Sunset

One of the things I love about where I live are the sunsets (and sunrises) the fact that you can see the sun dissapear over the horizon sort of like being on the West coast with a ocean in front of you. I imagine that at some point in history it did look like that with the waves of grass and not a single tree in sight, but having little clumps of trees here and there out in this part of the world is ok.


The first picture is from tonight and the second is from last night - the sky the last few days has been very red and the colors almost look fake for a few minutes right before the sun sets. In a few weeks the sun will move over a little so that there isn't a farm and barns blocking it. What is funny is the the top picture on the blog was taken on my birthday last year and it is basically facing southwest. This picture was taken facing west and a little north. By June 21st it will be almost facing northwest. It's just amazing to notice that everyday the sun moves a little more each direction until it stops and goes back the other way. Looking in the other direction the nearly full moon is low in the sky and it's fun just looking back and forth.


I think the sunsets beauty has been fitting for me personally. It sort of means the setting of my career answer phones and the moon is the new career rising in good old retail pharmacy. Although any new job or change for that matter is stressful when I leave work I am generally in a better mood than when I left which is the opposite of what was happening to me before I left my last job. I would go in feeling good and leave feeling tense and crappy. So it's not really the opposite since I leave for work now feeling good and leave feeling better.


Enough sunsets, moons and pharmacy jobs - isn't this a farming blog?


The old farmers say that potatoes need to be planted on Good Friday which is only two days from now. I think it may be something I can do this year even though it is still early April. There are some nice dry areas out in the garden and if I can just get my tiller started I think it will all work out.


I've got a larger planter for my popcorn crop this season - I just have to get it calibrated and I'll really cut down my work load for this year as it takes a great deal of time to plant and cultivate the popcorn, so hopefully the summer weather will cooperate and I will have a bumper crop.


The last farming note of interest is that my bees are going to arrive on Saturday - barring any weird weather. They should have left at 4 pm from Chico, California and will arrive in Stillwater on Friday morning. Last year there was a blizzard in North Dakota and the truck was sideswiped by another truck and the whole load ended up being lost. Not due to the cold and snow like you would think - the truck they were transferred to had the heat set too high and it killed them all! So hopefully they will have an uneventful trek to Minnesota this year as I am really looking forward to seeing them buzz all over the place this summer.


I'll try to be more regular posting with farm updates this spring - I am going to have to try and figure out this legislation that is going to be passed soon that has to do with the FDA and food safety. I've read in two places that this is going to be bad for the organic and/or small market farms. I'm not sure how or what this will do for them. I do know this - if it's got half of the garbage and wishy-washy crap that our beloved government has been passing recently it's not going to be much to worry about.

I quit

I had the last day of my job today at the SCI - it was a tough day to say goodbye.  Even though I know I'll see a lot of the people again as I still have reasons to head back there once in a while.  Some of the stuff that I heard today is probably some BS - but I really felt a lot of good compliments and some disappointment that I was leaving.

Anyway I think it is good for me to move on when I still have some good things to say about the place.  Sort of the Seinfeld attitude - leave at the top when people still like you.  I wrote a poem for everyone at work and I thought I would post it somewhere I wouldn't loose it anytime soon.  Not really sure why I feel like writing poems these days, but I think I'm getting better at it.

Ode to the SCI

We take calls all day long with the greatest of ease.

For some of the PPH calls we have to hear can’t you help me for free?  Please!

Why is my cat twitching, why is my dog barfing, is my child going to die?

I touched some rat poison and I’m going to cry.

For all these years you’ve asked me questions, inquiries and multiple pleas -

I’ve  loved to answer every question – I’m not going to tease.

This job has been interesting, frustrating, but it has never been dull,

I’ve made lots of friends here – which really made me mull

the choice I made to leave which was not an easy one.

It’s tough to move on from a place that feels like home,

you each have helped me grow in your own special way, so don’t be sad or cry -

Trust me when I say I’ll think of you next time I spray bug spray in my eye.

So with that I left to start a new job much, much closer to home at Shopko Pharmacy.  I second guess myself sometimes.  I think it is a risk, but a small one if I keep doing the things I have been doing.  So after a long day I really need some sleep and I think tomorrow will be a good day of spending time with my family and watching a good old fashioned April snowstorm.