A THURSDAY IN THE LIFE.
In continuation of our "Day in the Life" series, I give you Thursday, July 10.5 - 5:30 a.m.Morning chores. Feed the turkeys, the nineteen we have left that is, and walk through the garden. This is when I discover that the rabbits have eaten all but a few of the beans I was naively believing they were somehow not going to eat––you know, since it's summer and there's nothing but other things to consume. Needless to say, I curse a little. I have some holes in the fence to be fixed, but until then I plan to set a live trap and to give the rabbit a stern talking to when I catch it.5:30 - 7 a.m.Breakfast (rice with tomatoes and red lentil curry) and writing.7 - 7:45 a.m.I spend this time in our garden fixing tomato trellises and setting the live trap for the bunny. If I call it a bunny and not a rabbit, I have an easier time keeping my cool about the situation.7:45 - 8:45I call the Smiths who say they'll be ready in about an hour or so to harvest onions, so I take the opportunity to go get our truck from the mechanic. It runs like a dream––a dream with 200,000 miles on it.8:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.Get everything prepared in the greenhouse to hold and cure the onions. The Smiths join us and we harvest thousands of bulbs, place each in the greenhouse to cure, and cover the them to protect from the sun. We'd spent the day before at Salamander Springs Farm in Berea so we all had plenty to talk about and the conversation made the sweat-drenched job go fast, as conversation is wont to do.1:30 - 3:15Lunch (chicken livers with rice, corn and onions), and nap time. Listening to NPR I learn Garth Brooks is releasing a double album of new music and find myself embarrassingly excited about this.3:15-3:45 p.m.I always wake up to a fresh dose of clarity after naps. And that's when I remember I was going to do a "day in the life" today, and start to write down everything we did, and remember everything we'd done. Thus, all of the above activities, though true, have been assigned mildly arbitrary times. Do you feel duped? I would feel duped.3:45 p.m - 4:30 p.m.Spend about an hour mulching. We always mulch a lot but, but perhaps inspired by the farm we saw the day before where there is no bare soil anywhere, I rather enjoy it this time. Also discover we lost another turkey. From fifty-three, now down to eighteen. Sigh.4:30 - 7 p.m.Hannah and I join Cher in the garden to transplant or seed all of our winter squash and pumpkins––all 1400 row feet or so of it. Considering we'd been putting it off for a month, it feels good to get it done.7 - 7:40 p.m.Move the goats. They're looking good. I can finally leave them alone and they seem to keep eating. This keeps them fat and happy. And it keeps me sane. Symbiosis in action.7:40 - 10 p.m.Dinner and a movie. After returning "Happy People," we received "Micmacs," the latest from Jean Pierre Jeunet, director of "Amelie". What a great movie. I had some most excellent dreams after watching it––I even purchased a copy of Garth Brook's new record for Hannah in one of them. She was psyched... in the dream. In reality she told me we were not going to buy it because, well, we have several million other things we need a little more. And I suppose she has a good point, as women with babies in their bellies tend to have in these situations.10 p.m.Bed.- Jesse.