You probably know that I’m not big into fashion, but I’ve been wearing lots of different hats this week. Metaphorically speaking of course (I’ve been sticking to my wide-brimmed sun hat every day, rain or shine). Each day, I’ve begun a different project on the farm. In this blog, I’ll walk you through all of the different projects I worked on during my second week on the Cornelissen farm.
This week brought some welcome news in the form of weather. In the middle of the week, we got 3 full days without rain; and with the sun emerging from the clouds, temperatures nearly reached 80 degrees (Fahrenheit, I’m still trying to improve my Celsius skills). Of course the beginning and end of the week featured rain and wind, but let’s not focus on that. Besides the warmer weather, I’ve also noticed summer is approaching because of the late sunsets. The sun is now setting after 9pm, and it doesn’t get fully dark until around 10pm. I don’t have any great sunset photos to share unfortunately.
Farmer
Next to the house, there is a small (by farm standards, not by backyard standards) patch of dirt. Alongside the dirt, there are several raised planter beds, but we did not plant anything there (although there were some onions visible from the surface).
Back to the patch of dirt, we planted several different types of crops here. One day, we worked to plant peas. The first thing I had to do was set up poles the length of the field. The peas would become relatively tall; building a trellis for them to climb would help their growth. Putting poles in the ground was something I had done before (think back to planting trees on the Red Lock Farm), but this process differed slightly. While I had used a large electric drill at the Red Lock Farm, I used a manpowered twist drill of sorts to dig holes in this instance. I would set the drill in the ground, and twist it to lower it. The bottom would hold some dirt, and I’d have to raise the drill out of the ground after a few twists to empty the dirt out, before starting the process again. It really didn’t end up being much harder, since carrying the heavy electric drill to the location of the hole was the most work before (and was now much easy with the lighter manpowered tool).
Bert and Manon worked to install the trellis (basically just a wire fence) between the poles as I set them into place.
Next, I dug a small trough the length of the field with a trowel. I then circled back and dropped pea seeds about 10 cm apart from each other. I planted quite a lot of peas, I hope Bert and Manon don’t get tired of them (and they likely won’t, considering I’ve been served a lot of peas in my meals the last week).
It’s a bumpy video for the peas, but watch until the end to see a happy Ivy.
We also planted some pumpkin sprouts on the other side of the field. This process was simpler since we only had about 10 seedlings to plant. I just dug small holes and put the plants in the ground (farming isn’t rocket science, and Bert is a proud member of the “good enough” school of thought).
Unfortunately we found the leaves of many of the pumpkin plants to be partially bitten off the next morning. Before I could get worried that I would spend the day squishing caterpillars, Bert said that slugs were responsible for the damage, and he would install netting later to take care of it.
Instead, we worked to plant potatoes. This was pretty tiring work. We planted 11 rows of potatoes. It was a two person job, with one person planting, and one holding a bucket full of small potatoes (this job was not small potatoes though). The planter would dig small holes, place the potatoes in the hole (with the sprout facing the surface), and then cover up the hole. This role was a bit challenging for me, as walking down the line while constantly crouching over made my back sore. The bucket holder would slowly walk down the line alongside the planter, passing one or two potatoes (depending on their size) to the planter. I preferred this job more, and I tried to do my best to show it without saying so explicitly. I would always have my potatoes ready to pass off, with the sprouts facing up. I was like the Chris Paul of passing potatoes, always ready with the perfect assist.
I ended up splitting my time evenly between the roles with Bert and Manon, because as a good as my potato passing skills were, no one wanted to spend more time in the roll of planter than they had to. We also worked at quite the quick pace (led by Bert), as we wanted to plant all eleven rows before the morning break.
Gardener
This next task didn’t really seem like farm work, but it was work that needed to be done nonetheless. A path of grass surrounds the house and around the planter boxes. It rains often, and the grass grows. Someone needs to keep it trimmed. I thought this would be a job for four someones (aka the sheep), but they can’t munch on this grass because it is not enclosed by a fence (and with the insane speed of the sheep, they’d be gone in flash). So we used a traditional lawnmower to keep the grass short. Manon mowed the perimeter of the lawn, and then asked me to mow all of the area inside of it.
I have to saw, mowing the lawn is a bit therapeutic. Between the patterns created in the lawn and the smell of fresh cut grass, it’s not the worst chore out there. Maybe it’s just the suburban dad inside me saying that.
Another gardener-esque task I worked on was cutting down a tree. There was a medium sized apple tree next to the house that was dead, and needed to be removed so I new one could be planted. Bert gave me a shovel and ax, and told me to get busy. I had to dig up and then cut the roots, and we wanted to create space for the next tree to grow without running into all of the old roots. I eventually dug up and cut enough roots to push the tree over and pull it out. I didn’t get any photos of all this, but took a picture of ground after we removed the tree and put the soil back in (use your imagination for what this process looked like,).
Bert cut the tree up into smaller pieces with a chainsaw (nice that he got to use power tools), which segues well into my next role.
Lumberjack
Inside of the house, there is a large wood burning stove. Fun fact: a wood burning stove doesn’t work without wood. For wood to be put into the stove, it needs to be cut into smaller pieces and dried for several months to several years (depending on the size and type). Since we just cut down a tree, there was fresh wood that needed to be cut up and set aside to dry (wet wood creates more smoke when it burns). The tree we cut down wasn’t the only wood that needed to be cut though; there was already a large pile waiting for the right lumberjack to come along and guide them into the next phase of their life (my best attempt at a euphemism for cutting the logs up into little pieces). Apparently that lumberjack was me, even though Bert showed me he was quite adept at cutting the logs.
