I thought I'd go till up my weed patch, I mean my garden,
and boy was I surprised to find that some of it actually did come up despite
the overabundance of rain we have had. I spent hours pulling weeds from between
the plants and then tilled between the rows and, yes, replanted some of it
because it just didn't grow. All of my field peas had to be replanted and out
of all the special giant variety strawberries I transplanted, only two
survived. None of the cucumbers or spinach or squash survived so those too had
to be replanted. My sweet potatoes finally showed up and I planted those, but
they looked pretty sad and still don't look too great, so I'm thinking I wasted
my money yet again. I have got to quit trying to grow my beloved sweet
potatoes. The plants make here just barely alive, if at all, and then they
won't grow. I had a year that they did well, but that was once in sixteen,
albeit some years I didn't try to plant a garden and those years I always
regretting not having done so.
View of my garden from my deck. (Grand kids play equipment under the tree and rhubarb under clothesline)
It seems every time the soil dries enough to attempt to
plant the soybeans and we get it all disked (again) and are ready to put the
planter on the tractor we get a week of rain. We got three inches the other
night and it's expected to rain all week. At this point we aren't sure it will
even be feasible to plant them. A lot of farmers can't even get their corn
planted yet, and here there is a saying that it should be knee high by the
Fourth of July for it to make anything. Ours is nowhere close (but at least
it's planted) and it looks more like a hay field, but with all the rain we
can't get in the field to cultivate or spray to get rid of the grass so the
corn stands half a chance. The tractor would get buried in mud. Forget getting
the hay done. When one gets the chance, they spend every hour, waking or not,
in the field cutting, by headlight if necessary, the grass, and then as soon as
it dries they rake it and wait for that to dry and bale or chop it for silage
as soon as they can. The first cutting usually goes into silage or is baled and
bagged or wrapped for silage so it doesn't have to dry completely like regular
hay would, so farmers just keep at it until it gets done. Sleep? What's that?
Such is the life of a farmer I guess. I never felt the need
to go to a casino or animal races (dog or horse) because farming is a gamble
much greater; but the winning or losing is not seen for months rather than
immediately, but it's just as addicting and a whole lot more work, but unlike a
casino, the rewards usually outweigh the losses. We are using some of that
'down' time for another project. We're gutting part of the barn to put in a
parlor so we can milk cows again. Yes, it is more work, and if you're milking
you're pretty well stuck at home, but it beats working off the farm hands down.
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