The past two and half weeks has been spent knocking down all of the overgrowth on the property. For the past five years goldenrod, mugwort and the like have retaken the field with gusto. We’ve even had to pull out a number of shurbs with two inch diameter trunks. But what seemed to be a straightforward job, essentially mow the (huge, overgrown) yard, turned into a reminder of what we ultimately are doing here, farming.

 

We started in earnest once we tracked down a mower deck to borrow whilst ours took its time moseying up from Texas. Did we mention how high the weeds were? Within the first full day of mowing the first belt on the mower deck would go. Chock this one up to the belt being old. Wiser, we slowed down and raised the implement a bit higher.

 

Now, we get that there still seems to be a contingent of people in the world who haven’t yet grasped the concept of “Do Not Litter”, but what lay waiting for us to discover with the mower far surpassed the expected bottle, can or paper waste. For the next two weeks we sacrificed numerous $50 drive belts to commercial grade power wire (thanks, LIPA), kitchen countertops (huh?) and numerous other fine artifacts or as most people call it, trash. So remember, next time you remodel your kitchen think of us and please don’t throw the waste into your neighborhood farmers property.

 

It was also a lesson learned for us: When you can’t see, go slow and even then stuff will probably still break.

 

So as of yesterday we are finished with the mowing and are currently lightly turning over the soil, next up is a winter cover crop, our own amber waves of grain. Hopefully the rotovator doesn’t unearth King Tut’s tomb, yet at this point, that wouldn’t surprise us.