A Time for Everything

But not "every thing"

Spring. It’s that season where I have come to the conclusion that the presence of time weighs most heavily on me. One moment is too soon and it seems like the next is too late. I have heard a rumor that there is a small sliver of time between those two moments where things are just right. But if you blink, you’ll miss it.

Maybe the trick is - we shouldn’t be blinking.

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A Time to Divest

One of the big, farm-wide, projects we committed ourselves to for the early stages of our new Five-year Plan was to remove the excess that makes us less productive, hinders our progress, or prevents us from appreciating what we truly enjoy. No, I’m not talking about liquidating everything and moving to something completely new. Instead, it’s a recognition that the Genuine Faux Farm has moved to a stage where some items have become a liability, rather than the asset they were or were envisioned to be.

I suspect anyone that has started and run any small business might appreciate this. Early on, the farm had to acquire enough supplies and tools to somehow do what we had to do to grow food for others. We replaced the absence of certain assets with the labor of our bodies. Sweat instead of efficient tools and processes.

As we built some equity, we started investing in the tools and infrastructure that could help us to participate in the “work smarter not harder” half-truth. We were seeking out the correct size and scope of what the Genuine Faux Farm should be. And, in the process of doing that, we came up with ideas and acquired the things we needed to make them happen.

Some of these ideas and items didn’t work the way we thought they would.

Others were great for a while. Until they weren’t.

The box of red Chico bags has been sitting on a shelf in our kitchen for longer than I care to admit. They were part of a promotional purchase that we hoped we could use to encourage people to join our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share program. It was also an effort to continue to put forward some of our community principles - re-use these convenient and easy to carry bags rather than putting vegetables in plastic bags.

As happens with such things, we ordered more than we needed. And once the promotional period was past, the remainder was set aside.

These bags sat amongst the detritus of great ideas and strategies whose moment has come and gone. It’s a timeline of a sort. So there is some nostalgia. But the presence of these things has also become a weight and an anchor that drags against future progress and the well-being of the farm and the people who live with it.

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Ahead Briefly, But Usually Behind

Getting back to Spring and the weight of time…

Anyone who does the small-scale, diversified farm thing can tell you how this goes. Spring changes the landscape and the realities of the fields and farm rapidly. But you still have to wait for the moment when it is not too early to do each of the many things that must be done. If you seed your broccoli or winter squash too early, you run the risk of having plants that will be past peak transplant condition when the soil is ready to receive them. If you put your cucumbers in the ground too early, they are likely to die when the temperatures dip to the mid to low 30s. But if something prevents you from doing that task during the small window where the time is perfect - you’ll find that you’re now LATE.

And as soon as you’re late for one thing, it seems to cascade. Now you’re late for what seems like most everything on the farm.

Except for the things that are still too early to do.

It’s really no wonder that people have a hard time understanding how I’m feeling. I don’t even know because I’m waiting for the right moment at the same time I’m bemoaning falling behind on the work load.

In the end, I think I’ve learned that the trick is to accept being late as long I’m not TOO LATE.

It’s kind of like being mostly dead versus all dead. And no, I am not above inserting random Princess Bride references into my writing.

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Stop the World?

The Seasons do not stop just because I would like them to freeze in place for a little bit while I get all the things done I want to. And yes, I am among those people who have wished for the rest of the world to stop for a day or two while I get all of the things done that need doing. Thus far, it hasn’t happened and I’m beginning to think that it’s going to remain an unfulfilled wish.

Actually, I do recognize what would likely happen if the World fulfilled my wish. I would keep adding task after task onto the “it’s gotta get done” list until I was exhausted trying to do it all. The world would grind back into action only to find me out cold and in need of a week of rest - thoroughly defeating the whole purpose of the “stop the world” event. Or, worse, I’d become paralyzed by the weight of the things that needed doing. I might end up doing none of them even though the world had paused for me to catch up.

Or I might end up spending my time writing about my opportunity instead of actually getting things done. Alas, the creative part of me can be a hindrance too.

That leaves me to simply keep doing my best - accepting that I will often be late and sometimes I will be too late. I don’t have to agree that this is okay. I can be disappointed or even upset about it. But I do have to learn to accept and move forward - early, on time, late, and even too late.

And that brings me back the process of divesting.

We’ve managed to take multiple trips to re-home and recycle many things that once had a time and place on our farm. I think we’re both pleased and maybe even a little bit proud of the progress. But I have to admit that there have been several things I have been reluctant to move on from. It’s not because I don’t recognize it’s time to move on. It’s because I’m not sure I want to admit that it is time to move on from them.

It has also been difficult to acknowledge and accept that some things we have moved on from never did find their time and place of usefulness. The time came and we weren’t ready or able to make it work. Sometimes, this was true even when we had multiple opportunities when the Earth rolled around the Sun and the seasons came back around so we could give it another go.

But eventually, the truth became obvious. Late became too late. These things were no longer part of the solution. They were now part of the problem. And it can hurt to admit that either my judgement was wron or maybe I just wasn’t good enough to make it work.

And then, I have to navigate the borderlands. There are, in fact, some things that there is a very real chance I will go back to in the future. The trick is identifying what is realistic and what is idealistic but not possible. I’ve been doing my best not to relegate these decisions to a later date.

Indecision is still a choice. It’s just a decision to not make the choice you know you need to make right now. And that won’t help us move forward.

Thus far, we’ve had a whirlwind couple of months at the farm. Neither of us is entirely sure where March and April went. And I suspect May will fly by just as fast.

I’m sure we’ll be late on several fronts. But I have hope that we won’t be too late.

I appreciate that you opted to join me today. Have a good remainder of your day!