Farm, interrupted

8/20/25 Driving back from the hospital and stopping to see
just how overgrown it was

We had a medical emergency 2 weeks ago. One of us became ill enough to go up mountain to the hospital and the other drove back home alone and promptly dropped her laptop on her foot. It was a 5 day stay, and during that week, nothing got done on the farm. One ill, one hobbling, and then our senior cat died. Not a great week. 

8/20/25 2 year olds starting to be overrun.

The weeks before this happened had been rainy and grey, and both of us felt like avoiding the upkeep that was literally growing out of control.  On the other hand, we were relieved that the willow was being watered without us. We knew it was getting time to mow and trim and weed the beds, but the right day didn’t come. 

So this is the worst consequence of the delay: the overgrown vines in the bed have climbed into the willow and are dragging them down. I believe this is bindweed, because that is exactly what it is doing - creating 3-6 strand coils around the willow that resist breaking. 

9/2/25 Bindweed, or whatever this is,
starting to drag down the willow.

Now that we are both staring to recover, we’ve been back at the farm this week and have trimmed, mowed and started to get the bindweed out of the beds. I’ve tried unwinding on the new slender willows, and it takes about 15 minutes per plant. I tried cutting the vines but not unwinding them on some of the 2 year old plants, but even dead, those vines are like iron. Luckily the vines haven’t taken over more than 15% of the new bed and less of the older beds. 

An enterprising local guy was bush hogging the cross-creek neighbor’s creekbed and offered to do mine and then bush hog the areas where we hadn’t managed to clear yet.  Without heavy machinery and a guy to do it, we have to call someone up. Now, at a great price, we are looking spiff! 

9/5/25 So thankful for guys with heavy equipment!
This is the view from the back of the property, across the creek.

 Going forward, there's some jobs still to do, plus a lot of vines to cut out, but we are projecting November or December for harvest. We are hoping to find a few folks to help with that and setting up the new beds, paid with willow or cash. Gotta feed the community. Old Fort, by the way, is really growing right now. Soon it will be leaf season too. Get in touch!

 GoodWillowFarm@yahoo.com