Date Night - A Faux Real Story

When a person writes every day for an extended period of time, it certainly can seem very strange to NOT write, even for a few days.  In this case, I missed two or three days last week and this week, this will be the first blog entry since Postal History Sunday.  From the perspective of a reader, I suspect this hasn't been a huge thing since it is likely no one reads this blog EVERY day anyway.

There was a time when getting to double digits for blog entries in a single month was quite the accomplishment.  In fact, some considered that "prolific."  Now that my profession has changed to farming words more than plants, things shifted. 

Still, my eyes are less than fond of screen time as I recover.  So, I went back to 2013 and found a May blog post that amused me and I used that to create today's blog post.  It's sort of a hybrid throwback where I combine old with the new.

How we did "Date Night" at GFF

Before the Genuine Faux Farm became such a big part of our lives, Tammy and I saw Friday as the gateway to the weekend, just as so many people do.  But, once we started this vegetable farm thing, Fridays just didn't mean the same thing they used to.

One early May 'date night'  in 2013 began with a wild flurry to get the truck loaded with vegetables, eggs and plants for our plant sale down at Hansen's Outlet in Cedar Falls.  We were also delivering egg orders and our Spring CSA shares to our Cedar Falls members.  While we were at it, we delivered a few other orders for lettuce and asparagus.  Nearly everyone who placed orders showed up, many plants were purchased and we were able to converse with many wonderful people.

After the sales and deliveries, we reloaded the truck.  We did manage to go somewhere for dinner at that point.  But, we did so with the knowledge that rain was coming *and* we still had to pick and prepare for the Waverly Farmers' Market the next morning.  We ate fairly quickly and rolled home watching the clouds in the West.

Veg cleaning by candlelight

While days in May are long, dark clouds in the west can limit the amount of workable light.  Of course, if you start cleaning your veggies at 9:15 PM, you probably are asking for some problems with available light outside regardless of the weather.  So, we grabbed a trouble light and an extension cord and hung it up in the cleaning area.  Tammy thought it was romantic to be cleaning veggies by 'candlelight.'

Ok, maybe she didn't think it was romantic.  But, it was still part of our Date Night.

To make a long story less long, it started to rain at about 9:30 PM - and our cleaning area was outside.  It's moments like that where we are both amused and a bit irritated by the situation.  

It's better if we emphasize the amused part. 

Always more to it than that

This is, of course, the abbreviated version of Date Night.  I didn't mention the romantic interlude that was putting the hens away and checking on the chicks in the brooder to make sure the temperatures were steady.  Then there was the heavy breathing that was a result of a dash out to the high tunnel to close it down just in case there was wind with those clouds.

We even touched hands once in a while as we passed containers and unpurchased plants out of the truck so we could clean it and then start REPACKING it for the next morning.

Perspective

Over time, we changed how we did things at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We removed farmers' markets (except for Spring plant sales) from our list, which provided us with a new perspective on weekends and, of course, Date Night.  That's not to say there weren't still plenty of opportunities to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes while our hands were thrust into icy water so we could get another thirty pounds of lettuce cleaned and packed for some reason or another.

In the present time, both Tammy and I have off-farm jobs.  My job generally does not require weekend work, and it has not recently resulted in cleaning veggies for a Saturday market late into Friday night.  Yet, we still find our opportunities to spend time together.

Maybe we could clean the hen room out this weekend?  That's me - ever the romantic.