Writing about the farm…

I am not enthused about having to follow the horse this year

Well, tomorrow I go out to the farm for the first time. I am ashamed of this. I really am ashamed of this. I should have been out there several weeks or even a months ago. But by way of making an excuse I just want to say that I had wanted a tractor to come out and go over the land this year but that it had simply never happened and this is bad. This is really what we were waiting for. And actually, this whole tractor business is pretty messed up. I don't believe what they have been telling me that all of the tractor guys have gone out of business or no longer have tractors. I know we have a kolhoz and I know hat we plant potatoes and such and this means that we need some tractors to do this work. But they are all saying they are not plowing for anybody right now and so we are wit out.

The reason I wanted the tractor is that the year before, when we did have a guy come out, he missed several places to plow under (he came when I was not on the land) and those places grew a lot of grass and got hard and so now a horse will not go through those places very wall. I don't want to come off as if I am an expert farmer because I am not, but getting those places plowed was why we wanted a tractor in the first place. And really, even though I am going to be planting less this year than in the past, having the land I actually will plant in soft is what it is all about. I don't know; I'll figure it out.

And, this brings us to this year's crops. There are very specific times here in Belarus when it is proper to plant. We do not have the longest growing season here and so getting things into the ground at the proper time is very, very important. Things like carrots need to get in the ground early, beets need to go in early, and cabbages need to be put under plastic now, before the May first general planting. Actually, April first would have been better, but two week's late is not the end of the world.

Why I am late or even why I have not even been out this year? Believe me the old guys have been rolling their eyes about this: "Adam, you are not being a real Haizain, this is not what we expected of you!" But really the www.beinghad.com website had taken all of my time and aside from this, we seem to have been caught up in issues with the doma provlenya and with Anya's nursery school… Ah, I know I am sounding like Tatyana here, I should have been out and the old guys are right. In any case, I have now officially budgeted my schedule and have made time and tomorrow is the day to get going.

And so, to find a horse and do some plowing.

I will tell you thought that I do not like plowing. There was probably a time within the last few years when I looked forward to these sorts of experiences, but now I do not. Perhaps the luster has worn off or perhaps I feel I have more important things to do these days, but in any case having to follow a horse was absolutely not what I wanted for my year's preparations. But we will see how that goes anyway. I know I can get a horse from the Kolhoz and I know I can borrow a plough and I know how to do the job. I just didn't want to do it if I could help it. A tractor would have been better.

So what else? Nothing really. Life is interesting and I have a lot of irons in the fire. I am very interested in this fund raiser and expanding somewhat. I need more money than I have right now- and for this I am speaking of advertising dollars. I very, very much want to do some advertising. I have several methods I want to try to make this thing bigger and I will do all of them over the next while, but that would seem to be the most direct.

Anyway, this is Saturday evening. I have an early start tomorrow so I suppose this means I should finish this thought off and go and get some sleep. It is going to be a long day tomorrow. Actually, it is going to be a long summer in general. Hopefully I will be able to get in some beach time and a couple of good bike rides. And, even better, maybe a little bit of vacation time. That would be really nice. Oh yea, and complete capitulation from Poland and a BIG ASSED settlement. Now THAT would really be a good present for the summer.