Upholding the Gender Stereotypes

This May Day we at Whole Circle Farm decided to strengthen our commitment to farm gender stereotypes. Jarrod, Jeff, and I spent the day working in the shop, working with steel. You know, cuttin' steel, bending steel, grindin' steel, hammerin' steel, burnin' steel with flames. The womenfolk (only Ali and Amanda today) spent the day doing girly stuff.. you know, baking, darning our socks, and whatever else they do. Okay, not really. They spent the day picking rocks, doing greenhouse work, painting another section for the sign out front, and tending to the day-old chicks that arrived today.

I think everyone noticed the gender split today, but it "just sorta happened" that way. Ostensibly because Jeff had work to do on repairing the bus door that got trashed the other week, and Jarrod can weld, and I.. well, I guess maybe because I'm handy with designs and numbers and such... or maybe it's just because I have a penis. Most likely not, but you never know.

Anyhow, so what exactly were the boys working on today? Well, Jarrod and I, with a lot of Jeff's help, are attempting to create a wagon to carry our washed and bunched vegetables from the processing area in the shed to the cooler in the barn. It's a short distance, but a real drag if you have to carry one box at a time. Since the fields are not dry enough to work or transplant into we have some time to work on projects like these.

Personally, I find making tools is a fantastic way to spend time. It's what I love about working as a computer programmer. That is, often I enjoy making the tools to automate or assist with the day-to-day cruft, more than I like doing the steady work on the larger project. It turns out that the same is true for me in farming. I really love designing and then building a tool for a job that I know is tedious, but will now be just a little less tedious. I absolutely love the physicalness of working with metal and wood and screws and such, to pull together a functioning thing.