Happy Friday Y'all!

I've been steaming tunnels this week. It's an old technique commonly used to kill soil pathogens before the mass adoption of drenching soils in poison. If you don't treat your greenhouse soil at all, it quickly fills up with nematodes, water molds, unfriendly fungus, and other hidden villains that significantly affect the health of your plants and your ability to produce crops of any kind.

I wrote about the monarchs last week and how those on the west coast have diminished by over 95% since the 1990s. One big part of that is the amount of pesticides sprayed by both farmers and homeowners. Glyphosate and neonicotinoids are the 2 biggest culprits.

Anyway, we steam the soil to avoid use of toxic chemicals that would impact the health of pollinators, plants, animals, waterways, employees, and customers, and though the results are wonderful, it is one of the least fun jobs on the farm. It sucks so much, I can't in good conscience ask anyone to join me, so I push myself through it every year. Every year it seems to get a little harder.

You drag huge wet tarps, carry 3 sets of 50 lb trucker chains while constantly jumping over plant beds all day, often in a hot tunnel, usually for 10-12 hour days. It's laborious, exhausting, and slow (at least with our ancient steamer). And that's when it all goes right. This week….it all went wrong.

The water level is very important in a steamer. The device that controls that level (solenoid), got stuck in the open position on Monday and problems started as it overflowed with water. I'm on a major time crunch, so I called around and arranged to get a replacement the next morning, while manually limping it along for the rest of the day.

The next morning I got a few rounds of steaming done before the replacement part arrived. It was finicky to use it without the solenoid, but I was working it out and the day felt relatively smooth. I was ahead of schedule.

The part arrived and after lunch, I drained the machine and started the R&R process. As I was undoing the pipe it was connected to, another pipe's rusted threads gave way. Shit. Can of worms officially opened. I jumped in the van and ran to the hardware store and got replacement parts and rushed back. As I went to replace the broken section of pipe, another old fitting crumbled away. Sonofa…

At this point…I'm losing time…getting anxious, and it's back up to 90 degrees outside and beginning to cook my brain. I jump back in the van to go back to the hardware store for more parts and brush a little too close to the tractor, and it rips a hole in the sidewall of the tire. I'm covered in mud, sweat, and fuel and can't get in a decent car without destroying it, so I ask Mandy to go get the parts for the steamer.

I grab some tools and try to take the van's tire off. I need it fixed quickly so I can keep making fuel runs to keep steaming after I get the steamer fixed (haha), but the lug nuts are on super tight and instead of braking loose, my wrench breaks under the weight of my foot. Dang it.

I get a bigger wrench with an extension on it to reach the lugs, and I'm pushing hard to loosen the nut…and the wrench extension breaks. Anxiety grows like a water mold in the soil of my chest. I run to get the golf cart to drive across the farm to get more tools and drive about 50 feet and the golf cart breaks! Just dies outright.

I lift the seat to look for obvious electrical problems…and the seat falls apart. Cool and collected I am no longer, and I vent my sense of overwhelm to Mandy who sweetly offers help and just as importantly, kindness.

We're always carrying a bunch of stress and dealing with obstacles, but I'm pretty solid about not letting them overwhelm me these days. Today though. Today I watched the boundary of my equanimity erode, then crumble all but entirely. I didn't yell or get mean, I just felt the circuitry of my brain crumbling like rusted pieces of pipe.

Fully frazzled, I was feeling like the incredibly important process for planting our most valuable crops was exploding slowly and continually in my face with every step I took, and no effort I expended would go unpunished in the most ridiculous way possible. I just needed to fix that one thing for it to go right, but that one thing, became 2 things, became 10 things in a matter of minutes, and my brain just couldn't silo everything anymore. The next steps were harder to see. There were too many permutations…too many things that relied on too many things that kept breaking in too many ways, to neatly organize the next steps in my head. Plus the sense that the tapestry of the day was woven with a golden thread of failure just really added to the overall vibe.

