This morning Zina looked out the window and was surprised to see farmer Brad and his big toy tractor.  We had noticed that the property had been disced (plowed to get ready for seeding) but couldn’t tell if it had been drilled (a seed drill is a gizmo that puts seed into the ground and then covers it up so it doesn’t blow away.  Evidently it had not been and Brad came tooling through the property, seed drill in tow.  It didn’t take him a half an hour to plant 30 acres with winter wheat.  Hopefully, come next spring our fields will be green with growing wheat and then “amber waves of grain” by the 4th of July.

While these folks can cover an awful lot of ground, man is it inefficient.  We have had our whole field exposed to the air all summer.  The wind has blown away soil, dust gets on everything, and it seems that a tractor, diesel fuel, Round-up, and seeding, followed by swathing and threshing with another big combine burning diesel, is what modern farming has become.  It is likely that next year we will cut his access in half, re-seed haying grass to the front half and start rotational grazing of some fashion or another.  Also, because the big organic garden will at least have SOME planting in it next spring, I can’t have Mr. Diesel farmer, spraying Round-Up and 2 – 4- D anywhere near it.  At least though, come harvest, when the combine discharges the chaff, we will have some natural muching ground cover.