Thursday 17
Early day as it was going to be a hot one. 5:30 start.
First up was moving irrigation in the onions in W2 (we have not had a GOOD rain in some time. seems we're moving irrigation lines constantly. somebody out there do a rain dance for us... we already have).
D & I harvested what lettuce we could in field E. Amazing how quickly certain varieties slipped passed us. E was washing.
D decided it a good idea to further break up the turned soil in W2 & 3 that I had plowed on Wednesday as neither plowed perfectly (due to dryness/rockiness). We passed on the chisel plow as the ground is a bit too compacted and dry. We settled on the disc harrow (our first time this season)
The implement is simply dragged behind the tractor. The first row of discs kicks the soil outward while the second row throws the same soil right back in. While doing so it slices up all the turned soil (hopefully), effectively severing all root structure. In action....
E continued with the harrow.
D and I spent the better half of the morning cultivating the melon beds. Very important to remove the purslane as it grows laterally like melon plants... and uses relatively large amounts of water.
---ok, i realize i'm not summarizing too well. try again.---
We took a break and decided to push on through the day, skipping lunch, ending early.
D & E hung flash tape in the melon beds to scare away the birds who have had a taste of several melons already. This is an effective non-lethal, non-poisonous means of pest control. Yay.
Afterward we staked and trellised 800 ft of tomatoes in Y. This took us to the end of the day.
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Friday 18
Started early again.
We had loads of help harvesting.... Which harvested all day, and seem to do about 4 (partial) days a week anymore. Great planning.
Beets
Scallions
Beans
Swiss Chard
Peppers
Eggplant
Onions
Thanks!
After all was done I was off to the city for the weekend.
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Saturday 19
I slept! Quite a bit. Relaxed. Actually managed to get my mind away from farming for a day. Well needed.
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Sunday 20
H and I met with a land owner in Eastern PA (the one I have mentioned before).
In short: The area is gorgeous. The property is beautiful. The woman is very nice and knowledgeable..and sincerely wants to have her land used sustainably. She and the 2 adjacent farms have an array of farm equipment. We would get 10 acres to grow into. The soil is a silt loam (fairly ideal).
Ummm.. do we have a farm? I. Think. So.
Excited? Yep!
Lotta planning/work ahead? Ooooh yeah!! Can't wait!
Amazing how life has a way of happening.
This will hopefully be looking quite different in a year's time.
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Monday 21
Woke to this.
Winter Squash in A. Can you see any soil? Neither can I.
We began by moving irrigation in the onions again. Darn heavy drinkers.
We had several priorities in mind, but ended up tending to our ailing broccoli and cabbage transplants in Z. I ran the buddingh through them right after we took the row cover off.
Before we got into heavy hand cultivation I ran the sweeps through the Summer Squash and Cucumbers in F (while E thinned) and the Sweet Potatoes in Y... and busted one of the sweeps. nice.
I changed the sweeps out for the marker and did up a bed and a half in Z for transplanting broccoli and rutabaga. We hand weeded the rows first.
That done we hand transplanted 600ft of plants... faster than the mechanical transplanter.
Drip was run after planting and we took lunch.
The second half of the day was spent harvesting.
Summer Squash
Peppers (still just the green guys. let the reddish ones get redder)
Eggplants (quite big at this point. ideally want to harvest them a little smaller)
Beans (D beat me by 1/2 lb)
That was that. I napped after work. Go figure. My third time in a week napping. I swear I haven't napped since I was a kid...
Tomorrow is E's birthday. Happy Birthday E!!
More then.
Dig.
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