Mandy got the parts, but got stuck behind a train. No tire replacements were around until tomorrow, but I went back to working on the tire, just to be moving forward on some sort of repairs until she got back. As I opened the van door to get a tool…it wouldn't open. The latching mechanism broke internally. That makes sense. Everything is supposed to break today, so that makes sense. I finally managed to get the lug nuts off though.

Mandy returned with a bag of pipe fittings. I reconfigured a bunch of plumbing and was finally able to replace all the steel pipes as well as the original broken solenoid. Except…the electrical component on it was different than the original. The harness didn't fit.

Run inside. Sweat burning my eyes. I find an adapter online and order it for Thursday at the earliest. I need a steamer now! I cut the wires and splice them together with the old ones and low and behold…it works! The water is flowing, the flames ignite and the machine runs. Relieved that this rudely entropic cycle is potentially over, I steam one section for 45 minutes and just as I go to turn it off to rotate into a new section (drag tarps, carry trucker chains, jump over beds again and again) the steamer shuts off on its own (not good). I do the dragging and jumping and let it cool off for the duration, determined not to get prematurely negative. Finally oriented in the tunnel, I go to the steamer and try to turn it on…it won't. The circuit is being tripped. I try another circuit. It trips. I try another extension cord. It trips. I get out the multimeter and test resistance and find the new solenoid has internally fried and shorted itself out. Entropy continues to rule the day. I call the parts place, but they're closed. It's 5:30.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if a little kid jumped outa the bushes and kicked me in the crotch. On some level, I was constantly aware of the comedy of the day, though I don't believe I ever laughed about it. Some days just seem designed to make sure you stay humbled.

Humbled I am. It's 8:45p on Tuesday, and I just got in from losing a long wrestling match with the farm. I couldn't get things right today, but after that last failure, I continued at it and did what I could to set things off in a more positive direction tomorrow. Sometimes setting yourself up for a clean start can be all the difference.

For a couple cherries on top of the day…I was starving and desperately needed a shower, but…as you would imagine on a day like that...the water heater's circuit board broke. Only cold water in the house.

Mandy was beat too and decided we needed take-out from the local cafe, which sounded great, but after a half hour of calling to no reception, she learned that Comer had a water issue and the local restaurants had all shut down.

She took pity on me and drew me a bath in the outdoor tub I had recently connected to our old certified kitchen's water heater and fried up some quesadillas. A warm bath as night enveloped the farm and stillness permeated everything was a really nice way to end a pretty rough day.

We'll see what tomorrow has to offer. I'm writing this early in the week, because sometimes people ask about a day in the life, and this was the first one to really kick my ass in awhile. That's not the whole day, there was tractor work and shoveling and raking between the first rounds of steaming…but that wasn't the part that seemed ridiculous enough to be word worthy.

The Farm Store will be open today and tomorrow for possibly the last dahlias of the season! We're continuing our buy 2 dahlia bunches get 1 free sale in the store alongside all kinds of local and sustainably made goods. We're hosting old friends (and my little bro) for a long weekend of some good laughs, so if you're by the store and hear a ruckus, that's just us shaking off days like this and refilling our proverbial cups.

Temps will be dropping finally, so this redundant week of 90 degree days will hopefully be the last.

I wish you well wherever you are and wish you more equanimity in the face of stress than I managed to carry today.

And one last note of positive news.  The eastern monarch population (separate from the population west of the Rockies) actually had a significant increase in numbers this year!  More people are planting milkweed and it is helping, so please, KEEP PLANTING MILKWEED!!!!  IT IS HELPING :). And on that note…Corina will be handing out packets of milkweed at the Comer Farmer's Market for Halloween treats later this month, so if you're local…head to the market to get some on the 31st and help the butterflies.  If you're not local, copy this great idea and do it in your area!  Avoid tropical milkweed though…it carries a parasite that kills them. You can also buy the good milkweed seed from us here.

Cheers,

Farmer Steve