RicelandMeadows

Eastward look down our farm lane

August 1, 2011

 

     Our farm is divided by a lane. It is mostly forty feet wide, but expands in the middle, much like I do, to about seventy five feet. It traverses the entire length and width of our farm.

 

     The lane makes moving livestock easy. Every paddock has a gate that opens to the lane. The gates are sixteen feet wide to accommodate farm machinery and horses hitched three or four wide. The lane also becomes a paddock at times, as animals graze the grass keeping it clipped. I mow any weeds that remain and rotate through it just like any other paddock in our grazing rotation.

 

     The main reason we have a farm lane, is to keep our farming operation off the busy main road out front. It is a safety reason really. Many drivers are not patient when getting stuck behind slow-moving farm equipment. The sign language that they share with me gets boring, as most impatient drivers only know two words 😮

 

     The shaking fists and waving fingers are not the scary part. That part is when folks pass a wagon being pulled by a team of horses and slow down to look. Many drivers excitedly show us off to their passengers and children. They pull out to pass us, but then are so taken in, that they almost get hit head on by on coming traffic. I have survived two very close calls.. but my underwear didn’t!

 

     When I set up this farm, I had a blank slate to work with. I put up temporary fences until I knew what would work the best. I think I strung miles of wire and posts before I had it figured out. Even with my trial and error method, I still have one gate corner that is hard to navigate, but all in all, it is perfect.

 

     The lane makes it nice to walk and check on livestock. It has a sort of personality. There are big white pine trees that are home to many birds even wild turkeys. The crab apple tree is there that yields some very tasty jelly. Some wild apple trees grow there providing fruit for the livestock, cider for us and even food for the wild animals who sneak in to get it. The grass in the lane is usually mowed neatly or grazed short, keeping deer flies at bay and making it easy to avoid animal landmines (dung piles).

 

     My grandpa Rice’s farm had a lane on it too. It was a center piece there too. It led the way out to the fields, was the pathway to the sugarhouse and provided a pasture for weaned lambs. His pond was near the lanes end and opened into a field where large blackberries grew. It is a favorite memory.

 

     Grandpa’s farm is gone now. A modern farmer and current owner, bulldozed the fences and apple orchard. He cut all the timber and big sugar maples trees from the woodlot. The big post and beam barn burned to the ground and the fields are plowed from road ditch to road ditch. It is as desolate to me as an open desert. It is just a little greener than the Sahara, but to me, just as lonely.

 

     Our farm lane is a busy place. Like grandpa’s lane it also leads to our sugarhouse, wild berry patches and farm fields. The animals rest in the shade under the trees and traverse its length when being rotated from place to place. The best part about the lane however, is that it also leads me home.

 

     Our house sits in the middle of our farm. Part of the lane forms our driveway so from all directions our lane leads me home. It is much like grandpa’s lane, when I close my eyes I can still walk down his lane holding hands with dear departed family members and get the feeling of going home. There is no place I’d rather be in this world than … home.