Today's weather was a pleasant change. Mostly cloudy throughout the day, but the sun was never far off. The temperature danced between the upper 70Fs and low 80Fs.
The boss was in a difficult state this morning-- I did my best to stay out of his way and busy. Rhode Island and I put the back of the farm store in order: re-hung the tarp awning, arranged the produce wagons, installed the air conditioner unit into the kitchen wall and replaced all the trash barrels.
I loaded all the left over trial tomatoes into the new tractor's front loader. Earlier this spring a friend of the boss sent us a package full of different of tomato seeds-- there were maybe 30 different varieties, but also multiple packets of each variety from different seed companies. We started half a tray of every seed type-- to test out the differences between companies and try out some new tomato varieties. The boss gave his friend back 8 or so germinated plants from every bunch of seed, the rest we kept. I headed down to the vacant 1 and 1/2 row by the cherry tomatoes. The boss dropped off the plants and I got to transplanting.
I chugged along and finished a bit before noon. There were more plants than space, so I half buried the leftovers at the woods edge-- Darlin and Viking are rubbing off on me. I headed back to the greenhouse and spent the rest of the morning reorganizing a mountain of now unused planting trays.
Two new kids came in today. The girl came in to get the kitchens started. She's pretty mousey, but she gave me hell last year on account of her disapproving of the high school I went to (long years ago)-- I don't talk to her much. The new guy started cold, but warmed up fast-- he's Easy. I chatted around with him and Viking after lunch. After a bit of talking I set off on a little quest from the boss-- the storm last night passed over without a problem (those erosion trenches worked wonders), but the ground cloth the foreman and I covered over the zucchini and summer squash blew off and was stuck up a tree in the forest field.
I walked through the tomato fields and hiked up the hill path. On the way I found a length of old rope in the field and finally fashioned a solution for carrying around my water. Up in the forest field, after some looking around, I found the cloth and pulled it from the trees. I brought a pocket full of long stakes and re-covered the zucchini/summer squash. No problem.
Leisurely strolled back to the farm store and met up with Easy-- we took up our hoes and the boss sent us to the lettuce fields. On the way down to the lower fields we stopped to sample the gooseberries and strawberries. There were three beds of lettuce, four rows in each-- one bed of loose leaf and two beds of romaine. The lettuce is getting very big-- we decided it would definitely be ready for the CSA next week. Unfortunately, the weeds were just as big. Easy is easy-- we hoed along inch by slow inch, talking about every damn thing that came to mind. He worked last summer in a work crew with the foreman and the foreman's friend. We swapped farm stories and the boss came by (in much better spirits) to share some of his lettuce wisdom.
All the summer men on this farm are fiercely territorial over their tasks, and go to any length to find out what all the others are doing. The same way Jockey had a problem with NYU and Rhode Island in the fields, Easy was eager for a status update. Somehow I've become a middle man of sorts between the mythical boss/foreman and everyone else. Despite myself, I caught Easy up to sped as we finished the loose leaf.
After a quick water-refill break (and getting my paycheck from the boss, who was headed up to the hilltop fields with the foreman to prep more soil for planting), we got started on the romaine. This bed was completely overgrown in a foot high sea of weeds-- it was slow hoeing. We finished up the bed (we didn't touch the 3rd bed) just before closing. Easy and I quickly moved over two irrigation lines-- they were placed in the middle of 2 unused beds the boss wants to till and plant.
At the farm store, I kicked around with Viking for a bit. The girl in the kitchen had pushed out the very first round of strawberry pies, so we stared at them as they cooled. Told Viking where I left all the abandoned trial tomatoes in case she wanted to pick out a few for home.
Wrote out my time card and here I am at home.
Sippin' cold beer on the porch and ready for a shower-- its been a long week. I must have the itch bad-- because as I'm thinking over today to write, half-wish I was working this weekend to get back out there.
Then again, maybe I can finally prepare some soil and plant those tobacco seeds . I need to do some research first-- the father of my brother's friend grows his own, maybe I'll try him for some tips.
Take it easy.
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