Cold today. It started slightly sunny this morning, but the heavy clouds came at noon-- carried on an icy breeze. The rain started and hasn't let up. Temperature climbed down to 54F-- hung there all day.
Today was the big money market-- the outlook was bleak. But the boss had other concerns-- Gizzie and Newport packed together the market boxes, while the boss, foreman and I headed over to the pasture. More cows had escaped this morning. The woman who owns the horses(and boards at the boss's brother's house) rounded the cows out of the blueberry fields and back into the fence. We had some major fence repairs to do.
I'm pretty quick at tearing a fence apart (the weeks of re-fencing back in March taught me how to bash/rip with the best of 'em). We untangled all the broken barbed wire and I tore out all the iron staples (gotta be careful not to lose a single one-- the stupid cows eat 'em and slice their innards into confetti). I kicked and dragged out the broken fence posts-- then the foreman rolled up with the auger tractor and drilled new holes. We dropped the posts, tamped them in solid and hammered the staples back (holding the barbed wire in place). 10 posts needed replacing-- then we spliced together all the torn up wire. The boss cranked the wire around a corner post (getting the barbed wire nice and taut) and I bashed more staples into place. All done. Most of the herd was 20ft off watching us, groaning and calling back and forth-- Lucy ran around harassing the bull, good for her.
Before heading back to the store, the boss noticed one cow way out alone in the back fields. A bit concerned,we went to go check on things. But no need for worry-- she was with a freshly born calf. That makes 11-- every cow who could birth did. The boss was happy-- the mother was attentive (staring us down and circling close to the baby, a good sign), the calf was on its feet and strong. Driving back across the pasture we spotted an enormous coyote pacing along the wood's edge.
Back to the day's scheduled business. A frost warning is out for this Thursday. It's time to pull as much of everything as possible. Winter squash was up first. The foreman, Newport and I headed up the hill top to the butternut-- everything had to go. We cleared 8 rows before lunch. (We're piling the squash into mountains inside the greenhouse to protect it from the cold).
After lunch the foreman and I headed back up for more butternut-- Newport stayed behind to mind the store while the boss's daughter went to lunch. Mid way through the remaining squash rows the rain came. It took 4 full front loader trips to clear the field. Newport sauntered up to join us and we hit the buttercup. Old Rudolpho and his nephew were out picking tomatoes-- they fell asleep under a wagon, waiting for the rain to end.
We cleared all the buttercup-- taking everything, even the unripe-- it only took 2 full front loaders. Newport and I slogged through the mud to get a start pulling potatoes. CSA went through 16 buckets worth last week (and that barely tied them over), so this week we're getting 20 buckets. Hoeing through the mud is slow, heavy, miserable work. Covered head to toe in mud-- it became difficult to keep hold of the hoe's pole, the mud slicked and slid everywhere. We inched along-- got 3 1/2 buckets of red french fingerlings, 4 buckets of yukon golds and 4 buckets of Kennebunk. Small mercies-- it was closing time. So 8 buckets left for tomorrow.
We rode downhill, unloaded the potatoes and sunk home.
I got a lot of clean up/repair work to do tonight-- boots, pants, jackets, everything needs fixing.
Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny, here's hoping.
Take it easy.
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