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.