A TUESDAY IN THE LIFE.

A couple of weeks ago I quickly jotted out a post about one arbitrary day in the life at the farm. I rather enjoyed it and got some good feedback, so I thought I'd make it a regular occasion––randomly selecting a day from the week, and writing down what happens in real time. So here is last Tuesday on the farm, June 24th.4:30 a.m. – 4:45 a.m.I awoke to our rooster crowing which was odd, as he usually crows much earlier, around 3:30 a.m.. Laying in bed I thought about the day before, where we had our biggest turkey loss to date: five turkeys dead to what I fear might be a disease called blackhead––caused by raising turkeys where you raised chickens––the first sign of which is often, well, death.4:45 a.m. – 5:15 a.m.Dreadfully, I went out to check on the turkeys. But somehow no deaths. At least not yet. I then built a fire in the wood stove, which seems counterintuitive during the summer, but as I told my farmer friend Pavel the day before, actually burns off the humidity and ultimately cools the house while keeping mold from growing. If you can't beat the heat, join it.5:15 a.m. – 6:45 a.m.Started writing this post, finished an article, worried about the turkeys some more. Breakfast was pork sausage, eggs and toast. Since Hannah's supposed to eat an unreal amount of protein right now, I have been likewise eating an unreal amount of protein. Pregnancy is pretty tasty.6:45 a.m.First dead turkey of the day. Hopefully the last, though the sick one next to it makes me think probably not.7 – 9:30 a.m.Got Hannah ready to go to market. Moved turkeys as far from the old chicken yard as possible, where they should have never been to begin with. Stupid farmer.9:30 – 10 a.m.Our RAM pump sits prominently in the living room which means that we're still hauling water. May and June are just not months to get anything extra done––these are months you are lucky to be able to simply maintain. All of that to say I spent this time hauling water from the Spring. I saw a crawdad, though, which was fun.10 a.m. – 12 p.m.I joined the Smiths in the garden to continue on our garlic harvest. We planted about a quarter acre of the stuff and have spent several days pulling it out. We smell awesome. The sick turkey took this opportunity to die.12 – 2 p.m.Lunch (tomato sandwiches with jalapeño, butter and fresh garlic), nap and animal upkeep. One more turkey sick, or more accurately, a dead turkey to-be.2 – 3:30 p.m.Went back to the garden to harvest more garlic, and I would have finished entirely if it hadn't started raining. I only wish the rain had lasted longer than the amount of time it took me to get all the way back to my house. We need it something awful. But at 3:30 p.m. it was barely a'drizzle.3:30 – p.m.I called Hannah while it was raining (and because we're dorks and can't go a few hours without talking) though the rain quit shortly after I got on the phone, and I felt compelled to get back to the garden and finish the garlic.4 – 5:15 p.m.Finished the garlic seconds before it started raining for the second time. Again I sprinted back to the house and, again, the rain pretty much stopped. The sick turkey I'd seen before must have somehow got better as I cannot tell which it is. This is either a good sign, or a trick.5:15 – 7:00 p.m.I read about saving corn seed which is a whole other blog post, but I then got the gumption up to start cabbage and brussels sprouts in soil blocks. We will have brussels sprouts this year, by God.7 – 9 p.m.I build a fire and make dinner (pasta with kale, broccoli and carrots) then Hannah gets back around 7:45 and we spend the rest of the evening recounting our days to one another. Hannah had a good day at market, me a productive day on the farm, only two turkeys died, got some rain, good day in all.9:15 p.m.Bed.