Another piece of the history

There was actually a 4th sort-of farm in between the 2nd & 3rd farms.  For 15 years we lived in White Bear Lake, where Farmer Bill taught school.  When we'd been there about 2 years, living in a rented house, Bill passed a For Sale sign on a house with a 1-acre lot and knew he had to have it.  He drove me past it to take a look; then called the realtor and we did a walk-through.  The house was totally uninspiring -- old paint, old carpeting, smelly, cigarette-smoke-stained walls, and cheap paneling in a walk-out lower level.  Since it had been on the market for over 2 years, we made a low-ball offer that was accepted.  Before we moved in, we pulled out all the carpeting, washed and painted every wall, painted the ceilings, installed hardwood tongue & groove flooring in the dining and living rooms.  Over the years we were there, we continued to update and expand.  Two years before we moved to Straight River Farm, we did the big expansion I'd been planning and dreaming about since we moved in -- adding a 4-season room and deck off the kitchen, redesigning & updating the kitchen layout, countertops, and floors, and expanding the walk-out level family room.

In the backyard -- the 1-acre lot -- Bill planted strawberries and created a PYO business.  We called it Bill's Backyard Berries and it was a pretty successful little business for 10 years, until Bill retired from teaching and wanted something more than a part-time farm.

Did I say weekends off?

It's Easter Sunday morning.  Later this morning I will drive from the farm to the Twin Cities to spend the afternoon with my mom, our kids, siblings, nieces & nephews.  However, before that happens I'll spend a couple of hours with Farmer Bill laying out the ground where he's planting blueberries tomorrow.  And Farmer Bill will stay behind and finish the job; he's got help coming to plant tomorrow and he doesn't want them standing around idle while he does the laying out.

This is how most of our holidays go.  Neither of us is particularly religious -- holidays are just an occasion to visit with family and/or friends that we don't get to see often.  But holidays that happen between April 1 and December 1 are just squeezed in between the farm work.

Bill could, of course, come along later to have dinner and hang out.  But the deal we made before we were married still holds: he doesn't have to attend my family gatherings and I don't have to attend his.  It's worked pretty well for us over the years -- except when the kids were little and we both needed/wanted to be there to care for them.  Then I spent long interminable weekends with his family and he spent the occasional 3-hour stint with mine.  Not that I'm bitter or anything...

Weekends off

Most librarians who work in either academic or public libraries expect to work some Saturdays, some Sundays and an evening during the week.  For a few weeks I've had a Monday-Friday schedule with no night or weekend work; it's different.  I think I could get used to it. 

But starting in June I almost never have a day or evening off until November.  If I'm off from my paid position, I'm on for the farm.  During strawberry season (June 10-July 4) we go to Farmers' Markets on Saturdays & Sundays and are open for PYO at the farm every day -- unless it pours rain -- which never seems to happen on my days off from the Library.  And pouring rain just means a slower day, not a day off, at the farm.

A piece of the history

Farmer BIll & I were married in October 1982.  We met in March 1977 on a Greyhound bus out of Minneapolis.  Farmer Bill likes to say that he was running away from his marriage and I was running away from my family.  Mostly true in both cases.

The 5+ years before we married were a series of ups and downs.  The 28+ years of marriage have also been a series of ups and downs -- but there must have been enough ups to make the downs bearable because here we are, still together.  We have 2 grown children and 2 children-in-law.

In his previous work life Farmer Bill was an elementary school teacher.  But he's always dabbled with farming to one extent or another.  Straight River Farm is his 3rd farm.  The 1st farm was in northern Minnesota -- 20 miles outside the arctic circle -- in the 1970s 'Back to the Land Movement' and it put the final nail in the coffin of his first marriage.  The 2nd farm was outside Osceola, Wisconsin in the 1980s.  That farm fell prey to the bad economy, high interest rates, and Farmer Bill's tendency to believe the best of everyone.  This 3rd farm is pretty darn successful, as farms go.  But boy howdy it's a lot of work and a lot of investment.  I'm a Librarian by training and nature -- not a risk taker.  Farmer Bill is the risk taker, the planner, the dreamer.  I'm here to put some restraints on him so he doesn't go completely wild... So far I've been marginally successful, although there are several hundred tomato seedlings under grow lights in my back bedroom...

Book Group

For the past 3 years I've been the facilitator for a book discussion group at my library.  Before that assignment I had never been part of a book group & I was a little apprehensive.  But the group has expanded and evolved to be something I look forward to each month.  The members are thoughtful readers with great insights into the characters and themes of the books we read.  While the library was closed for renovation the group met at our local Barnes & Noble store and took over part of their cafe.  Next month we meet in our brand new meeting room back at the library.  We're all looking forward to it!

At the library

We're in the 3rd week of getting the library ready to re-open after a major renovation.  It's a lot of work and many of my muscles and joints are complaining about it.  All of the collections had to be shifted to fit into their new spaces.  Most shifts went swimmingly well, except for the non-fiction -- the largest collection -- of course.

What is it about managers (or maybe it was because that particular manager is a man?) that they don't listen to the people who know stuff?  Early on in the process, he asked me about what shelves to use and how full to fill them.  Then he proceeded to ignore my answer.  Which means that the entire collection will have to be moved again... before we open if there's time.

Theme of the year

Last year the farm theme was "Making it look easy."  It came from a nephew who spent about 6 weeks with us, working the strawberry season.  While here, he broke up with his girlfriend and in a discussion about relationships he said "But you guys make it look so easy!"  We loved and appreciated the comment and decided it should be the farm theme for the year.

A previous theme was "Easy Money" which I remembered coming from the same nephew after a Saturday market.  Market Saturdays go something like this: up at 4:00 a.m. drink one quick cup of coffe while walking across the farm to load the market vehicle, load vehicle, drive to market, set up market stall, sell produce until 1:00 p.m., return to farm, unload vehicle, take short nap before getting up and making sure produce and vehicle are ready for Sunday market (we get to sleep in until 5:00 a.m. for Sunday markets).  In other words, it's something like an 18-hour day.  Meals are catch-as-catch-can.  Now, Farmer Bill says he's the one who first used the phrase, and while I'm sure that's true, the way Nathaniel said it that afternoon was priceless... and that's how it became the theme of the year.

The only other theme that I remember is "Nothing To It."  This theme came from that phrase being repeated by Farmer Bill in response to my questions of "How are you going to..."  Of course, it ain't true that there's 'nothing to it.'  Farmer Bill works incredible hours over the course of the summer -- and I put in a few myself.

So far there isn't a theme for 2011.  We'll have to wait and see if one appears.