Take a look at these hands.

These are the hands of someone who has been playing in dirt all day, but are they the hands of a farmer? The short answer is I’m not sure dog. The long answer is below.

With most jobs you can be pretty good at what you do and enjoy a modestly successful career. Now with farming you can be pretty good at what you do and still be a miserable failure. I was thinking about this because last week I made a few minor mistakes. First I accidentally tilled in about 30 feet of tomatillos thinking it was a grass strip. Sure they were overrun with weeds and hard to discern, but I still should have been more careful. Thank Jah that I didn’t turn under the whole row. Who eats tomatillos anyway? Then when I was tilling in some broccoli (which did need to be) I got tangled on some irrigation tape and the spinning blades of the tiller ate about 100 feet of it in half a second. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to extricate it from the blades of the tiller. Four dollars went into the swear jar after that experience. Other folks on the farm make similar mistakes, but when you run your own farm these little mishaps could add up toe be quite a problem.

I guess I was having a bad day, but it made me really think for the first time about what I’m getting into. I love every aspect of what I’m doing, but working on a farm and running your own are completely different. Probably a good interim step would be to be a farm manager for a year or two and see if I really have the skills to strike out on my own.

Within the next few months I have to decide whether or not I want to come back to Vermont next year as I am supposed to be in a two year program. I could apprentice again next year, but eventually I will have to make a big leap of some kind. Either to find some land or take on a position with a lot more responsibility. Part of me is thinking that if I am destined to make it then it doesn’t really matter how many years I apprentice. And if I am destined to fail then years of this won’t make a difference. Not sure that this makes sense, but it feels good to write down.

Last weekend Brooke and I went up to Quebec for the wedding of my friends Paul and Nathalie. My only other trip to Canada was to see a Dead show in 1990. All I saw then was the inside of a stadium and a motel room. Quebec has a very foreign feel to it. Hard to place my finger on why, but it just seems like it’s in a completely different country. For example, in Quebec Sponge Bob Square Pants is called Bob L’eponge. In Guatemala he was called Bob Esponja.

Paul is one of my oldest friends from SF and I discovered during the ceremony, that he and Nathalie are moving back to Quebec next year. Another friend, Carrie is going to grad school next fall in Seattle and my friend Mike is leaving for Vancouver next month. All of a sudden the tug that is San Francisco is getting a little weaker. I guess after I left most people found they no longer had a reason to stay.

We drove up on Friday and camped in Mont Orford national park. We hiked up a mountain, ate gourmet food and swam in a lake twice. The highlight of the camping trip, however, was the offer of the complimentary s’mores roasting sticks from the park ranger. We didn’t have a fire but they will be used one day.

The wedding took place at Nathalie’s family home in the country and was attended by about a hundred people. The food was unbelievable and the live band was fantastic. The ceremony was great too, although I am a little saddened that my perviest friend is now hitched up.

On a completely different note, I just finished another research project. It focuses on the dark side of farming, the part which has been pushed under the rug for far too long. In an attempt to address this serious issue I have compiled some information which will enable the appropriate authorities to focus their efforts on the places that need the most help. So here is another list.

Top ten countries for sheep shagging (in no particular order except for the first one).

1. Greece
2. Wales
3. New Zealand
4. Argentina
5. Kazakhstan
6. Latvia
7. Australia
8. Mongolia
9. Chile
10. France
    

Farmer Simon