LIFE ON THE FARM

We've lived on a 3/4 partially wooded acre for nearly 40 years.  It's in the heart of the city up on a hill with lots of historic houses (which in our area means, like 100 years old, tops, so I'm approaching "historic" too. LOL)  The part of the property that isn't wooded is spread out on three different levels and all of it requires a lot of tending.  It used to be a family affair.  So much so that our now adult sons have each purchased homes with very small yards and very little to tend.  So I guess we pretty much worked them into a PTSD situation they did not want to repeat.  We have had landscaping crews on and off over the years to help us, but they never really lasted -- either unreliable or not up to Hub's exacting standards.  So mostly we've done the "yard work" ourselves.  We've literally crawled over every square inch of dirt on this property multiple times.  I always dreaded the multiple "yard work" weekends over the seasons, sometimes in lovely weather, often also hot, or cold, rainy, and dark -- literally dark as in finishing after the sun went down on some occasions.

Several years ago, I finally got my long desired redesign of our side yard. A flat expanse of grass along the wooded ravine was transformed ("was transformed" as if by magic?  NO!  WE transformed it with sweat and back breaking work!) into a lovely "park-like setting" (as one of our re-fi appraisers phrased it) with berms containing perennial beds, new trees, shrubbery and three raised beds for veggie growing.  We had gone from "doing yard work" to "gardening".  It sounded very classy and we joined the ranks of those in our age group who call themselves "gardeners".  We did not necessarily love the work, but we did love the look of it all tended and blooming.  Still do.  I started to refer to my yard as "the garden", and it's been a busy place this Covid-year for distanced family picnics. 

In the lower yard, we inherited two 40 foot long rows of raspberry bushes set in a 15 x 40 foot patch of dirt.  We have no idea how long they were here before we bought the property in 1982, but they were well-established and very prolific.  

They have been a point of pride, and a nuisance, the entire time we've lived here.  The weeds grow in that area as prolifically as the summer berries, so that's a HUGE job every year, digging out weeds and crabgrass on hands and knees and muddy, wet bottoms.  Then the berry canes need to be contained with props and wire to keep them from falling all over the place.  Once producing, for about 3-4 weeks in late June and well into July, picking begins and gallons of berries come off the vines almost every day, needing to be frozen on flat cookies sheets then scooped into freezer bags and stuffed in every nook and cranny of the freezers, leaving no room for my veggie pizzas!  In fall all the old canes have to be cut out and removed, making way for the new ones to winter over and give us another crop.  Also more weeding.  At some point in the fall, we spend a day thawing all those berries and turning them into dozens of jars of jam that we give away and eat ourselves the rest of the year.  

I have felt at times like those berries rule my life and more than once have threatened to plow them under.  But alas, I would never do that because I apparently I also love them...not just the berries which are delicious, but the whole enterprise as a feature of our life on this land.  They have born fruit in years of tending and in years of neglect and we have enjoyed it in spite of the complained-about work.  It's not 4th of July at our house without fresh raspberry sundaes while watching the fireworks from our porch.

A few years ago Hub decided the "raspberry patch" was large enough to also house an apple espalier, so he found a grafted, 4 variety plant and propped it up on a fence and we waited for our apples.  Hmm...not super great, but last year just before our trip to NYC we saw that by the time we returned home we'd have our first decent harvest!  We returned home to a bare plant.  The deer had eaten every single apple.  

Early this summer Hub decided to build a deer fence around the whole area.  It was a lot of work.  But handy-guy that he is, he planned, purchased supplies, and built a 6 ft high fence with swinging gate.  I took one look and said,  "Now we have a farm!"  I think a fence with a gate qualifies as a farm feature.

So this summer, we've moved into farming.  The raspberries produced as they do, especially one end of the patch.  The apples grew big and beautiful.  We looked forward to apple pies and cobblers and just the sweet crunch of apple in the mouth.  In early October, after about three days of not looking,  I wandered down there to check if they were ripe enough to pick yet.  They were GONE!  Again we saw evidence of deer activity.  They'd jumped the 6 foot fence!  Hub said he should have made it 8.  Damn!  

As we stood lamenting, we also took another look at the berry plants.  One end of the rows seemed less happy than the other.  We didn't know why those plants had not produced well this year and did not look healthy --perhaps old age?  But we decided, hmmm, this might be an opportunity to reduce the raspberry load.  We decided to take half the raspberries out and replace them with blueberry plants. I thought when Hub said "a few blueberry bushes" it meant maybe three or four.  We came home with nine!  Three early season producers, three mid-season, three late season.  We expect to have blueberries from June to September, along with our July raspberry harvest.  So much for reducing work and opening up freezer space.

We spent last weekend doing the fall weeding, digging up raspberry plants we had decided to remove and bagging them to pass on to our sons, who decided to take them rather then see them in the "dump pile".  We spread 2-1/2 yards of "Garden Booster" compost with dairy manure, which did in fact remind me of my childhood driving through farmlands in Illinois just after spreading fresh manure.  We planted our blueberry bushes with a mixture of Garden Booster and pine needles to add acid, covered it all with a garden fabric to inhibit the weeds, and literally finished Sunday night after dark, by flashlight, just like old times. I look at our fenced berry farm with pride and hopefulness.  (We have yet to totally solve the apple/deer problem, but we have some ideas.)

Now that I'm a farmer, I may move into ranching.  However, ranching really does imply some sort of livestock.  Our big garden storage shed was an abandoned chicken coop when we bought this property but I really have zero desire to re-populate it with chickens.  About the only animal that really appeals to me to care for is a cat or two.  So if I could I get me a herd of cats for my ranching adventure, that would be great!  I'd have dozens of every breed!  I'd be a Cat Rancher extraordinaire!  "Hey, Hub...I have an idea!" Yippie Yi Oh!  Yippie Yi Yay!   

At least, that's the view from here...©

Kitty Photo Credit:  www.pixabay.com