In It Thick

Today was the summer solstice, time sure flies-- six months ago I was wasting through winter, waiting for these days.

Full sun all day through. The temperature climbed up into the mid 80Fs-- but up in the hilltop fields this afternoon, something in the air changed and real heavy heat boiled through.


Ran straight to the greenhouse this morning. NYU was in today-- he's taking three day weekends now, trying to get in quality time with his girl friend before he ships overseas this fall. Fired up the trimmer and leveled the spearmint patch and weeds lining the garden/stone horse wall. The boss rolled up in the van as I dumped all the clippings behind the greenhouse. I piled up some crates and long knives, then the boss walked with me and NYU down to the lettuce in the lower fields. We cut a crate each of loose leaf and romaine-- this lettuce is getting big. Last week we packed 18 heads into a crate, now its 10-12 heads. Back at the farm store, we washed the dirt from the greens and set it up in the cooler to chill.

From the store I could see Bah and Old Rudolpho stringing wire along the trellises for the cherry tomatoes-- but it was time to get working. NYU and I grabbed our hoes and headed up to the hilltop. Somewhere in the past weeks the foreman found time to cut and plant a new field's worth of spinach, bok choi, beets, arugul, dill (which never germinated) and some mystery greens. This field is near the peach orchard, sandwiched between a raspberry field, the strawberries and a stone wall. For a decade the boss used the space for several big compost heaps, but last year he mixed and planted the field for the first time (the ornamental broom-corn he planted was a pretty safe bet). NYU and I hacked through the young weeds quickly, the soil was perfect-- the roots nearly fell out on their own.

Felt a bit ill all morning, I finally took the time to hike deep into the woods and worked out my problems. Then back to swinging. The foreman had the new tractor up in the orchard with the rotor blade attachment. The trees are decently spaced, so he had no trouble mowing down the 3ft grass. Just before lunch, the foreman finished cutting and we reconnected the galvanized steel irrigation artery running along the orchard.


After lunch the boss was out for a while, so NYU and I took our time getting back up the hill. We set up a table underneath the store's back awning and chatted with the gang. Viking has been spending her off days turning around her mother-in-law's land-- a tough plot from the sound of it. Somehow she also finds the time to build and paint all these wild sculptures she described to us. A friend has an enormous tract of land way, way up north and late this summer they're throwing a big music festival-- so Viking and her husband (a musician) have been hard at work with all the preparations. Jockey listened quietly to her stories, but then decided to air how pointless and foolish the whole thing sounded to him. I thought NYU and Mouse were gonna flay the kid alive-- fortunately the foreman arrived at that moment, and broke the tension with some hysterical anecdotes about the crack-addict living under his girlfriend's apartment stairs.

I saw Bah and Old Rudolpho headed back to stringing tomato trellises- so I grabbed a shovel, shoved NYU and we went up hill. On the way, NYU went on about how much Viking was growing on him (her intensity freaked him out at first) and how much he hated Jockey. I said-- man, he's a lot younger than you or I, he hasn't left home yet, he's naive and he's cocky-- give him a chance to get out first, then decide if you hate him. But NYU didn't listen and complained all the way to the field.

While NYU finished hoeing out the last spinach bed and started on the beets, I took up the shovel and started tearing out the cockelburough weeds that had grown thick around the irrigation artery. I sliced through each root bulb, tore off the towers of leaves and scraped right down to the soil. Hoe back in hand, I picked up with NYU on the beet bed. Next came the bok choi-- unlike the earlier rounds we started in the greenhouse, the foreman dropped these seeds straight into the ground. Summer must be here, the bok choi was growing bright and dandy. Around this point NYU started seeing things and his vision got hazy-- too much sun, not enough water. He set himself in the shade by a rock for a long water break, and I finished up the bok choi and arugula. NYU was feeling good soon enough, and we polished off the mystery greens-- neither of us could figure out what type of plant it was.

Our canteens had long since run dry, but I wasn't about to hike down hill then back up again-- so we pushed on and connected the strawberry drip lines to the artery, then ran a line of water guns through our weeded field. Steel gets awfully hot after a day in the sun. I checked over the lines and artery, then we headed down. We stood in the air conditioned kitchen a long time drinking from the tap. Across the kitchen, Jockey shook his head.

There might be rain tomorrow but if not, the fields will really need some water. NYU and I ran a water line down through the tomatoes and hooked up the water guns. While NYU went for more water, I chased down the boss's tractor in the lower fields. He wanted to have the pump and irrigation all set to go for tomorrow-- but wasn't quite ready yet. So I hustled back to the store and got NYU, we started weeding the cantaloupe rows next to the tomatoes. Plucking weeds out of the small holes in the plastic was extremely slow going-- we finished 2 and a half rows just before the day's end. I helped the boss unhitch the sprayer attachment, and we rolled the tractor down to the horse pond. We connected everything up fine, then switched the artery pipes attached to the water pump-- the pump only has so much pressure, and can't handle watering more than one or two major fields at a time (the lower fields + tomatoes or the forest fields or the hill top fields). We hooked up the hill top artery.

I stayed a little late-- fired up the trimmer again and cut back the field encroaching around the greenhouse.


Before I left, Jockey proudly showed me the cookies he baked-- he said Mouse was doing it all wrong, leaving them in the oven too long and spoiling what moisture they might have had. He explained how food continues to cook a brief while after you take it out of the oven and how he uses this in recipies, then gave me cookies to sample. He isn't a bad guy, by any stretch.

I gave Viking a hawk feather and some long turkey feathers that I found on the hill top-- signed out and called it.


I'm headed down to the city this weekend-- but either this week or next, pictures are coming. 
On a related note: Darlin is planning on some back-to-back visits up here-- and might shoot some more pictures around the farm. I'm excited and her photos always come out good, so there ya go.

Take it easy-- here's to more sun.