I'm a farmer; I guess I should face it sooner or later that time and money are two things I'll never have enough of.The idea of taking a year off of farming to grieve my divorce and recover financially was supposed to simplify my life while keeping me close to my friends and family. While I have been able to stay close to the people who I care about, my life has become very hectic.
I have three part-time jobs not counting the farm so my schedule and workload fluctuates wildly from week to week. Unfortunately that means the income stream also vacillates which is a very stressful thing when you have a clear goal to achieve and a limited time to get there. At this point I'm wishing I hadn't jumped into farming so hastily. One of my cousins is a 3000 acre no-till farmer in Olustee, OK and the only advice he gave me when he heard that I was starting a farm was: "Don't quit your day job"
Whoops. Why do I have to learn everything the hard way?
Oh well, I guess I'll stop my bellyaching and get on with it.
Not much has happened on the farm except the steady progression from one cover crop to the next. I've chopped up all the cowpeas and I decided to put down Sorghum-Sudangrass since I was expecting droughty conditions. They should incorporate biomass and choke out the remaining weeds.The red seed above is the Sorghum-Sudangrass.
The day I decided to plant, I started my day at the farm way too late. I knew I was already short on daylight when I found my tractor with a totally flat rear tire sitting on the rims. Now, flat tires are not that big of a deal themselves, but when they weigh about 200 lbs and are full of another 500 lbs of water they can be a serious issue.
I had to drain all the water out, remove the tire and put it on the flatbed trailer to take it to the local tire shop. While I was in Stillwater buying my seed, the tire shop closed and locked their doors with my tire inside! Great I thought, I hope it is a cool night because I'll be sleeping at the farm tonight. Sure enough it was a very cool night. The great thing is a I got more sleep that night than any night that week even though I don't have air conditioning in the trailer house. I love listening to all the little bugs and frogs at night, they seem so loud when the night is so quiet.
