I need Martha and Jonathan to stay away from Metropolis for at least 3-4 weeks in order to build up a satisfactory level of angst...
Just a tiny bit of soap box. I would be afraid of doing anything to artificialy up the angst-ante. The biggest reason is - why? Why do you need a certain level of angst? Is it a measure-stick of some kind? Angst isn't a bad thing, but artificial angst for the purpose of just more angst is.
</me gets off soap box>
Now, to add something constructive. I don't think you can use harvest. It just doesn't last that long. My experience is mostly with wheat. I can't see M&J having a large amount of acreage, so the actual cutting will only take a couple days or so. Prepping to get ready for harvest might take a week, but more likely not since most farmers keep their equipment in good condition all the time. After harvest really wouldn't take that long, and there's nothing, really, that can't be put on the back-burner if a loved one needs help.
For that matter, if push came to shove, M&J could hire custom cutters to come in and do all the harvesting for them (or more likely some family friends would help out).
(just an ex-Kansan's opinion...)
