Days 4 and 5: Work Continues Slowly

On Tuesday, my Dad planted the remaining 50 chestnut trees we had on hand. I potted on some tomatoes, which continue to grow beautifully, despite temperatures below freezing the last few nights. The little greenhouse must be fairly well insulated, and I am grateful.

I went to a fundraiser for the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, an organization that offers legal protection to small farmers like us. Due to a funny chain of events, I was actually the representative for the Fund, and gave a little speech, followed by none other than celebrity farmer Joel Salatin. How intimidating!

A funny note: I wore a dark blazer with a maroon shirt and khaki pants (Joel wore the same color scheme, though he also had a tie). When I was packing my clothes in Boulder, I thought, "Do I really want to pack this? I've never needed to wear a suit before. Well, I probably should take it. Maybe someday I'll need to give a speech with Joel Salatin." Ha!

Wednesday dawned grey and cold, with a misty rain falling. I had a deadline to meet, so my Dad went off to plant a box with fruit trees (mainly peaches). He expected to plant 28 trees, and even got the holes all dug, but when the time came to put the trees in the ground, he found only 18. Once again, short!

More of the chestnut trees came via FedEx, and Dad got 35 in before the soil suddenly shifted from damp to saturated. Why the drizzle would suddenly cause such a shift in the soil was a mystery, but it did. And so today ends, with 435/1000 chestnut trees in the ground.

Phil was dealing with his own exercises in futility. Besides not being able to fix the off-the-shelf steering wheel of the tractor, he has had other pieces break. He drilled five or six holes for the fruit trees and the post-hole auger had a part break on him. Twice. The water pump in the RV suddenly stopped working, and so he figured out how to pull it out, which piece was not working, and then, after about six phone calls to the manufacturer and distributor, he figured out how to order a replacement piece (and how to jury rig the piece while we wait for the shipment). That darn water pump took up the whole morning.

So much of life is maintenance.

Getting a massive new hay bale down to the lower pasture took another hour or so. Phil had gone to check on the animals and saw they were out of feed. So we went to bring the hay bale down, me opening the three gates on the way. Two calves were missing by the time we got there, vanished in that short period while we were getting the bale. So Phil went to look, while I dozed on the tractor, in the rain. It was like a bad country music song.

I sat, exhausted, on the tractor
While you fetched the naughty calves.
The rain drizzled down my collar
And I wondered why we live the life we do.

Happily, such depressing moments are few.

The calves did get out again, though, and Phil and I ran up and down the neighbor's hills, getting them back in their paddock. The electric fence charger really needs more umph. Maybe we'll get to that tomorrow.