Just to get it out-- the congressman/USDA officials/members of the board of Agriculture/an army of aides/press descended onto the farm today, but I didn't see a thing. We were up pulling potatoes and missed the whole event. I had a long sit down with the boss after closing, everyone else had left, and he told me the happenings. The parade of officials arrived and the boss ushered them around the farm store (showing them the kitchen facilities/business), he took 'em to the barn and around the yard. The entourage settled down out back and talked policy. The big federal farm bill is renewed every 5 years, this is the 5th year now, and major budget cuts are in order. Our congressman is of the opinion (as is the boss) that the majority of these cuts should come in the form of slashing commodity subsidies (corn/other staple crops are often underwritten, encouraging/discouraging their growth). It's big money-- hundreds of millions and more. Lots of money that we never see at least, we're a small farm not industrial agriculture scale. The boss took the opportunity to wrench his farm bureau presidency weight, strongly advocating for a more extreme budget-- cut as much of the subsidies as possible, beyond balance the budget necessities and then use the freed up funds to fund/incentivize agricultural-method research. So instead of forking out 100 million on new lab-crop research, put some money (any money), into development of farming methods. Sometimes how you plant is more important than what brand of seed you're planting-- I mean good healthy crops come from good healthy seeds. But-- arranging a specific crop row in the right place and in the right manner can do more (with less) to prevent plant mold/fungus, than expensive anti-fungal spray/spray resistant seeds. The boss made his case on a number of issues-- most of the visit was spent talking, little surprise. (Fortunately, there's no plan to change the young farmers land grants-- aimed to help new/landless farmers get established. These programs are chump change [.01% of their budget] when compared to subsidies.)
But we picked. Today was the first day we really felt the full load from losing Bah and most of the crew. We needed everything and we picked everything. We loaded all the bucket into the front loader and the foreman/Newport/Gizzie/Me climbed aboard the tractor, heading up and out to the forest fields. Beans, Beans, Beans. We hunkered down and picked string beans straight through to lunch.
Viking was back and came to visit while we ate sandwiches. She told us the full story: Viking wrote a 6 page ultimatum-letter and gave it to the boss. She was furious at the time--Me and Gizzie started to feel real bad for the boss. He had called up Viking afterward-- he was devastated reading that letter. He appreciated all she had to say about improving the business, but simply didn't have the money to pay her more-- this train wreck season has him on the money-ropes. Reconciling, Viking agreed to work Wednesdays through the remainder of the Fall. She'd forgiven the boss, at least partially, but Viking turned beet red and shook when talking about the daughter. Everyone has needs and demands-- in our case all of 'em fall at the boss's door. Gizzie and I scooted around the greenhouse for cigarettes, we decided to work for free if the boss needed it. A good boss is hard to find, a good man is even rarer. Yesterday, while at market, Gizzie asked the boss his side of the Rosie (the cow) saga-- he replied:
"Some people are straight as an arrow, like my brother, they need things to be just a certain way and when anything/anyone steps out of line they get mad. They belittle and write off people they don't understand as crazy. I always tried not to be that way. Yeah, there was a woman who was in love with one of the cows-- wanted to buy it save it keep it as a pet. To tell you the truth, I understand a bit where she's coming from-- people love animals, that's not so strange. Some people get attached to cows, some get attached to dogs or horses. I bottle fed Rosie twice a day for a year. It broke my heart to see her repeatedly kick away her own calf when it tried to suckle. It broke my heart."
We'd work for free.
After lunch we headed back up to the forest field and finished off the remaining string beans (altogether we had 14 buckets of green, 7 wax and 4 roman). Old Rudolpho and his nephew went through the peppers while we picked the 3 eggplant varieties. It's certainly pleasant having someone to talk to for once-- Gizzie did well for his first bean/eggplant extravaganza. We got 2 big boxes of green peppers, 3 buckets of fairy tale eggplant, 4 buckets of big eggplant and 6 buckets of oriental. On to the next line of business-- weck dropped off the haul, grabbed the hoes and more buckets: it was time for pulling potatoes.
The foreman pulled out the field chart-- the potato area is a mess of 1/2 rows of one variety mixed in with 1/3 a row of others. We finally got things straight, found then rows where we needed to be, and got to work. 4 buckets of kennebunk, 4 buckets of french fingerlings, 4 buckets of yukon golds and 4 buckets of another white potato variety (I think the variety sounds something like Satori or Sabatini, can't remember for sure). Gizzie left early for class-- the rest of us pushed through the end of the day. We dropped the buckets behind the store just in time for closing.
As I said-- I talked to the boss for a good while after work. We chatted about the congressman's visit, the crops, Viking, his doctor appointment, physical therapy (I know that rodeo well) , this season, the storm system coming and about me working this weekend.
Homeward bound.
It's gonna be a different day tomorrow-- the daughter wants to go to a concert or something, so I'm covering her market. Oh well, it is something new to do.
Take it easy.
P.S.
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