It's not that we have been so busy, it's just that farm stuff has started to take some our daytime hours. And it's not that we have been so productive -- just to get the truck ready to go to Pennsylvania to pick up supplies (which Jon did on Tuesday, a rainy day, and he was gone for the whole day) meant finding a tractor or truck that would start so we could pull the truck out of its level parking spot, which was icy and muddy. None of this is surprising. Everything just takes so LONG when the ground is squishy and the tractors have been parked all winter and there are piles of ice inconveniently situated.
Yesterday we planned to spend the whole day in Loudoun working on the new barn. For one reason/errand and another, we didn't really get there until a little after noon. This certainly reminds me of my childhood when we were farming three farms, spending lots of time getting ready to go to one of the other farms, loading up, stopping on the way to pick stuff up, finally arriving at the other farm about four hours later than originally planned. Or more.
Anyway, the only thing on the schedule for yesterday was attending a dinner potluck meeting hosted by Rob and Mo Moutoux. This is an annual event that Jon and I have never attended, not being part of the Loudoun/Wheatland community except in a peripheral way. The meeting was sort of a kick-off/wrap-up meeting that happens before the growing season starts again. Farmers were invited to tell brief stories about what they had learned in the last season, what new plans they have for the upcoming season, and to introduce topics they wanted to talk about with the group.
I won't go into the gory details of farmer shop talk, although it was all very interesting. What was most interesting to me was to be in a room that was filled only with real farmers. People who are running actual businesses, or who have done that for a lifetime and are now retired. This is completely different from going to a conference where many of the people are wannabes or extension agents or support people. These farmers were not talking about concepts.
About half the farmers were "young farmers." This is a specific category, and one that people pay a lot of attention to because most farmers in this country are old. These young farmers are go-getters with perspective. They have had a lot of experience, they know a lot about working really hard, and they also know about social media and how to use it.
The older farmers -- me, Ellen, Jon, the Plancks, the elder Moutouxs, even Barbara and Dennis - -are still very much in the game but it feels different to be a senior member of the assembly. We still count but it's sort of common knowledge that we don't struggle as much as the young farmers do. For one thing, we don't have little kids anymore. And it is easier for us to attract good applicants to work on our farms because we are a known entity.
Anyway, it was an honor to be part of that group of actual farmers. I am not particularly interested in talking about the nuts and bolts of farming with non-farmers. They are, sometimes, curious but it is rarely a very satisfying conversation. I can't talk to lawyers about their work very effectively either.
And the food was good -- even my burnt offering (I burned a pan of enchiladas to a charcoal blackness and had to resurrect it by removing most of the charred parts and adding back some new cheese). Farmers definitely eat well in groups.
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