Moon Dog Farms

A Certified Naturally Grown fruit orchard and vegetable farm.

MoonDog Farms is dedicated to stewardship of the land, reinforcing a healthy community and producing great food.  

A 'lil bit of ice goes a long way (Or, How We'll Survive Summer.)

We've discovered something truly amazing.

In truth, McFarmer is the source for this stroke of pure genius. (Not only is he the farm muscle, he's a reliable source of good ideas.)


Put ice in your water cooler.

Do it. 

www.moondogfarms.com

That loud orange multi-gallon cooler often seen dumped over coach's heads after winning football games? Load it up with ice at the start of your week, top it off with water, keep it in the shade, and enjoy the pure delight of being human and having ice.

It's hot now.

If you live down our way, maybe you've noticed.

This week officially invoked those familiar midday sensations of fogginess and salty eyes that accompany the zombie-like state of Being Really Hot. And you'd think we'd have come to the conclusion long ago that cold water--iced water, in fact-- is good when you're hot, but no. We chugged hundreds of gallons of water last summer, but none of it iced.

Then, brilliance. McFarmer takes the cake. Iced water will never be able to keep us from  our necessary summer workday siestas, red faces or sweat-soaked shirts, but it can help us feel a bit more human while harvesting okra and digging holes. We'll never go back.

It's a good thing, too—we're zooming around to try and take advantage of the dwindling month of May and what remains of a slightly cooler month, and it means we've been very busy and drinking lots of water. The Spring fields wane as the Summer One fields begin to flourish.

Today, Alex dug the last of our Spring red potatoes and only yesterday we were trellising increasingly gangly summer cherry tomato vines. (If that sounds like complaining, I swear it's not—the new tool we bought for attaching vines to trellis has made us want to attach everything to everything. It's the best toy EVER. )

The dance we've lead for the past several months of balancing both the Spring and Summer fields will soon come to an end. A few more weeks of nursing those last few Spring crops along and we'll be in full Summer mode.

We're digging the last stores of carrots while 20 beds over we're going for one last attempt at hot-season radishes. The pole beans are coming in strong and the cucumbers, eggplants and peppers aren't far behind.

Critters who don't mind the heat one bit are showing up, more ever day. Stickbugs, praying mantises, june bugs and wolf spiders are some of the gifts of hot weather, another glance into the tireless revolving door that is our environment and all its creatures.

This Vietnamese Stick Insect was hanging out on the back of the washstand sinks. 

This Vietnamese Stick Insect was hanging out on the back of the washstand sinks. 

And even though those cursed tobacco hornworms are also included in that wonder of nature, you can't begrudge them too much. (Check back in with me mid-August. See if I feel the same.)


The cats have staked their claim in the old broken-down grade-all that sits by our washstand. It's their cat castle.

Even the farmcats have finally decided we're alright. One of them even allows for a head scratch now and then.


And if you pair that headscratch with an ice-cold water, it feels like summer will be a mighty fine thing.

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