Seasonal Business

The old farmer's adage is, "Make hay while the sun is shining." The meaning has morphed over the years but originates with a few essential agricultural factors. Let's take a look and then bring them into the modern day. Back then. Hay is food fuel for livestock. All farms had to be self-sufficient back in the old days. Your livestock plowed the fields, made milk, laid eggs, and provided fertilizer in a continuous cycle. The hay was fuel for the livestock, and storing hay kept your animals alive throughout the winter. Hay needs to be stored dry. The phrase "while the sun is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD_Xrl7kbck Barn Build Time Lapse Video! Steve Miller Band taught us so many years ago that "Time keeps on ticking, ticking, into the future..." Our perception of time is what changes. Our perception of time is what changes. Time is constant, but every aging person you know will swear that it goes faster the older you get. Kids rocket through the final years of high school. Parents seem to race through old age. We can find ourselves mid-career or 15 lbs heavier seemingly overnight. But it didn't happen that way. Time is constant. It struck me as I watched the time-lapse videos of the barn…

It was dusty for so long that I yearned for a rain shower to wash things clean. It's rained for 4 days, and I can't wait for it to stop. Apparently, my feelings are fickle, seasonal even, but either way, they can't be trusted. Mastering one's feelings is a lifelong tension, not a problem to solve. In both situations above, each was good in its own way; my negative perceptions were based on my desires and expectations not being met. I know, I know, that's a little heavy for this time of year, but it leads me towards the value of appreciating the season - the now.…

There is a rhythm to life. That's why we say, "You skipped a beat," or "You're offbeat," "Out of sync," or "Marching to the beat of a different drummer." In marching band, Yes, Farmer Hugh was in high school marching band and even in the Penn State Marching Blue Band (Can you guess the instrument? I'll tell you later in the blog...); the cadence was the drum line's way to sync the entire band in step. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcaq2EULO2Y (Click the video to get a sense of what it's like to march in front of 100,000 screaming fans :-) My son runs cross-country and learned…

As the summer comes to a close and the Fall Harvest season lies ahead, I had a moment to check my phone's health tracker. I was feeling tired, a bit run-ragged, to be honest, and I wondered why. Over the past weekend's events and the prep for those events, I'd been standing for 15-17 hours a day! With that level of standing, I didn't feel much like exercising, either running, yoga, or weight lifting like I usually do in the mornings before work. That's when it hit me that I had been active and working but not really moving. The National Institute…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmAbOJgemDU See the inside of a White Nectarine, unbelievable! Hey folks, I personally, love change. I can't watch movies twice. I get bored with podcasts inside of 3-4 episodes. I seldom revisit a vacation or travel spot. I love change, newness, novelty. So when we had the chance to plant white nectarines 6 years ago, I jumped at it. Now they are in and I couldn't be happier with the results. (See the video above!) It makes me think about how Maize Quest has changed since we launched in 1997. Considering how little we new about building attractions, one can only surmise that it…

https://youtu.be/nda4QXuX1XM Ray Lewis, former All-Pro NFL Linebacker on "Effort" Effort is between you and you. I think a lot about what makes things work, what makes things happen, what makes success. To be clear, I don't mean the wins that flash by on highlight reels in social media, but lasting and true success, "Lives Changing" success. Ray Lewis gives a stirring speech on success in the video above at the University of Miami football camp. Click to watch the video approx 2mins. "I wasn't the #1 recruit. I wasn't the #1 linebacker. I wasn't the media guy." Don't we often feel like that?…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430z_yfnh2A Watch us plant trees, but if you are feeling impatient, we did it in FastForward! Mmmmm, just a little patience, yeah yeah. Guns-n-Roses had it right back in 1989. Patience was the hit track on their 2nd album. Patience is part of life and leads to a happier, more peaceful life. I like the idea, but it never really stuck as a practice. I'd always say I was "without patience," "had no patience," "didn't like to wait," and so on, but as we were planting trees today, I thought of patience in a new light. One of my favorite Buddhist sayings is: "When is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFRed2d9Zn8 Peach Blossoms are OUT at Maple Lawn Farms! "Cut whilst the tree is blooming." It never ceases to amaze me how much we prune out of the peaches each and every year. If you watch the video above, you'll see the carnage. From the brush in the middle of the rows, it looks like we must have killed the trees, but it is critical to prune fruit trees. Last year's injured crop required less energy, so the trees grew, well, tree; wood & branches. If you remember, 2022's late frost nicked the crop but didn't manage to kill it all. All…