Red Pears

Sunny all day through, sparse clouds breezed off. The temperature stuck in the upper 80Fs, but little to no humidity.

A good night sleep and beer does a lot to reset an exhausted man, started today on full recharge.
Happy to say my brain is working once again.

I pulled in and hit the tomato fields. Bah was already at work and NYU soon joined our marathon planting session. All the prepared rows, as of now, are finished. I'm planning another picture day sometime soon as the transformation is pretty impressive. We planted until lunch, then returned and finished around 3pm. I did a head count ( the numbers aren't very precise, as the row length varies a little, but) 150 tomato plants per row and there are currently 20 rows-- so about 3000 tomato plants so far. And if you go a little further, ~25lbs of tomato per plant, there could be a crop of 75,000lbs-- many big tomato varieties remain and none of the cherry tomatoes have even been planted yet, the lbs number will only grow higher.

Bah was finishing up all the Purple Cherokees when I arrived-- but I settled in and we planted (all are heirlooms):
-- Moskvich, the quintessential red tomato, a Russian heirloom variety, strong taste, very acidic-- good for everything, best for eating as is
NYU joined us-
--the Red Pears, a pear shaped red tomato, good taste and low on seed juice so pretty nice for sauce, canning or salads
--Striped Roman, red roman with yellow stripes down the side, meaty with very little seed goo-- born for sauces and cooking
--Valencia (my least favorite), solid yellow roman variety, an Italian heirloom with no acid content so they're plain tasting-- old people with stomach ulcers and folks with acid problems love these guys and buy them by the box
--Striped German, these tomatoes can grow enormous, big blobs of yellow and red star-burst patterned, a good rule of tomato thumb is red = acidic / yellow = not acidic, these fall somewhere in between-- they have a good taste, though a little watery, I still use them for tomato sandwiches and salads (adds some colorful pahzazz to food)
--Japreuse Trueffle, I haven't tasted or grown these before, but they're suppose to be similar to the red pear in shape except purplish in color. I imagine a combination of red pear and purple cherokee in taste

Around 3pm, NYU and I were called out of the field-- Bah remained to finish the final row and 1/2 of tomato planting. We doubled up hanging onto the side ladder, while the foreman drove us with the new tractor down and around to the hidden forest field. The boss met us in the van and gave us the plan. Already the foreman and I prepared 3 long rows for zucchini and summer squash, but leaving a gap for 3 rows of cucumbers we marked out 3 long rows for the peppers. NYU and I laid out 3 drip lines, splicing together lines to reach the whole 500yard length. Slowly and with repeated stops for readjustments, we plastic wrapped the 3 rows with the foreman.
I need to work out a new water system, as I'm always a 500yard jog from my canteen when I need it. And I tore out the seat of my pants trying to stuff the steel bottle into my pockets. There has to be an better way.

NYU took off with the boss, while the foreman and I remained behind to work out the question of irrigation. The foreman was happy with how well the rows came out, he remembered stuffing hours worth of soil  around plastic back when the boss handled the laying machine himself-- I had to agree, today was pretty painless laying, and it looked straight for once. I'm somewhere in the midsts of poison ivy bout 4 or 5, somewhere in the last month I lost count-- but we marched through mounds of poison ivy to drag loose weathered piping. We connected it all to the upper woods water artery-- in the middle of another sea of poison ivy. The foreman swears he's developed some form of immunity (despite science saying its impossible) after endless rashes over the years. The boss is completely immune, but he claims his immunity is due to drinking fresh milk back when his father had dairy cows. Interesting theory-- he says the cows ate and digested poison ivy constantly, so drinking their milk gave him some sort of enzyme for processing the oils. Wish he had those cows now, I am still as allergic as ever.

We ran the line by the woods edge and set out the drip connector-- the foreman was well pleased. When we returned to the farm center the boss and NYU had the irrigation running. We stopped and unclogged a couple stopped guns before hustling over to the tomato fields. With these hot and dry days they were inching a water line periodically through the field. I ran over and helped NYU fix some lines he misconnected-- they can be a pain, the gasket and springs need to line up just so with the joint to pressurize properly. All that combined with the boss's perchant for refusing to stop the water flow during the reconnection process made for a wet a time. End plugs do not go in easy with water flowing. You have to disconnect the last pipe, with water spewing everywhere, jab in the plug-- hoist the pipe, plug and all-- then spear it into the water eruption's center. It's not so bad after a couple successful tries. That's a lie, it's never easy. Gracelessly we cleared up the tomato water issues and saddled up the transplanting wagon.

Bah had finished the final tomato rows in our absence, no rows left but tons of tomatoes-- the boss and foreman are planning to prepare more soil and wrap more rows later this week. We dumped off the remainders in another wagon, half full of 4 other tomato varieties awaiting transplanting, and headed to the main greenhouse. I'm anticipating tomorrow to be pepper day, as we loaded up the entire wagon with 2,480 pepper plants-- three varieties, Red Knight, Super Shepherd and Ace.

There were only 15 minutes left to go, but the boss had one more task for me and NYU. We laid out trays full of 2x2 plastic planters to fill the vacant greenhouse space the peppers left behind. NYU ran home right at closing, with a lot of work left I stayed. I laid out everything and the foreman came to help me fill them with soil. I soaked the soil thoroughly and we called it a day. Only stayed an hour and some late, but those 12hr days are coming fast. I gotta take advantage of these normal work shifts while they last.


I'm pretty happy about today, getting the first tomato field finished has loomed over us a long time. Thunderstorms and rain might be on the way tomorrow, so good thing the plants are in the ground-- for 1. the rain will do them good, for 2. I don't want to be in the middle of a field planting tomatoes during a heavy storm.  Instead, it'll probably be peppers. There is so much to do in the immediate days ahead, thousands of plants all need to be in the soil now.
We're busting our humps non-stop, but there is always much more that needs doing.
Oh well, thats what tomorrow is for.

Onward peppers and tomorrow!

Bats

Humid. Today was very humid-- the rainy morning boiled off into clear skies and pure heat. Temperature hung at 93F.

I shambled into work this morning-- returned home late after a busy city weekend of moving and remodeling. It started off as it must: no mercy. NYU and I laid down 15 rows worth of drip line in the rain. We left a travel row for every 5 rows tomatoes. The foreman rolled over in the tractor right as we finished. The three of us laid down 10 rows of plastic rap before lunch-- very muddy work.

Today is apparently a holiday for some-- the foreman's girlfriend was up visiting, so he split at lunch time. The rest of us stuck it out. Over lunch I chatted away with NYU and the guy from Rhode Island who helped out at the store today. For the most part their stories focused around one variety of herb, but NYU had quite a farm time few years ago. He and the boss were clearing old cardboard out of the barn and burning it.  While shuffling through a mountain of boxes, NYU happened upon 6 crushed but half alive bats mangled in the mess. He showed the boss and asked him what to do. The answer? Burn 'em. So they did, in a cardboard furnace.--Whew.

After lunch, NYU and I met up with the boss in the tomato field. The sun was out in force, and the heat came too-- we finished up the remaining 5 rows of plastic. The wrap has caused quite a predicament over the weekend. The ragged plastic edges cut around the tomatoes flapped so much that they wore through the delicate stems of 30-40 plants (This is the boss's explanation, I think the ruined plants bear all the signs of rodents). NYU and I took our shovels: lightly buried around the plastic edges to solve the wind problem once and for all. Midway through the field the boss called me over.

The old tractor had problems on Saturday running the water pump, so we walked down to the pond and hefted off the engine cover. One of the hydraulic hoses had cracked, spilling oil down through the engine. We disconnected the pump and drove the tractor up to the main greenhouse-- leaving fixing it for tomorrow.

I returned to the tomatoes in time to help NYU finish fixing the last planted tomato row. And still, the day wasn't over yet...

