A Second Helping

The leaves are mostly off of the trees here, with the exception of the pin oaks that will wait to lose the last of their leaves until the leaf blower is retired for the season, and the mood is becoming a little somber. The animals obviously have been meeting in the barn to discuss the dreaded upcoming event, Thanksgiving. At first we would have never guessed that the farm crew was intuitive enough to understand the issues involved with the holiday season, but now we are sure that they do. The neighbor's turkeys, oddly named Thanksgiving and Christmas, are campaigning for new holiday traditions and have chosen to break away from the livestock union and go it alone in their quest.

John Adams and the girls on the other hand are sure that their responsibilities here on the farm are less ominous and have opted to challenge the no animals in the hot tub rule. They have made themselves quite at home as "free rangers" and Gayle has been frustrated attempting to convince them not to hang out on the deck. They have been granted some latitude so far though, due to the fact that we are still negotiating an appropriate egg-laying contract. We have yet to see any egg production from the girls, but we are sure we will come to terms well before spring training.

The goat girls are doing well and have taken to playing a game called shadow. If you walk by the goat pen they follow you like a shadow in an attempt to endear themselves and convince you to let them out for a romp. They are very talkative and have something to add to any topic of conversation. They are still being temporarily housed in a plywood shelter with a hurricane roof (blue tarp). The big project lately has been to repair the electric fence that surrounds the pasture and woods so that the goats can have free run and do some lawn maintenance in the south forty. Fence maintenance is a repetitive and ongoing task for the farmer. Farmer Art says that all he does is grow grass and repair fence. The up side is that every time Ed accidentally grabs the electric fence it recharges his pacemaker battery.

The cats are also doing well and actually are enjoying watching the Thanksgiving politics on the farm unfold. The girls long ago realized that the type of people that are in the market for cat by the pound live far from here and even then the market for lumpy old outdoor cat is almost non-existent. They have a better chance of going down in a plane crash, so they are very comfortable sitting and watching all of the work and politics happen.

We have been working on the "official" end of farming as well and are now registered as "Crooked Gate Natural Farms" with the State of North Carolina, County of Rowan Register of Deeds. No, we did not have to go to Mount Pilot or Pixley to do this, but we did have to go to Salisbury, the county seat of Rowan County, and pay our fourteen dollars for the privilege of being tracked and taxed by Uncle Obama. We spent the better part of the last eight weeks mulling over names for the place, but settled on Crooked Gate after working on the fence. If you have ever hung a farm gate on a post in the middle of a field you know how hard it is to keep them straight and how fast they settle as soon as you walk away. With a name like Crooked Gate Farm we can say that all of the leaning gates are part of our marketing plan to avoid the scrutiny of the engineer types that notice that kind of thing.

We are looking forward to the Schoenherrs visiting from Ohio for Thanksgiving dinner and a weekend of farm frivolity and caloric overload. If nothing else we will all be a bit warmer and sunnier here in the South Ya'll.