The arrival of the Summer Solstice means a lot of things for many people, but for growers all around it signals a bit of a do or die scenario for many crops. This time of year feeling overwhelmingly behind on things is relatively par for the course. With so much going on at once this is to be expected but the reality is that if certain crops aren’t in the ground yet it is probably your last chance to do so within the next week or two. It seems sort of strange with the Summer just beginning but the truth is a lot of up front growth is required for the Summer’s bounty that we all know and love and that means planting in the Spring. Now believe us when we say that we have been there so behind that we are planting eggplant and potatoes in July. Of course no matter how on point one may be with their plantings that ominous feeling of Summer’s overwhelming to do list never really goes away in the heat of Summer when the grass and weeds grow faster than your quickest crops.
Of course not everyone around the farm is feeling overwhelmed there is in fact a cast of cool characters that can often be found lounging in the Sun, the farm cats. Today we are going to be featuring one of the less seen but none the less big personality farm cats, our sweet little Mizuna. Named after the Asian green that we use the most here on the farm J and J got Mizuna and her brother Paul early on in their of days living on the farm in Durham. Originally city cats that were rescued because their neighborhood starting targeting strays, the idea was they didn’t like humans and would simply be barn cats. Now this may have been true for Mizuna but for her brother this was not the case. At first we barely saw this little cat named Mizuna. She was so small and sickly that we assumed she was Paul’s daughter and in fact the way he cleaned and cared for her it seemed as such. Until their first visit to the vet where it was confirmed she was no kitten but a few years old. The first few months we had her there was a drastic improvement in her health and appearance as she finally had a stable environment. Slowly she began to show herself and we began to gain her trust and as the Summer rolled on and the cool Fall nights began J and J knew soon these “barn cats” must become Farm cats.
Luckily, over the course of a few months Mizuna and her brother began to realize that J and J were in fact not disappearing everyday but rather, going inside the little red barn they called home. Waking up in the morning we started to find the cats outside the house waiting for their humans to come out for the day. Though beginning to trust and let us pet her Mizuna was still skittish and we did fear that trying to bring her inside may send her running away. So it was decided, get her by the front door and quickly swoop her up and into her new home. And it was inside where the cat we called Mizuna transformed fully embracing house life, sleeping all day like a Queen, glancing outside occasionally as if to remember what was. Unfortunately, her rough up bringing had left her dental health in a dismal state, quite smelly and drooling in fact. But so grateful to be inside and to be loved, any attempt to sit down resulted in a full on assault of love from this cute but stinky little cat. Her relentless pursuit of love and pets combined with her less than lovely smell/discharge gained her the nick name Zombie Cat. Flash forward a few years and she is just as insistent on getting love and pets but without the Zombie like smell since the oral surgery she received some years ago, none the less the name Zombie Cat had stuck. And though the majority of the time she can be found lounging in a window sill or eagerly awaiting dinner she does regularly go outside to patrol the house and inspect the deck railings for comfort level.
Have a Great Week