We finished weeding the swiss chard, began weeding the strawberries and unloaded a few van loads of tomato trays into the field for transplanting. At this point, NYU hid in the bathroom until closing and I spent the remaining half hour catching a bat-sized butterfly stuck in the greenhouse.

Day is done. Time for rest.

Water and All

Running down to the city for the weekend-- update today when I get back!

(Back: 5/30/11)

Hot and Hazy. Temperature hit the mid 80Fs early and stayed there-- occasional winds from the west.

I was all over the place today. Jumped out of the car and walked down to the woods edge then up the path to the forest field. Figured I'd show some initiative and finished cutting the plastic and digging the holes for zucchini and summer squash rows. It was a hot couple hours in the field.

The path from the forest field is an ideal location for a smoke break. The entire way is obscured by brush, ferns and big ol' trees. A younger boss dragged a few dead trees over the stream to make a sloppy bridge. I sat there cooling off a few minutes, counting toads-- I think I got 4.

Back at the farm store I joined up with the foreman. The tomatoes we planted on Wednesday needed water-- the heat was quickly drying up what moisture they had. We T-boned a line off the artery and lay it through the 5 planted rows. It went together with surprising ease. Jogging over to the main pond we reconnected the lower field water artery to the water pump and started the flow. The lines flushed easy enough-- though I had to jab a tree branch down a pipe to break up a clog or two. I plugged up the lines and cleaned out the water guns-- success, water for the tomatoes.

Before lunch, the boss drove me back to the landscaping hell house-- showed me the new bushes needing planting and explained his arrangement plans.

I drove right back to hell after munching my daily pizza. Dug 3 2ft diameter by 1 1/2 ft deep holes around the air conditioning unit. I dragged over the mega bushes, popped off their pots and sunk them into the ground. The boss rolled over with buckets of pond soil, we packed it around the plants and evened out the surface. I re-edged the garden, pulled weeds and putted about aim-less while the boss chatted with the neighbors.

By the time we finally returned to the farm, it was almost closing. I checked through the greenhouse and touched up the watering job.

With a minute before closing, a minute left before I would get into the car and speed off for the city-- one last project. When checking over the harrow, the boss found a long stress fracture in the steel cross beam. A series of 15 or so steel disks (3ft diameter each) attach to the beam-- so it bears much of the strain from turning soil and rocks. The boss wanted the beam extricated from the harrow so he could have it welded over the weekend-- so he left it to me. This beam was ~16ft long 4x6ins of steel.

I ran to the workshop and grabbed the big socket wrench and 1 3/16 attachment. I loosened all the braces and gave the beam a kick-- no dice. The foreman stuck around to supervise me-- he carried over the 6ft heavy iron pry bar. I took the bar and started ramming the beam-- inch by inch (literally) the beam inched out. I swung away for a half hour, periodically re-loosening the  bolts. Climbing inside the harrow's frame I finally bashed the beam free-- but, without its support all the disks and their connectors collapsed onto me.

Had my leg been 2 inches forward-- i would have lost a knee and a shin. Instead, the disks and connectors caught on my jeans and tore them off in ribbons. The foreman said-- ops I should have seen that coming.

Packed up, home, clean jeans and then to the city. Day over.

Cars, Calves and Cutting Holes

Hot and Hazy, not a cloud in the sky all day. The temperature stuck in the low 80Fs.

I got right to it this morning-- grabbed my hoe and ran across to the onion fields. Bah had caught up on his row and started a second. Yesterday I was under the impression that we were close to finishing: I was wrong. We hacked and pulled away at the weeds all the way to lunch.

During lunch I kicked around the store chatting with the boss. Lucy had a meshed cast on her forearm-- the boss found her yesterday with a big v shaped gash. Its not clear whether she was bit or jumped into trouble somewhere. The conversation turned to the subject of cows:  for the time being the herd has been split in half-- those who have calved and their young ones in the big fields, then those who haven't calved grazing in the fields near the boss's brother's house. It'll be easier this way to keep tabs on any new births. Any cow is a hassle, they usually escape the fence once or twice a summer-- calves are only more difficult.

The boss told me that years ago a calf just up and disappeared over a weekend. Finally, a full day later, he received a call from a local elementary school-- the calf was there munching the front lawn. The foreman had to chase down the little guy and wrestle her into the van. We talked more about the delivery process and cows eating their afterbirth. A week ago when driving home I saw a cow waltzing about the pasture dragging a good ten feet of afterbirth behind. --Right around this point in the conversation a woman ran into the store. Sure enough, one of the calves had escaped and was wandering in the street.

I ran down and found NYU already sitting in the middle of the road pinning the calf between his legs-- cars line up on all sides. He got the calf out of the street and I waved the cars on. Between the two of us we got the calf back through the gate without anymore problems-- though the mother herd was a bit riled up. When the woman from the store drove by her car spooked the calf, and it bolted right between the barbed wire fence.

The crisis ended, I took a long lunch then joined Bah back in the onion field. We finished up and headed over through the blueberry fields and started weeding more beds of swiss chard and broccoli. When we took a water break Bah showed me his growing collection of hawk feathers he found in the fields. He has four long striped red tail hawk feathers-- he keeps them all jabbed standing up in the cracks of a lone fence post by the road.

I hadn't even finished hoeing one row of chard when the foreman shouted me over to his tractor and we rode up to the secret wooded field. I had never been up to this part of the farm, its a plateau not quite as high up as the orchard hill top surrounded by thick woods on all sides. It is big, easily the size of the lower fields all together. The foreman had prepared several rows, so we laid down 3 rows worth of drip line-- we only went 2/3rds the way down the row as things tend not to grow in tree shadows. The tractor had the plastic lay-er all hitched up, and we wrapped the 3 rows with surprising ease.

The boss walked up and the three of us had a sit down. We're planning to plant summer squash and zucchini by the woods edge-- so the boss explained all the details. Further in-field we're eventually doing to lay down a ton of cucumbers-- using a few new techniques the boss learned at a friend's farm. For the cucumbers- seeds will be laid straight in the dirt in one long row, but on either side 4 feet of plastic wrap will line the length. The cucumber vines will creep across the plastic, protected from weeds and soil molds/fungus. Today, we focused on the zucchini and squash- the foreman and I whipped out our knifes and started cutting 2in diameter holes down the center of the plastic wrapped rows (spaced 1 1/2 ft apart). After each cut we pocketed the plastic and dug a cone shaped hole with the dibble ~3in deep (squash seeds are big and need to be buried surprisingly deep). It took the rest of the day to cut out two of the three rows.
Tomorrow we'll finish up and hopefully lay in the seed.

Lots of field work ahead, onward tomorrow!

Cherokee Rose

Full sun all day, only a few clouds drifting by in the afternoon. The temperature stayed in the upper 70Fs and hit the 80Fs around noon.

We need more sunny growing days like today. I ambled straight for the greenhouse this morning and touched up some of the younger plants with water. When the foreman arrived we filled up the fertilizer hose attachment and he gave the entire greenhouse a once over. We've been making good business so far selling some of our started tomatoes out of the store front, so while the foreman was busy me and the boss brought up trays of young lettuce, swiss chard, peppers and cherry tomatoes. I gave the for-sale-tomatoes some water and joined the foreman.

The two of us grabbed up shovels and tightened the new plastic wrapped over the tomato-to-be fields. The boss drove over with the tomato wagon, then Bah and I set to work. Tomatoes are a bit different from anything I've transplanted so far-- they grow a lot bigger, so a lot more space is necessary. We put the tomato plants in the middle of the rows and spaced each one 2ft apart. Only 5 of the rows are tilled, wrapped and ready for planting-- so today we stuck with the Rose brandywine variety and some Purple Cherokees.

