You know it's not just a job when...

...it's raining and you're worried about the crops, even though it means you get a day off from work because it's too muddy to get anything done on the farm.

I miss the work. Wow.

Vacation, yes please

A special kind of heaven is working all day in the blazing Texas sun, in the dirt on a farm, then showering and getting on a plane to somewhere cool and breezy on the Pacific Ocean. Yes!

Is it a coincidence that I think I lined up a summer job for next summer that isn't in the heat, in the dirt on a farm?

Drought, animals and me

The farm where I work produces lots of different crops and they do it without using conventional pesticides. This is challenging and takes a lot planning and knowledge. I'm lucky to be able to see how this all works, and I get to do a lot of different things from day to day on the job.

These days I'm spending hours working on one thing:  repairing drip lines. The farm has electrified fences (solar powered) surrounding the beds, but even with a double set of fencing almost down to the ground, we start each day locating the damage from the night before, caused by animals chewing through the drip irrigation tubing to get to the water. It's tedious, frustrating work. We have bowls of water placed all over the place outside the fencing, trying to give them the water they need but somehow every morning we still have to repair before we can get to work on the actual farming stuff.

Drought. It means hard, hot work for us humans on the farm. Sometimes I think the animals just wait for us to leave.