It’s been quite a while since I wrote an update on the goings on around the farm! And, boy, has it been busy!
We did finally manage to get all of the potatoes harvested, though I could not tell you exactly when that happened. The piggies — John Ham, Kevin Bacon and Natalie Porkman — went off to the butcher and are now packed away in the freezers with the meat chickens. The gardens have been harvested and (almost) put to bed for the winter. I’ve got dozens upon dozens of jars of tomato sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce, hot peppers, pickles, pesto, roasted Romas with garlic, apples, apple butter, dried tomatoes and peppers and tons of hot sauce put up as well, either canned or frozen. I’m sure there’s more I’m not remembering…
The first weekend of the month, our oldest daughter got married! We hosted the reception here — with what Jeff calls “farm chic” decorating. She was beautiful, the groom deliriously happy, the day gorgeous and everything worked out wonderfully.
The following weekend, we hit the road with the big chicken barbecue pits for the wedding of friends a few hours away. Chicken for 200 in the misty rain was received like gangbusters. One of the groomsmen even absconded with a cooler full of leftovers at the end of the night!
Last weekend, we headed up to Bangor, where our youngest is attending college. And Monday, we helped friends install a big propane tank and new bunks at their hunting camp, where Jeff will head in a few weeks for deer hunting.
At some point in the past three weeks, I also marked my 13th year as a journalist — and left my full-time job as a newspaper editor. It’s something Jeff and I have talked about for a while and with a decidedly successful summer behind us, it was time to pull the trigger so I’ll have more time on the farm.
The idea is that having one of us focused on the farm 24/7 will make actually make our lives easier — pulling weeds as they emerge instead of whenever one of us has time; spotting potential insect problems before plants are eaten to the ground; not cramming 5,000 things into two weekend days and returning to the office exhausted, wishing I had completed more; being available to pick up seeds/butchered meats/feed without having to use vacation time; completing projects around the farm we have put off for years … the list goes on and on, really.
I still expect to be writing, of course. But, on my own terms, not someone else’s. More on that later…
Two Rock Ridge Farm 