Click Beetle Traps, Hawkeye, Barnyard Organics
I am on the click beetle trail this week; and, in what is becoming an annual tradition, I spent some time yesterday on the farm at Barnyard Organics. “So what?” you might ask, “it’s just a routine farm call to deliver and install some insect traps”. It is, for sure, a routine farm call; but, the magic in the visits to this farm is the farmers.
Hawkeye (whose real name is Wilson) met me at the door yesterday and led me to the 4-wheeler that was to be our mode of transport across the back 40. Last year, Hawkeye was the passenger and I drove. This year I sat on back. I forgot to mention that Hawkeye just turned 8 last week; and, while it is not so remarkable that an 8 year old boy can drive a quad, it is incredibly impressive that without the help of GPS, the young farmer and budding scientist led me 4 out of 5 times to the exact spot we had placed the traps last year! In those four instances,we needed only to hollow out the previous year’s hole and install the trap. It occurred to me that this brilliant little boy knows every single corner of the nearly 600 acres that is his farm. He confirmed this for me as he pointed out several points of interest along the way – one of them being the “fort” that is under construction amid the remnants of one his Dad, Mark, had built decades ago.
As impressive as is my colleague Wilson, he is not operating solo. There is Lucy the fearless and clever 10 year-old who chased along on her dirt-bike aptly named Lightning; Thayne, who is as determined as he is funny and who pedaled along on his bicycle nearly the entire route; and, finally Sol, who in his quietly wise way let me know that he was unimpressed by our decision to leave him behind (deadliest stinkeye ever).
A few years ago, when these children were much younger, I listened to their mother (Sally Bernard) eloquently tell two entirely rapt audiences that the most important work for her and Mark is “growing farmers”. My observation is that they are doing this job very well and that the crop is looking very very good.