A Change of Seasons

Well what do you know?  It looks like another summer is winding down as fall begins to take its place.  But before you start to lament the passing of summer, maybe we should look back for a moment and realize why seeing the summer come to an end may not be such a bad thing after all.  Let’s start with something close to my heart, orange farming.  This past summer was definitely long and hot!  And (despite all the glamour that comes along with farming) the dirty little secret about farming is…it can be a dirty job.  Just add 90-100.F temperatures everyday to all the dust out in the field for a few months, and what you end up with is a job that on many days is hot, dusty, sweaty and very dirty.  In the summer, even the simplest of tasks, like; hoeing out weeds between orange trees can make for a day that resembles something you might imagine prisoners on a “chain gang” having to do (less of course the fashionable striped uniforms).   So, for me and my guys, we can really appreciate seeing the summer come to a close, and look forward to the cooler fall days that are on the horizon. 

Another “hot” end of summer topic has been, Syria.  I’m not quite sure that once again we need to engage in a military action half way across the globe that will not lead to any real ”good” happening.  For better or for worse, we as a country indeed like to flex our military might as we “see fit”.  Although in this case I am not quite sure who it is that is making the determination as  to when and if we are going to strike Syria as punishment for using chemical weapons against its own people.  Between our president, the Russians, the U.N. and political polls, the waters have gotten quite murky.  Seems to me, if we do strike, parts of the world will once again hate us for our interference, citing American imperialism.  If nothing is done and the Syrians just hand over their chemical weapons to the U.N., we prove that there is no consequence for genocide against one’s own people.  Once again, nobody (unless you count evil dictators) wins.  Maybe we can blame the summer heat for this problem and let cooler heads prevail?  We could all just back away from it and let the nicer weather help guide our way through the madness.

Here are a few other reasons to say good bye to summer, courtesy of the entertainment industry…  

First, it seemed to me that most of the alleged summer movie “block busters” turned out to be mostly just one big “bust” after another.  Amongst the notable bad movies; “Superman” was certainly less than super, “The Lone Ranger” should have stayed masked, bound and gagged on a shelf someplace, “After Earth” turned out to be merely an after-thought of a bad summer for movies, and “World War Z” had me thinking, if this was to be the future of movie making, maybe a real zombie apocalypse is just what the world needed after all.  Well so much for a great summer movie season.  But that’s ok, because some of the returning fall television shows are better than most big screen movies anyway.  

Next, we move on to the “train wreck” that was once the cute little “Hanna Montana”…once.  Maybe with colder weather ahead, perhaps she will once again discover what role clothing has to play in our society and ditch the foam finger altogether.  Clearly the girl needs help and very soon.   As “Farmer Tony”, I am all for freedom of speech, as well as trying to “craft an image”, but do you think maybe we can keep some our clothes on for a few moments? Let’s face it, I’m OK with “racy”, and being “edgy” is fine too, but the “raunch-fest” that she likes to deliver in her music videos and on stage, is just bad taste.  Do you ever get the feeling that maybe she wasn’t held enough as a child?  

Well… as you can see, sometimes it’s good to let things go, in this case the summer that was.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many things to enjoy about summer, like; vacations, bar-b-ques, fireworks, lemonade, friends and family, just to name a few.  But now, we can focus on all of the wonderful gifts of the fall…including the cooler weather, the autumn colors, college football, and of course, most importantly, the start of the California Navel Orange season coming later in the fall! Don’t worry I will be keeping you posted!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the groves.

-Farmer Tony