Cold and rain this morning. Weather let up mid-morning, dark clouds hung overhead-- but the sun poked through for an hour here and there in the afternoon. 53F this morning, rose into the low 60Fs at noon.
A hard rain was falling when I pulled in this morning. Hustled down to the greenhouse and joined the gang. NYU was back, and had plenty of stories from the White Mountains. Apparently pickle juice is a good compliment to sip along with whiskey--NYU learned this from a group of elderly bikers in a nearby campsite. As it rained, NYU and I seeded 8 trays of lettuce (288 plants per tray) -- four of loose leaf, four of romaine. By the time we finished the weather had cleared up enough to get outside.
With the boss's blessing we marched off for the second raspberry fields on the far slope of the hilltop. The post wagon was waiting, loaded up and sopping wet. Regardless, we started the slow ways of driving down posts. NYU punched a hole down with the pry bar and held the post in place as I bashed it a good 2 1/2 feet deep. The soil on this side of the hill is poor, gravelly with many stones buried into the mix. Each post took several false starts-- my arms grew pretty tired swinging that maul. By lunch we laid nearly half of the posts.
After lunch NYU and I joked around the farm store with the boss and Viking. Mouse (the girl in the kitchen) made peace, and gave me a choice of cookies she baked up for the farm store. Then we dragged our way back to the posts. Fewer false starts through the second attempt, we got a lot better at avoiding the hidden stones. We finished the second half of the raspberry field in two hours. These trellises are nothing short of glorified sign posts-- so while we pounded away, the boss prepared a bunch of wooden cross beams back at the greenhouse (holes in the center for bolts and notches at the ends to string the rope). Hiking back to farm central, we met the boss and he explained his plans for the beams. We collected a box of the foot long beams, bolts, nuts and washers. The boss was once again in a great mood, joking around about some very unorthodox ideas for storefront advertisements-- NYU decided it was a good time to ask out of work early this Friday. That ended the good mood-- the boss was pretty pissed. In retrospect, I'm judging the rest of the day was punishment for NYU, and me by proxy.
Back in the raspberry field we sped along bolting the beams into place-- it seemed we might get the wire hung in a few more hours work. We weren't so lucky. The boss called me up, told us to ditch the beams in the wagon and go meet the foreman at the other side of the hilltop by the potato fields. That could only mean one thing, and it's no good being right.
NYU and I dragged along the pry bars, based on my premonitions. More rocking. The foreman was pretty sympathetic and blasted the reggae as we hunked along dragging boulder after boulder out for the pile. We filled 5-6 front loaders full to overflowing. It was NYU's first time pulling rock, so I kept a good distance from him and his pry bar. All things considered, bouldering brings some good comradery-- the three of us joked through our mutual misery. After five slow passes we cleared the field.
NYU and I had just enough time to collect our water and sit down, when the boss crept up behind in the old tractor-- no rest for the weary. More rocking. A long stone wall bisects the hilltop and the boss wanted it built up with all the rocks along the fields edges. We dragged to it, eventually the boss came out a gave us a hand-- out of pity. We finished the wall with a half hour till closing. Not done yet, NYU and I moved an irrigation artery (the galvanized steel piping) out from around the peach orchard and a fallow raspberry field-- so the boss could mow down the 3ft grass rising all around the fruit trees.
Staggering down the hill at the end of the day, we decided whiskey and pickle juice was the only medicine for our ailments. NYU and I signed out and went our ways home.
I may not have any pickle juice handy, but I certainly have the other.
The skies are looking dark again, but if the weather holds we'll probably be finishing the raspberry wiring tomorrow. The boss pointed out that all our crossbeams were hung too high, so first thing we'll have to unscrew and lower the lot of 'em.
Onward sleep.
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