I like to tell people that the farm season begins in the fall. It's not what you expect to hear. Most people assume it all gets going in the spring. And while it is true that it does "get going" in the spring, there is also a lot that must happen before the "going" can "get".
I mean, you can't have a green bud unless you first have a seed. And that seed is put in place.... way back in the fall (or late summer). See what I mean? I'm not talking about action. Action is spring (its right there in the name). I'm talking about getting things in place. Getting ready. That all STARTS happening now.
For the last few weeks, we've been working half days in the field. We've taken part of each day to do some reviewing and planning. It was important that we do this right after the action dies down so that ALLL the information of the season is still in our head (mostly). We also need to do it now because Jed, and Joel E. leave early November and we wanted their heads in on the wrangling. The more minds we can have pouncing on the plans, the better those plans are likely to be. The more voices we have critiquing what happened the better we can break it down.
And, it just feels good to decompress it all! We've been banging through this work and grumbling at the irritations and marveling at the sweet spots all season, but at breakneck speed--now we get to sit back and talk about it! It feels good. And making plans about how to address all those things that didn't quite click and make them all so much better... well that's exciting too!
All fall we like to say that "EVERYTHING will be PERFECT next year!" It's a well worn phrase we like to throw around when we're reveling in all our exciting plans and designs for fixing our pet peevs from the past season.
We know it will never be perfect. But since it never will be, we might as well enjoy a little laugh as we scheme and daydream!
If you're a regular reader of the blog, you know that we are very enthusiastic about the revolution of the seasons. Each season has its particular joys (and one liners!) and challenges. Moving through the seasons and getting in touch with the particulars of each one keeps us from getting stuck in a particular mode. Having seasons and knowing what is appropriate during each time allows us to go "all-in" when the time comes.
Speaking of knowing when to be and do what... One of the pieces of the puzzle I've been pulling together during all the project planning over the last few weeks is a All Farm Master Backlog 3-ring Binder that houses ALLLLLL the schedules, checklists, task tickets, record keeping docs and reminders for pretty much ALLLLL the routine work we do around here, organized by month. We've been in the process of establishing standard operating procedures for most of what we do around here for years so we can actually get clarity on all the myriad of details we have to take care of in a year and now.... its all coming together into one big bad Farm Bible of sorts. Its nerdy, and it probably doesn't sound like farming, but its a HUGE step towards me being able to take a summer vacation! WOOHOO!
Cheers to doing and being the right thing at the right time!
Joel
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