Nice Antique Thingy

Last spring my fellow farmer finally got to attend the draft horse equipment auction that happens every year at the same time as our farmers’ market. I reluctantly agreed to go to the market, and was relieved when our dear daughter came with me, and did most of the work.

I got a little nervous this year as the auction approached, since our daughter wasn’t going to be around to do most of the work at the market. Luckily, I was saved by the fact that we didn’t have any produce ready yet, which is not the most profitable way to run a vegetable farm, but it made for a nice farmer date, because my fellow and I went to the auction together.

First we walked around looking at all the piles of horse-related stuff, and I made a list of potential purchases. Looking and list-making were good jobs for me, since I wouldn’t even pretend to hold the bidding number card. Once the bidding starts, auctions are even more overstimulating than farmers’ markets, in my opinion.

The first round of selling was indoors: two wagon-loads of miscellaneous stuff. We bought a horse brush, which came along with a pink plastic grain scoop, which we didn’t necessarily want, but which has already come in handy to scoop soil mix out of bags. We bought four chain connectors, all linked together, that my fellow plans to use on the stone-boat. 

We also got a good start on identifying the various parties at the auction. Most of the indoor bidding was by people who must have riding stables, and want millions of halters, lead ropes, grooming kits, and muck boots. Every single item was brought up by a kid, a 4-her, we surmised, to show the crowd. Then the auctioneer would do his fast talking. It was slow going, item by item by item, through those big wagon-loads.

We had a nice break when it was time to move outside into the sunshine and breeze for the implements and parts sales. Here we bought a metal seat, a pole, several eveners and neck yokes, all for our draft horse equipment. We bought a fine pair of wheelbarrow handles.

This is also where we identified some other groups: the eight or so young Amish men, joking and jostling quietly and goofily among themselves, accompanied by two older, presumably auction-wiser Amish men.

Then there were the grubby bearded hippie farmers, such as my very own farmer fellow, buying the kind of tired stuff dragged out of a hopeful seller’s hedgerow and sent to the auction. Prices were dismally low, disheartening even if you were buying instead of selling. How come no hopeful farmer wanted all this tired but still useful horse-drawn equipment? Even the auctioneer seemed discouraged.

Occasionally and unexpectedly there would be a little run of bidding: some old ice tongs, perhaps, or a barrel. These went to the mostly-retired antiquers, looking for interesting things to put on their lawns, or to sell in their shops, or more likely to sell on Ebay. 

One of the nicest moments was watching a woman bidding against another person on some antique thingy, going up little by little until she shook her head, no more. The auctioneer called out, “New bidder,” pointing to a man standing ten feet behind the woman. The price kept going up. When the woman turned around to see who finally had the high bid, she started laughing. Turns out they were a couple, and he was laughing, too, because he had bought it for her, knowing she wouldn’t go up that high. They were well-pleased with one another.

My fellow and I were well pleased with one another, too, and our date. “You want me to buy you a nice antique thingy?” my fellow offered.

“Naw,” I answered, “You’re my nice antique thingy,” and we held hands right there at the auction.

Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News, May 31-June 6, 2023

So Brilliant and So Not Brilliant Farmers: The Kind of Sweetheart You Want to Keep Farming With

Recently I wrote a farming column about how pleased I was at our new way of putting machinery in the barn after the vegetable season was over. The column was even subtitled: “New Good Things Can Happen.” 

Well. When it came time to take the machinery out again in the spring, we two farmers anticipated a pleasant fifteen minutes of effort. It did not take us long to realize this would not be the case, since all the implements were so tightly, cleverly jammed in that they had absolutely no interest in coming out.

“Oh, we are so brilliant, yet so not brilliant,” sighed I.

We struggled for two hours, with heavy metal bars, straining muscles, a lot of grunting, and the occasional groan. After two hours, the grunts and groans devolved into complaints and curses – and we still didn’t have the machinery out.

Now I am not saying that New Good Things Can’t Happen. Oh, no.

