barley and alfalfa

The only thing more exciting than a tractor in our field?

Two tractors in our field.

Rory and I haven't been on this little hobby farm for even a year. And we are learning so much. We talk about this a lot late at night. There is a lot of trial and error and questions and research and phone calls and patience required for this sort of life shift. But we're learning and we're grateful to be here.

The biggest challenge for us so far has been our field.

We knew we didn't want to rent our four acres out again this year. Mostly because we're not sure what we want to do with it. But if we want to turn it into orchard, or if we want to ever graze animals out there then we wanted to start a few years of not using pesticides and planting something that can help replenish the nitrogen back into the soil.

So we researched tractors, but they are expensive. And we weren't confident enough in what we should buy in order to put that sort of money down. It's just too early to buy something.

Then we asked around to see if anyone in the area could be hired to plant our field. But this was a crazy-terrible year for all planting. Lots of fields in our area still aren't planted. There was snow in May and rain all throughout May and June. Any contacts that might have possibly been able to help us out on a normal year were trying their hardest to get their own fields planted on the rare sunny day when the fields might be dry enough.

It wasn't looking good for our field. I kept telling Rory that we could go out there and scatter seed Bible-style with bags over our shoulders, tossing it gently down the rows.

Finally one of the phone calls Rory had made returned our call. Two brothers from the area had all the equipment. We were overjoyed. This was a few weeks ago, and since then it rained every time they were scheduled to come out. But on July 3rd they came.

This might be the latest planting ever. It might mean our barley and alfalfa might not germinate. But we had to try. You can tell the field is dry, but it is supposed to rain this weekend. That would help.

But no matter how this first year turns out we 1)have our field planted! and 2)our country boys got to drive a tractor.

And Rory has found a tractor he really loves. He might have to get rid of his green cap though.