The weather (yes, trite, I am a farmer talking about the weather) has been incredibly ideal this spring. Which is to say it is relatively “normal” and “predictable”. Just the right amount of rain and sun. My cover crop is coming in quite nicely and for the most part so is everything else. 

But this isn’t about the weather but about noting it. Really, just noting, as in note taking. Something that I strive to be better at. I was reminded of this a couple of times yesterday. First when I was asked to fill in a weekly log as part of a paper mulch trial that I part of. Then again after I finished pruning and trellising my greenhouse tomatoes for the first time this season. I was trying to remember when I did it last year (my dad actually was visiting then and he helped me. Thanks dad!) But I didn’t take notes on it, at least none that I remember. Though I am pretty sure they were further along than they are this year. But how can I possibly know without some kind of record? Though I do keep quite a lot of records around planting, transplanting, and seeding dates and quantity. 

I was telling someone the other day that I was part of a couple of different research projects that include tracking production of certain crops. They were surprised, assuming that I didn’t record harvest records at all. I don’t know why they thought that, if it is a reflection on farming and farmers, or if it is something more personal. But there is so much record keeping. Though record keeping is only as good as it is useful. I don’t want to be flipping through some little notebook a couple of years from now trying to figure out when I did my first tomato pruning, or when I first saw colorado potato beetles in the field. I need to have a searchable record. Which means an online record. 

Which is all to say, I need to be more diligent about taking notes in an easily accessible and legible format. Now that’s what I call entertainment.