Gains and Losses
The end of summer— signaled by the start of school— always makes me a bit sad.
School. I’m usually not ready for our family to jump back into the bustle and scheduling acrobatics that extracurricular activities entail! I enjoy having the flexibility to stay or go, depending on the day. It’s also nice to not have my own scheduling conflicts that get in the way of making a yummy dinner. But it’s been a great summer and now we are gearing up for the fall— and that is something to look forward to!
Even though we are stepping back into schedules and homework, sports and music lessons, the farm continues in full-swing summer. The season is still another (hot) month long, so we carry on with our summer-time farm work, mostly making hay and pasture maintenance. The cows stay in the cool shade near the creek during the day and come out to graze when it’s not so hot. From my window, I can see them grazing in the early morning light, but by the time the sun rises over the trees, the herd is in the woods, where they often stay until evening.
And the late-summer heat does wonders for produce from the garden. I don’t know about you, but a vine-ripened, summer-time tomato is one of my favorite things to eat. Tomatoes from the grocery store aren’t really appealing to me— but we eat fresh home-grown tomatoes with a dash of salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil as our main vegetable during the summer!
Sigh. Not this summer.
How sad is this for a tomato plant?!?
A couple of weeks ago, when we returned from vacation, we had an unpleasant surprise waiting for us at home. The first thing we noticed as we parked the car was our tomato plants. Notice that I didn’t say “our tomatoes”. Because when we left home, we were still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen— we hadn’t picked a single one. And there weren’t many fruits on the vines, though they were looking promising.
When we came back, our lush plants had been transformed into stalks. Caterpillars had eaten. every. leaf. By the time I found the fattened culprits, they had already started in on the tomatoes themselves!
I did manage to pick a few fruits that hadn’t been chewed on and we are enjoying those now. But I don’t think the plants can recover in time to make any more fruit this year.
We also had some pleasant surprises when we got home from our trip. In the evening, after the sun dipped behind the trees, the cows came out of the woods to graze. We like to sit on the front porch and watch them after our own dinner. It took me a minute to realize that there were a couple of tiny calves— new babies!— with the herd. They had been born earlier that day. Look how cute they are!
One of the lone survivors. We tried a new variety of tomato this year that’s green even when it’s ripe…
The two newest members of the herd, with an older calf standing behind them.
One of the new babies with her mother. She’s a few weeks old in this picture.
So, we lost our tomatoes this summer— maybe next year. But we have the fun of watching two new calves grow up!