The Farm

Carrots from Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona

Taking time away from iTunes for a volunteer day out on the farm. On February 19 I started recording our somewhat vast collection of CDs and scanning their covers, but after nine straight days of that, I needed a break, and out to Tonopah Caroline and I went. After returning from our snowshoeing trip to Yellowstone I have been immersed in the world of my and Caroline’s computers, migrating both of us to Windows 7. Between upgrading from the various Windows betas that are being released and recording, scanning, and organizing our music, I have not taken much time out on the farm this season. Sure is nice getting caught up with my stuff, though.

Planting Stuff

Tonopah Rob planting garlic on his farm in Tonopah, Arizona

Down on the farm, yeah, that’s how the Cosmic Psychos would sing it back in the early ’90s. Three farmers from the outback cranking out bulldozer punk. Now it’s almost twenty years later and I’m down on the farm and Abba is today’s soundtrack – shift happens. Rob is seen here planting garlic, I on the other hand am here to do some photography so there might be enough photos to post while we are away in Yellowstone.

This past year did not see much travel for Caroline and me, between her mom visiting for eighty-seven days starting last January to my nearly seventy-five days in Santa Barbara caring for my uncle we only managed to visit Death Valley, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Tuba City up on the Navajo Reservation, Blue and Nutrioso in Northern Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana in October and finally the Oregon coast over Thanksgiving. During 2009 we will make an effort to return to form and travel A LOT! On the calendar so far: Yellowstone in January, followed by a short trip to Disneyland. Caroline’s mom will meet us back east for a trip to Niagara Falls, Washington D.C., and points between and then late in the year we have plans to road trip the Deep South starting in Atlanta, Georgia. We are likely to visit Monterey, California as well since neither of us can remember the last visit to the aquarium. A visit back to Yellowstone before August is required as a favorite riverside drive will be replaced by a bypass and will eventually be removed from the park. I’d like to walk its length and photograph the canyon outside of winter conditions. I really should get busy planting some road trip ideas into my mind.

Splitting Time

Flowers from Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona

The vacation after the vacation is over, and it’s time to get back to something or other, but I am still looking for what that something is. What is certain is that on December 16th, I’ll take over watching Sonal’s little Indian and English Grocery Store until Christmas Eve. Today, I visited the farm out in Tonopah, Rob’s place. Since my great uncle’s broken hip, I’ve not had much time to volunteer on the farm, and it doesn’t look as though I’ll find an opportunity before February to get out there as much as I would like to with our trip to Yellowstone in January and all of its requisite preparations still ahead.

Back in Town

Taking a farm tour at Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona

I have left Santa Barbara for a few days to be on hand for the re-opening of Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm which is expanding from a farm stand to a small farmers market. Rob has added tent space to allow about a half dozen vendors to join him on Saturday mornings selling fresh local food to our community. More people than any of us imagined showed up for opening day. Above is about the largest group of visitors I have seen taking a farm tour. I have also come back to town as this Tuesday is our Presidential election and I have been so busy in California I had not the opportunity to request an absentee ballot.

A Favorite

Stamen

I have taken thousands of photos out on Tonopah Rob’s farm over the past year and have been delighted to gaze upon so much beauty day after day. The desert offers many a shade of brown and tan but only rarely do vibrant colors emerge from our near barren landscape. Out on the farm I have watched purple and orange cauliflower mature. Carrots are pulled from the earth in red, yellow, purple, and orange hues. Blue and red potatoes hide below the surface as do the red, white, and golden beets. Lettuce, too, grows in a rainbow of colors out here. The flowers intermingle amongst the plots as invitations to pollinating insects to come work their magic while other flowers act as bug barriers. The sunflowers, bright yellow and orange with metallic blue center, tower overhead while offering shade to the ground-hugging veggies below.

Working on the farm can be like a small vacation where the conformity and oppression of the city melts away and nature blooms for me to stand in awe of her majesty.