wednesday in pairs

AM frost







Oatmeal breakfast

Watered greenhouse



Morning meeting

Weeded garlic
Cloddy soil

Transplanted rhubarb

Coffee break
Ate scones (volunteer baked)

Weeded carrots



Wonderful growth





Lunch! Nice!

Hilled potatoes







Drove behemoth





Rototilled W2




Not bad..

Covered crops



"Striped" reemay



Relaxing evening

Yummy samosas

Quick nap

Believe that

Closed greenhouse

Corralled chickens

Dandelion greens

...just remembered

Yesterday's clothes



Yep. Dig.

stability

Before I get into today's work detail, as promised...





Everyone together.. "Awwwww!!"
Yeah, pretty cute. Truly wonderful.

E gets mad props for overseeing this entire process and making sure the chicks (and mom) are comfy, warm and well fed. Good work!

My day consisted of pretty straight forward work. Very little in the way of crop work, planting, etc. We did, however, begin by checking on weed status in all fields. Let's just say tomorrow is going to see a whole lotta "hands in the ground" time. Not emergency level growth (buckwheat and rye mostly), but definitely so if neglected for a few days.
While we were checking on W1, we snuck a little taste of arugula. Soooo right on. And means so much more when you've put time and energy into it. Yes, the reason for doing it all, eh? Something about fruits and labor...

First project was to install one new and replace 3 old, broken/below ground level irrigation valve boxes.

The old box half excavated


With the old box removed, the valves are exposed. Rocks are pounded in around the pipes to make a sturdy foundation for the new box to sit on. It's very important that the top of the box come just above the level of the field. If it is below ground level then every rain is going to flood the box with debris (water, mud, leaves, etc.). The new box is set level on the rock base and then stood upon by either E or I while the other begins to dump more rocks around the outside of the box. Stability.


The dirt is then returned from whence it came and pounded down... and voila!


Cap and repeat...

Oh, this is what it looks like inside.



-Lunch-

Post lunch had us checking on the greenhouse.

ONIONS!!


This is summer squash that a volunteer and I planted only 12 days ago. Grow, man, grow!!


Then a quick repairing of parts of two different doors. One on the greenhouse and one on the "outhouse." Immediately down to W2 to cover our onions for tonight's below-freezing temperatures. What?? Really. May 1st on Thursday. C'mon.

The rest of the day was spent spiffing up our farm van. Cleaned it inside and out. Tore out the old carpet on the floor as years of dirt and water have rendered it less than savory. ...to be replaced with plywood tomorrow. Put on new wipers. Looking great, running well.

Post work was a quick cleaning of my quarters, some fantastic boiled potatoes and sauteed asparagus (from our ground), closed up the greenhouse .... and... showered! Woo aaand hoo!!!

Time to rest. Say goodnight to the chicks... "Goodnight."

dig

none too blue monday

RAIN!!! LOADS OF IT!!! FINALLY!!!

I woke to this



which as of 30 minutes ago looked like this



Some may get all "blue" at the mere thought of a rainy Monday (not this guy), but after weeks of unseasonably warm/dry weather, today was exactly what was needed when it was needed. Tomorrow may see more of the same which will also bode well for all things planted and growing. Add some sunshine (as is forecast) to the latter half of the week and this place is going to explode with green-ness. If we see the kind of sudden growth D thinks we'll see then I may have to dedicate a few posts to pics only. Hmmm.

Before I run down today's activities, we'll back up to Friday.

Let's begin with the morning's transplants: Broccoli (Gypsy, Arcadia); Cabbage (Gonzales, Tendersweet, Farao)



From greenhouse... to van... to field... to ground. Note to self: 12" spacing/double row for broccoli; 12" spacing/triple rows for cabbage.
In all we planted approximately 1400 seedlings... and thankfully were helped by 3 awesome volunteers. One of whom (3 years old) referred to every seedling we planted as a "poor little guy." Really, I almost started to feel guilty by lunchtime. Poor little guy...
After setting up irrigation and prepping for our afternoon potato extravaganza we broke for lunch.
May 1st was our planned date for grounding potatoes, but we figured the soil to be ready and the potatoes were not getting any younger in the barn.
D suggested that we try to semi-mechanize our potato planting. In short, we hooked up a small wagon to the back of the John Deere and took turns (E & I) sitting (legs crossed facing the back of the wagon) with a bucket of planting potatoes on either side dropping said potatoes into the furrow at a particular spacing as the tractor crept down the bed. Sounds easy. Was not. The process needs tweaking. So, as work time was running short, we reverted to D's time-tested method of carrying a 5 gallon bucket of potatoes down the row by hand and dropping them into the furrow one by one. A little more physically demanding, but allowing for much more precision in spacing. And just as fast at this point. Again, needs tweaking.

Beautiful though (picture was taken today)


Finished Friday with dust jammed into every pore of my being. Made my train (sans shower) to the city just in time (thanks to E) and had a great weekend.

Back to today...

In light of perpetual precipitation we decided to focus on indoor activities... We actually managed to stay inside for all of 10 minutes. We ventured outside to tackle a minor ditch digging project.

(post soil/rock replacement)


Said ditch now houses a 100' cat5e ethernet cable that carries the wonders of "the internets" from a new hub in the office to E's quarters. Soon I too will have my own "intertubes" connection in my room.

...and how could I have not mentioned until now...?

We said hello to several new members of the farm this morning. One of our nine hens (the broody one) has been surrogate incubator to a handful of fertile eggs for the past few weeks. Today (21 days from their arrival, I'm pretty sure) they hatched!!
This is mom. None too happy about flash photography.



