Day 36 (7/20/12): Is it just to take a bug's life?

View from the farmstand of barn, side of house, flower garden, sheep and their electric fence.  We have only 3 sheep now.  

Kenya and I were planning on waking up to do core, but her alarms didn’t go off, so I made my tired body do a few pushups before relaxing for breakfast with a book.  It was an early CSA day, and I harvested poc choi (they’re much larger down in Field 5 than in the herb garden where I had been harvesting them in past weeks), broccoli, and cucumbers.  All of the broccoli heads are now harvested and we’re just waiting for sprouts to shoot up, and we’re still only harvesting pickling cucumbers (prickly veggie and plant).  Mary, Kenya, and I each had a new walkie-talkie, making communication during harvesting so much easier.  

I watered the hoop houses and weeded the fields all morning.  Jillian and Kenya had bought a brand new stirrup hoe yesterday, but Jillian and I ended up using the old hoe while weeding together because it was oddly sharper.  I always enjoy working with Jillian because of our exciting discussions.  Today we talked about the philosophy and logic of things like the importance of one’s heritage, overpopulation, and death.  Jillian says she came to her conclusions about the morality of killing while debugging rows and rows of squash.  

I watched the shop starting at lunch and for most of the afternoon while I worked in the flower garden near the barn and the house.  Mary is making floral arrangements for 2 weddings that are both coming up in 2 weeks.  The flower garden is in full bloom.  I weeded the footpaths and rows of the entire garden.  I ridded the zinnias of Japanese beetles by dumping them in a cup of soapy water.  I fed all of the animals again, although I only led up Nestor from the pasture today.  I worked extra time since I never got around to harvesting the dry flowers before feeding.  Dry flowers make a rustling noise when you swipe over their petals, and I cut the stem up close to the flower since these flowers will be used later on with thin wire replacing the stem.  I set these out to dry in the barn on a window screen.

Jillian and I started eating pizza and watching BBC’s North & South while Kenya insisted on finishing mowing the lawn before Mary and Sage came back from market. Jillian’s friend from school who lives an hour away arrived to eat dinner with us for a while.  She’ll be taking Jillian to the airport at 3am tomorrow morning.  Jillian’s grandmother is in hospice and will die any day, so Jillian is leaving tonight for the funeral in Texas and coming back on Tuesday.  I’ll miss my roomie.

Zinnias, Japanese beetles favorite treats.                                        Japanese Beetles

Tonight I also chatted with my WOOLF co, Aldis.  If anyone has any ideas for trail magic (treats like Oreos or a magazine that are brought on the backpacking trip as a surprise for the frosh) or schwag (costume ideas for dressing up on the first day of freshman orientation: Mario, cavemen, Jersey Shore, different colors), please let us know or leave a comment!