Hot and hazy, full sun all day. The temperature stuck in the mid 90Fs.
Some days are tough.
When I walked in this morning the foreman already had the new tractor hitched up to a wagon full of the rusted 6ft trellis posts. Rhode Island and I grabbed the maul (half axe, half sledgehammer), two iron pry bars and a long log to stamp down soil. We all headed down to the cherry tomato and odd ball big tomato rows, and started laying posts. The tomato plants are still small, so the foreman could drive the tractor over and along each row without the plants scrapping against the undercarriage.The foreman would dig a small hole with the pry bar-- rhode island set in and held the trellis in place, while I stood on the wagon and bashed the posts 2-3ft deep with the maul. We piled soil around the post and Rhode Island packed down the soil with the log. We put in a post every fourteen plants (~14ft) and at each end of a row-- rhode island and I counted out the plants while the foreman crawled the tractor and wagon forward.
After some time the boss rode by in the van, he wanted to take a picture of Rhode Island caked in sweat and dirt-- to commemorate the first day of hard work in his life. Rhode Island managed to laugh. The foreman was in good spirits-- the new tractor has a radio, so he plugged in his Ipod and maxed out the volume dial. He's a big fan of Otis Redding, 70s Soul and Reggae. Rhode Island had never heard of Bob Marley and the foreman nearly had a heart attack. Music made the heat tolerable and we pushed through until lunch, finishing only 6 rows.
After lunch I took a long break. I think we were all too quick judging Jockey, he eventually joined the foreman, Viking and me as we sat joking around in the shade behind the farm store. Jockey quit his job at a burrito joint when the boss agreed to take him on-- and he's never been happier. Bah and Old Rudolpho spent all day picking the first strawberry harvest. They filled up all the farm store refrigerators with pints full of berries-- we scooped some off the top while sitting around. I'd already sweated my shirt into a wet rag, it was nice to breath a moment.
The foreman and I headed down to the pond to fire up the irrigation. I cranked away on the pump primer-- but we couldn't get any suction. The boss started to get a bit agitated over the situation, the fields needed to be watered. We dragged out the 40ft suction pipe, but the repairs looked fine. The boss painted on another coat of fiberglass. While it dried, the foreman and I returned to laying posts in the cherry tomato fields.
We kept up a fast pace, but it took a lot of sweat. We slugged through 8 rows. With only an hour left we walked back to the farm store. The boss and I returned down to the pond to try the irrigation again-- no luck, no suction. We brought down a trash bag and used it to test for leaks. When you pull the primer lever it sucks a small amount of air from the suction pipe-- slowly, after many pumps it brings the water up the 40ft pipe to the pump's fan which pushes the water through the artery lines. The pipe passed the trash bag test-- so the boss was stumped. We took apart the pump side which leads to the artery and found the problem. A rubber flap keeps air in the artery from ruining the suction in the pump and pipe while priming-- it had fallen slightly out of line, breaking the seal. The foreman joined us-- after many false starts, disassembles and reassembles of the pump (and a long time spent cranking the primer by me) the water flowed once more.
The foreman went to finish off some fertilizing and I ran down to the lower fields with wrenches and wire. After lunch (I forgot to mention), we replaced the blank pipes in the lettuce row with more water guns-- so it became a very heavy watering line. Last week we found the irrigation left some serious dry gaps that even increased water pressure couldn't solve. So I ran down (warning Bah and Old Rudolpho of the coming water) and cleared out the water gun nozzles-- it was a good day to get wet.
Before going home I helped the boss toss 30 more gallons of diesel into the old tractor running the water pump. I said to the foreman-- we aren't going to have to take the pump apart every time we irrigate are we? He replied-- Let's hope its a wet summer.
Asides:
Things have really sped up on the farm. It's becoming harder and harder to keep tabs on everything that's happening on a given day-- kinda makes me miss those slow days in early April. I need to find a happier medium between what's happening on the farm and what I'm doing there-- something to think over while out in the field.
Big Snapping turtles have been all over the streams the past week or so. Viking had me rescue one from the middle of the road before it was run over. They are big and nasty-- longish nosed too. The boss was moving compost and accidentally crushed a pile of buried eggs. Today I found a big old snapper crushed by the side of the road-- it has not been a good week for these turtles.
The CSA kicks off next week and we hope to have around 400 pint of strawberries ready for the pick up days. The boss is trying to stock up the farm store first-- today we've already sold a good number of berries (any number is a good one). Optimistically, he's hoping to bring in a couple thousand dollars in berries before the CSA begins. There's a big sign for the farm on the main road-- the boss painted it decades ago-- we hang smaller signs below it telling what crops are available. Now the "Strawberries" sign is up and, hopefully, the people will be coming in.
Thunderstorms are due later in the week, but until then--
on with the heat.
No comments:
Post a Comment