Two Worlds

A common question that has been posed to Farmer Rob over the past year and a half is something along the lines of "How are things going with the balance between your PAN job and the farm?"  It's a pretty good question and it is probably worth figuring out a better answer than, "well, you know... it can be pretty difficult sometimes, but I'm doing okay."

Hours in the Day

Apparently it is true what they say about the hours in a day.  There are never enough for you to get everything done ESPECIALLY if you are trying to make a small, diversified farm work.  

So, what happens when another job enters the picture and demands thirty plus hours each week from you?  

Well, you just don't get it all done.  The weeds get out of hand and special projects don't get started.  A broken tool cripples you more than it should.  And, you start getting this odd feeling....

The one where you ask yourself, "I thought I said I was done working for the day.  So, why am I out here working so hard right now?"  Lately, the result has been to just take some of the lumps we will take with things not getting done at the farm.  Yeah, I suppose I could go back to working the super long hours to try to keep up.  I've done it before and I could do it again.  

But, the farm is one of those things that will take the hours in the day... every one of them.... if you let it.  Farm work is never done because there is always more to do.

Once a Farmer...

The other oddity I've been dealing with is that I am programmed to respond to certain things as a farmer - even if I am not in a "farmer setting."  Case in point, a recent batch of severe weather that popped up this month.

I often have meetings through the middle of the day for my PAN job.  These meetings are online, of course, so I am usually inside the house for them.  But, I still find myself taking looks out the window so I can check the conditions.  It's a lot harder than it is when I am outside, but I do still have some responsibilities that require my attention if the weather should turn.  One of the most pressing of these is to close the high tunnels if it looks like strong winds are possible.

I glanced outside at the beginning of one meeting (about 1:10 PM) and felt like I might need to be paying some attention.  Just for the sake of getting more information, I checked the radar and I saw the image above. 

There wasn't anything too scary in the radar image.  But, I've seen skies like that before and I was pretty sure we were going to get something.  So, what followed was a meeting where Farmer Rob was straddling his two worlds as best he could.  One eye on the meeting so he could be a positive participant and the other looking out the window.

Apparently, I still have a decent weather sense.  I found myself excusing myself from the meeting a bit prior to the scheduled end and dashed outside to close up high tunnels and grab some things that would have become all too willing to be projectiles if there were strong enough winds.

The good news is that Tammy was actually at home this time as well, so we were able to get everything dealt with AND get inside before the storm hit.  The radar from 2:25PM is shown above.  The white dot in the red area is approximately the location of our farm.

Hey!  You Still Haven't Answered the Question!

That's true.  I haven't.  And maybe that's because I am still trying to figure out the answer for myself.

Most of the fields look pretty bad right now because we just haven't been able to keep going after the weeds.  But, despite that we've been able to get over 175 pounds of broccoli to the food bank.  Our tomatoes are producing well.  We've had our own sweet corn for the first time since ... since who knows when?  The early potato crop has been fantastic. 

And, of course, we keep the poultry fed, watered and we deal with all of the other things we have to do to keep them healthy and happy.

You see, it's all of those hours we're missing. Both ours that are now taken by other things and the hours we used to get from people who would work on our farm with us.  I don't know what made me think we could figure out all of the critical adjustments we would need to make to still farm AND do it in a fraction of the available labor hours.

And yet, our own freezer has the best diversity of veggies stored up for the Winter than we've had for a decade because we made that a priority after we actually RAN OUT of our own veggies this past Winter.  Let's just say we both found that to be a bit offensive (something that had NOT happened since even before we started the farm).

Then again, our farm buildings are more disorganized than they ever have been and the areas around our buildings have not been cleaned up.  Simply put, there is a host of farm maintenance and upkeep items that are falling by the wayside.  And while that happens, we still walk by giant sunflowers as they smile down at us.  Some snapdragons nod as we walk by and the celosia are bigger than they have a right to be.  Marigolds peak out from underneath broccoli leaves and there are some butternut squash that just might be seven or eight pounds in weight.

If you've been following us and our adventures as we travel through life on the Genuine Faux Farm you might be tempted to say, "Huh.  So, it sounds like this is just like every other year since you got there.  There are some good things and some bad things.  There are things you are getting done and things you aren't.  It's just that some of things that are getting done are different and some of the things that aren't are different."

Yes.  I think you're right.  

So I must be doing fine and always hope to do better.  Thanks for asking.