Reverse

Not a cloud in the sky. Temperature danced between 88-91F.

Hard morning to wake up-- a good buddy of mine came to visit last night and we slugged through all of our old cheapo bars ($1 beers is a beautiful thing). My friend has joined up with a traveling theater troop for the spring/summer-- but once he gets back we'll see if he can lend a hand with the fall harvest. I'm gonna have to type today out fast-- me and the good buddy are going for a one night road trip out to hear our mutual friend ("Pipes") sing. She can really belt a tune, that's a fact. Unfortunately she lives far across state, so its a drive (a very long drive after a few beers).

(Also, I flaked out on Saturday. Waking up-- the body just wasn't willing. Sometimes ya just gotta take a break.)


Watered up the greenhouse first thing. The boss drove the tractor around and dropped off the wagon-- it's getting too hot beneath the plastic for the seedlings, so Stretch and I carried all the biggish trays out of the greenhouse and set them on the wagon to air out. The boss was gonna be busy running around with the crew so he gave me a list of things to get done. 1-- I took the trimmer and hacked down the tall weeds growing at the ends of every tomato row, then mowed all the weeds/field grown up around and burying the irrigation artery. 2-- Set end plugs into all the drip lines going through the tomato fields. 3-- Aligned the head-line for the tomatoes' drip, stuffed in the nozzles for the lines to attach and plugged up the damaged parts.

Right before lunch Rhode Island got himself into a world of trouble. The wholesaler had arrived for a produce pick-up, but the van was in the way. So Rhode Island went to move it. Apparently he isn't very good at driving-- somehow he managed to roll down the hill towards the greenhouse (front-ways first), but with the van shifted into reverse. Needless to say, the van can no longer go in reverse anymore. The van is old, but the boss was still ready to kill him. Then off to lunch.


After lunch I met Stretch and Mouse in the store to watch the Blackberry-Man. I've heard a lot about him-- he calls the farm incessantly to check on the blackberries. Also, he's always sure to ask if he can sleep in the field so he can be with the berries. The boss always says no (though I wonder if he let the guy try it once or twice in the past). Blackberry-Man has longish grey hair and a grey beard. He stripped down to his shorts in the gravel parking lot and took out his special berry basket. Rhode Island has long since lost patience with the man. The boss told me-- Blackberry-Man is homeless, but is looked after occasionally by his kids. Stretch and Mouse said that the man is a local celebrity in town-- the story goes: he made a fortune (millions on millions of dollars), but grew sick of himself. Once his kids moved out, he sold his house and lived on the streets ever since-- owning nothing more than the clothes on his back. Whatever the truth may be, he really loves our blackberries (maybe to the point of concern).

Blackberry-Man went on his way, Stretch and I did the same. We grabbed our hoes and headed down to the lower fields to get weeding the string-bean rows. The string beans are out, long and ready to be picked-- the boss plans to get Bah and Old Rudolpho's crew started on them tomorrow. The peas have run dry, no more for now-- so the foreman has been busy. He rotor-ed down all the pea rows (he accidentally killed all the fava beans too, despite them having a few good weeks left), and mowed down all the strawberries planted last year (who've stopped producing for the season). We weeded away the rest of the day.

An hour before closing the foreman called me out of the fields. Over the weekend the boss had several pieces of the water pump welded and had the water gate leading to the forest field professionally fixed. So the two of us put everything back in order-- we muscled and reattached the water gate, the reassembled the water pump and replaced its faulty gasket. In thanks, the foreman came out and helped us finished weeding the beans.

At closing time I watered up all the seedlings on the wagon and picked up some eggs for home. Waved good-bye to Blackberry-Man (who was still out there) and then headed out.


Well it's about time for me to get on the road. I've been bottling up weeks worth of plant talk, so be forewarned-- tomorrow might be a plant-geek spill over day.

On to Pipes.