me and my arrow (read: hammer)

Having not showered since Sunday I was a little apprehensive about going a third day "without" ...especially in light of yesterday's grease-fest with the slip clutch.
But I re-confirmed two things very quickly today:
1. I'm outside. Working. No one cares.
2. Greenhouse work is perpetually "dirty." ...so is spreading compost... aaand oiling/greasing the rototiller.
Happily unshowered.



E spent her WHOLE day loading the compost spreader and prepping soil in our Z and B-C fields.



Believe me, this job ain't just sittin on the tractor all day. She's hurtin a little bit...

I started in the greenhouse watering what now seems like endless tables of seedlings just bursting from their flats. Seeded 11 flats of summer squash (zucchini: Zephyr, Raven, Elite) with a volunteer. Summer squash takes large individual planters as their seeds are HUGE compared to most others. Think pumpkin seed.
Here's the greenhouse midday. Just can't get the whole thing in the picture... dang.



After planting was done we motored down to W1 field and cleaned/raked out the dead matter from our 3 beds of strawberries (that are already coming up). Yeah, strawberries, this is dangerous knowledge for me.
From there it was over to Y field to break up and spread out uneven piles of compost. That with our volunteer as well. Nice to have help.
Then... same in B field. At which time we (me, E, volunteer) cleaned up my rock breaking project of 2 weeks ago. Again... nice to have help.

-Lunch. oats, apples, raisins, honey, assorted roasted vegetables. heated up and covered in maple syrup. Hoo wee!! By the way, the big pineapple lookin vegetable in yesterday's pic is celeriac, celery root. The meat tastes a bit like celery and has roughly the texture of a potato. Very tasty roasted.

After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon inspecting, shoring up and/or replacing the lath work on the exterior of the greenhouse. Me, some wood, nails and a hammer. A beautiful sunny day. Good. Stuff!

E was visited by her parents and was whisked away to a sit-down meal. I stayed to close the greenhouse and put in the chickens.

This evening I helped D finish a project he began earlier in the day.



It's a peg board that will nudge seedlings from their 128cell flats. Press the flat



down on the board and, in theory, the seedlings will come out root and all. This alleviates the chance that you'll break the root when trying to pull out the seedling for transplanting. D is definitely a DIY farmer.

Dig.