I'm Livid

Just a little blog to vent...it won't hurt my feeling if you don't read this, but I need to get it off my chest so I will stop festering over it.

I live in Idaho. Farms near and far beacon to me. My paternal grandparents were farmers and were many (hmm...probably most) of my ancestors. I grew up going to the Andersen farm every summer and have vivid, great memories of hay, cattle, mountains and farm life in general. Farming is just something that I love. If Steven would let me, I would convert my WHOLE backyard into a garden. One day I dream of building a house on a couple acres and planting rows of trees and having a huge garden, so I can can the produce from it.

But alas...Steven will only allow me a section of the backyard to toil in. So I have to take my farming dreams elsewhere. My neighbor, Andrea, told me that she had access to farm land from her husband's grandpa...I jumped at the opportunity to get some land and till it. I talked to my sister and my friend about it and we all went in on some seeds and plants to grow on this gorgeous piece of earth.

I went out with Andrea and saw the section she had marked off and realized it wasn't going to be big enough. Just knowing what she was planning on planting and what I had wanted plant there just wasn't going to be enough room. Not to mention, she had casually mentioned to another set of neighbors that they could plant a little bit of stuff and they took up a huge section that Andrea had planned for my use.

I resigned myself to the fact that I could plant some stuff up in front and then secure a section in the back for my other stuff. I decided to plant 6 rows of corn up front amongst my neighbor's stuff and then I planted my watermelon, cantaloupe, squash and pumpkin seeds along with another 6ish rows of corn in the back. Not too bad...and I realize beggars can't be choosers.

I spent TONS of hour out weeding these plants. (I can think of 3 specific times I personally went out and weeded for at least 2 hours at a time. That doesn't include Kim, Brian or Melissa out there helping me.) Talking lovingly to them so they would grow big and strong and healthy and produce an abundance of fruit. I poured my heart and soul into those plants and eagerly awaited the reap the rewards I felt were due.

So yesterday, on the way home from gleaning potatoes (a whole other story) I decided to stop out at the farm and check on my babies. I drove out to the back section where the melons and such were planted. I found many of our plants not bearing any fruit. I was saddened to see that the plants that did have fruit were very small. (I'm talking baseball sized watermelons and cantaloupes.) I know that this has been a difficult growing season all around and since I was all the way in the back and the land was being flood irrigated and since there are tons of weeds in all the other sections in front of mine I wasn't totally surprised, but I was still saddened. I'd hoped that we could have a decent stock of produce to split among the 3 families,but I don't know if we'll get more that a few small sized items.

I moved eagerly over to the corn that I planted in the back hoping for better results. Sure the stalks were smaller than some of the others, but I could see ears. Unfortunately, there weren't as many ears as I'd hoped. A couple rows had blown over in some wind storms we'd had over the season and some of the ears were just small. At least we only paid $3 for the seeds, so I will get my $1 worth of corn, but I'd hoped for some to freeze or can.

Then I remembered the section up front. This section didn't get the love and care that the other section did because my 2 neighbors basically gave up weeding. (In fact, Andrea who told me about the farm had gotten a different chunk of land and replanted hoping for less weedy results.) Given the sad state of the neighbors, I just couldn't bring myself to put much effort in up there...it seemed like it would have been a losing battle. But some of the corn had sprung up amongst the weeds so I quickly went over to that section to pick some corn.

When I arrived it took me a few minutes to find my 6 rows. I had marked them with some wood Steven had cut for me and they were very distinct from the others out there. I proceed to check my stalks for corn and didn't see any. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there had been ears, but someone had taken them. MY CORN HAD BEEN STOLEN. This is where I became livid. As I went from stalk to stalk and saw that almost all of my ears had been removed. I was lucky to find a few hidden down in the weeds and quickly grabbed them before they could be stolen. I walked back the the car with my few ears of corn and fumed.

What kind of person steals someones corn? Really? Come on...I paid money for the seeds. I took the time and effort from my life to drive out to the farm and plant them. I weeded there. (At least 1 1 /2 rows of it got a good solid weeding, once.) I know I didn't pay a lot of money or invest tons of time, but really, why would you steal someones corn?

The thing that really stinks...next year Melissa and I were planning on going full-out and planting a big section to use for our canning purposes...tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, pumpkins, melons and more I can't even recall. But now I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Do I want to lay out all the money on seeds and starters just to have someone take them? I will probably end up planting there...maybe just getting a plot further west where not so many people will venture over to.

I'll never know who took it...since it's a community garden type thing, it could have been countless people. Or some kid who just didn't know any better...heck, the person who took it could be starving. Or someone figured since I wasn't weeding it that it had been deserted and it was free for picking. I don't know, but I'm still annoyed. Whomever too my corn will probably never read my blog...and hence never know the wrong they committed...I guess this is my chance to be Christ-like and love them anyway...I'm working on getting there...but for now, I'm still upset...