Two different days in one. This morning had clear skies and was in the upper 60Fs. The front started to pass over early this afternoon-- dark clouds (it's raining now) and low 50Fs.
I joined up with the foreman and Newport as they straightened up the store this morning. We filled up the tomato display and I did a little riding around in the tractor-- dumping off compost. I filled up the van with junk cardboard/trash bags for a dump run-- everything was all squared away. The three of us headed up to the potato fields on the hilltop and pulled all the remaining Red Norlands. We hacked away with the hoes until lunch.
Curve ball. Newport invited me back to his house-- he had loads of pork ribs leftover from a feast last night. I couldn't refuse. I met his two dogs and parakeet-- he loaded me up a plate. We slumped down in his basement to eat/joke around/watch Family Feud. The foreman came down and was more than a little surprised to see me. It was an uncomfortable meeting. I eased the tension slightly with a few sport anecdotes I'd filed away for just such an occasion. We ate up and argued over the television-- it was an eerily familiar hour. Back to work.
The air changed quickly with the oncoming weather system. Newport and the foreman rolled off to pick swiss chard and more potatoes-- I stayed behind. Today was Viking's one day of work, so we caught up on each others lives-- then made some blue berry/raspberry jam. I filled up the sinks out back and scrubbed/boxed up all the potatoes from yesterday and this morning (quite an undertaking).
While tied to the sink-- I noticed a few visitors. The boss's wife is a college professor and 2 van loads of environmental science students clambered out-- they looked like babies, pale and bundled up in hooded sweatshirts. The boss sat down with the group for a long talk and then gave them a tour around the farm-- I scrubbed more potatoes.
I managed to polish off all the wash work in a few hours. The college kids climbed back into their vans and headed off. The boss waddled over and we headed out to cut a few cases of mint (big beds are scattered among all the gardens and fields). Physical Therapy hasn't been kind to the boss-- we got a milk crate for him to set down on-- otherwise he could hardly bend over. We talked about the state of the season, but he was pre-occupied. Eventually he just got on with it and said-- so, I'm gonna keep you on into November-- with Bah let loose, someone has to prune all the berry canes and help the foreman get the fields cleared. I was happy to hear it-- half expected I wouldn't even get to work through the end of October. The boss straightened up a bit and seemed in better spirits.
While cutting the mint around the barn gardens-- we had more visitors. The boss's brother's dog died over night. It was only five years old but had acute liver failure and was put down-- very strange. The brother has a puppy, but the deceased dog was for breeding. Quite a loss. The brother had the dead dog in his tractor bucket as he puttered off to bury it-- his wife walked behind with the puppy. After they passed, the boss said-- you know, it's illegal to kill your own animals. He explained that animal protection laws make it illegal to kill/put down most farm animals except through the 'proper' channels. I guess that he meant his brother wanted to handle his dog himself. But the boss continued-- the law is a problem for many farmers, so they're trying to have it over turned. Horse breeders/owners are stuck with fields full of old unusable animals they cannot get rid of-- it's illegal in the US. Canada and other countries all have horse slaughterhouses that will buy the old animals for meat. Horses are expensive animals to buy/keep/feed, so selling them recoups some of the losses and puts the animal to use-- rather than just wasting away to death and eventually rotting into the ground. We got back to the mint.
We filled three crates full of mint bunches. The boss headed off to check up on Old Rudolpho, while I headed over to the boss's house to cut more mint and some sage. The clouds grew darker and the air colder. I filled one more crate 1/2 mint, 1/2 sage, before closing.
Time to get warm and hunt after Gizzie.
Take it easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment