On farms, large or small, they are all earth day. Whether it is the biggest corn producer in the Midwest or the smallest organic farm on a rooftop in NYC, farmers live with and care for the land. Even the crop protectant products with the most complicated names are intended to do a better job of producing food sustainably.
Here at Northview Earth Day is peepers in the horse pond and Killdeer in the heifer pasture. Baby birds and animals everywhere. Green just peeking through on the hillsides and the first daffodils...Ice Follies....down along the driveway.
It is a small farm in the grand scheme of things, but hosts over 70 species of birds each year, many of them breeding in our woods and fields and hedgerows.
Tomatoes are up in the spare bedroom. Over a hundred of them. By the time I get them planted I know I will be wondering....what was I thinking!!!
But we love tomatoes and I love gardening, whether on the scale of vegetables for the house, or helping out with miles of acres for cows, or nowadays hay fields for our customers. I even miss driving the chopper and raking hay for the boss back when we had the cows. There is no place like the seat of an open station tractor on a sunny July day, with Barn Swallows swooping in to scoop up the insects from the wind rows, and Kestrels stooping to grab field voles. Wind in your hair and sun on your shoulders...that's Earth Day indeed!
Anyhow, Jade has one garden ready to plant so I'm thinking peas maybe? It may be warm enough.
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4 comments:
Beautiful. Your good earth and the good people that live amidst its bounty. Riding on the seat of an open station tractor in July - is now on my bucket list :)
Jan, I've seen some of the pictures of those. Are they really that stupid? Seriously to rally for Earth Day and leave acres and acres of garbage behind? It boggles my mind.
Cathy, wish I could share that experience with you. We had to sell the tractor I usually drove and I really don't drive the one we have now, so I haven't raked hay in a few years. It was my favorite bit of field work, because once you get good at it, it is pretty mindless. The first time was not so much. The boss put me on a tractor...I had only driven a few yards once or twice before...drew a map of where he wanted the windrows to go in the dust on the hood, and turned me loose. OMG I was terrified...and terrible. I got it after a while though, and then it was me, the birds, sometimes a good dog or two, depending on who was sharing our lives at the time, and all that sunshine and green beauty. I guess I miss it.
The perfect photo for earth day..a robin and a worm!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Linda, thanks. It was really funny. he kept picking it up and trying to swallow it, but it was just too large. Eventually he flew away with it. Wonder if he ever got it eaten. lol
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