Happy Friday y’all,

We’ve been hot and rainless for quite awhile now and it dawned on us that we had some work to do as a result. As I was getting some red on my neck while patching up old irrigation lines to the peonies, I couldn’t help but notice I was experiencing an odd amount of joy finding the leaks in the drip tape, cutting space for a coupler, and letting the cool water wash all the dirt off my fingers before coupling the line back together.

Each time it felt as refreshing as diving into a cool alpine lake. Not sure why it was that powerful, but I made sure to bask in that feeling each of the 30 times I did it.

So much of running a farm is multi-tasking and being pulled in 5 directions at a time, all the time, but for that day, for a few hours, I was just working on getting water to a few hundred peony bushes. That’s it. No emails, meetings, deliveries, audits, inventory, analytics, reconciliations, packing orders, repair work or other significant distractions – just a solitary, physical, basic task out in the fields, with the plants, the birds, simple tools, and the warm sun. It was a bit like all the background noise of a farm just got quiet for a few hours and I was just a guy, working in the field again, like the old days. Before the farm had a website, sales reps, tractors, Instagram, employees, or even smartphones. Just a person, some hand tools, and the field. Attention, solitary. Focus, present. Goals, simple and clear.

All the buzzing static of a thousand urgent thoughts, concentrated down to a handful of gentle, unassertive thoughts about directing the pressure, listening for leaks, looking for water, dig up the line, hands coated in mud and sand, cut out the bad part, and clean off the dirt so you can patch the line. That last bit…somehow the cold water rushing over my fingers, taking the gruff sand particles away and replacing it with clean delicious coolness was the pinnacle of it all. That sweet experience of “now.” Back bent, covered in dirt, Irish skin reddening, and smiling like an idiot. Was nice.

Not to say I want to go back to the old days of this farm…far from it. I want AI to give me a back rub right now. But still, it was nice to be, more still. More analog. For a wee stretch of time.

Speaking of unseasonal warmth, our mums are absolutely loving it.  So much so, that we’re having a Flash Sale on ready to ship mums!!!  If you’ve got space for them now, you can get a great deal on some of our most popular heirloom mum cuttings – some of which have been completely sold out for months!  The pendulum just swung from “you can’t have ‘em no matter how much you want ’em” to “you can have 'em right now at a discount.” Kermit, Coral Reef, and Bess Witt – to name a few of the most wanted and hardest to get – are now available.

For you local peeps, the Farm Store is open and the Plant Sale is going on for another 2 weeks.  Order online and schedule a pickup date.

We’ll have poppies and ranunculus in the Farm Store today and even some mixed bouquets on Saturday.  And if you are coming to the Farm Store during the week, do note that Comer Coffee Co is now open Thurs-Sunday (except for Easter).  So is Neat Pieces Antiques. The Comer Farmers Market is back open on Saturday’s too.  Swing on by, meet some sweet people, and get some goodies.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Steve