What I am saying is, if you and your sweetheart have worked together for many years, as my sweetheart and I have done, and the conversation has gotten rather snappish, and the project that was supposed to be easy is instead very hard, and the day is speeding by with nothing being accomplished, it’s good to consider your options (remembering, if you can, how lucky you are to have any options at all). 

a) It’s time to quit working with your sweetheart. We didn’t really want to do that, in a permanent kind of way, at least, even though we were very crabby with each other and the machinery, and every other farm project that was supposed to be easy and turned out to be hard had suddenly and just a tiny bit bitterly come to mind.

b) It’s time to quit working with draft horses and horse-drawn machinery. We didn’t really want to do that either, because we like our four horses, all of which were lazing around the barnyard and wondering why the farmers were making so much unpleasant noise in the barn. Sometimes a horse would amble over from the hay manger, peer more closely into the barn, and then amble happily away again, leaving us to our foolishness. (Plus, of course, non-horse drawn machinery also often calls for metal bars, grunts, groans, complaints, and curses, and you don’t even get to snuggle up to your tractor afterward, like you get to snuggle up to your horse.) 

c) It’s time to go look at the water hose valve. Now this valve worked beautifully for many years, giving the farmer that doesn’t like to get wet great confidence, and then the valve slowly deteriorated, and the farmer would forget, over and over again, and what would happen? Yes, she would get wet. One day, she forgot too many times, and she had also mentioned a new valve too many times to the other farmer who would be running errands, and he would have his turn at forgetfulness. 

On that fateful day, the angry, wet farmer said, “That’s it. I’ve had it. I’m not farming anymore,” as she stomped away. The other farmer went to the store, fast, and came back with the most expensive valve he could find. It worked great. 

“Look,” he said gleefully, “I’ve saved the farm and the marriage! With only twelve dollars and forty-nine cents!” Now this is the kind of sweetheart you want to keep farming with, even when you get wet, or when you pinch your finger between the heavy metal bar and the heavy metal implement, and he hurries over sympathetically, even though you are both very grumpy.

d) It’s time to eat lunch. This is often the best option, and it worked very well in this case. We ate our lunch, and when we came back to the barn, we were stronger, smarter, and friendlier. We got the machinery out.

Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News, May 3 -May 9, 2023

Well-Travelled Seedlings

You might think this farming column would be about all the new little seedlings in the greenhouse in this hopeful, springy time of year. However, the recent big snowstorm meant we lost electricity for four days, which meant we had no heat in the greenhouse, which meant all the new little seedlings (30 flats full) were keeping us company by the woodstove, and wondering where all the sunshine was.
 
When our electricity finally came back, and the propane heater turned on in the greenhouse, we hauled all the flats back out to the sun and warmth. We gave them a thorough watering, since kitchen-sink-and-shower-stall watering is a little tricky.
 
But then our regularly scheduled propane delivery was held up, since there was a tree down on a wire on our dirt road. The propane truck driver didn’t think it was a great idea to try to sneak under it, as we have been doing in our little car.
 
Then we waited for several days for the overwhelmed tree-on-wire people to come take the tree off the wire, which meant, yes, that all the flats came back into the house. At least they didn’t have to be right next to the woodstove anymore, but could be in sunnier spots on the kitchen floor.
 
Finally the tree-on wire people fixed things, and then we had to wait for the propane delivery truck. My fellow farmer called to upgrade our now-late regularly scheduled delivery to an emergency delivery.
 
Unfortunately, our propane place recently outsourced its customer service to India. India, of course, is a wonderful country, but India does not quite understand the urgency of the seedlings on our kitchen floor, and could not tell us when exactly the propane truck would come.
 
“Are you satisfied with your call?” asked the propane phone person.
 
“No,” said my fellow. “I want to know when the truck will come.”
 
“I can’t tell you exactly,” answered the person. “Today or tomorrow.”
 
“I’d like to talk to the scheduling department,” said my fellow.
 
“There is no scheduling department,” the person said. “We are the only department.”
 
