HZ Harvest

The flowers above are spread throughout our vegetables to keep our bees happy.  The added bonus is that they keep us happy too!

We are fortunate to have two wonderful summer helpers - Tanner and James - that are staying at the farm, working hard and learning from us.  They are particularly nice, polite and intelligent 21 year old men.  We couldn't have asked for better farm guests.  The challenge is to remember that things that seem natural to us aren't necessarily things that young men from the city know. 

On Friday night, Marvin realized that the cows weren't in the field above the house as expected.  Marvin has been spending night and day cutting, raking and baling hay.  This hay is in various stages in the east end of the back 300 acre parcel.  Tanner and James have been "bucking hay".  This involves picking up the bales and taking them to the barn to stack them for future use. 

One commandment of country life is that you always leave a gate as you find it (if it's open, leave it open - if it's closed, close it after you go through).  Unfortunately, Tanner and James hadn't been told this commandment yet.  As you've probably already guessed, they left the gate open and all 35 cows found the hay smorgasbord. 

The wind was blowing approximately 40 mph Friday evening.  The last thing these cows wanted to do was to leave their evening meal.  After about and hour we finally got them through the gate and return to the house to begin our BBQ.  It was about 10:00 before we were able to eat dinner.  The boys went back to their room and we fell into bed in a sleep slumber. 

I've always felt that it is normal to make mistakes.  We all do.  Sometimes the best lessons are learned when mistakes are made.  These lessons seem to stick with you better than just being told.  Tanner and James have learned a good lesson.

We took them to the the lake (Nacimiento) last night to BBQ and give them the opportunity to go swimming.  It was a beautiful eventing and we had a nice visit with Marvin's brother and sister in law - Greg and Licia.  A nice evening makes the hard day worthwhile.

I like this quote:

"The fence that makes good neighbors needs a gate to make good friends."