quit your day job, it's spring.

It’s definitely spring here at Future Farm. We’ve been playing the “watch the weather game” for some weeks now, wondering about the first bite of sun.  I love rain. I love the moody dampness and the low clouds that line the various tree lines. But we needed sun. We needed to work with the soil when it was dry enough to transplant and not rush the ground. 

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we moved to this new land. Sometimes we find ourselves a little overheated with the multiple legal pad lists, trying to tame the pressing pieces of starting a new farm. What takes priority when every piece is the next step? But we’re finding rhythms in the whirlwinds and moments of breath and gratitude.  A bowl of baby mustard greens and radish and a vermouth spritzer has been the trend lately.

Having seen the land change around us for all seasons now has been quite the show. The cherry tree blooms we missed last year are finishing up and spots of color blowing from them are being thrown around the farm. Locusts are getting color and will be in bloom soon, but for just a moment. The swallows are back doing the same dance and the doves are a familiar sound now. Sand Cranes fly overhead, you hear them coming before you see them. Gunshots from neighbor’s properties are less alarming these days.

We’re learning to work with our hills, embracing our Southern slope.  Katherine has become a BCS wrangler, able to work with the uneven ground. Sometimes we get tangled in treasures previous occupants have left for us but we make a pile of rusty bits of farms past for a future art project. Our neighbors notice we use equipment that requires physicality. They wonder why we’re not more mechanized. But then they offer help or give a nod, a wave. They bring us flowers and invite us out to Chinese food.

A few days of cooler weather are welcomed now as many new plants have made it into the ground and are awaiting rain and delicate weather to settle in. A moment now to finish the deer fence and catch up on the next succession of flower seeding. Trellis things that will soon grow tall and weed the bits that will try to compete with the crops we try to tame.

Farming is full time for me right now and a second job for Katherine after her long days commuting to work her carpentry apprenticeship. But we couldn’t ask for more. Leaving my job in Portland recently was such a scary step, but it was a very long time coming.  Thanks to my partner in this crazy adventure who encouraged me to take the leap and give this farm the care it needs, one step at a time.