Helga

Wild weather following behind the storm. The farm survived another day-- no tornadoes, even the wind wasn't a problem, but the rain caused a good deal of soil erosion and flooding in some fields and around the streams. The day started sunny with hardly a cloud up in the sky. Somewhere in the early afternoon the wind really picked up and larger dark cloud fronts passed over. The temperature has steadily dropped from mid 70Fs in the morning, to the lower 60Fs. So far no rain, but the boss heard it's suppose to drop into the 40Fs over night (ugh).

When I came into the greenhouse this morning the boss handed me a shovel and lead me around back. We rummaged through a pile of home-welded iron raspberry trellises-- picking out the ten best. I packed them into the waiting tractor and we headed off to meet the boss's brother in the far raspberry rows in the lower fields. The boss's brother was nice enough to lend a hand and his tractor auger. He drilled 4ft deep holes on each end of the 5 rows. I dropped in the trellis posts and foreman helped me bury/stamp the soil around them into place. On each post is attached an iron cross bar with holes drilled at each end-- eventually we'll run wire or string from end to end to keep the long raspberry canes off the ground and out of the travel lanes. I bent these crossbars back into shape with an enormous monkey wrench.

Back at the farm the foreman and I joined NYU on damage duty. The tomato field was hit particularly hard by the storm-- the lower rows along the slope were nearly entirely covered over in sediment. A good number of tomatoes had the soil eroded ringht out from under them by the water run off. We marched through the 20 rows reburying loose plastic and hunting for lost tomatoes. Surprisingly, I found most of the lost plants and returned them to their positions. The terrible shape of the field really hit NYU hard, several times I caught him shaking his head saying-- we worked so hard planting these guys.
I can relate, but it could have been much, much worse.

In a past life, the foreman studied some geology before swearing off college of any type. Some of the lessons apparently stuck home, as he gave me a crash course in erosion mechanics. With the tomato field returned to some semblance of normality, we marked off the locations where the water and soil flowing downhill was worst. We dug a series of trenches in between the tomato rows, about a foot or two deep. The foreman explained that water runoff is a time game-- the earlier and longer you can canal the current the better. Given preparations before erosion begins, you can redirect water to places with less damage potential-- i.e. shift the trickle before it becomes a river. Trenches also provide a degree of fail safe, water can collect and some will absorb rather pour downhill. The soil we dug was still a muddy sludge cake, but we finished repairs in time for a late lunch.


When we got back, NYU and I linked into a chore team. The boss gave us a list: hand fertilize the chard, loose leaf lettuce, romaine and two beds of bok choi; transplant a trays worth of swiss chard into the existing rows filling the gaps where previous plants died off; plant sunflowers; weed the jungle that leaped up around the broccoli rabe and spinach bed. NYU is a good guy, working with him is easy-- we chat and bullshit our way through the day. We put on latex gloves to spread the 46% nitrogen fertilizer (this stuff burns your hands without protection). With buckets full we walked the field lengths casting a light pellet drizzle. Talked over the city, girlfriends, food, the farm, the boss and camping. Somewhere between the chard and bok choi, we remembered back to laying the plastic rows in the tomato fields last week. At that time the boss kept repeating a little jingle over and over as we worked behind the tractor,  he'd say-- Pack it tight boys, tight like Helga Von Eisentight. We chuckled over that one and cast a couple handfuls out for Helga.

We quickly replanted the gaps in the chard, then we got working on the sunflowers. The boss wanted a row along the stone wall by the road in the lower fields, then more planted all around the farm store. On our way back to the store we took a detour through the strawberry fields. The berries are developing very quickly, we found one or two that had gone fully red-- these we ate, firsts of the season.

Weeding the jungle took the rest of the day and was still left unfinished. We should have taken care of it last week when the weeds were still tiny, but planting trumps all other tasks. Bah came to join the weeding, but even with three of us the going was slow. The wind really started to howl, the trees bent over with a few big gusts. An enormous military propeller plane flew low overhead checking out the clouds-- we decided it must be with the National Guard deployed in state to help with the storm aftermath. At least 3 big tornadoes were confirmed today, several people died out west and hundreds of homes were leveled. At lunch the woman on the radio said it was a miracle given the destruction that so few people were injured.

We ran out of the fields right at closing, the wind was too much.


It occurred to me this morning just how much I forget to write about. I'd say about 1/3 of the things we do in a day get lost down the memory hole. What reminded me was laying the trellises-- nearby were the broccoli and cauliflower rows I helped Bah and NYU plant last week. A few days back the boss went to check on them and maybe 1/4-1/3 of the crop had been eaten by vermin. He was furious. That same day we covered the entirety of these fields with gauze cloth staked to the ground. The cloth is thin and airy enough for the plants beneath to breath, but strong and complete enough to keep the critters from getting underneath. Anyway, seeing the rows covered in cloth reminded me off how much I forget to mention on any given day.

Exciting couple days ahead and I have a few ideas that might play out-- we'll see!

More tomorrow! (More pictures coming)