Fish Fluid

Light rain throughout the morning, it slowed down mid-afternoon into a cloudy brood. Temperature hung at the middle 50Fs.

It was a sloppy, wet morning. Snapped a few pictures of yesterday's masterwork:

There it is. On the left of the greenhouse. Haha, nothing fancy.

Here she lies. Tomorrow we're putting down a black plastic floor covering, rigging up the odd irrigation pipes as center-beams and covering over the top with extra greenhouse plastic. Can't wait to fill this up-- I've gone seed crazy. The more we start, the more to plant and be paid for. Sweet dollar bills-- I can hear 'em growing.


First thing I opened up the greenhouse and gave all the little-uns a thorough water. Then it was time to start harrowing. I headed uphill, hitched up and got grinding. The boss had some farm bureau event today-- he's still the county president-- so he dropped off thirty gallons of diesel and left us for the day.

I started in the old butternut field and had a hell of a time. The mud was thick and the tractor was getting swamped in muck at every turn. It was particularly terrifying to slide sideways downhill at a steep, tip-over-type-angle. I took a brief sit down and cigarette before going over the tractor, looking for some problem. Eventually I figured out that the boss had flipped the transmission into a 2-wheel drive setting-- I fixed that back to 4 wheel. The going was mercifully easier.

The light rain was perfect for the fertilizer spread yesterday (not so much for harrowing)-- for added effect I went over all the sweet corn fields (for the second and, I'm sure, not the last time). I spun those discs all day long-- everything on the hilltop has now been tilled once, and everything currently fertilized has been twice-tilled.

Here's a picture of the contraption. There are two rows of discs (the second is behind the wheels), angled for maximum turnover. The hydraulic lines (there on the right) power a wheel jack that raises and lowers the whole frame-- I pop that thing up and down all day to negotiate around the many sub-soil boulders and travel between fields. Behind the last row of discs is a split line of steel chain dragging a length of telephone pole-- it serves to even out the loosened dirt, smoothing the chaos into some semblance of a plantable field. The telephone pole is what cracked me in the hip earlier this Spring. Any long time readers might remember another harrow story from last year-- the solid steel cross beam that holds up the first row of discs: that's what I sledge hammered out of its fittings for welding-repairs, and those discs are what rolled over me and shredded the pants clear off my body. The harrow and I are on better terms these days.

The view from the tractor roof (I smoke sitting up there) at the day's end. It's an abnormally bright look at the day-- all the dark patches are freshly harrowed. The sloping butternut fields are just out of the frame on the left. I saw three bull-sized tom turkeys at the far wood's edge this morning-- they were bucking around trying to entice a mate. I tried to nab a picture, but couldn't get close enough-- the testosterone was pumping and they chased me back into the cab. I wasn't about to mix with a gang of raging turkeys.

Saw Newport for the first time at the end. He'd been in the barn all day, sanding and staining all the produce wagons-- opening is Memorial day (May 28th) and we're almost ready. His finger was bandaged up tight-- he'd slipped with the power drill and it skidded in under his fingernail, biting him good. Newport really needs to take it easier.

Another surprise-- when closing up the greenhouse, I had to double back and hold in my gut. The whole place reeked of well cured fish parts. The boss finally sprayed the seedlings with his new fish-fertilizer-- it's great for young plants, giving them a shot of nutrients without the killing strength of the regular commercial sprays/pellets. Apparently the boss lost his sense of smell over the years, but I surely still have mine-- and that greenhouse smells like hell.

On to tomorrow.