I plant at a good click these days-- I'm finally at the point where I can keep up with Bah. We finished all the Rose variety: 3 1/2 rows or ~500 plants; then we started the Cherokees: 1 1/2 rows or 150-200 plants. Viking claims each plant can give 25lbs of tomatoes if cared for properly--if that's the case, we have 17,500lbs of tomatoes coming from just today.  We had 2 rows left by lunch time and finished up a few hours after. Working hours straight on a sunny day in the middle of a field certainly fries you up quick-- I've taken to rubbing a bit of soil over my arms when they start to burn. Bah looks at me like I'm a mad man, but hey it works-- so far no bad burns.

Here's a state of the farm aside: More little miracles in the night. The boss's brother must be kicking himself for getting rid of that bull-- 3 more calves, for a current total of 5. With the veggie aspect of the farm firmly established, we're really trying to make the herd profitable in the next few years-- so far the cows are costing much more than they've ever brought in. Viking has been coming in early everyday to check-in on them. I've seen some of the calves frolicking about, but according to Viking one mother has been keeping her calf in the woods-- leading it out from time to time for grazing. Not sure if that's normal behavior.
Talking to the boss, they usually auction off the full grown cows-- avoiding the slaughter/butchering process entirely. Years ago they used to handle the whole affair-- but the boss says he's grown soft and can't handle the miserable work.

These rainy weeks have caused a few field casualties-- a row of beets and 2 spinach have developed a bought of soil mold, killing off a good chunk of crop. We have other rows of beets and spinach elsewhere that are fine, but that's an early and unfortunate loss.

With all the tomatoes planted, Bah and I headed up to a field where the foreman planted 10 or so rows of onions. The small green shoots are about an inch out of the soil, but we weeded the space between them-- hoping to nip that problem in the bud before they grow out of hand. A cow grazing paddock borders on the side of the field-- half the herd was milling about. Found Rosy and gave her a head scratch, the other cows don't care much for people.

Bah was working slow today, I finished my onion row a good 100ft ahead of him. As he caught up, I cleared out out the over grown end of all 10 rows. Closing came and homeward.

Here's to more sun and growing.

Almost Tomatoes

The day started off cloudy and humid, it ended sunny and humid. Temperature hung around 80Fs a little before noon onward.

A new guy's first day-- the summer help begins! He's a nice quiet fellow, home after finishing his second year at NYU. When I arrived this morning he was already in the main greenhouse seeding a couple trays of lettuce-- trouble was he didn't soak the soil first. He worked here a couple years ago, but life in the city must have made him rusty. Chatting, I pushed him in the right direction and he had a much easier time planting.

Bah and I rode back to the landscaping job and finished spreading the mulch and edging all the gardens. I rev-ed up the gas powered brush cutter and mowed down a weed slicked hill. We finished and cleaned over the yard-- looking fine-- and headed back for lunch.

After lunch me and the boss rode back to the house with the old tractor. I tied a chain around the frontloader and we pulled stumps by the woods edge.

Drove the van and Lucy back to the farm-- and that dog was a mess. She must have found some fresh cow manure-- Lucy was caked in brown-green all across her head and back. We hosed her off and I spread a bit of mulch around the farm store. No more mulch please.

Viking and the boss had a row while I was coming back from landscaping. He must have gotten into a mood and chewed into her, when I came back she had the fangs out. Learned a bit more than I'd bargained for, about her hard time growing up and why she wont take lip from anyone now. When I left for the field, she was only half ready to throw her job in the boss's face-- don't think she realizes how much he needs her around. Fortunately we avoided further skirmishes.

I joined NYU down in the tomato-field-to-be, the foreman had cut out 5 rows this morning. We pulled out some of the drip lines saved from last year and laid one per row. I felt bad for NYU as he was really struggling with his line-- I set 3 rows of drip 100% ready to go before he'd managed to untangle and lay his first. The foreman rolled over in a tractor with the plastic laying attachment-- I scrambled over and the two of got started covering the rows over while NYU laid the final row of line. After an hour of arbitrary adjustments we finally got everything lined up and the plastic went down nice and tight. Walked the lines with a shovel tightening any loose plastic, then called it a day.

The sun is here, hope it stays-- we have tomatoes to plant!

PICTURE DAY and Mega Post: Wash the Tractor and Mulch is Hell

Couldn't get the camera working so I borrowed one. Worked Sunday and took the pictures, here we go:

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Overcast with a few spats of sun, temperature in the high 50Fs.

Came in a bit later-- as I am the boss for today. I strolled around checking out the main greenhouse and found a job list from the real boss. Figured I would get stuff started before picture snapping.

Made my way over to the secondary greenhouse by the boss's house-- watered all the tomatoes left and there are quite a lot left. Even a thing as outwardly simple as watering isn't: consistency is key as the foreman says. You have to make sure every plant receives about the same amount as all the others-- otherwise you get a handful of dry plants surrounded by waterlogged ones. A farm is a food factory (or factory forest, depending on your level of romanticism)-its all about getting as much fruit or veggie from a plant at one given instance. Little things, like evenly watering, can accumulate toward a full and nicely timed harvest.

Walked around back to the main greenhouse, watered all the tomatoes on the wagon (its been relocated to a more accessible/lower rusty nail danger location. Then I watered all the cherry and plum tomatoes, the peppers, eggplants, broccoli and cauliflower, basil, bok choi and lettuce among others still in the greenhouse.

Hunted around the barn and found some leather treatment and conditioner. Hosed off the new tractor and gave it a scrub down. Vacuumed the cabin, cleaned and treated the leather-- then washed all the windows. Rinse and repeated on the old tractor.

Took out the disk cutter, changed cutting wheels and sawed a bunch of aluminum scrap to make their transportation a bit easier. Broke a disk and then a grind wheel-- put away the grinder.

Picture time!

Same shot from before, but more growing. The peas are a bit overgrown with grass and weeds at the moment but that's getting fixed this week. Faba beans have erupted. Owner of the italian pizza shop in town saw me in the fields, when I came in the next day he was ecstatic-- hey kid, didnt realize you worked there! His father immigrated from Italy and goes crazy over our Faba beans. Talked beans with the guy for a while and got a free slice to boot. Spinach is inching along, beets and chard are slow-- need more sun.

Close up of the last year strawberries. Blooming and lots more bud clusters are on the way. The hay cuts down on the weeds between rows and makes picking a little more comfortable. Plastic wrap is visible, a little bit. Bah has been walking the day neutral strawberries we planted a month or more ago snipping off the flowers. I guess they're too young, and cutting will redirect their energy to plant growth-- later they'll be allowed to berry. I am not sure if Bah intends to cut these plant's flowers, probably not. They look developed enough to push the first round of strawberries
.

Close up of two spinach rows, and a broccoli? or i can't remember what that one row is. These have been in the ground long enough and are doing pretty all right.

My Faba beans are erupting!

The pea rows desperately need weeding... its gonna be a long week.

A picture from the back of lower fields-- Rows of raspberries. These are the ones me, bah and tall high school pruned. I am not sure now about the whole raspberry growth cycle-- everything the boss and foreman tell me contradicts what the other said. I will just have to see for myself which give berries and which don't.

A close up of the blueberry flowers. These guys have great potential for a killer harvest this year. Last year it was too dry and we had only a week or two of blueberries.

Currants. I don't know anything about these plants. I just pruned their dead stalks and weeded them back in March.

Row of blackberries are coming back to life after winter hibernation. They reproduce by having the long part of their stalk curling down into the soil, forming roots and bam: new plant.

Across from the farm store, over from the blueberries, the foreman just laid down a ton of onions up here. He laid the seed a bit too thick, so we're going to have to go through and thin them out once they're established. At the right edge of the photo you can see the tail end of a row of sage and thyme.

View from just across from the farm store. We are going to pack the first round tomatoes into this field-- once they cut the rows and figure out the planting plan.

The wagon and the tomatoes. Loaded up and ready for the field-- now they're watered too. Its still all hooked up to the tractor.

Inside the main greenhouse, the tomatoes on the left are almost ready. The peppers on the right are ready, I don't know where the boss plans to plant them... more questions to ask.

