WENDELL WEDNESDAY.
Love this spotted tongue.*Does anyone know - is this normal for a Great Pyrenees? Or does it mean he is mixed with something?*
COWABUNGA.
Sometimes, you have to get creative around these parts. Case in point: harrow surfing!
The harrow wasn't proving to be a good tool for cleaning up the soil, with Eric having to make several passes both ways down each row to have any effect. So, Jesse reverted back to his old skateboarding ways and hopped aboard, and the extra weight was all it took! Now the butternut squash patch (one of Bugtussle's most important crops) is planted and mulched. Sometimes you don't need a bigger or better tool or machine, you just need to think outside of the box, work with what you have, and maybe even have a little fun in the process.- Hannah.
LONG-TERM INVESTING.
It feels a bit silly to be writing about retirement when we just started our farm, but perpetually worrying about a retirement fund is something my father instilled in me at a young age (which I assure you was a rather mind-boggling concept to a fifteen year old). It would be nice now, though, to start setting a little money aside for when we finally do decide to "settle down". But we barely have money to spend at the moment, let alone save. What little extra money we get goes into the house and into the farm (and into a meager vacation fund––see you in November, somewhere really close!). At this point, a retirement fund seems a long way off.The other day, however, Hannah and I went into Lafayette, TN (locally pronounced: Le-FAY-it) to buy a peach tree. While at the nursery, we acquired two more blueberry bushes (totaling eight now) and a bunch of perennial herbs. It was a sixty dollar hit, but it felt like, at a time when we don't have money to stuff into the bank, we were still making an investment in our future.All of those plants have the potential to earn us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in their lifetimes. And if managed, cultivated and propagated correctly, most perennial plants we invest in now will have the potential to stick around until our retirement and beyond, fathering (or mothering, respectfully) many more trees, plants or bushes. Sure, we'll have to do some maintenance to keep them going even when we retire, but isn't gardening something people do when they retire anyway?Perhaps this has been on my mind lately as we've been hearing on NPR about how inflation is causing savings accounts to shrink––savings accounts once being a place people were led to believe they could safely save his or her money. If we don't have money to save, we decidedly don't have money to lose to inflation. Investing in trees and herbs and plants––more or less immune to inflation––that we ourselves will manage, is a type of savings that obviously fits our lifestyle, but that we have supreme confidence in. If nothing else, nature has proved to be a reliable area for growth, and not a bad place to invest.- Jesse.
ANNOUNCING THE CSA: BOWLING GREEN EDITION.
Today we are extremely proud to announce that Rough Draft Farmstead will officially be offering a 12 week CSA——from August 20 to November 5 ——to consumers in the Bowling Green, Kentucky area. WE HAVE A VERY LIMITED AMOUNT OF SHARES TO OFFER. Please contact us as at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com 0r 270-457-4956 as soon as you can if you might be interested! Our drop-off will be mid-week, Tuesday evenings at Community Farmers Market. Each shareholder will receive a custom tote bag for their veggies which over the season will include, but will hardly be limited to: tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce, kale, broccoli, etc., etc., etc.. Shareholders will also have first dibs on any honey, eggs, mushrooms, or special produce we bring to market!The price of the small share––great for a single individual or small family––will be $240 (which breaks down to $20/wk).The medium share––great for a larger family or vegetarians––will be $420 (double the small share for 35/wk).If interested in a larger share, please contact us and we'd be more than happy to accommodate. For more information on how the CSA works, please follow this link!Much more details will be coming soon, but please contact us if you might be interested or if you have any questions. And please feel free to share this post with any friends or family you might know in the area.Thank you for your ongoing support!With love,Hannah + Jesse.