Woooo doggie, it’s hot out there. It’s 7:40 p.m. on Thursday and I’m just coming inside from an observational run with Mandy through the fields and it’s still hot as Hades out there. The ladies have been working on black plastic and I’ve been doing some roofing these last few days and it sure is something to experience. I hadn’t encountered heat like this til’ my first southern summer on the farm in 2011.

You walk out all clean and fresh with a plan in mind. You’re gonna get this done and that done and take care of a few things before the heat comes. And 15 minutes later, it’s 7 a.m. and you’re already soaked through like a drowned rat. Shirt heavy with sweat. Thick Carhart jeans soaked completely through. Eyes stinging from the constant mix of salty perspiration and sunblock dripping directly into them.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, it’s running off your nose, your chin, your hat, your hands, your elbows and it tickles a little. It should cool you some, but the droplets are insultingly hot too. Feels like all it’s doing is blinding you. It’s literally the same amount of sweat as being in a sauna, but instead of relaxing, you’re doing construction, or planting and digging for hours. Your brain starts to fog up, your fingers and toes begin to cramp. Sometimes your calves and hamstrings too. But, it has to get done. Fall crops and spring plants won’t become either of those things if we don’t do what needs to be done, right now.

Mandy’s farming mentor once told me that farming is the practice of doing what needs to be done, exactly when it needs to be done. It’s a pretty simple description, but it’s also a pretty good one. Vague, but specific. There’s ten thousand things to be done every season and if you wait because it’s too cold, or too rainy, or too hot, or too windy or snowy, then you don’t have a crop and you don’t have a farm. It’s not pleasant, but I think in some ways, it’s still healthy.

Having our druthers is convenient, but it doesn’t condition us for the realities of life. It’s kinda good to be forced into these unpleasant conditions. It’s a meditation in acceptance of the reality of the present moment and a practice in trying to keep your chin up in the process. 

That’s a good lesson and one that needs constant polishing. So as much as I hate Georgia summers, I also appreciate them. Fortunately though, we’ve reduced their impact a bit in recent years. Not having a farmer’s market booth to fill allows us a degree of freedom to reduce our summer field hours and we’ve found that to be quite beneficial to the health of our employees and ourselves.

Most summer days, we’re out of the fields by noon and return to cooler spaces to do administrative work or let the crew go home and relax. Our first decade of farming didn’t come with that luxury. It was 12-16 hour days (sometimes 18 on Fridays), mostly outdoors, regardless of the heat. It took its toll for sure. Especially on my Irish genes. So, I appreciate the morning jolt of heat these days, but appreciate the afternoon respite even more. The only way I could describe that first decade of summers was a feeling of having a body filled with lactic acid 5 months of the year. It felt like hot 80 grit was coursing through my muscles and I got progressively more feeble and creaky as the hot months progressed.. I am overjoyed at our newer schedule and the significantly diminished heat stress. We all are. I can’t help but think of all the poor roofing crews that work in the south. That’s the hottest job I can imagine. I have no idea how they survive and why they aren’t paid a million bucks an hour.

The good news is that we’ve gotten a lot of the big stuff done and most of our crew will take a lot of days off in July. Somehow we lucked out and got a team that wants to relax and recover in the summer. When we say, “Do y’all want more hours, or the rest of the day off”….in spring, it’s usually “more hours”, in summer, it’s just a cloud of smoke where they once stood. They can’t get home fast enough. Whether it's fishing, road trips, or binging Netflix in the A/C, they are all living their best summer lives and we’re happy for it.

As of today, three tunnels are planted with heirloom mums for cut flowers.  The fields are completely planted with around ten thousand dahlias.  The 2,200 mother plants for all our mum babies have just been potted up and moved to our new field of shade.  The top of our school bus has been repainted and a new roof installed to make it more comfortable for guests and to hopefully stop the water leak that started immediately after I rebuilt the sleeping area in the back a couple years ago. And the crew is ready for a break.

Next week the whole crew is off entirely and Mandy and I will be busy keeping everything alive through this heat, so anything ordered off the website will not ship out until the following week when the crew is back.

Newsletters will be sparse for the next month or so as we all attempt to loosen our grip on anything we can out here and find ways to refresh and recharge for the next busy season coming our way.

Wishing you all a great summer and hope you find ways to stay cool and enjoy your life. Even if that enjoyment is just a few minutes here and there. It all counts.

Be well!

Steve