Heartbreak hill. The Foreman and I laid the galvanized steel pipe up here from the tractor water pump-- leads off and up to the hill top fields.

Mega-water guns at the ready. These guys take over all the water pressure, the sound of them shooting and rotating travels a mile. We use them for the corn once they get strong enough to survive the water deluge.

Current view from the orchard.

Potato rows and the vacant fields beyond. I spent a lot of time up here this year. Lighting fires, rocking with bah and the foreman, and now planting these rows.

The potato rows length-wise.

After taking these pictures Viking came in and opened up the store. Talked to her a while-- we're doing s hostage exchange: she gives me a pot of lemonbalm and I give her a mess of grape seeds. Bought 14 started tomato plants for self and friends. Packed up and called it an early Sunday.



Today: (Monday, 5/23/11)

Clouds and rain. Temperature back in the mid 50Fs. Sun, Sun, Sun, when's it come?

Slow and small day. Before lunch Bah and I took our hoes out to the lower fields and weeded the rows. Covered the spinach and chard, the peas will have to wait. Enjoyable time talking with Bah, he was out almost all of last week due to the rain-- he decided to stick it out this time.

After lunch was less enjoyable. The boss had mulch delivered to one of the landscaping families, bah and I had to spread it. Somewhere crouched akimbo between flowers, under a bush spreading black burnt mulch I decided there is nothing more miserable than doing someone else's slavework--ie landscaping. When people buy a house they should face a questionnaire-- are you gonna take care of your own lawn and garden? No? Well then you have to pave the entire thing in concrete and spray paint it green.

Some of the neighborhoods our "clients" live in are fine-- nice and removed in the woods, their land bordering on the farm. This was not one of those. It was a swanky Mc-Hide-away-from-hell. I've been to this house before for spring raking with the foreman. Propped under more bushes I probably stewed over the same problem as this time-- what is this place? In all the hours and days I have spent working on this yard, not once have I met the owner or even seen a neighbor. Instead, more landscapers are parked in every other driveway, doing their thing. Truly, I counted 11 other trucks, trailers and company vans on the ride in. Yes, its a strange hell.
Actually, towards the day's end-- the other landscaping crews already long gone-- I saw some natives. A gaggle of middle aged women and their returned college daughters standing in a front lawn watched their little dogs roll around fight-playing. They laugh-shrieked-- get 'em! or Haha ha How cute they all are together! over and again. I imagine they do this every afternoon.

Finally the day end came, with mulch remaining-- so tomorrow morning we will return, to finish the mulch mound in hell.

I don't envy this future.

Onward tomorrow!

I Come to Bury the Potatoes, Not to Raise Them

 The day started cloudy, but opened up in the afternoon to actual sun. Temperature ended in the 70Fs.

Completed a lot of projects today.
The foreman and I installed all the insulation in the cooler, then replaced the steel wall covers. Then he scrubbed off the walls and concrete floors with bleach, while I rinsed and scrubbed all the floor palates and shelves-- gotta get ready, the health inspector comes Monday.

** Final getting around to finishing this one-- my brother came home from school this weekend, distractions distractions. -5/23/11 **

A couple woodchucks have moved in around the woods edge by the hill top fields. The boss has a very hands off approach to "vermin" as he calls them (everything from mice and rats to raccoons and deer). It usually pays off, as we have a pretty high predator population. A couple fat coyotes live in the woods up top, while big hawks, a falcon and turkey vulture cover the lower fields. I remember picking summer squash and zucchini last year, and stopping every so often to watch the hawks drop into the grass-- only to heft off again with a rat or rabbit. Whatever the wild guys don't catch Lucy usually does.

This year however, these woodchucks have become a bit cocky. As we worked in the cooler the Boss thought aloud about setting some 'humane' cage traps around their lair. He figured, jokingly, that once caught-- he, the foreman and I would take them out into the middle of a field and place bets, set the woodchucks loose and see how far they can run before Lucy has her way with them.
I'd give 'em 10 feet.

After lunch I hiked up to the potato fields to assess the situation. The Boss had dragged the dirt level over the rows with a chain fence we rigged up to the back of the tractor-- kinda seemed unnecessary. He was worried that the drag might have uncovered some potatoes, or that all the rain had washed the soil off the top. So I walked the line--  not too bad. I reburied 50 potatoes, and maybe 20 or so were fully above ground.

Back at the farm store I scrubbed the cooler palates and shelves once more over, and returned them to their place inside the walk-in.

Next, I put on the rawhide gloves and started sorting scrap metal. We'd piled it onto a wagon much earlier this spring-- and now we needed the wagon. Aluminum went one way, steel another, rusted iron someplace else, wire was coiled up and stowed away and wood with rusty nails was heaped in the dirt right where we all walk.

The foreman and I hitched the new tractor up to the wagon and we rolled over to the secondary greenhouse by the boss's house. We loaded the wagon full of tomato trays-- these guys are field ready. Varieties I can remember (all heirlooms)-- Cherokee, Rose, Burgundy Brandywine, Valencia, Nepal Red, Red Pear, Striped Roman, Japruse Truffle, Striped German, Purple Prudence, Moskvitch and others. We slowly rode the load back to the main greenhouse-- parallel parking the wagon in between the rusty nail wood and jagged rusty iron pile, it was a tense couple minutes.

Its becoming a bit too warm in the greenhouse, even with the doors open, for these developed tomatoes. So they will sit outside on the wagon until planting next week.

Off and onward to picture days.

Lichen and Rain

Foggy morning turned mist, then rain all afternoon. Starting to warm up, 60Fs from noon onward.

With the fields waiting for sun, there was little to do for them today. The plants in the greenhouse are ready for transplanting within the next week-- tomatoes and peppers are itching to get out there.

We spent today working around the farm store. With the health inspector coming next Monday, Viking girl was hard at work sanitizing and cleaning everything in the kitchen that sat around all winter. Attached to the farm store we have a big walk in cooler, used mostly to chill greens taken from the field before market-- and hold produce for the CSA and store. Nothing really stays in there longer than a week at most- except maybe the berry slop, which we hold in big sealed buckets until jam time.

The cooler has been leaking a lot lately, so the boss and foreman spent all day cutting through the metal lining, tearing out rotted insulation and framing. Most of the structure is fine, but two whole 6ft panels had been compromised. I nailed together a frame out of 2x4s which we installed and secured in the gaps. The replacement insulation is all ready for tomorrow, but as I said the foreman and boss worked all day cleaning and repairing this thing.

I offered sporadic assistance, but most of the morning I weeded out around the store. We have a little gravel porch off to the side for eating lunch and it was entirely overgrown. I picked away chatting with Viking, she's pretty into wild flowers and herbal stuff-- so she showed me different plants and told me what they can do-- we had a pretty deep thicket of Lemondrop (rub its leaves and it smells like lemons). I saved a bunch of violets and wild weed do-dads for her to transplant at her house.

After lunch, I got to work on the fence-- its a pretty basic log picket, running around the store, porch and garden. It was almost entirely engulfed in lichen, which had begun to seriously erode the wood beneath. I scratched it all away with a putty knife, chatting around with Viking. It took most of the afternoon to finish the length, and it could still use a serious one-over with an electric sander.

I met up with the boss down in the main greenhouse and we seeded 9 more trays of tomatoes. Once they germinate, these will be saved for the second planting-- giving us tomatoes August, clear through September (weather permitting).


Lucy was up to no good this afternoon. Somewhere in the corroded paneling of the cooler a song bird had set up its nest. It must have been waiting out the rain, as when we pulled out the insulation it fell out, nest and all. Lucy snatched it up and ran off into a field. Twenty-some birds followed her out, dive bombing and harassing the dog. She wasn't fazed, and had herself a meal. Or half of one, grew bored and then wandered away.


Paid, and getting all ready for this working weekend. I will bring the camera with me-- or borrow a replacement to bring. A lot has changed with the season's progression-- all the strawberries and blueberries have gone into bloom, great stuff to share.

