just another weeding wednesday

A cool, cool morning. Cool by me.

The temperature was to reach only into the low 70's.
How perfect is that for weeding? Umm. Apparently, really...

We weeded today.

Our initial focus was on the Onions/Leeks/Scallions beds in W2. I drove the Farmall to the field and basket weeded the scallions. There was scarcely enough room between the rows for the weeder, but it looked to me that the scallions were not harmed. They were only leaning over slightly in the direction of the tractor after I made the passes. When D arrived he was a little surprised by the decision to machine weed and reinforced the point that the scallions' leaves (leeks and onions as well) are rather fragile and can grow poorly/die or be susceptible to disease if broken or disturbed (so true. barely breathe on these things and they break). I felt kinda bad. Perhaps I should have passed on machine weeding as the scallions looked a little disturbed.
In a short while, though, D said that the basket weeding was a good decision as they didn't really look bad after all and it saved us quite a bit of hands-and-knees work. All good...
I wheel hoed and hand weeded the rest of the morning away.

Also, this morning saw several volunteers from the Salvation Army harvesting Spinach. How great to have direct charity activity as such. Glad to have the help and glad to be giving...
A few pics, eh?





A "tool" of the trade... ???



The "Official Vehicle...."



with the "Official Dog" inside. Nice.



Just before lunch I basket weeded parsnips and carrots in W2 as well. The carrots weeded very well. One row of parsnips got a little too much dirt kicked on them by the path-scraping tynes on the tractor. I uncovered the row by hand. Don't want to lose any tasty parsnips at this early stage... or at later stages either.

After lunch we "hung out" in Y. Doing what? You guessed it. Weeding.
Three B's. Beans, Beets and Basil. Easy weeding... well, compared to, say, carrot seedlings.
Funny. D's son, J, an almost 5 year old bundle of energy, entertained us with a few improvised songs. One of which we ended up all singing together... over and over again.
The lyrics? Simple.
The message? Well, that depends on how deep you'd like to go...
---------
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Yeah!

Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Now!
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A fantastic afternoon. Oh, almost forgot to mention that D and I tossed the Frisbee for a while after work. Yay! Frisbee. Definitely a must-have in my life.

As I write, it's raining. Has been for a couple hours now. Moderate, but steady. Such a rainy season so far. A "growing" season...
which leads me to an impressive fact:
The total weight of harvested vegetables so far this season??
5600 lbs.

Dig.