On the Storm

A wild day of weather. I'll start here with the morning-- hazy and hot-- full sun most of the day. Temperature stuck in a humid mid 80Fs.

What a day. Hoofed it down to the greenhouse this morning to meet the boss. Everything was ready, the foreman arrived early and hitched up the pepper wagon to the tractor. NYU and I hopped in with the peppers and we took off for the forest fields. The boss drove Bah up to join us and we set down for a pepper lesson.

Ideally, peppers need to be buried up to their "condalital" (spelling?) leaf. These are the first leaves which develop as the seed sprouts. Up the stem from these are the "true leaves" the first 2 leaves of the actual pepper plant. We planned 2 rows of peppers (spaced 18inches) per bed-- with three 500 yard beds.

In retrospect, most of today was spent sweating through grunt work. From start to about 3pm, we planted every peppers we could fit. All the Ace, Super Shepherd and most of the Red Knight (2  trays left) filled the field. It was a hot day-- fortunately, the boss carted us water periodically.

While we finished the last row of peppers, the boss cut a trench through the center of the future cucumber row and sprayed pesticide (with a hand pump) down the field's length. I took a hoe and turned an inch or so of soil over the line of spray. With the pepper planting completed, the boss and foreman took off. Bah,  NYU and I were left to seed the cucumbers. Forming a terrible conga line, Bah drilled periodic holes with the stick end of a shovel while NYU and I marched behind, alternating between dropping seeds and covering them with soil. We polished off the planting none too quickly.

Exhausted, we slumped down the hill path-- taking our damn time getting back to the store. When we finally arrived, things started getting interesting. All day, and through lunch, we'd been whispering among ourselves about the storm coming. This is same storm front that wiped out towns in Missouri-- we were all tense. NYU and I milled about relaxing and gossiping with Viking, until the boss called us to toss a final round of soil about the tomato plants.

More plants have been damaged and I may have found the culprit-- found one the other day, but today I pulled a Colorado Potato Beetle off a tomato plant. He'd cut clean through the stem and was chomping away at the inner layers. I brought him up to the farm store and Viking took a picture. She wouldn't let me bag him in the freezer for the boss to see-- no one wants to be plastic wrapped and deep freezed she said-- so I took him out back and flicked him against a wall when she wasn't looking.

The clouds to the north were looking bleak and grey. Mid-way through a tomato row, lightning cut across the sky. NYU and I bolted out from the field. Dark clouds were rolling over the peach orchard's crest. The foreman rumbled back in the new tractor-- we formed an assembly line leading into the greenhouse and arranged all the trays of unplanted peppers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes inside. Left outdoors in their trays all these guys could easily drown or wash away with heavy rains. We frantic-ed about closing up and battering down the greenhouse. Viking helped us out and kept an ear on the radio-- shouting down updates from out west: tornado warnings, funnels spotted, then 3 tornado touch downs, then 4 more getting closer and closer to the farm. We ran around the store bringing everything light and loose inside. The boss was off checking on something or maybe called it an early day-- either way he was gone, but we had everything covered.

With the coming storm the temperature dropped 15 degrees into the comfortable 60Fs. Strong wind gusts and fat rain drops started slowly then picked up into a torrent.

NYU cut out early to get home, but the foreman, Viking and I sat under an overhang watching the storm come in. Lightning touched down all around the horizon as we chatted away. If the storm doesn't hit too badly Viking wanted to go buy manure to fertilize her home gardens. -- The foreman told us about working on an organic farm a few years back. They raised chickens and after slaughter they made a blood meal and feather meal to fertilize the soil. The foreman said the smell wasn't as bad as excrement, but it looked terrible and creeped him out. Thunder banged overhead and we all went our separate ways home.


Most of the tornado threats have passed now, lots of sightings nearby but my house is safe. It's still pouring rain, but that's fine-- the crops need it. Thunder is still banging and ripping overhead-- but less so than an hour ago.  From home I can still see black clouds heading in the farm's direction. We'll see what state the crops are in tomorrow. I'm draining out the tub as I write, filled it up just to be safe-- ya never know.


As an aside-- my grapes are going nowhere slowly. I talked to Viking and she researched the matter. The seeds I have apparently take forever to germinate. Instead she recommended cutting a section of roots and vine from an established plant, spraying it with a growth hormone, and then transplant. She's preparing a bunch of the same variety for herself and offered to bring me some. Viking has given me so many plants and seeds already, but I accepted. We'll see how it goes.

Onward aftermath!