July-Big Important Things To Do
Picking patty pans in the morning hours, before the heat of the day, it's as if only you and the radial squash blossoms are the only ones awake. One such morning, descending into the canopy of broad leaves to a cut a bulbous fruit, I found that I wasn't the only one at work. An industrious honeybee rose from the plant, sated on nectar. "Beep. Beep. Coming through! Big, important things to do!". The line from one of my kids' favorite early childhood books sprung to mind, or had the bee sung it to me in passing?
In the book, a Little Blue Truck is the busy bee. And driven by some life force within, it seizes the day with a fervor. Perhaps the book was written in an attempt to capture the energy of its audience: little ones electric with youth, hopping from one activity to another...ambitious and enlivened by their industry.
That's me. That's the honeybee. That is the sea of basil which withered in the late frost this spring, only to rediscover themselves as thriving plants and to make up for lost time, growing so fast that when I turned my back, they transformed from spindly survivors to lush bushes visited by the bees.
It only took eight years on this farm to settle down. To learn to step aside to watch it all..those bigger, more important things, like the many lives of the farm. To just watch, like our first farm mentor encouraged us to do if we were to truly take care of a place and the living things there. To be the still one. To coo at the honeybee and allow her to drink deeply and move on before continuing down the row, accumulating squash. She is one of the ones responsible for my harvest after all. And then to break after harvest to drink in May and Jack's transitory childhood here. Specifically to marvel in their immersion in summerland...making camp under the "Christmas tree" that grows next to the propagation house or their other campground under the trampoline; traversing the obstacle course they've created in the yard...fancy free as they are.
The unbearably hot hours come, the ones baked by full sun and assaulted by the humidity that the Ohio Valley bestows on us, and the kids retreat inside for lemonade, which they can now pour on their own. The self-sufficiency and ever-encroaching independence is more crushing than the heat wave. "I don't need help, mom". I invite myself to the lemonade break, relieved that at least for now I am still "cool" enough to be there. And then, I'm giddy to be asked for a trampoline jump afterward. In all likelihood, they just want me for my extra weight which can launch them skyward.
Eventually, they'll have such "big, important things to do" outside of the yard, outside of the farm. I'll make lemonade for myself and Rich just to remember when we four were busy bees together: busy in the business of growing. Growing together into an intricate weave that they're bound to pick apart as they enter into adulthood and try to understand themselves and how they want to use what they learned and how they don't to make their own lives for themselves. We are busy growing a farm and a life that I love. A happy hive...a moment in time here.
The day will come for these two to swarm. It's the nature of a hive. They'll outgrow this home we've all built together, cell by cell of honeycomb, plugged with the sweetest memories which I'll survive on when they fly off to busy themselves out there. There are more flowers to be found...even a new home to be made.
But for now, we're here perpetually making memories to be tucked away in the walls of the farmhouse which stand to see it all, and in the trees that loom over our soccer games and serve as hiding places to be sought, and the kitchen table. Busy bodies, we fly from the fields to the market, occasionally for a swim and then to sleep and do it all over again. And on we'll go until school starts again, busied in the best of ways by summer on the farm.
Updates from the Farm:
-Oakwood Market Saturdays: They're the best. As you may know, we are there rain or shine every Saturday from 9-noon through October. This month we will see mega tomatoes at our booth. Peppers, eggplant, salad mix, zucchini and patty pans, etc etc. 22 Orchard Drive. See you there 😄
-Chicken Coop Expansion Complete: Rich did an excellent job and somehow snuck in this build in between our 7 days of farming we do each week ;). The ladies and are enjoying the space...not to mention the rooster we just learned we have as he is just beginning to crow. They have been getting daily veggies, greens, etc. We suspect the hens will begin laying by September.
-The Deer Fence has Proven Itself: Rich installed deer fencing this year as well and it has proven itself! We are so thrilled that the two layered effect has kept the deer out.
-Switching Our Newsletter and Journal Over to Substack: FYI we will be publishing the newsletters and journal entries to come via Substack as we've decided it's the platform that makes the most sense for our purposes. As you've subscribed, you'll stay on our email list to receive the publications as usual. The site we use will simply be shifting over to Substack.
Thank you for reading :)
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