Snowed out yesterday, boss called early and said don't bother getting out of bed. Fiddled away the day getting things straightened out-- then chopped up a few logs to stock up the fireplace for the weekend. Only took one day without work to drive me crazy. Pretty rough sign of things to come-- maybe a week or so left. Met up with Gizzie at "The End" bar around midnight to polish up a few more scripts-- a few of 'em are looking pretty damn good.
Today
Sunny all day through, but took most of the day to warm up-- a good inch or two of snow covered the fields (most melted away by one or two in the afternoon). Cold winds, cold air. The temperature hung at 34F all morning-- afternoon high managed to reach 45F.
Rough jobs today, but they passed mostly pleasant. Started off with the foreman clearing away the last tractor attachments and bits of machinery surrounding the greenhouse (gotta be wide open before any serious snow). The real business began soon after-- Gizzie and I sharpened an edge to the maul and started whacking away at the lumber pile. As I might of mentioned before, the boss lives in his underground bungalow-- so he's pretty heat efficient, only takes a wood stove to keep him and his family through winter. But it certainly takes a good load of wood. Gizzie and I traded back and forth-- one chopping, one rolling in new logs. Many cigarettes and bullshit was had. We filled the tractor's front loader up three times before lunch (and the foreman hauled each load off to the boss's wood shed).
Swinging an ax takes a lot outta ya.
Things changed after lunch. Chopping was fine enough, but the boss had other plans. With the snow mostly melted he figured that Newport and I should get started on pulling the plastic wrap outta the fields. Sad work. We started with the closest field-- the late season zucchini/squash/pickling cukes/2nd cantaloupe rows running alongside the greenhouse. First things first-- we hoed up the soil along either side of each row. Then we got down on our knees and pulled the wrap out-- fistful by fistful. Wind, weather, picking, vermin and planting has shredded up most of the plastic-mulch-sheets by now-- all the same, progress was slow.
The boss and the foreman continued on splitting wood, Gizzie baked out a few pies/cooked the last round of tomato sauce in the kitchen-- Newport and I kept on with the plastic through the rest of the day. In five hours we manged to clear 8 rows worth. Not much at all. Told Newport-- hell, at this rate we'll still have a job into next weekend. Plastic wrap left: 2 rows in the 2nd cantaloupe, 25 long tomato rows, 23 short rows of cherry tomatoes, 3 rows of basil, 5 peppers, 3 eggplant, 3 long summer squash/zucchini/patty pan, then also the cucumber and the pickling cuke rows up in the forest fields. 68 plastic rows (of varying length) to go.
Muddy day ended just in time. Half frozen, we joined up with the boss and foreman to stack the last load of firewood. Day was done.
On the bus now, on my way to Darlin for the weekend. We'll see what next week brings. There's another storm due this Saturday, the numbers are all over the place, but some claim up to 6-10 inches will fall. That complicates things. We still don't have a thorough frost, so once everything melts off we can continue ripping up plastic-- if it melts off. Either way-- I can't pull up what I can't see, so the boss said (depending on the snowfall) take a long weekend and see Darlin. Can't argue with that. The plastic will still be there waiting when I get back.
Off to it then. Take it easy.
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