around just how subtle the natural world is in it’s show. It’s the millions of tiny strands of dew covered webs individually linking blades of grass or onion tops at dawn. Or down the road, the tire turtles (a group of turtles that hang out sunning themselves on a tire in a ditch pond. They all belly flop into the pond as you go by in a fantastically clumsy, charming display.) It’s the different scents and smells that punctuate the day: cherry blossoms, lilacs, freshly mowed rye cover, DIRT…just super earthy dirt. Or my favorite lately, since the sky has been perfect for it, seeing the cloud shadows flow over the hills before hitting the hilltop of the farm.

I could go on. The little things arrive daily.

So, I’m giving up again, on having any kind of “life” during the season. I should know better. I’ll just look for the little things. Maybe, I’ll be a rude awakening for the tire turtles, and belly flop into the pond with them. I’ll save that particular pleasure for if I reach my whits end.