Water and All

Running down to the city for the weekend-- update today when I get back!

(Back: 5/30/11)

Hot and Hazy. Temperature hit the mid 80Fs early and stayed there-- occasional winds from the west.

I was all over the place today. Jumped out of the car and walked down to the woods edge then up the path to the forest field. Figured I'd show some initiative and finished cutting the plastic and digging the holes for zucchini and summer squash rows. It was a hot couple hours in the field.

The path from the forest field is an ideal location for a smoke break. The entire way is obscured by brush, ferns and big ol' trees. A younger boss dragged a few dead trees over the stream to make a sloppy bridge. I sat there cooling off a few minutes, counting toads-- I think I got 4.

Back at the farm store I joined up with the foreman. The tomatoes we planted on Wednesday needed water-- the heat was quickly drying up what moisture they had. We T-boned a line off the artery and lay it through the 5 planted rows. It went together with surprising ease. Jogging over to the main pond we reconnected the lower field water artery to the water pump and started the flow. The lines flushed easy enough-- though I had to jab a tree branch down a pipe to break up a clog or two. I plugged up the lines and cleaned out the water guns-- success, water for the tomatoes.

Before lunch, the boss drove me back to the landscaping hell house-- showed me the new bushes needing planting and explained his arrangement plans.

I drove right back to hell after munching my daily pizza. Dug 3 2ft diameter by 1 1/2 ft deep holes around the air conditioning unit. I dragged over the mega bushes, popped off their pots and sunk them into the ground. The boss rolled over with buckets of pond soil, we packed it around the plants and evened out the surface. I re-edged the garden, pulled weeds and putted about aim-less while the boss chatted with the neighbors.

By the time we finally returned to the farm, it was almost closing. I checked through the greenhouse and touched up the watering job.

With a minute before closing, a minute left before I would get into the car and speed off for the city-- one last project. When checking over the harrow, the boss found a long stress fracture in the steel cross beam. A series of 15 or so steel disks (3ft diameter each) attach to the beam-- so it bears much of the strain from turning soil and rocks. The boss wanted the beam extricated from the harrow so he could have it welded over the weekend-- so he left it to me. This beam was ~16ft long 4x6ins of steel.

I ran to the workshop and grabbed the big socket wrench and 1 3/16 attachment. I loosened all the braces and gave the beam a kick-- no dice. The foreman stuck around to supervise me-- he carried over the 6ft heavy iron pry bar. I took the bar and started ramming the beam-- inch by inch (literally) the beam inched out. I swung away for a half hour, periodically re-loosening the  bolts. Climbing inside the harrow's frame I finally bashed the beam free-- but, without its support all the disks and their connectors collapsed onto me.

Had my leg been 2 inches forward-- i would have lost a knee and a shin. Instead, the disks and connectors caught on my jeans and tore them off in ribbons. The foreman said-- ops I should have seen that coming.

Packed up, home, clean jeans and then to the city. Day over.