Do Farmers Go On Vacation?

No. Real Farmers work ten hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If they want to take a break, they invite a bunch of people over and have a work party.

We’re not Real Farmers yet, so right smack dab in the middle of spring, we took a vacation.

We went to Oregon to visit Bruce’s brother. He’s not a farmer, he’s a pilot. His wife is not a farmer. She’s a writer. Still, they might be latent farmers because to take a break, they invited a bunch of people over and had a work party! We built a deck all along the western side of their house.

The whole family came out to help. Jesse had drawn up the plans and consulted with a timber framer, a family member who visited us in Ethiopia while he was working on a restoration project. The plans met with his approval, so supplies were bought and preparations made. The family gathered and the work commenced.

Each mortice (square hole) and tenan (peg that fits into it) was chisled by hand.

Finally, the moment arrived to hoist the huge beams into place. Would it all fit together?

No smashed fingers! The joints fit perfectly. Well, I didn’t expect anything different. We didn’t get the whole deck finished, but the heaviest pieces were safely in place.

Jack had a comfy new lair! And the deck was a great place for spitting cherry pits.

After touring around Astoria (it was raining) Cannon Beach (it was still raining) Oswald West state park (raining) and Mount Hood to celebrate my sister-in-law’s first 50 k run (there is no explaining some people! and yes, raining!) it was time to head back to Virginia and our vacation-neglected farm.

I can’t say that the vacation was a total break from farming because I got to meet Rebecca Thistlewaite, who has been doing what we want to do for lots of years. She came over for an evening and in an hour’s conversation probably saved us years of wasted effort. Hopefully we’ll take her advice and be able to pass some of that wisdom on to you, stay tuned!

It was a little weird to fly coast to coast in an environment that seemed to be post-covid in most respects except the crowds of people were wearing masks. I’m still getting used to being around family members again and doing things like giving hugs and speaking face to face wtihout six feet of distance. Walking through a crowded airport and being on a plane with all seats filled was a bit more humanity that I felt ready for.

And for whatever reason, covid or otherwise, domestic airlines no longer serve you food. You have to order ahead to get a meal or else bring your own. We didn’t know that going out and since it was an early morning flight hadn’t eaten since supper the night before. Jacob woke up starving, and also a little nauseous because he had taken antibiotics for an infected ingrown toenail surgery (yes, gross). Fortunately there were little snack boxes that we could buy which tided us over untill Seattle, when we could find some overpriced airport food during our layover. And all the food was healthy, not a fast food chain in sight, with bowls of green this and that to choose from. That too was unexpected, or maybe its just a West coast thing?

And what would be waiting for us on our return to Virginia? The rain guage showed three inches since we left! Stuff sould be growing.

The teff was coming up, along with a nice sprinkling of milkweed. We had planted four test plots, US coated varieties on the right, and Ethiopian white and red on the left. The Ethiopian varieties seemed to be a bit further ahead. In Ethiopia I had seen teff growing with flowers poking out here and there, so should we just leave the milkweed?

And what of the asparagus?

It was up, alright. Along with half a field of of Johnson grass and fescue.