Happy Friday y’all! 

It sure has been a beautiful week out here at the farm! We’ve had some days in the nineties, but they haven’t been aggressive. The cool from the night before lingers in the earth and in the air. It has been utterly delightful. To need long sleeves in August in Georgia….it’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me. For the last 14 summers, I’ve been completely wrung out by this time. Body feeling like the gears of a motor that has been completely drained of oil. Muscles filled with more lactic acid than they are of water. Cramping near constant with fingers and toes curling under in spasms each day. 3 brutal months, seemingly adding 3 decades to my life as I struggle to get out of a truck or up from a squat.

But not this summer. I keep hearing people disparage the weather here, but this has been, hands down, the nicest August in Georgia I’ve ever known. Granted I haven’t had a big construction project for the first time in years, but the cool and rainier August has truly been healing, and I’m grateful for every second of it.

Dahlias coming in from the field!

We saw a monarch on an evening walk the other day. Just the one, but we’re hoping they’ll return en masse to our rows of dahlias that we leave open just for them. We have a few varieties of singles that monarchs have flocked to for 3 years now, so we don’t really cut them. We just let them feed and flutter, and revel in their presence.

Tons of coyote song in these parts, but always out of sight. Last night though, they came right to the edge of our field and were hollerin’ in huge numbers, and we had to catch Chaos and Bella to stop them from running towards them.

Our neighbors dog was caught up by a pack of coyotes across a field from him years back. He ran, but couldn’t get there in time. Not a nice story. So, while we are mesmerized by them, it comes with an edge of anxious caution.

All hands on deck, pulling weeds and laying landscape fabric!

In farm news, we are already starting to get tunnels ready for spring plantings. Weeds and grasses have taken over the outer perimeter of our tunnels, throwing weed seeds into the tunnels, so we’re doing a big overhaul around all the tunnels. I started working on it alone yesterday and quickly realized I was outmatched and called in reinforcements. We even had the office crew come to the rescue, ripping out 10 year old landscape fabric, pulling clumps of weeds, and hammering landscape staples through new fabric into thick chunky gravel on hands and knees. Thank you team!

More gorgeous dahlias are available for shipping next week!

Beautiful dahlias are available online and increasing in number, though they do keep selling out.  The mum launch went great and sales on cuttings are now live on the website. Also, the online Plant Sale starts next Saturday the 6th at 8am and is just for locals who can arrange to pick up after the Farm Store opens on the 11th.  It’s a sale for fall veggie gardeners, and we already have a preview of what is available online, so go check it out if you’re interested.

Our fall plant sale launches online in one week for local pick up!

Mandy has been hustling her butt off to get the Farm Store cleaned up and back in its state of mystical whimsy.  It has been all but gutted since the spring.  It is amazing to me what she does with that space.  I know it’s commerce, but it’s really more of an art piece.  When the day is done and the crew goes home, she’ll find her way over there and dig and trim and plant and move huge pots of soil and trellis and water and fight spiders.   She’ll move all the pottery and goods out, take out tables and rugs and clean and vision and plan.  Then she gets in the house and spends hours online in the evenings for weeks on end seeking the most charming, useful, beautiful items, often created by other women owned, sustainably oriented businesses.  She consults with her genius of a potter mom on items that people want and styles they both love, and her mom somehow always produces completely new, but completely perfect designs.  Then comes the art of filling the store with all that whimsy in a way that’s somehow a bit of magic all its own.  I love what she does in there. 
 

Farm Store deep cleaning in full swing!

When I pop in to visit, she’s always smiling or dancing while hustling.  It’s more work than you’d imagine, but somehow she manages to have fun in the process.  That’s something I’ve always admired about her since the day I met her.  She can hustle harder and faster than anyone I know and still manage to enjoy the process through the hardships.  It’s a special wisdom that I’ve looked up to and tried to learn from, but I think that all the feedback I get from y’all via email or when we see each other at Comer Coffee, The Comerian, or in the store itself, about how much the store means to you….I think that y’all feel that too.  It’s not just special because all of her mom’s truly amazing pottery, all of the adorable gifts, or the bucolic setting and occasional farm animal that wanders through, but it’s all those good vibes and good intentions that she’s channeled into every step of it moment by moment, month after month, and year after year.  That’s what the Farm Store holds. And I guess that’s what the farm itself holds.

If you’ve ever felt anything good from our farm over the years, I think that is where it comes from. I’m fanatic, and committed, and I mean well from deep in my heart, but she’s all those things plus that extra bit of magic that just makes a well-intentioned endeavor something bigger than my words can convey. I’m guess I’m trying to say she’s at least 2 of the 3 Porches.

Peace y’all. Have a great weekend, and I hope you north Georgians really really appreciate this weather!

Steve