Let It Grow Organic Gardens

And I resumed the struggle. -Vladimir

Monday, September 26, 2005

Is This What A Vacation Is Like?

I packed up I* sometime Saturday afternoon and went to a rustic-lodge-of-sorts down near Tuckasegee. It was a market outing. Farmers and bakers and various friends all went together. It's a thousand acre tract down there that has been part of the Hickory Nut family conglomerate since Eighteen-Eighty-Something. That's a long time.
Well, we watched little kids splash around in a creek and we played frisbee and we watched little kids play frisbee and we splashed around in a creek and then we drank beer. Then we sat around a fire and then we drank some more beer. We went to sleep -it was I*'s first night away from Mom, his first night in a tent. He was a champ.
Next morn, we watched little kids eat pancakes and then we ate some pancakes and then hiked down a really long trail to look at a waterfall.
The thing about this whole deal is that it was planned. We've been talking about it for weeks, and by the time the big day rolled around, we were all pretty damn close to being organized. Ordinarily, when people start talking about doing something fun in the not too distant future, I don't get involved. I know I'm going to be too busy, or, I assume I'm going to be too busy, or I fulfill the prophecy all by myself and become too busy, or some variation on the above. There's always one more task that I need to get finished, then I'll have a bit of free time. I've been saying that for eight years.
I've always been better at the spontaneous time off thing. If someone says: Let's go do this right now, I'm more likely to go have fun. 'Cause it probably won't take very long and then I can get back to work. And it never involves a full day off - it's bits and pieces here and there.
As someone once said: If you want to live off a garden, you have to live in a garden.
There are occurences that I see as benchmarks for the farm. Hiring help. Going an entire year without missing a market due to lack of stuff. Having the means to fix stuff when it breaks instead of waiting for a bit of extra cash to come in. I'm thinking that a premeditated day off is another milestone.
Another season is winding down and I'm starting to put fields to sleep under cover crop. The end of season assessmant of the state of the farm as well as life its ownself is the same as ever, though these days perhaps muttered with a bit more elan: we're still here.

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