Not a cloud in the sky all day through. Temperature cinched into the low 90Fs-- the guy at the pizza shop tells me tomorrow will be even hotter.
It was a morning of buddy-buddy with Rhode Island. The boss needed to pick up a big shipment of seeds, fertilizer and herbicide on the other side of the state-- so he dumped me, Rhode Island and a wagon full of re-bar poles in the raspberry rows at the far side of the lower field. Our job was to plant poles throughout the rows-- between the heavy duty trellises the foreman and I buried last week. I give Rhode Island a hard time, but he's alright-- very eager to please.
I carried bundles of the re-bar trellises and planted them about every ten paces amid the plants. Rhode Island came behind me with a heavy mallet and bashed them into place-- 3ft deep, 3ft above soil. We talked about his early morning drinking habits and his mother's fears that he's an alcoholic. It turns out through parallel universes that Rhode Island knows two of my cousins-- the sailor brothers, one runs a sailing school on a lake nearby and the other races competitively up and down the coast. I get on well with both brothers and enjoy our habitual drinking nights in town.
Chatting away we easily planted the re-bar in 4 of the 5 rows. Out of re-bar, we used wide green sign posts for the final row-- these went in more difficultly. Somewhere along the line the fiberglass mallet handle shattered-- so Rhode Island switched to an iron maul. I started the post holes 2ft deep with an iron pry bar, while Rhode Island finished them off-- smashing the posts into place.
Returning to the farm store we took a sampling tour through the strawberry fields. I watered over the greenhouse and we dragged all the basil plants outside-- transplanting begins later this week (i hope).
The boss returned from his trip a little before noon. I found the big tarp canopy in a corner of the barn, the foreman and I hung it over the back area of the farm store-- covering where we put out the produce wagons for CSA customers.
Around this time one of the high school kids came in for his first day of manning the ice cream window. All the regulars have their opinion of this guy, Jockey-- and as I found out, he's difficult. A soccer player for a local team, he seemed a bit emasculated when I told him Rhode Island and NYU have been joining me out in the fields-- but I guess ice cream is important too. (The whole ice cream thing never really took off for the boss-- so this year he's planted a few signs along the main road side to drum up that end of business)
After lunch I was assigned an interesting construction project.
We have a large stainless steel kitchen sink out behind the farm store-- we use it to wash veggies coming from the fields. It was free standing last year-- propped up on cinder blocks-- until a strong wind blew it over. Fortunately none of the facets were ever attached to a water line (so clean up was easy), but we always have to run a hose out from the kitchen. This year the boss wants a more permanent arrangement.
Yesterday Rhode Island dug two 2ft deep holes by the old well, and today I poured in the concrete-- mixed it with a hoe in a crappy old wheelbarrow. Once it had set, I measure and half buried long screws-- so we can bolt the steel sink legs on top.
The foreman managed the irrigation all day, riding off occasionally to spread fertilizer. I ran down after setting the screws to help him shift the pipes and water guns further down into the tomato fields. Everything went fine, but for some reason the water pressure couldn't hold. We headed over to the pond with the boss and shut off the pump. Dragging out the 40ft pipe (the one I renovated in April), we found some of the repair putty had broken loose exposing long cracks. After drying the pipe length we resealed the cracks with more putty.
The foreman rumbled off in a tractor to spread fertilizer, while the boss and I waited for the putty to dry.
The boss didn't want to sit still, so we piled up a wagon with 5in pipes and laid a new irrigation line from the lower field artery up to the onion rows. He plans to set up one of the big water guns in order to cover the onions, herbs and some of the berry bushes. The gooseberries are growing big and green-- you can eat them at this stage but they're extremely tart. The boss said the Russian immigrant customers go crazy for gooseberries, I guess they use them in a bunch of traditional dishes.
Jockey had dragged up all the produce wagons from storage in the barn-- when we walked back to finish the water-pump-pipe he was busy painting over all the wood surfaces.
Down at the pipe, the boss decided the best course of action was to reinforce the damaged section at the waterline with a fiberglass sealant. We wrapped the banged up pipe part in mesh construction fabric, then painted over it with a mixture of liquid fiberglass and an activating solution. By tomorrow it should be dry enough to return to the pond and start irrigation back up.
The boss headed home early, and I gave the seedlings in the greenhouse a light re-watering on account of the heat.
Home again,
and onward to a hot tomorrow.
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