Farmer Kurt Field Diary August 24, 2024

Hi everyone. What a crazy week.

Many of you got an email from Corinna the other day, asking for help with our generator fix. This is the 100 kW generator that powers our 300 foot well. Our generator went down 3 times this week, and when that happens in the middle of a drought, it ain’t good. I was staring down hot temps later this week, and my plants were already starving for water.

The first time it went down, I called Yackee, and he came out and replaced a fuse. That worked for about 6 hours, and I was able to water the sweet corn. But then it went out again. I couldn’t figure out what was up, and I had a huge wholesale order that I needed to fill, so I just couldn’t take the time to trouble-shoot. I finally asked my dad to “take care of it.” He hitched the whole unit to his truck and drove it to a guy he knows, who did a second repair on it. When it came back, it worked for another 6 hours, and then stopped working in the middle of the night. I was at my wit’s end. Our stuff over in our fields hadn’t been watered in days, and I was looking at a dire forecast of heat wave temps. I started exploring my options.

Rental units for a week were pricing out around $4K, and that didn’t even cover the cost of fixing the generator again. We discussed buying a new generator altogether (and then selling it after we got through this pinch), but that would cost us $20K. That’s when I told Corinna to email our CSA. I was overwhelmed. Thankfully, that helped and got me unstuck. I got about 20 emails and phone calls within 10 hours, and after weeding through a few of those options, we were able to find someone to come look at it again. This time, I’ve been told it’s the igniter. A mouse house was discovered, who had chewed through the wires. It will be about another $2K to recoil, and about 3 weeks for that to get completed. In the meantime, I’m borrowing a generator from Mauch’s, a local farm nearby. (So grateful for you, dude!) The well is back in operation as of noon Saturday.

This is the time of year when our farm is the busiest. Long 60-80 hour weeks. That’s because this is when those high-yield crops all come on at once — peppers and tomatoes. You pick them and they just keep coming. Our production team continued to harvest fennel, watermelons, peppers and tomatoes all week long, but weeding has been neglected with everything going on. I need to figure out a way to tackle these, even if it’s just a little bit every day.

God will provide. I’ve been saying that a lot this month. I am grateful for the many prayers you’ve been sending up. Farming is a daily exercise in trusting God. You try to plan, but sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas. I just raise my hands up in surrender. I see God show up every day.

Jed started school this week — junior year at ANSAT. Josiah has been recovering from a bad cold/fever. We hosted a big farm tour for about 10 Amish farmers last Wednesday for about 2 hours. Honestly, I can’t remember what else even happened this week. It’s all a blur.

Pray that I get some sleep and find some time to regroup.

Be well.
Farmer Kurt