At first, I had some issues cutting the smaller logs in half. It wasn’t an issue of strength, but more of precision. With the smaller logs having a diameter of only an inch or two, it was hard to swing the ax in the perfect spot (while still bringing some speed and force) to split it in two. While I was still learning and making mistakes, Bert liked to joke that I was making matches for him (because I would slice the wood off center and make thin sticks). It was a good joke (kudos to him), but it didn’t help me improve. I didn’t get frustrated, and slowly but surely I improved and got good enough to chop the logs perfectly in half on the first try.
It was good that I improved. I would spend about 6 hours over three days cutting logs, which would have taken a lot longer if I messed up each one several times. The nice neighbor Peter was kind enough to donate more uncut logs to Bert’s wood pile, making the stack of wood I still needed to cut even higher (so kind, really). As I cut the wood, I would throw it from long range into the wheelbarrows (with a bit more accuracy than the Chris Paul of late). I didn’t keep track, but I’d guess I filled somewhere between 10 to 15 wheelbarrows over the 3 days.
Some of the thicker logs had to be cut up into 4, 6, or even 8 smaller pieces, while smaller ones could just be cut in half. Some of the logs had knots in them, which made cutting them quite the arduous process. It would usually take 10 swings to break through the knots. It was rewarding once I finally got through the pile at the end of the third day.
Pond Cleaner
Behind the wood pile there is a small pond surrounded by trees. It’s a really pretty area (and where I sat to write my King’s Day blog), but it had one glaring issue. The entire pond was covered in algae. Bert and Manon asked me to clean it. I was handed a long pole with a small net at the end (like you’d see for taking leaves out of a pool) and was sent to work. Just like using the lawnmower, this task was also kind of therapeutic. It was satisfying to see the pond slowly get more and more clear. I figured out that if I dragged the pole and net in the same direction each time it entered the water (ie right to left), I would not send algae into the area I had just cleaned.
I worked on this task over the course of two days, and stopped once all of the areas within reach of the pole were cleared. There were reeds on one side of the pond, which made it difficult to clean that area without damaging the plants. On another side, there were lots of lily pads, so I didn’t clean the water there at risk of removing all of the lily pads (supposedly lily pads can naturally stop algae growth, but these ones clearly took the day off). I don’t think the photos above do justice for how much algae I cleaned off; the lighting was not good. I cleaned about 70% of the total algae off (it covered the entire pond initially).
Speaking of lily pads, Bert and Manon were hoping I’d see a frog, but I had no such luck. I did see some other animals though: a family of orange fish!
Bert and Manon were super happy to see the fish, as they were not sure if they were still alive. Clearly they were fine, just hiding under all of the algae.
Other fun moments
Another task I did was moving bark from a trailer to different parts of the farm. This was not as exciting to write about (this is assuming that the other tasks I wrote about were exciting, which may be too strong of an assumption). I just shoveled and wheelbarrowed bark from one spot to another. It did make the area around the pond look nice though.
One day a bunch of bees decided to make a tree branch their home. Bert sprung into action, unleashing his beekeeping knowledge (remember he hosted a beekeeping seminar the week before).
Apparently there were tens of thousands of bees alone on that one branch. I had trouble believing it, but I’m not the bee expert. Bert ushered them into a bucket, and after being pissed off for a while, they made their way back to the beehives by the next day.
I can now share more photos of Ivy and her adventures on our morning bike rides. She really is the sweetest dog.
I also have photos/videos of the sheep and pigs (who were not pictured in the last blog about the farm).
The sheep are really the silliest animals.
A final rant about Dutch government/public transportation
You probably weren’t expecting me to complain about Dutch public transportation, so let me explain. My flight was booked for next Thursday morning, but when I checked online to see if I could leave the farm that morning and get to Schipol airport with enough time for the 11 am flight, it looked like I would not be able to (earliest possible arrival was at 11 am). I changed the date I entered in google maps to tomorrow instead, and it showed that I could arrive by 8 am, which would have been more than early enough. I tried a different day (not Thursday) for next week, and that worked as well. I then cross checked on the 9292 app (public transportation app) and the Qbuzz (regional bus company) website. They both said the same thing: I could get to the airport in time every day but next Thursday. I was still not understanding why they all showed that my plan wouldn’t work only on one Thursday, so I did the most reasonable thing: got out of my warm bed and biked in the rain to the bus stop to check the schedule there. Sure enough, it concurred with the other sources, and I realized how stupid I was for missing the obvious reason why the schedule was different.
Next Thursday is a holiday in the Netherlands. It’s not some obscure Dutch holiday though, it’s Ascension Day (Hemelvaartsdag). I had never heard of this before (probably because it’s not public holiday in the US), but I guess it’s the day Christians celebrate Jesus going to heaven (sorry if this is a well-known fact, it’s new to me).
Why am I upset? Well first of all, I had to change my plans (I ended up booking a flight for the day earlier – no change fees – when the bus would run early). Second, the buses start running on Ascension day at 8 am. I don’t know about you, but if Ascension Day is important enough to be a public holiday in the Netherlands, and if I was a bus driver, I wouldn’t be too happy that all my company gave me was an 8am start instead of 5am. I can’t imagine church services end at 8 am. Either give them at least a half day off or just leave the schedule the same. I really don’t see how starting slightly later helps the drivers celebrate the holiday; it just inconveniences people who need to get to work (or the airport) early in the morning. Here is the list of public holidays in the Netherlands:
It’s really a short list, so Ascension Day must be important if it made the cut. Just not important enough to give workers the day off. Thanks for listening to my rant.
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