The peculiarities of odd occurrences...

I have started to notice odd trends that go along with single farming...what I mean is, living alone as a single farmer.  They aren't major, life changing peculiarities, just strange changes to my routine that can't be avoided ever since I moved to a farm.  And, I have no good explanation for any of it as to why it just started happening. I've lived alone a bunch in the past and it never was like this. (I am fighting them for all its worth, just so you know.)

My socks and feet have never been as dirty as they have been here on the farm.
Ewwwww, I know.  I have gardened all my life, but for some reason dust flies more freely here.  Doesn't even matter if I have shoes on, or not.  That's what's so bizarre!  I think it may come down to the absence of one little expensive pair of good farm boots.  My farmer's tan will start at the knees. They are on my list. Check.

My arms are always full whether I'm leaving or entering the house.  Now this doesn't even make sense!  One or the other should be sporting empty arms, right?  But NOOOO.  I leave with a bag of garbage for the composte bin and come back in with an arm full of tomatoes, squash, the coffee cup I left outside and an empty cat dish.  I fumble for the key with six bags of groceries hanging on my arms, hoping the wine doesn't fall out and crash to the cement steps (dear God, NO) and have to turn right around and go back out to put the armful of recyclables in the bin.  I can say it isn't easy balancing your load when three dogs are pushing past you to get to the air conditioning. I come and go, slamming the screen door more now than I did as a kid!  (I can just hear my mom yelling..."Stay in or stay out!")

If you tell yourself you haven't seen any snakes this year, they will magically appear.
For six months, I have not seen any snakes on the farm.  I thought, "Maybe they've moved on?" Oh no, not true.  Since that thought welled up in my mind like a conversation bubble in a cartoon, I found a snake on a rafter in the barn that refused to come down, a snake swimming in the flooded back field heading straight toward me and tonight, one coiled around a blackberry bush right under my nose.
Enough already....I think they were "good snakes", still, ENOUGH!  

One project always leads to two.
You can't just do one thing around here.  Start painting the kitchen, and all the woodwork in the house now looks dingy so you start painting that, too. Powder the dogs coat with diatomaceous earth and you start clipping their overgrown doggie nails.  Put a dimmer switch on the chandelier, and you'll want a dimmer switch on every light socket.  This pattern goes on and on and on.  They're right, you can't just eat one Lays potato chip.  (Folks, this is why farmers have to get up so early.)

It might be that I am the only one here to do any of it, or that there are just so many things to do, you have to take on two at a time, or that I just never, ever stop.  I'm not really sure, but I sure have noticed the trend.  Farms are busy places for good reason.

I hope that by retirement, I will have accomplished most of the extra tasks I conjured up n my mind.  My home is about finished being painted and repaired and I am starting to do fun creative things.  Although, wouldn't a lovely screened in porch leading to a patio with a fire pit or an outdoor kitchen be grand to enjoy?  Yes. Yes it would.

You can thank your lucky stars for red barns...

My barn is painted a dingy green...a rather horrible green, very close to olive, which we all know only looks great on a toothpick leaning against the inside of a martini glass.

So, on a whim, I decided that it needs to be painted.  

...Red!

...Barn Red!
Specifically, a cool but deep tone of a medium dark cherry red.
{So I'm particular about my colors...I know what I want!}

I believe every farm needs a red barn.
Period.

In rare form, I decided to search pictures of red barns for divine inspiration on just the right medium dark cherry red.
{I am a visual learner.}

And, by consequence, I stumbled upon the big question that was out in cyberspace being asked,
"Why are most barns painted red?"

I thought about that and said to myself,
"Self, why are most barns painted red?"
Hmmmmm. I came up with a few reasons of my own but searched on.

Red Ochre, which is ferrous oxide, is plentiful in the earth.
(In days past, people used what they had, and went for the cheapest solution on the farm.  In fact, most of what they did had purpose and I always assumed barns were painted to preserve the wood...and because barns are supposed to be....red. Duh.)

The real reason red ochre is plentiful has to do with atoms, nuclear fusion and the abundance of these atoms, released by dying stars in the universe, chemically linking up as larger compounds.

Wait...WHAT?

You can read a very detailed excerpt in this link:

https://plus.google.com/+YonatanZunger/posts/EfmdR6VWvRM

 Zunger explains:

"The only thing holding the star up was the energy of the fusion reactions, so as power levels go down, the star starts to shrink. And as it shrinks, the pressure goes up, and the temperature goes up, until suddenly it hits a temperature where a new reaction can get started. These new reactions give it a big burst of energy, but start to form heavier elements still, and so the cycle gradually repeats, with the star reacting further and further up the periodic table, producing more and more heavy elements as it goes. Until it hits 56. At that point, the reactions simply stop producing energy at all; the star shuts down and collapses without stopping.

As soon as the star hits the 56 nucleon (total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus) cutoff, it falls apart. It doesn’t make anything heavier than 56. What does this have to do with red paint? Because the star stops at 56, it winds up making a ton of things with 56 neucleons. It makes more 56 nucleon containing things than anything else (aside from the super light stuff in the star that is too light to fuse).

