June, 2023
There are lots of farms in the eastern part of Washington State, east of the Cascade Mountains. I suspect lots of people who do not live anywhere near Washington have heard about farms in eastern Washington (wheat, corn, hops, lentils, hay, sugar beets, etc), but there are large farms west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington too … blueberries, blackberries, wine grapes, asparagus, potatoes, corn, parsnips, tulips, christmas trees, and … marijuana, yes grown commercially and legally. Probably the largest area of farms in western Washington is in the Skagit River Valley. Bay View, where I was camped for this trip, is right smack dab in the middle of the lower end of that valley. So any time I drove anywhere this week, I drove past farms … farms of crops and farms of animals and farms of flowers (billions of tulips are grown here).
In the farms that are in the photos above and below, I don’t have a clue what the crops are. You’d think I would know since I live in Washington. But I was either a baby in a bassinette in north Seattle, or I was in Fargo, North Dakota (for 1 year), then in the Philippines (as a kid for six years), then I was on Whidbey Island (as a teenager), then in college over near Idaho, then I was in the big cities of Seattle or in Portland, Oregon (working), and then I was back in Washington but I owned those two boats for almost 30 years so I don’t know hardly anything about the land in Washington State. Now that I have this perfect travel trailer, I’m exploring the land in Washington for the first time in my life and I’m learning a lot about it.
Maybe you can help me learn what the crops are in the photos above and below!
Here are some close-ups of the plants growing in the fields above …
Ok, the photo below is not of a farm or crop. 🙂 But it shows the usual array of plants along side the road, or in yards or around buildings, where the native/natural plants are allowed to grow. We have a plethora of plants! Wild blackberries of course, but so much more. To people who aren’t “from around here”, these plants might look like weeds. To us, they are rich, lush, native plants and they belong here. Notice the pink flowers in the middle of the photo below.
They are either Pink Thistles, or Bull Thistles, or Scottish Thistles. Photos from online sources give proof to each of those three varieties. The online photos of each of those varieties look identical to me. Hmmm.
Some people think they are weeds. In fact, they are beautiful and they belong here.
Farms mean work. Sometimes lots of boring work … driving a tractor back and forth, back and forth, around and around and around and around. I hope people who drive tractors have great music to listen to, or pleasant thoughts to think about.
Ah, and then there are the barns!
What do you think? With all of the windows in the old barn above, maybe it was used for milk cows?
And then there are the cows (or cattle).
And lastly, a new barn below, likely used for hay or other feed, and other such storage as that. Although there is likely room on the ground floor for shelter for a few animals.
The photos above were taken in late June. Please let me know if you know what the crops are in the photos above. Those cattle won’t tell me anything!! 🙂