Genuine Faux Farm Year in Review

We've always found it to be useful and, frankly, a healthy exercise to look at the previous year in early January just to look more objectively at what went well, what went poorly, and everything else in between.  We can put things into perspective and perhaps that will inform us as to where the farmers and the Genuine Faux Farm will go in 2022.

2021- Year of Anniversaries

I suspect there were many people celebrating a number of new "1-year Anniversaries" in 2021 - considering the pandemic encouraged us all to make some changes in our lives.  But, even with the pandemic, there were some changes we were already planning at our farm that celebrated their one-year anniversary in 2021.

2020 was the first year since 2005 that our farm did NOT offer a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Share.  We did not reintroduce those farm shares in 2021 and even removed the farm credit program we instituted the year before.  I know, it is kind of odd to celebrate the anniversary of the removal of something.  But, it turns out the changes to our farming operation were well timed (more on that one later).  Instead, we focused more on growing larger amounts for bulk sales or seed production, reducing the labor that is needed for the CSA and a reliance on direct to consumer sales.

Another anniversary was celebrated in late March, when the blog blitz that started as we all began isolating to avoid the spread of Covid-19 reached its one-year anniversary.  At that point, I backed off just a little bit - until it picked back up again at the end of the year.  It turns out that nearly daily writing is useful for me and apparently periodically helpful for those who read the blog.  We'll see where we stand at the two-year anniversary!  Along the same lines, Postal History Sunday celebrated one year of weekly posts in August.  Yes, they are connected - and yes, these anniversaries celebrate persistence, if nothing else.

April also marked the one-year anniversary for Rob's job with Pesticide Action Network.  That's one anniversary that really snuck up on me and I was pretty amazed how quickly it happened.  Part of the irony of all of this is that my job with PAN is also a writing intensive occupation.  The good news?  I can often share what I write for PAN here and the writing I do here frequently informs what I write there.  You can call it double-dipping if you like.  I'll just call it using one experience to help build up another.

The other offshoot from the PAN job and the pandemic were more opportunities to speak in different forums.   I was also asked to speak on postal history, as well as some of the normal talks I often do regarding our type of farming.  Yes, most of it was via Zoom or other, similar, distance tools.  But, I might not have had a chance to do these in person in a normal year, given the focus the farm usually requires and the limitations we have for travel opportunities.  So, it was actually a bit of a blessing to me that others ALSO had to resort to distance communications and it allowed me to participate more often.

2021 - Year of Weather Silliness

Ok.  You would not be out of bounds if you told me that EVERY year at the Genuine Faux Farm seems to feature some sort of weather silliness.  It's a farm.  The weather plays a significant role in what goes on here every single day.  So, we have to expect that the weather is going to be featured.

We got our first decent snow in late January.  Soon after that, temperatures took a dive, making care for our poultry a bit more difficult.  After a couple of weeks of that, we barely averted a fire in the poultry room when we discovered a split electrical cord on a water heater.  I will say this - it is nice to say we AVERTED a fire, rather than reporting on a fire that took out a building and all of our laying flock.  I'll take it!

Power outages stack up as the December derecho heads East

The warmer months were fairly calm, with minimal severe weather, minimal rain and warmer than usual temperatures UNTIL a freak killing frost hit us and took out many of our crops at the end of May.  Then, things calmed down once again.  Very little severe weather and limited rainfall until a series of storms hit Iowa in July - with one narrowly missing our farm. 

Once again, things calmed down, lulling us into thinking we might have dodged the weather bullet, until August hit and we had a storm, that didn't travel enough to classify as a derecho, hit the farm.  And there was rain and flooding - in August.   Yes, that was a pretty rough stretch of weather there.

Things were pretty calm again, until we got to December.  Then, just as Tammy and I were trying to prepare the farm for a trip away - a December derecho hit.  Really?  The good news is - we managed to get the farm about as well prepared as we could have and we dodged significant damage this time around.

2021 - Year of the Kidney

Actually, 2021 was the year of farmer health struggles.  Tammy has been fighting a bone spur near the Achilles tendon for some time now - but Rob had to upstage her by dealing with a blood clot in a leg and a tumor in his left kidney.  

Tammy and I found ourselves working in overdrive to prepare for the late April surgery that would result in that kidney being removed after it was determined to be too rambunctious to keep.  Tammy had work to do for Wartburg.  Rob had work to do for PAN.  And we both needed to get things on the farm to a point where it could handle having one farmer down and the other one stretched between her Wartburg job and caring for her partner.  

It would be dishonest if I did not tell everyone that early recovery was... well... awful.  But, we received many kindnesses from many different quarters.  And despite our personal struggles, the farm continued to move forward with plenty of help from others. After a couple of months, the farmer was feeling like he could actually pull his weight around the farm again.  Although, when I look back at that post, I can tell you I still wasn't really pulling my full weight even then.  It still took a couple more months before I could work without worrying too much about what I was doing.

This is where I return to the reference earlier that the changes we were making to the farm were timely.  If we were still trying to run a CSA Farm Share program and everything else we had been doing in prior years, we would not have fared at all well in 2021.  As it was, we already had a plan that was a revision of our 2020 farm that gave us a little breathing room.  We set goals that concentrated on bringing some of the joy of growing back to our farm and gave the farmers more opportunities to live life (and survive kidney removal).

We must have done reasonably well this year since our grades were pretty good.

2021 - Year of Caring for the Farmers

If there is one thing farmers on a small-scale, diversified farm are notoriously bad it - it is self-care.  You would think that the opportunity to be outdoors, eat good food that is good for you, frequent exercise and movement, etc etc would be enough.  But, often the farm is overwhelming and we can't say "no" to all of the things just have to be done.  Farmers who do what we do are often isolated from support networks and frequently give up things they need for the good of their farm and their customers.  This year emphasized the need for these farmers, at least, to change that narrative.

We worked at giving ourselves opportunities to balance hard work with rejuvenating play.  We took the time to walk in some beautiful places in Iowa that we often failed to give ourselves time to do in prior years.  We stuck to playing a nightly board game - even when we were tired.  We even took a couple of nights away in July when we were given the gift of someone watching the farm for us.  This is not at all easy to do and we highly recommend that others who farm as we do find some way to do it.  

The walks were actually quite doable.  We selected locations that were only one hour away so we did not have to get coverage for our morning and evening chores.  The time away required more effort - but the investment was worth the improved mental health and balanced perspective.

If you can't take at least most of a day off once per month to be away and take a breath, then you need to re-evaluate how you farm.  Let's just leave it at that.

2021- A Decent Year Overall

All in all, 2021 was a decent year for us on the farm despite the challenges.  It would be tempting to point at the lost crops due to weather and the health conditions and proclaim ourselves "glad to be rid of 2021."  But, we won't.

Why?

Because our faith in others was rekindled by the support we got when we needed it.  By college students who came and willingly helped on the farm.  By help from others who encouraged us to become more comfortable with the care of our bees.   And, through kind words at times when we actually did not know we needed them.

Our interest in the world around us has been rekindled as we gave ourselves more room to experience awe and wonder.  We witnessed a fireball and had the energy and desire to learn more.  And, while our farm had some failures, we still had enough success that it all balanced out - including a five pound cauliflower (well, almost).

Rob actually won another award for his postal history exhibit and Tammy received recognition for her work at the college.  Both are reminders to us that our long-term efforts do eventually bear fruit and our efforts do matter.   We need to remember to take a moment to recognize when that happens.

Here's to 2021 - and an even better 2022.