The element that has 56 protons and neutrons in its nucleus in its stable state? Iron. The stuff that makes red paint."

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/barns-are-painted-red-because-of-the-physics-of-dying-stars/#ixzz2WCn9A3Rq

OK, then...thanks for that.

I also discovered another excerpt online, in a bit more conventional explanation so your eyeballs don't cross:

"Beginning with the earliest American settlements and continuing into the 18th century, most barns weren't painted at all. Early American barn builders took sun exposure, temperature, moisture, wind, and water drainage patterns into account when placing and building barns and seasoned the wood (that is, they reduced the moisture content) accordingly. The right type of wood in the right environment held up fine without any paint.

Towards the end of the 18th century, these old school methods of barn planning and building fell by the wayside. People sought a quicker, easier fix for preserving their barns—a way to coat and seal the wood to protect it from sunlight and moisture damage.

Farmers began making their own coating from a mix of linseed oil (a tawny oil derived from the flax seeds), milk and lime. It dried quickly and lasted a long time, but it didn't really protect the wood from mold and wasn't quite like the "barn red" we know today (more of a burnt-orange, really).

The problem with mold is that it decays wood (and, in large quantities, can pose health risks to people and animals). Rust, it turns out, kills mold and other types of fungi, so farmers began adding ferrous oxide (rusted iron) to the linseed oil mix. A little bit of rust went a long way in protecting the wood, and gave the barn a nice red hue.

By the late 19th century, mass-produced paints made with chemical pigments became available to most people. Red was the least expensive color, so it remained the most popular for use on barns, except for a brief period when whitewash became cheaper and white barns started popping up. (White barns were also common on dairy farms in some parts of Pennsylvania, central Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley, possibly because of the color's association with cleanliness and purity.)

Throughout Appalachia (a historically poorer region), many barns went unpainted for lack of money. In the tobacco regions of Kentucky and North Carolina, black and brown barns were the norm, since the dark colors helped heat the barn and cure tobacco.  Today, many barns are still painted the color traditionally used in a given region, with red still dominating the Northeast and Midwest."

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/23278/why-are-barns-usually-red#ixzz2WCoXaU6R

--brought to you by mental_floss!

So, apparently, there are some really interesting and intriguing explanations on why barns
are painted red.
{In case your "self" ever wondered.}
My reason for it is less about history and scientific explanation and more about aesthetics.
{...and getting the color I want!}

Enough words, show me some pictures!

Here is my cute little barn's "before" shots:
Many of the original posts and beams are from 1869.  The thickness of the wood beams and the quarter sawn cuts are amazing.  In all it's beauty, it still substantiates my calling it dingy.
{So sorry, my cute little barn, but you are one ugly baby.}

My "Le Farm" logo is barely visible and that just can't be!
It needed a revival.

And now, the new and improved shade of "La Fonda Geranium Red" Le Farm barn....
{drum roll, please...}

The next time I see a falling star, I will close my eyes, make a wish and think of my beautiful red barn.
***

Notes to self...

For the times when I forget that I am now living a farmer's life:

1.  Cable tv is not necessary because I don't have time to be a couch potato. Ever.

Note to self...remember how much $ I am saving every single month?  A ga-zillion dollars or close to it.

2.  No need to say, "How much is it?"

Note to self...Instead recite, "How can I find a way to do it less expensively and by myself?"  Paying for someone else to do the work is an unnecessary luxury.  Get over it!

3.  Don't fret that you have a lot of work to do even though you are an anal overachiever.

Note to self...work on the farm will NEVER end so don't get overwhelmed. Take it day by day, literally. The world will not end if there are unpicked blueberries or the grass is a little too tall.

4.  Put on your safety glasses, even though you look like a poindexter.

Note to self...remember when the hammer fell out of your hand and hit you square in the mouth?  Accidents happen and so does "sh-t".  All......the......time!

5.  It is ok to have dirty fingernails, sometimes.

Note to self...picking berries, pulling weeds, planting, digging and composting will get your hands dirty even with gloves on. You clean up real nice, so don't worry about it!  Remember when shelling pecans made your hands brown even with 2 layers of rubber gloves on? Brown fingers looks like money to me!

6.  Your farm is an amazing place and everyone you know thinks you have hit the jackpot.

Note to self...It is ok if dog fur gathers and blows around your beautiful old hardwood plank flooring in huge clumps.   It is spring and dogs shed.  You'll have time to vacuum if you just take a little time to stay inside a few times a week to do some chores.  (Yes, I repeat...STAY INSIDE.) Anyway, no one's going to see it or judge you for how clean your house is.  It's blueberry season, remember?  There is a lot to do outside!  P.S...you live alone.

7.  Take some time to smell the roses.

Note to self...Remember, this is one of the main reasons you bought this place.  Simplify, slow down and enjoy your life.  Breathe it in and give thanks for all of it often.

There's something about a swing...