Stay dry and catch ya tomorrow.

Potatoes Forever

Heavy fog and light rain all day. Temperature stuck in the low 50Fs.

A day spent entirely in the potato fields. The foreman, boss and I loaded up the caravan of tractors and van-- headed back up to the hill top fields.

500lbs of potatoes were planted today. Laid out all six varieties down the field rows, then raked the dirt back over the trenches.

The fog became so dense by noon I couldn't see the other end of the field, much less the trees 100ft away from me.

All the potatoes are now in the ground. The foreman stood in silent fury, when the boss tore up with the tractor all the markers set to indicate the placement of different potato types. We replaced the markers with lengths of plastic house siding, we chopped them up into lengths and wrote the potato name-- then sunk them into the corresponding rows.


Long, repetitive day. Time for a shower and clothes not caked in mud.

Red Potatoes

Mist and light rain all day, high 40Fs.

Boss rolled in and said-- don't you dare say 'good morning'-- and laughed his way down to the green house. My tile work set fine overnight, or at least as well as it could in this humidity. The foreman and I grabbed four trays of bok choi- two different varieties--, two dibbles and headed down to the lower fields for more planting.

These fields are almost completely filled up now, only maybe a row and a half remain open-- although we're saving space on the wood's edge to sink in some rows of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and pumpkins. We set to it and filled up the open row with the bok choi-- ~800 plants. We finished up right around lunch.

The potatoes we hacked up yesterday can't sit too long once prepared before going into the ground. The afternoon became dedicated potato time. The foreman headed up to the top fields with the old tractor and started cutting trenches, while me and the boss loaded 6 boxes or 300lbs of red potatoes into the front of the new tractor. We grabbed a handed pumped sprayer for good measure and the boss headed up the hill. 

I saddled up in the van with Lucy the Weimaraner. I haven't mentioned her too much yet, maybe cause she's omnipresent-- everywhere the boss goes, she is too. Lucy just has her own way-- wandering the farm, digging, harassing the horses or cows, and hunting what she sees fit. She's a bit of a sociopath for a dog, tending to catch and then cripple mice before wandering away bored. Rodents are no longer much of a problem with her around. Although, the boss is getting worried that she's become a bit too wild-- at 2 1/2 years old she's already been hit twice by cars, one time bad enough to warrant an operation. She has a habit of scaring young kids too, so her leash-less days may be numbered.
Driving with Lucy is another experience entirely, as she constantly stands on your lap and has a habit of headbutting the stick into different gears. We managed, and soon joined the gang in the hill top field.

While the foreman finished re-cutting the 6 big rows across the field (the soil had resettled on account of the rain) I sat with the boss as he mixed a bit of pesticide in the hand pump. The stuff he uses is 1oz pesticide to 1000ft of field-- so pretty diluted stuff-- but it is effective for fighting the Colorado Potato Flies. Those bugs are ruthless, and breed quickly-- apparently able to re-adapt to different pesticides throughout a single season. The flies devour potato plants down to nothing, literally eating any part of the plant that inches above the soil-- they're easily able to wipe out an entire crop. Nevertheless, The boss is careful in choosing what and how he sprays. This type manages to keep a few steps ahead of the flies and he swears by it. This stuff is also pretty innocuous, he swears by the motto-- if I can't handle it without a respirator, I wont spray the food with it. Some sprays are very potent-- but the boss definitely favors a lighter touch.

The boss sprayed the bottom of the trench, while I dropped potato eyes in spaced ~ 6in apart. The foreman joined in laying potatoes and we filled the rows over several hours. With an hour and some left before closing, we took up the hoes and covered over the rows. We hoed like dogs and somehow managed to finish before the day's end. The boss's brother had come up in his back-ho to clear more brush-- so when we all left, it was quite a caravan-- two tractors, the back-ho and then me and Lucy trailing in the van. Seemed a bit excessive for just a bunch of potatoes.

I am moving up the totem pole of responsibilities (slowly). The boss is heading out this Sunday and the foreman is also going to be out of town, so I am going to look after the farm for them. It probably won't amount to more than a lot of watering, but who knows what trouble I'll get into (another picture day?).

Doesn't look like these rain clouds will break until Monday-- here's to a soggy week. Catch ya tomorrow.

Tough

Rained all through today. In the upper 40Fs.

Back from the city and with the rains, green has taken over. Years ago from a Eireann bus window I saw greens like this around county Limerick. If I remember right, it was about this wet then too.

A lot is happening around the farm, but I didn't really get up to much today. At the end of last week we received a palate with 800lbs of potatoes, so today we set about preparing them for the field. We have 6 varieties now, mostly reds, golds and fingerlings, then one screw ball potato type which has a golden interior with red star-bursts.

I dragged 16 boxes to the workshop from storage in the barn. The foreman sharpened up a bunch of knives and the boss brought down chairs. We three set down out of the rain, got to slicing up potatoes and talking shit. Everyone has been around potatoes to see the little "eye" growths that pop out when they're stored too long/ stored near light. Well, given a little soil and care those eyes eventually turn into potatoes. We went through the bags of potatoes, slicing them up so each chunk had its own eye-- allowing one potato become 5 or more.

The boss had a fine time in New Orleans-- apparently the whole proceeding was accompanied with Dixie jazz and Stevie Wonder appeared to accept an honorary doctorate from the institution. Maybe the Boss's daughter will come help around the store and farmer's markets in June/July-- we'll see how that goes. I was the weakest link in our cutting chain gang-- the boss far out in front. In between cracks on my potato performance, the subject was mostly the foreman's transmission and whether he'd buy american or foreign for his next car. Between the three of us we polished off 500lbs of potatoes by lunch.

Around this time the girl running the store rolled in and started opening up for the first day of business. This girl is viking tough, and can chat a shift by in no time. People actually stop by everyday, just to talk with her-- single-handedly she's brought in more business with a conversation than all our attempts at advertising combined.

Viking girl has it pretty rough-- Joplin's Bobby McGee kinda sums it up, but-- she and her husband tried to open a cliff-side recording studio with friends, until the friends sold them short. Viking and her husband took off in a van and made it as far as North Carolina before the car broke beyond fixing. Somehow they swung their way back and live with her husband' mother. Like myself, she wasted away all winter waiting for the season to start and get back on the farm-- unlike myself, she and her husband have been living off baked potatoes for the past month.

After lunch the foreman, viking girl and I hung around the storefront catching up. Viking has started up a big tomato garden in her kitchen by the window-- grown far larger than the farm's plants by this point-- I gotta remember to bring her a share of the grape seeds I have dried from last year. Together, they put the fear of the farmer's daughter into me, its maybe a good thing I'll be out in the fields. Around then the boss rolled back in and we all set back off to work: Viking to straightening up the shop, the foreman out to harrow in the rain and I set off to cut more potatoes.

Fortunately I catch on fast and put my potato knife to the quick, finishing the remaining 300lbs an hour before the day's end. I tided up the shop, packed the boss's van up for a dump run and started fixing the bathroom. Gave the tile a mop scrub and thorough going over with the wet-vacuum. Scrubbed over the toilet, sink, fixtures and walls. The piping is outside the walling, and where it passes through the concrete flooring and tile was looking pretty rough. I vacuumed up all the crap, dried the concrete and laid in several new tiles, cutting/cracking them to fit the awkward angle and spacing.

Cleaned up, and chatted away the last 5 minutes with viking until closing.

Ahaha, how could I forget! The biggest topic of the day was another little surprise in the night. Apparently that little bull really got the job done, another calf was born last night. That makes two, so far. I'll get the camera fixed and see if I can do something about showing some cow pictures.

