June Farm Update
Hi Friend,
Summer is officially here! Is it just me, or was that the longest spring ever?
June on the farm was actually pretty laid back considering what it could have been. We spent about two weeks in the field cultivating, but it didn’t feel as rushed as normal. Maybe it is because things are still pretty shut down in Washington? Maybe our timing was right on for once? We always feel like we are two weeks behind on farm work.
What is cultivating? Cultivating is when we pull a cultivator, the name of the piece of machinery being pulled behind the tractor, across the ground to “seal” it or firm up the ground. This helps reduce moisture loss (think of how quickly fluffed up dirt dries out compared to dirt that has been tamped down). A bonus of this operation is that the cultivator also pulls up weeds which suck moisture out of the ground before we can get the wheat planted. In an area that receives an average of 8 to 9 inches of rain annually, we love saving moisture.
The farm boys joined Kevin on the tractor for a day of cultivating armed with backpacks full of food for lunch.
June evenings also bring some of our favorite sunsets, and this June was no slacker!
A beautiful, no filter sunset from our farmer’s date night. What’s a farmer’s date night? You check cow water with your farmer husband, and park on top of a hill with no cell service and eat take-out Mexican while watching thunder storms. It’s actually quite fun!
Another breathtaking June sunset.
What was our excitement for June? That would be Moto Moto.
Moto Moto is a bull that weighs just shy of a ton. We separated Moto Moto off from our herd about a month ago to sell, but he was content in the pasture so we put it off. One morning, the farm boys came running into the kitchen announcing that there were hoof prints all over the garden. For about a week, Moto Moto would secretly sneak out of the pasture early in the morning before anyone was up, meander up to our house and taste test my garden before heading off to join the herd about 1 ½ miles away. Then in the late afternoon he would sneak back to the pasture and jump right in before anyone would notice. I kid you not! This happened for almost a week straight before I caught him taste testing my lavender. After that he snuck back in with the herd and hasn’t been back, so we will sort him out again in the fall. But he’s not going back in the pasture.
Moto Moto enjoying a snooze in the sun. I never thought of taking a picture of him in my lavender... I was too busy chasing him out. Kind of like when your kids get into something, and you think to yourself later that you should have taken a picture because no one will ever believe you.
As we head into July, we are getting ready to rod-weed the fields and harvest. Can you believe harvest will start in about three weeks?
Best,
The Sieverkropp’s