There's something about a swing that makes everything around you disappear. 

It's mesmerizing.

Back and forth.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.

Simple physics...a big blue pendulum of sorts.

...that calms your mind.
...that slows your heart rate.

...that opens up the portal to dreaming big.

I do my best creative thinking at two places here on Le Farm.

One is in the garden; one is on this swing.

Maybe the dreams I have here on this blue bench aren't big, as in earth shattering, world changing big. 

But they are big to me, here on my little piece of heaven I call Le Farm.

I have come up with some wonderful improvements that make this a better place, on this swing.
Realizations of why things happened in my past have clicked into place on this swing.
Every step leading up to me being here rings like a bell in this solitude.

I need the calming repetitive movement, I suppose, like a baby needs to be rocked.  

My daytime world is too busy these days for it to happen any other time.

Tonight, I took my Pinot Noir to the swing and was thankful the rain stopped,  It rained all day from tropical storm Andrea and flooded my back field, that I have learned the hard way last year to leave be.

And thankful that nothing else I had planted was under water and I survived the storm with no damage.

I dreamt up a great plan to plant a lavender garden for selling lovely fragrant bundles at the farmer's market, while on this swing.  

I plan for full time farm life in just a matter of 6 short years, here on this swing.
My head may be in the clouds, but my tiptoes are on the ground.

Very early mornings, as the sun rises over my shoulder beyond the blueberries, is my favorite time to enjoy this lovely swing.  My big cat often jumps up and enjoys it with me.

I didn't realize it would be more than just a swing.

It is my place to, "Live simply and dream big."

"To turn my can'ts into cans and my dreams into plans."

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

"It is a wish your heart makes."
"I am a girl with a dream."

...so, dream big, my friends.

...and swing away, swing away, swing away.

Southern gardens, wine and evil spirits...

Every garden needs a bottle tree.  Don't you agree?

Preferably a "haint blue" bottle tree. 

Apparently, as lore suggests from ancient times, spirits, ghosts, genies, imps and "haints" are attracted to and trapped in bottles in the night air, only to be destroyed by the morning light.  The wind rushing through the bottles makes an eerie sound that slightly resembles cries made by captured spirits. 

{Use your imagination here...!}

Ask any southerner if they have a blue bottle tree in their garden and they will quickly answer with, 

"I do declare, of course! How else will we keep those nasty evil things away from the house?"
{Please read the above statement again out loud, in your best southern drawl.  It sounds much more authentic that way...merci darlin'.}

Could it be?...that I just might have captured an "imp" in the picture below?

(Lucky for me, I have six vacancies on my tree.)  

...I do declare, I'm in the mood for Rieisling!

Mexican bean beetles beware... organic whole wheat flour is "The Terminator"...

Beans are impossible to grow here in SC when Mexican bean beetles devour everything when you aren't looking.  

It is what they do.  They are really good at it. 

Rats.

(I mean, "ratas".)

So, I resolved to never grow any. 

Amen to that.

Until, I came across a tip on Pinterest.  (It had nothing to do with better-than-sex chocolate cake, twenty-nine cheese and macaroni casserole or photobombed wedding poses .)

Hooray!!! 

Whole wheat saved the day!!

(...and Kosher, too!)

The Mexican bean beetles hate it! The tip was actually how it works well for hornworms on tomatoes...so I thought, why not give it a go for beans? I dust the plants after I water and it puts a lovely sticky thin film that dries a bit crusty on the leaves and is hard to wash off.  I use it on eggplants, too.  I believe it might just be a modern day miracle to outsmart pesty pests.  I'm trying it on squash plants.  (If it works for squash bugs, I am going to deliver a national statement to the President and be in the running for the Noble Peace Prize.)

(Yesterday, someone actually "informed" me that Sevin dust is edible and perfectly natural...and they were SERIOUS.) Go read the Sevin SL label and you'll never touch the stuff again.  Hopefully.

http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/cwlb/labels/SevinSL.pdf

So, thanks to Pinterest, I will be picking tender yellow wax beans and taking them to market this week.  

Olé!

Pruning update

Remember the pruning fiasco a few blogs back?

The "makeover on the farm" entry?

Well, here is an update.

I,

have never seen,

so many blackberries

in...my...life!

All this from a little pruning?

It has to be.  

I did not feed these monsters.  

They are quick to spread and love to take over the blueberries so I kept them a low priority for feeding.

  

Plus they are exceptionally hard to keep pests off. The Japanese beetles and June bugs devour them.  

I have to pick first thing in the morning to outsmart them or they have their way with them. 

And this is a real shame because these blackberries (Chickasaw and Apache) turn out to be 2" or even as large as 3" long.  

Not to mention, they are sweet and juicy.  

Maybe this year there will be enough for me and them?

And I thought I was going to be busy picking blueberries!  

Turns out, the pruning I did there may have reduced my yield slightly for this year...and I expected that because I cut out a lot of overly large old stalks. 

There are so many more young plants that have sprouted up as a result... (and I have fed these twice!)

Just wait for next year!