Final cow aside: Talking with the boss over potatoes, he had a lot to say about the herd. Apparently our cows are a "poled" species-- meaning their horns have been removed through selective breeding. He couldn't praise the breeding choice enough. He told me and the foreman about all the difficulties he had as a kid-- cows would get their horns caught in fencing, caught in brush, they would headbutt and gore other cows. Bad as that was, he said trying to de-horn them was infinitely worse. You don't (or can't) saw the horns off-- so you melt them off by applying acid, essentially melting two holes in their heads so as not to leave even a nub of horn behind. I got the feeling these acid applications might have traumatized my boss somewhat-- as he cut the story quite short.

Its good to have Viking back, as she really mellows out the personalities-- we'll see how long the peace holds.
Onward farm!

Soak

Missed a day. Blogspot was down for maintenance yesterday, so:

Thursday, May 13, 2011

We're left on our own today. I started transplanting a bunch of the sproutlings in the morning.  Took 2 big trays of loose leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce and swiss chard, and put 'em in larger containers to sell in the farm store. We're opening up May 16-- we figure some folks are planting their gardens and would rather buy started plants than plant from scratch. Gotta remember to water after transplanting to cement the roots in.

I helped the foreman start up the pump to irrigate the lower fields, let it run 4 hours-- patches of sun finally stared cutting out of the clouds. Tried to snap some photos of the water works, but I might have screwed up the camera. Once I figure out/fix it, pictures will be forthcoming.

I don't like the trend, but the Boss wanted me to re-mow the grass field/yards around the farm store. Drove the van (1992 chevy, with almost as much rust as holes) to the boss's house. Drove the mower over and did the dirty work. Only noteworthy thing about all this was bumping into the boss's brother's dog pack. His wife breeds Labrador Retrievers, but they only keep the yellow ones. The youngest is getting big.

After lunch, I saddled up with the foreman to run an irrigation artery up to the hill top fields. The nicotine patches apparently not working, his fuse was short. We connected the line up along the tractor road and flushed the line up to the bend. He seemed disappointed when everything went perfect-- no excuse to tear into me.

His chance came again and quickly. We tried to flush out the entirety of the remaining pipe line (it lead through the 5 rows of strawberries-- the only crop on the hilltop so far). At first the pressure wasn't enough to push water all the way up the hill, then we had to take the entire pipe line apart and follow the water pipe by pipe searching for blockages. Right around at the moment where the foreman was about to put a wrench through my ribcage, an old buddy came to visit. This buddy originally introduced the foreman to the boss 11 years ago, getting him a job on the farm. The guy had worked on the farm a few years before then. We got the water guns working on the hill top.The foreman caught up with the buddy while I cleared the nozzles out with wire

Playing with the pipes took up the entire afternoon. So far so good.



Friday

 Today. I'm writing from a peter pan bus-- off to the city again.

Solid, cloudless sun-- finally. Serious growing needs to begin-- unfortunately it doesn't seem the stalled weather system is entirely out of the way yet.

The foreman and I went to restart and double check the upper field's irrigation lines, but alas deja-vu-- all the same problems from yesterday. Once again we took the pipe line apart, but yesterday we marked the leaky connectors -- so we replaced damaged gaskets, adjusted angles and kicked pipes together. We had to once again run the water pump and follow the current, pipe by pipe out into the field. All our dragging and adjusting, left a little bit too much space between the artery and the field line. Once again the foreman was flipping the furious on. He had me kicking the water gun stem of a field line to drive the connectors together. As he screamed, I kicked-- kicked the connectors together but also kicked the stem clean off, the geyser of water shot a bulls-eye in my crotch. The foreman mellowed out after that, but it was a wet morning.

Just before noon, the tractor died out. The foreman had a heart attack and ran an eye over the entire machine. Finally, we took a wood pole and jammed it into the diesel tanks-- pulled it out dry as a bone. Too bad it's not so simple as 'fill her up.' I poured in a couple canisters worth of fuel the boss left for us-- but air had entered into the engine through the empty tank. The foreman had forgotten exactly how to fix the problem- the air needed to be bleed out of the engine, but it wasn't clear how. He remember to untwist a screw on a fuel encasement, and the air came bubbling out-- except it wasn't enough, it still wouldn't catch. The foreman told himself over and again how humiliating it would be to tell the boss that we destroyed his tractor while trying to fill it with gas. Finally, we found the missing piece, a screw on the block where the accelerator mechanism attaches. The foreman twisted and bled, while I primed the engine from the side of the tractor. Success!

It took all morning, but the hill top irrigation and tractor were back to work.

After lunch the foreman took Bah and I up to the back fields on the hilltop and we rolled more boulders. This field, at least, is finished-- here's hoping .

For the last half hour of the day, the foreman, bah and I started hoeing out the weeds out of the pea rows. Weeks ago Bah took me aside and showed me a thing or two about using a hoe-- like you mean it. I can say now, I know how to use a hoe. 

When the end of the day came- I shot outta there and hopped on this bus.

More days coming. I'll get that camera working and give you something worth looking at.

Take it easy.

Rat Face

Hard overcast, 50Fs all day.

Weather has been stalled by a system swirling of the coast-- winds came from the north and east today. Good time for transplanting, not so good for growing. We need a couple days of solid sunshine to kick these crops up.

The boss was already about the yard when I arrived this morning. He gave me a pay check and a steel water bottle, saying plastic is bad for ya use this. We checked over the greenhouse and he wrote out a big list of things to do over the next two days-- the boss left early, heading for New Orleans to see his daughter graduate from college.

I tidied up a bit in the greenhouse, all the plants going out to the fields these days have left a mess and a lot of open spaces to be filled. Dragged out 6 trays of romaine lettuce (1,800 plants) and four trays of loose leaf lettuce (1000ish plants) for planting. Laid out larger trays, soiled them up and soaked them for tomorrow.

Bah and I have become a solid workforce. We cranked out the lettuce transplanting, finishing a few hours after lunch. Chatted around for a bit--Bah has a big family: wife, two sons and two daughters ages 8-27. No wonder he's in early. Anyway, with the addition of the lettuce-- the lower field is almost completely filled, only a little open space on the far side of the sweet corn. It's time for sun and growing.

In the afternoon I palled around with the foreman. We replaced the broken water guns from yesterday- then started running the irrigation to flush the pipe lines. Everything went fine until we found a clog in one of the middle lines. Pressure built, we stopped and increased the pressure, but no luck, it would not budge. Over winter, mice make a home inside the pipes-- piling up months worth of nuts- making days like today a mess. To set the scene more fully: loose field soil doesn't combine well with pooling water around jammed irrigation pipes- mud gets a foot thick very quickly.

So I stood shin deep in mud holding the clogged pipe end while the foreman stabbed a thick tree branch into the pipe opening to clear the blockage, no luck. We stepped back to assess the situation over a cigarette. We were in good spirits for some reason. The foreman told me about years ago, when he used to handle the irrigation alone. One of the pipe stems (where you attach water guns) was clogged solid. He kicked it, shook it and beat the pipe against the ground. Nothing helped. He took a long pry bar and started jabbing it down the pipe stem- it had some effect, so he kept stabbing away. He thought to himself, huh this clog sure has a funny feel. Peering over the stem, he gave it another jab-- and the clog gave way. The mangled, shredded bits of a mouse blew up out of the pipe, all over his face. We had a laugh and got back to unclogging. I had the foreman use the pipe plug as a makeshift hammer and we bashed the clog out-- no mice this time.

Afterward, I ran about clearing out the water gun nozzles with wire while running the water-- I can attest, they work fine. We cut off the water pump and replaced a few more broken bits using parts salvaged from the junkyard.

Whew, today was pretty easy-- but I don't like the looks of the boss's list for tomorrow: 1.Rocking, 2. More rocking.

Here's hoping for sun, see ya tomorrow.

Chard, Lettuce and Stones

Overcast today, temperature was stuck in the windy 50Fs.

Here's the picture of the beehives I took yesterday. Multi-story towers full of bees.

