Diary of a Cackleberry Farmer (Spring 2016 Edition)

Greetings friends, and welcome to spring at the Cackleberry Farm!

This edition almost didn't happen for various reasons, but in the back of my mind was my promise to my loyal followers that I would keep the series going. I had actually retired the Diary of a Cackleberry Farmer from monthly publication but had specific requests to resurrect it. So, how can a writer refuse to write to satisfy demand? For that reason I decided to publish it seasonally.

So, although spring is a beautiful time of year, these last two months have been sad and drama packed and far from conducive to positive and uplifting writing. I will try to put these troubles aside (or maybe air them in a poem) and focus on happier stuff.

Well, I did successfully manage to offload my troubles in a couple of poems, and personally, I am quite proud of them. Maybe I should be in this frame of mind more often when I write.

This hub actually coincides with notification of my Seven Year Hubbiversary. In a perfect world I would have said this is also the seventh edition in the Cackleberry Farm series, but it's not. That would have just been too much synchronicity - it's actually the eighth.

It is hard to imagine seven years have gone by since I joined HubPages, and I think it is around ten since we moved to what is now The Cackleberry Farm (originally just called "The Block").

The latter part of this year has seen better than average rainfall and our water tanks are all close to being full which is a fortunate situation. Rain followed by warm sunny days also means the grass grows long and fast, and as a consequence, needs cutting. Luckily my ride-on mower is also running fine at the moment (which is not always the case).

The feathered girls are being good and productive and we are currently being presented with four or five cackleberries per day which is more than enough for just the two of us. The furbabies (my wife's name for the dogs and cats) are all doing well and are just as productive as the hens though in a different way .. with unconditional love.

We were also blessed to make the acquaintance of a wonderful couple, Rance and Marion, who are now our house/farm sitters. This allows Kathy and I to actually travel away together for the first time in years. Usually, any trip away lasting more than two nights has to be taken separately because of our dogs, cats, and chickens. This year we have actually been able to get away together on three occasions, without having to worry about the farm.

Rance and Marion have fallen in love with The Cackleberry Farm and our animals so we have no trouble convincing them to farm sit. They even drive their bus out and camp here occasionally while we are still home.

Some may say that this series is too personal and more like a blog post, so shouldn't be published on HubPages. Maybe that's true, but I am not one for being told what I can't do, and am not a fan of personal blogs. I have trouble writing something new every day and also find it difficult to generate followers. So, for now HubPages just has to put up with The Cackleberry Farmer.

I could also make these articles more instructional on how to raise chickens, but hey, I've already done that in-depth in my article "Raising Chickens - The Pet that Pays for Itself," on PetHelpful. That means HubPages and you, my faithful reader, just have to put up with my ramblings.

Kathy and I have been busy planting and growing tomatoes, herbs, blood orange, pomegranate, and loquat trees, as well as some Jacarandas. The tomato bushes are loaded with fruit but for some reason they aren't ripening. Maybe now that the days are warming up it will accelerate the process.

I may be a frequent writer of poetry but this is the very first poem I have put in a Cackleberry Farm hub. It is quite light-hearted and I hope you enjoy it.

Let's hear it for the farmers,

Men and women on the land

Who grow the crops we use each day,

And raise animals by hand.

Here's to the urban farmers too

Who try to be the change,

Promoting self-sufficiency.

Though they're often seen as strange.

But everybody raise your glass

To the greatest of them all,

The Cackleberry farmer

Who braves the rooster's call.

At sunrise every morning,

And sometimes through the night,

That cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo,

Wakes mere mortals with a fright.

But the Cackleberry Farmer

Simply rises from his bed,

Rubs his eyes, puts on his boots,

And makes sure the poultry's fed.

(and dogs, cats, and wild birds)