June, July & August

Last night, Tera tried with all her might to get me to talk about plans for the summer. I evaded every one of her questions. Nonetheless, we are booked solid for all of July and the first week of August! I will be only partially involved in the majority of the plans, thanks to the old saying, "Gotta make hay while the sun shines." I will be in Ephrata on the 4th of July to be with my brother and his family, but other than that, I will be farming. This past week the grain I planted in my cousin's field took off like a shot. There is a weed problem, and it looks like we'll have to use an herbicide if we ever want to work the field into good shape. For now, though, it seems as though we may get a decent yield of hay--which is the point. One of the local ranchers has asked me to help him move irrigation pipe as well. I will be trading my labor for hay, in hopes that, for the first time in four years, we won't need to buy hay to get the cows through the winter.

Another draw on our time this summer will be finishing up the installation of our manufactured home. I want to be clear here. The land we are placing the home on is not ours. It belongs to the Nichols family. In the interest of insuring a quality installation, we put down a concrete pad on which to set the house. This has been misconstrued, by some, as some sort of "Claim." It is an incredibly long, and tedious story, but I will to condense it down. First and foremost, Tera and I are moving onto the land--at our expense--to honor the legacy of my Great-Grandma Lena. With that in mind, we have agreed to continue to run cows on the property in order to keep the land in the "open space" tax bracket, for the benefit of the owners. Fortunately, we have discovered a deep sense of satisfaction in the farming/ranching lifestyle, otherwise we would not have taken the steps to move onto the property. Though there are risks to all involved, it should be a win/win situation for everyone.

In reading this over, it seems I have forgotten to mention the annual fishing trip to LaPush on the Washington coast the first week of August. That trip, I refuse to concede to farming, and I will be forced to trust in others to move the irrigation pipe while I'm gone.

Yes, it will be a busy summer, once again....