“Huh,” said my fellow, and hung up the phone. Then he did some computer research. He found that there was still a physical propane office, in a little town not far away. He drove to the office. The door was locked.
 
But there were lights on, and my fellow could see someone through the window. He waved and knocked, and someone answered the door, and my fellow told his troubles.
 
“Come on in,” said the person, and used the GPS-connected-to-the-delivery-truck system on the computer. “It looks like the truck’s coming to your house right now!”
 
“Great!” said my fellow, “I’d better hurry home.” Before he left, he added, “I don’t know if you’re looking for any suggestions, and I know a lot of companies outsource services. But it doesn’t seem like India knows a lot about our greenhouse.”
 
“We made a big mistake,” said the person, about the outsourcing, which was gratifying. Even more gratifying was coming home and hearing that propane heater come on again in the greenhouse, and carrying those well-traveled seedlings back out to the greenhouse. They didn’t quite make it to India, but they sure did a lot more moving than most of our seedlings.

Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News, April 5-April 11, 2023

Snowshoes, Death, and Taxes

Towards the end of January, I set out to visit my friend SuiSui, over in our horse pasture. SuiSui, our long-time friend and CSA member, honored us by asking if she could have her ashes on our farm someday. Someday came too soon, and that January morning was the anniversary of SuiSui’s death. We loved her, and she loved us, and she loved our farm, and we love our farm, too, mostly.

That morning I felt a little annoyed at our farm, because it was requiring me to gather financial records for our taxes, which is not my favorite thing to do. A nice walk in the snowy fields would do me good, I thought.

But the nice walk turned into a hard slog, as I went knee-deep into snow after breaking through the icy crust at every step. I had to stop three times in a hundred yards just to catch my breath. SuiSui kept waiting patiently for me, and I finally made it, and had a long talk with her about how things were going. 

I was getting chilly, but I wasn’t looking forward to struggling again through the drifts. SuiSui gave me an idea: “Snowshoes!” she and the wind whispered around me, and I perked up, and trekked back.

The snowshoes are an old wooden pair, discovered when we were sorting through the piles of useful farm junk that the previous owners left. The buckles are stiff and contrary, but they work. The last time I used those buckles was when my now-22-year-old daughter was in the second grade, and she had a little pair of orange plastic snowshoes, and there was a two-hour snow delay for school. That snowshoeing was the nicest use of a two-hour delay we ever had.

This is all to say that I am not an expert on snowshoes, and the first time I fell down was when I was trying to get up from the ground after the buckling. Since the streams were still running, I didn’t want to get the snowshoes wet and attract big globs of snow or ice. I decided on the route up to the big-oak field, thinking there would be a narrow stream to cross, rather than tackling the wide stream that led up to SuiSui.

The narrow stream wasn’t as narrow as I thought, and I hugged the snowy shrubs on the bank, leaning over the water, as the shrubs poked me in the eye, and my snowshoes slithered around at an angle. But I didn’t fall in, and I made my slow snowshoe way up the big hill, with side excursions to see a nest full of snow in the bushes, and other nice things. I was happy that I wasn’t breaking through the crust. I got so warm in the sunshine that I unzipped my jacket. I went swaying and clomping along, pleased with my big adventure.

Next I went across the lane to the hayfield, which is the sunniest spot on the farm, but the snow was too soft for snowshoeing there. I had my second fall when I tried to heave me and my big feet over the stone wall. I ended up fall-crawling over the wall into the pine woods, where the snow was perfect, and I heard the chickadees, and where I zipped my coat back up. By then, I was getting a little tired, and fell some more on the rough terrain, when my snowshoes got tangled up with each other.

Then, in a perfectly satisfying conclusion to my adventure, I circled back around from the other side to visit SuiSui again. I cleverly turned my next fall into a roll under the wire fence. SuiSui was very glad to hear about my enjoyable afternoon. She said, Life’s too short for taxes. She said, Well, hurry up and get them done, and then come out again into this beautiful world.

Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News, March 8 -
March 14, 2023