I arrived at the Farm without a story- or rather, the knowledge that I had chores to do, which is the very stuff of life, but unremarkable, given the dimensions of the challenges we confront overseas and here at home.

So I decided to ignore them and got out of the Emerald City early and headed down see if I could cut the pastures and lawn at Refuge Farm before things got out of control. The Turf Tiger tractor was reportedly fixed, and if I could get it to start, I could start to explore the mysteries of large-scale cutting. Maybe even break it again.

It was only a one-trip afternoon to the local Lowe’s Home Improvement Center.

Unlike the places up in Fairfax, this is a relaxed sort of place, plenty of helpful staff to assist, and the new battery for the tractor was a breeze to find. I loaded up a Huskvarna weed-whacker, a flagpole kit for the back porch and an industrial size rake for the clippings.

Swapping out the old battery was a breeze, and the tractor roared to life with a gratifying belch of unburned oil. The sixty-one inch cutting deck just barely fits through some of the gates, and it was fun wheeling around the front yard, cutting to three and a half inches in the front yard. Once complete (and with a couple un-nerving collisions on the small trees and the satellite dish pole) I roared down to look at the pastures and decided that things were close enough to being out of control that it was worth my time to attack them.

I adjusted the cutting deck higher- this isn’t lawn, after all, and plowed in with gusto, trying to avoid the rock outcroppings that would bend the spindles that connect the cutting blades to the drive belts. It took only about 45 minutes to get both pastures and the lunging ring knocked down as I gained confidence and speed on the Tiger.

With the pastures looking uniform, I headed back up and made some passes through the island in the middle of the circular drive and trimmed around the front fence and out to the road, where I trimmed the County’s portion of the property.

Disengaging the blades, I drove merrily back down to the barn and put the beast to sleep with the trickle charger on the new battery. I knew it was five o’clock somewhere, so I walked back up to the house and mixed a beverage and drove over to the Russians to inspect the garden.

Natasha’s truck patch is well in progress- in addition to the herb garden by the back door with fresh dill and thyme, she has impressive rows of potatoes, beans, lettuce, eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers and beets. They have added two additional bee hives- they have three Queens and have attracted a swarm of locals. There are five rows of grape vines now in the soil, with an impressive trellis network with turn-buckles and come-alongs to keep things nice and tight.

It is impressive, and the farmhouse is looking fantastic. They are talking about chickens next.

It is summertime in the country. For me, the living is easy. The Russians are working hard, though. Next summer for the garden at my place. I don’t know about chickens, though.

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303