Farming in the shade

This flat roof coop has been a chicken coop, a storage barn, a wood shop, a weaving studio, and maybe more. Most Independence Days at dusk we pop popcorn, apply bug spray, prop a ladder against the barn, park our lawn chairs on the roof like bumpkins and watch the fireworks in all directions. It's a family tradition. Gotta be there to really appreciate it. Over the last 6-9 months, we've tossed about the idea of updating and enlarging this barn. We discussed the possibility of an apartment for farm help, a bean storage room (climate-controlled), and an updated space for a small farm shop. We finally decided to go for it, and over the summer have tried to squeeze in a major renovation project in our already-too-busy days. Fortunately, we have lots of family members who can think of nothing more fun than troweling, sawing, and hammering. The flat roof had to come off. The addition is completely UP, as in a second story. As the roof came off, some of the boards were

After the big storm , we had three different tree services come in and give us bids. The verdicts of the first two were identical: chop and grind. The third service saw more hope. Repeated trimmings and fertilization might pull the trees through. I was game, but The Farmer's pragmatism won. There really wasn't much left of the front tree, and the best part of the back tree was intertwined with the power lines. After trimming away the broken bits and trimming away from the power lines, there would be very little left.  So chop and grind it was.  If it weren't enough to lose three perfectly healthy, very old trees (and one hollow one), we suffered more damage as they came down. The healthy ash tree at the edge of the driveway was a casualty of this tree's fall. And our farm sign was slightly damaged in the process as well. The tree service guys took out both the broken and another diseased ash tree, for free. Our sign is still maimed.  Slowly, the

The clouds this morning were interesting enough to snap a picture of. Apologies for the lack of quality of the picture--it was quite early, and still rather dark.  We are receiving regular rains, now, which is so much better than too wet or too dry. The beans are coming along nicely, but we had to till under the vast majority of our single corn field. This spring's relentless rains didn't allow us to adequately prepare the field for planting. The weeds took over, and some of the corn didn't even take root due to the extreme wetness. So instead of 3 fields of corn, we have 1/5th of a field. Corn is a cash crop for us, as we feed very little to our animals. So things might be a little tighter for us next year, when there is no corn to sell. Farming is an exercise in trusting God. We have never had a perfect year. Good years? Yes. But they are sprinkled in among the not-so-good years. There are no guarantees in farming, or in life. I guess the trusting that comes w