Summer

Photo credit: Seth Barch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethbarch)

Where does it go?  Time, summer, daylight disappear in its own hurry to be off, leaving you with that seasonal yearning for it to return again soon.  Since July 8th, the sun no longer wakes you every morning at 5am, the weeds have somehow grown to be taller than me, we put more than 5,000 bales of hay in the mow, peas have come and gone, song birds arrived and now seem to think that the southern hemisphere is the place to be.  The general population of the farm has grown, shrunk, people have come and gone and many visitors have eaten their fill.  I had two good friends from madrid come and brave the challenges of living on a farm for a whole month.  They worked with us every day, sweated in the sun, shivered in the morning dew, danced with us at a square dance, canoed and camped in Ontario and much more.  Jess and Christopher, two members of our team, left to pursue jobs back at Earlham where they are now happily employed.  And one other fellow Earlham graduate Seth Barch decided to come up from his home in Virginia and help us out, and what a help he has been.  He is a metalsmith and photographer, and since I lost my camera he has taken most of the pictures that I have posted here.

As fall is rapidly closing the door on summer I find it a daunting task to try and “sum up” what the last two months have taught me.  I think for now I will not try to cram anything into a few short paragraphs.  Today is Friday, ie harvest day.  Not a day of leisure or relaxation.  This weekend I am heading north to do some canoe camping with Katrina and her parents.  Then we will be back here for the final weeks of the harvest and prepare the farm for the winter.  I hope to catch up on describing some of the fascinating activities that happen here.  For example: haying, grain harvest, cover-croping, making beer from scratch, and much more.  Until then…may your harvest be bountiful.