Last Fall I was stuck in charge of running the different farmer's markets we went to 3-4 times a week. Fridays were always in this town square way off in nowhere-ville-- standing around most of the day, I got to know an old beekeeper who sold a few tables over from me. He was in his early eighties and all he did was bees, bees bees. Packed his honey in big old smucker's jam jars. Anyway, he had been traveling throughout the Mid-west for most of the summer visiting the big industrial hives in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Learned 2 lessons from the old man:
1. Specific "type" honey-- like berry, sage or buckwheat--is mostly a BS concept. Everything (whatever they might say) is for the most part that undefined "wildflower" type. It's a great marketing racket, but unless the hive is in the center of miles worth of dedicated berry, sage, buckwheat, etc fields, there is no way to draw a type distinction. Bees take from everything around them, residential gardens, forests, other farms, you name it.
2. Hive die off rates are an inexplicable and terrifyingly reality. (editorial aside: inexplicable my ass, I looked into the matter and France faced the same bee epidemic in the late 80s into the 90s. Same symptoms, same results.  Some chemical element had been introduced into the herbicide and pesticide mix their companies were selling. Chemicals leeched into the plants, from plant to pollen to bees. People were outraged, the chemical was eventually banned and-- would you guess? The bees returned and the mass hive die offs ended.)

I've been keeping a curious eye on our bees this season.

Started off today planting out 2 trays or about 588 plants worth of loose leaf lettuce.

I never had noticed, but most lettuce seeds are wrapped in pellets on account of their tiny size-- making handling and planting much easier. We aren't in the practice of saving our seeds for the most part-- there are exceptions like broom corn. The boss explained that with his land and water source taken care of, his biggest expense is in hired man-power- and without the proper seed machinery, saving seeds is very labor intensive. It comes down to: pay a couple hundred bucks for seeds 100% ready to go, or pay a couple thousand bucks for a work crew to dry, separate and then store them.  (Once we get into the full summer swing we have 1-2 dedicated picking crews, 1-2 people watching over the store and farm kitchen, then the general labor crew of myself, Bah, the foreman and the foreman's friend (but he doesn't start until June)) So to save time, and thereby money, the boss gets his seeds from his friend, a crazy man in Maine named Johnny. He sells nothing but organic and heirloom seeds-- and since all our seeds come from him, nothing we pull out is of the genetically modified variety.

We are not an organic farm, despite our seed choice- so none of our produce can be labeled as such. The politics of this stuff is interesting-- it doesn't matter if you spray only a little bit (and I'm not saying it should), the lines are just very absolute. We spray a bit in Spring, we are not organic.

I've tried to ease back a bit, as it often feels like I'm interrogating the boss with all my questions... so, a while back I asked him-- "We face all these pests and weeds, organic farms face the same problems-- how do they make it work?" The answer is complicated, but/and I'm very curious to know more specifics--  exactly what does one smallish but successful organic farm do start to finish. Some of the answer I received is tied up in the high price wholesalers/farmer's markets/big stores ask for organic produce. A higher percentage of a given crop is lost to pests/fungus/molds/(weeds?) etc-- so the price difference offsets a bit of the labor/time invested in a smaller harvest. Some of the slack due to no herbicide is made up for in manual labor, more frequent hand weeding-- and more wages needed paying. So far this is all price related, but some pests, even on organic farms are dealt with through spray-- there are apparently some organic based, nontoxic pesticides available (used in particular to battle white flies).

These are just some ways-- ones the boss pulled out when I put him on the spot. I'm inclined to believe some are actually used. As he emphasized, everyone does it their own way whether organic or not.

"It takes many ways to keep the world fed." -- The Boss

Hehe, a slight digression. I've been thinking about these particulars the past few days out in the field. A buddy, who is working a perma-culture farm in central america, had me puzzling over the question of toxins and their use in our sprays.

When I realize I'm rationalizing, am I still making rationalizations? Am I rationalizing the way we do things on this farm? Yeah, but I'm done on the subject for now--it would take a lot more blabbering.

Right, so I planted the lettuce. Headed up to the hilltop fields with Bah and the foreman-- more rocking, heavy rocking. This was the boulder field, and it will never end--already I see more rocks poking through places we've already picked over. We slugged it out, and filled many front loaders until lunch.

Early afternoon, Bah and I transplanted a good 1,500 swiss chard into the lower fields. The foreman laid out a half dozen or so rows of string beans. With the way plants are looking in the main greenhouse, I think there will be lots of transplanting in the next week.

We finished up surprisingly fast. We started laying more irrigation pipe, lots of it. We hitched up a wagon to the new tractor and piled the pipe (both 3in and 2in) high. Four more lines are going off the main artery in the lower fields now-- covering the beans, chard and some rows of sweet corn (I'm forgetting something, there has to be more planted there). It was a terrible exercise in impatience and aluminum grinding on pavement, dirt and stone. The wagon wasn't big enough (by a long shot) for the lengths of pipe, so Bah and I took turns either laying across the pipes to weigh them down or scrambling behind the wagon trying to lift up the dragging ends.

Afterward, the foreman and I connected up 2 of the pipe lines and started replacing a few of the damaged water guns and gaskets. Lots more to do tomorrow.


I've started germinating a tray of my own seeds at home. Planted a variety of grapes that are native to this area (saved these seeds from the grapes growing around the field edges, used to eat 'em like crazy during breaks last year). There have been some mistakes, as my choice of soil has much to be desired. I figure once/if these guys pop up and grow strong, I will plant them around the house. This variety can be a bit invasive, wrapping vines around everything in reach, but well worth having grapes at my fingertips while lounging on the porch-- like a roman senator. Once there is something to report I'll post pictures of the project. Also, I keep the camera handy these days so more farm photos coming.

See ya tomorrow.

Rise and Wash

Clear skies and high winds.

Started out today in the lower fields clearing more rocks. Not much to it, just opening the way for the harrow to come through. These fields have great soil, regardless of the rocks-- the Boss's family raised dairy cows on this land for generations, so (literally) centuries of manure has thickened up beautifully, deep dark dirt. Fortunately, the stones in these fields tend to be a lot smaller and easier on the back. The foreman got right to work, he brought the harrow through then planted more rows of sweet corn.

Bah and I kept chugging rolling stones. The two of us have become the defacto manual labor crew, while the boss and foreman roll about busy in the tractors. The Boss has been spreading a good deal of compost and fertilizer across the lower fields- the foreman has been wed to the seeder day in and out.

The fertilizer spreader is good for tightly packed fields, but the berry rows require a more personal touch-- spreading the stuff by hand around the plant base out to where the roots extend, keeping it away from the walking rows where there be weeds. Bah and I spread fertilizer over the emaciated raspberry field, then the gooseberries, blackberries and black-raspberry rows.

At lunch, I rambled off to the greek joint in town for some pizza.

In the afternoon, I met Bah and we headed to the blueberry rows to prune out the dead branches sapping from the bushes. Last summer was dry and harsh on these blueberries- a row right next to the day neutral strawberries was particularly hard hit. Looking over them with the boss, he conjectured that perhaps there was a gravel deposit beneath this side of the field-- as it always has a problem with water retention. We hacked the row down to its living sticks and picked through the rest of the berry rows ( they fared much better). If the weather keeps wet and sunny, we could have a big blueberry harvest in July-- the bushes are loaded top to bottom with red buds and flowers.

A correctional aside-- I am not particularly gifted at estimating acreage (one is equal to somewhere between a tennis court and a mile, right?). Inquiring with the Boss, he gave me the following break down:
The total property is somewhere around a hundred and sixty acres. Forty acres are cleared for veggie planting, store and barn. Twenty acres are grazing for the cow herd, and the remaining hundred is all forest. As it stands, we aren't in the habit of clearing any more for use. Everything agrable and flat enough, is already in use. The boss said he even planned to tear up a few of the far off berry fields by the cow pasture, simply because we have too much. When harvest comes we don't have enough hands to pick everything fast enough- a few rows nearly rotted on the vine last season. So it goes.

