plowy mcgee

Not too much to my day.

This was good news as the quick heat of the late morning/afternoon rather impeded my higher brain functions.

With the heat/sun sizing up to dominate the next few days, we decided to pursue weeding and plowing. Why? The persistent heat/sun will lay waste to anything that is not securely rooted. Bad news for weeds. Good news for crops (as long as we keep them irrigated).

Began with a little tractor maintenance:
Bled the fuel filter/water separator and the fuel tank itself. D added coolant. 50/50 mix.
Off I went.

First up was rototilling a few beds in field D as E was going to take a crack at direct seeding (followed by running drip tape). ...though she began her day by thinning/weeding the beans that I direct seeded a couple weeks ago.

I then ran down to Y to till in used beds (hard to believe we are tilling in beds in Y already). Lettuce, Scallions and overgrown Carrots were turned over. As I'm worried about jinxing myself, I hesitate to say this, but I'm happy with how comfortable I'm becoming operating the various tractors/implements on the farm. They feel quite second nature at this point.

I hopped the New Holland afterward, dropped the mower and picked up the Perfecta II to prep/cultivate the previously tilled soil in D and E. What is the Perfecta II?

(pic from the Unverferth website, www.unverferth.com)



It's function is two-fold. It weeds and preps soil.
The tynes have a bit of spring to them so they vibrate laterally as they slice through the ground. Immediately behind the tynes is a row of steel spikes (angled backwards) that further break up clodded soil. And behind it all is a barrel that rotates as it moves through the soil upending the weeds and further refining the tilth. ...now you know.
The benefit to using this as opposed to the rototiller is that it is a little gentler on the topsoil and you can make passes at a higher speed. The drawback is that it does not leave the bed totally ready to mark and plant like the rototiller does. Close... but alas....

So after Perfecta-ing I switched yet again. This time, the plow. Seems our cover crops (mostly rye and vetch) in W2 and W3 (and Y.. tomorrow) need flipping so they can be incorporated into the soil so that the mid-summer round of cover cropping can commence.

The rest of my day was dedicated to finishing this job.

What to cover the fallowed fields with next? D and I spoke briefly about it this evening. Thinking it best to go with Buckwheat on the majority and perhaps try a little Sudangrass (Sorghum) on a few beds as he's never tried it on the farm before. Both make for quick (2+ month) biomass before the winter covers are planted.

With our day done, I took my crazy dirty laundry (in my mad bad moto) to a neighboring town and had what was, surprisingly, a very nice laundromat experience.
Yay for surprises.

E cooked up some rice and steamed veggies for dinner and I closed up "shop" for the night.

It's an early one tomorrow (4:30 wake up. beating the heat) so I'm signing off.

Dig.