I’m now four weeks into my farming experience and I am still excited. I say ‘still’ because after all the work I did on labour day I was not expecting to see so many new weeds this morning. Anyway, I am not easily deterred so this morning I spent two hours weeding.

I started off with my usual machete and gloves and began by attempting to remove a branch from a bougainvillea plant that was impacting my tomato seedlings. My ever supporting hubby came to ‘admire’ my progress and commented that I ‘may as well be beating it with a stick’. I had to laugh because my machete was as dull as ever (see photo). Being the sweetheart that he is, he offered to sharpen my machete. In the meantime, he offered me a replacement so that I could get on with my weeding.

It was still early yet so I tried to race the sun; I wanted to complete the full patch before it got too high in the sky and leave me sapped for energy.  I however made one dreadful mistake when my hands were working faster than my brain and I accidently chopped away three of my sorrel seedlings. I screamed as the machete went down but it was too late. As a young farmer I can tell you that it was rather painful; I will endeavor to be more careful next time.

I proceeded to completing my task and I am happy to say I did achieve it before the sun succeeded in melting me.

At the end of this morning’s ‘work-out’ it highlighted the obvious for me – farmers do not need to go to the gym. After 120 minutes of kneeling and squatting trying not to trample the growing sprouts, I felt like I had spent the time working out with Shawn T from Insanity and Focus T-25 fame. I was in less pain than in the past but my thighs had gotten a serious work-out. If I continue like this I should soon be rivalling Tina Turner in her hay-day 🙂

Well, once again today was a learning experience. I learnt that:

1. Using a machete in gloves is like having ten big fingers. It is very unproductive and since I didn’t want to spend the entire day weeding grass, I decided to use my bare hands. This led to my second lesson.
2. Using a machete to weed grass is hard on the hands. It leads to callouses. My hubby thinks its ‘cute’ that I am developing a ‘farmer’s hand’ but I think it’s time for a manicure.
3. I can work hard and probably survive a few hours in the sun; but when it comes to mosquitos, they can drive me crazy. As I worked to race the sun, I was joined by some pesty mosquitos. They probably served as motivation for me to hurriedly complete the task at hand. This gave me a nice idea for the punishment of petty crimes. Prisoners could be sentenced to 30 days of mosquito singing in their ears. So as not to be accused of being inhumane we would keep the mosquitos meshed off in the ceiling of the cells and the sounds amplified for effect. This would probably be more effective than what currently exists.

Well, my seedlings continue to grow and I continue to be a proud farmer. I’m not sure what will happen next week but I am sure it will be exciting!

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