Daily Archives: May 22, 2008
Free writing
No rhyme or reason, just random thoughts that I have to get out. Let me apologize now if I offend anyone or anything. I hate the lettuce biz. When we planted it, I remember thinking such great thoughts ‘Oh lettuce, may you grow and be of plenty, and feed the locals’. We said prayers, we kissed seeds, we thanked them for what they were about to do for us, and those around us. Now, that’s all fine and well, but lettuce is a bitch. She’s doing us dirty right now. Even though our lettuce is producing like mad, feeding the hungry of Fayetteville and surrounding communities, it’s so time consuming it’s almost not worth it. Wait, strike the word “almost”. Paul and I are stuck in lettuce prison. We are slaves to it, washing, spinning, drying, again and again, until we start seeing imaginary things. I just need to stop right here though, before this blog gets rated R. Just know it’s no fun, it’s a lot of work, and we only get $4.50 a pound. Moving on. We had our field mowed down for the hay. Our neighbors across the street (Bob and Wendy) break and train horses, and brokered a deal with us for the hay. I would have even been ok with them just taking it for free because it’s tall grass that snakes like to live in, and I want it gone. It is nice though when they offer you cash. It was madness. We met all of our neighbors the day it was being cut. There were so many cars in my yard, people stopping to see what was going on. I used the word “gang bang” to describe the chaos. “It was quite the gang bang over here today wasn’t it Paul”. Annoying might have been a better word. It was annoying that everyone showed up, and kept showing up. It was as if they had never seen hay cut before. Well, that might not even be the right word. It was a lot of ‘Hi, who are you?’. A few days later they came back and raked it, and baled it, and some young, strapping bucks, and their sister, mom, and grandpa came to load the hay onto a trailer and hauled it away. EEEEeeeeehhhhh. For goodness sake they were all very nice people, and it’s nice to finally know more of the neighbors. Let’s keep moving shall we? On Mother’s Day, I planted a bunch of tomato plants and bell pepper plants. As of today, they are all doing well. We also bought some tomatillo starts at a local farm store. I’m excited about the tomatillos. Get ready Chuy. I planted 6 dahlias, and about 50 gladiola bulbs. I also picked up a peony. Let’s see if they all live. I think that’s enough for now. Enjoy the rest of your day knowing that you don’t have to pick and clean lettuce.