Wednesday, October 12, 9:30 PM. Brewer.

I planted winter wheat today. This is the first real crop I’m trying. The Almanac says it should be ready to harvest about June 1. It’s a 30 by 40-yard field, roughly a fourth of an acre, across the creek to the north. It’s not real easy to get to. I had to lay down planks over the creek to get the tiller across. But I shouldn’t have to go across often.

The tiller is a hand operated, gas-powered, rear-tine machine. In years to come I expect we’ll need to expand to tractors and harvesters, but for now a tiller that I could push feels manageable. I ran it over the area a couple of times to tear out the grass and loosen up the dirt. There were a lot of rocks. I had to keep stopping to chuck them out. It wasn’t hot today. I didn’t mind the work.

I found some bags of wheat seed at the tractor store. I sowed it by hand, tossing it here and there. After that I dragged some chains over it to smooth it out and work it in the ground a little.

It felt good to get a crop in the ground. I’m hopeful we can reap a hundred pounds of harvest next year, which should be enough to keep bread in the oven for at least a year. We’ll have to figure out how to harvest, thresh, winnow, and mill it.

I’m becoming a real farmer. My grandpa would be proud.