This acreage came back to haunt me, as I spent the rest of the day mowing down the grass fields around the top side of the boss's house. Three hours spent not pruning berries-- oh well there is tomorrow.

Today has me back in the writing swing, tomorrow will be a beefy-er reconting-- especially after my little field trip today. After lunch I hiked out to the beehives and snapped a few pictures. Last time I checked them out, if you remember, was on a cold March day while minding a nearby bonfire. Back then I could walk right up and around the twenty hives without hearing or seeing a single bee. A lot has changed since then. The bees are back up to full production. I didn't push my luck, stayed a good twenty feet off, but the air around every opening was covered thick with worker bees doing their thing. Tomorrow, I'll just run down and snap a picture of the calf too-- and see how much she's grown by the season's end.

More coming.

Bok Choi

Whew, a bit strung out after this week-- really need the weekend breather. Next week I'll return to full day format, but for now here's the day lite.

Finished heavy weeding final raspberry row by the blueberry bushes. Bah and I hacked away at it all morning. No more snakes coming around now.

After lunch Bah and I took the big 288 plant trays of bok choi out to the lower fields (between the spinach/ kale and last year strawberries) for transplanting. Planted 800+ of one variety and 300+ of another. Slow work out in a hot sun.

Just before the day's end the Boss drove over and we shifted one of the irrigation lanes over a bit. Got everything connected up and started the first real watering run of the year. Bok choi will do pretty well with some water-- everything else looked a bit dry too. One of the pipes got plugged up with crap, had to disconnect and flush mid-watering. All fixed- all looking good.

Check yesterday's post for farm pictures if you missed 'em!

PICTURE DAY- Photos then Day

I actually followed through and snapped a bunch of photos around the farm:

The farm store is the gray building there in the middle. Took this photo back a bit from the steep hill-edge so the perspective is a bit bizarre. I'm standing by a row of gooseberries in the fore-ground center-- you can see the end of a raspberry row off on the right. The far edge of the barn's second story is there on the right. The white blob-mound to the left are a couple palates worth of fertilizer we had delivered yesterday afternoon. The hill top behind the store is where the peach orchard is located.

Here's the view from directly behind the farm store. In the summer we roll up a bunch of wagons to the concrete pavilion and load them up with produce for CSA members. There's the main greenhouse and the old tractor on the left. Behind the greenhouse is a sharp dip in the hill leading to a horse field and the big pond. Maybe you can make it out through the fuzzy, but the dirt road on the right leads through the trees up to the orchard and hilltop fields.

Here's the view from the greenhouse door. You can see the irrigation pipes and folded covers back against the wall we use for frost protection. Far left row are the cherry and plum tomatoes; next row to its right are the peppers (all varieties); then come the bok choi, cauliflower, broccoli and swiss chard in the next row; rows to the right side are a hodge podge of trial tomato varieties, tons of eggplant varieties and a horde of basil plants. In the foreground on the right is the stupid miracle grow attachment I watered the lawn with yesterday in the pouring rain.

Here's another angle on the farm store's rear and the main greenhouse. The bare dirt is made up into a big garden each year so folks walking around have something to look at. Last year we planted a bunch of super sized pumpkins, for the kids.

Standing in the same place as the last photo, just turn right and here's the pond! Through the fuzz you can see the water pump and irrigation pipes-- and my 40ft pipe half sunk into the water (the keg is sorta bobbing along out in the pond middle). The hutch on the other shore is for the horses- we'll get to them, but first:

My beloved pipe. You can see the pump up on the blocks, just like I said. The tractor backs right up against it and spins her into life. There's the keg afloat- clear as day. Of course. Only the fully painted end of the pipe is out of the water- it figures. All the same, what a gorgeous pipe.

Ran up the road to the hill top, here's a shot of what you see. There's the store and greenhouse, to their right are still unplanted fields, but across the street we have fields with stuff happening- get to that later. Through the trees on the left you can kinda see the barn. This is right at the edge of the orchard, where we planted the 40 new trees earlier this year.

Row of 5 year old Peach trees, look at all those buds! As you might guess these guys have not been picked over yet. The orchard is at a hard slope to photograph fully/ still pretty young, so it's not very impressive.

This is a peach tree, not even a year old-- almost just a stick in the ground. Two rows of these guys go across the hill. The plants are just starting to root in and get comfortable.

This is one of the 5 year trees I plucked, now its next to naked. How embarrassing.

Just a few steps down the hill I found the horses grazing in this side paddock. These are the two tannish long haired mares. You can see the barn and greenhouse there through the trees.

Abutting the orchard is this field of raspberries. Bah and I finished weeding these the other day. I miss-spoke in an earlier post-- you don't cut down raspberries every year but ever other, 2nd year growth produces the berries. So these fellows will have to wait until next season. If you look hard you can see more unplanted fields behind the trees there in the back.

Panorama time(left) , these are the hill top fields. When my buddy came up to work a week back in early spring we spent some quality time lighting fires in the pouring rain around here.

Panorama time (center), these are 5 rows of the strawberries we planted last fall. Bah did a good job adjusting the hay. They're getting pretty bulky with all this sun/rain. Unconnected irrigation pipe is just lying in the sun-- the foreman and I connected it all later after I took the picture. (Angry clouds coming in from the west)

Panorama time (right), there are the strawberries again for reference. Last year the fields in the other hill top photos were planted with fall tomatoes, potatoes and tons of sweet and grain corns. The fields in this picture had more corn, eggplants galore, some winter squash and pumpkins. Far, far down there is a dip to the hill-- along the tree line though are more berry fields.

Walking to that far, far side down the dip-- turned to the right here is the raspberry field I weeded the other day.

Follow the raspberry row and you're back toward the start. Here's a good shot of the main farmhouse where the Boss's brother lives and the barn. If you have hawk eyes (or zoom in) you can see the two white mares against the stone wall to the left. Years ago the town chopped the farm in half, building that main road down the middle. On the left side of the road are the cow pastures, forest, more berry fields and the beehives -- sorry, no pictures of all that today.

Up close and personal with a row of blackberry bushes.

Across from the farm store are... more fields! (another road sort of double cuts the farm again)

Here on the left in the last picture are the 3000 plastic wrapped day neutral strawberries we planted a few weeks ago. You can see the irrigation line coming off the artery leading to the drip lines. Bah and I laid out a more serious line of water guns that cover the whole area later today. Up on the slight hill are row upon row of blueberry bushes, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, herbs (sage and thyme) and what used to be garlic rows.

Next to the strawberries you can see the 12 rows of snap peas, faba beans, spinach and kale coming out in tidy green rows.

These are the 5 double rows of strawberries in the lower fields-- right next to the spinach and kale rows. This was the scene of many tense afternoons between the boss and foreman. (Kudos again to Bah's excellent hay placement)

All the way down the field, we have another couple rows of raspberries in full production growth. The tall-high-school-guy and I pruned back these rows (with some serious time from Bah too). On the left are empty rows-- we planted cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower there last year. but if you turn around...

It's the boss's house. When he built the house it was one of the first modern residential green-underground houses in the country. Behind the tree, if you look close, is the secondary greenhouse-- where all the big tomatoes are getting ready for the field under the boss's close watch. Again, if you look close, underneath the house's top four windows is a little white structure. That's the boss's house-attached-greenhouse where we started the tomatoes germinating in March. It's perfect for winter growing as the southern dip of the sun sends light right through and into the building-- cutting down on heating costs and kicking off plant growth.

So that's the farm! Now

A brief history of today (very brief):
Finished plucking blossoms in the orchard. Connected up the hill top irrigation. Laid down new irrigation in lower fields with Bah (then connected in with the foreman). Weeded raspberry rows on other side of blueberry bushes with Bah-- Bah found a snake and let it go free. He found it again and bashed its head in with a hoe. Wind picked up in great gusts, almost knocking us over-- it started to hail. Is there a snake god?

And that's all for today folks.