Will have pics of the chicks as soon as they emerge from under mom's wing.
Good stuff.

My afternoon was spent reading the owner's manual for the John Deere in its entirety. Though I did have a chance to drive it for the first time on Friday, I feel much more confident now about utilizing all of its bells and whistles. Woohoo!

...and miles to drive before I leave
and miles to drive before I leave...

dig

the art of riding mower maintenance

I realize that I have not had the chance to pick up my guitar for more than a minute or two since I've been here. I miss it. Will have to set aside some time. By all means...

-anyhoo-

This morning/afternoon/evening's weather was perfect. Truly.
Sunny and comfortably warm all day. Gives one a little extra boost of energy, hence my 11+ hour day of work. Happily working. Everyone in good spirits.

As you may assume from the title, my work centered around maintenance of our riding mowers. Finally, something I've actually done before!! Woohoo!

Before the mowers, I opened the greenhouse. Then we placed irrigation in our onion and pea beds. I cleaned some rather unkempt work areas by the back barn. Stacked harvest containers. Replaced some missing squiggle wire on the greenhouse.
When D returned from an errand we all dug into the mowers.

I concentrated on this one-


Having pulled the blade assembly from underneath, we realized just how badly they were caked with old grass, etc.


Cleaning in this manner completely transported me to my backyard growing up. My dad would regularly have us clean the underside of the mower with a putty knife...
If it ain't broke...


Cleaned all nooks and crannies with an air hose. Amazing what a little compressed air can accomplish. Cleaned out old air filter. Good as new.

-At this time the owner/administrator of the farm paid us a visit... and brought us each one of these.

Ummm. Yeah. I'll have ten. With coffee? 14. Maybe 15. Ok. I guess one will do. Many thanks!

Back to the mower. Flushed the engine oil and transmission oil. Removed and replaced both filters. Filled oils. Reattached accessory assemblies and fired it up.


Having spent so much time with the mower by the end of the day, I had the overwhelming urge to, what else, mow. So I did just that for about an hour and a half. So enjoyable.

Put my new toy away and closed the greenhouse. Breathed in a chest full of freshly-mowed-grass air, smiled and headed to the house for dinner. Really. Good. Stuff!

Tired now. Good tired.

Dig.

troubleshot

We did it!
The mechanical transplanter was finally put into play today!

By the end of the day it was laying down pretty impressive rows of seedlings. The first half+ of the day saw D, E and our ever-so-helpful volunteer troubleshooting, tweaking, thinking, solving and turning wrenches. For such a behemoth of an implement, it was/is certainly sensitive (when dropping the plant cells) to the smallest discrepancies in soil condition. Most of the time rocks (even smallish ones) were throwing it off. Curiously the spinach cells were giving it quite a bit of trouble as well. Perhaps it was a "too wet" cell that was sticky and deformed easily when dropped. Hmmm. More troubleshooting is necessary.

How it works:
3 people/transplanters sit in the 3 yellow chairs. 1 person drives the tractor at a snail's pace. As the implement's cross axle (not a pto shaft) is its drive train, forward speed dictates the rpms of the funnels into which the 3 people drop the individual plant cells. The 128cell flats, as you can see, are slid into upright brackets on manually spinning carousels. When sitting in a chair one has the 128 flat in front of them and between their knees a mechanically rotating cluster of 6 funnels. The person's job is pretty simple. Pull the cells from the flat and drop them individually (trying to make sure they remain upright) into the funnel. When a funnel passes the 12 o'clock position the spring-loaded bottom is opened and the cell drops down the chute. At the bottom of each assembly arm there are two horizontal skids/feet at the front of which is a miniature plow of sorts making an approximately 1 in. furrow. The cell drops between the feet and into the furrow. Due to the feet being offset from each other vertically, the soil is pushed back together behind them. Kinda tough to explain without seeing it.
What one is left with is super straight rows for cultivating and a thankful lower back.



There are drawbacks at this point (i.e., some cells are indiscriminately buried, we have to go back over the row manually and re-plant long lines of cells) as it's the first day and we don't have the thing truly dialed in yet. A few days' use and we'll be rockin evenly.

Pretty amazing machinery.

The rest of my day saw rototilling, running errands in the van, a nice lunch outside with E and our volunteer, removing another HUGE rock from W1 w/ D, greenhouse duties, setting up irrigation to "water in" today's transplants and yes, putting in the chickens.

A beautiful day by any measure.

Oh, and check out this rye/vetch in A field. I swear it was only an inch or two this past weekend.



Dig.

the sneetch machine

We have three tables of flats in the greenhouse that are overflowing with seedlings at this point. Today could have been our second major transplant of the season. However, we received a mechanical transplanter last week (new, in boxes) and are going to try to put it to use for this transplant and all others in the future.
The assembly has been an ongoing project, mostly for D. E has been helping quite a bit as I've been off weeding onions. I did help for a while today though. Assembling "systems" by means of illustrated instruction with tools is truly a joy for me. Always. ...takes me back to the days of model airplanes.

As of this evening, it (the transplanter) is almost complete.
Back to this in a few...

After a filling breakfast and a morning stretch, I opened the greenhouse and pulled the aforementioned three tables of flats into the sun to harden (-to place larger seedlings outside of the greenhouse for the day to allow exposure to the actual elements, i.e. direct sun & wind). This prepares them for life in the field.

A short meeting/divvying up of duties and I was off to W2 to finish my onion cultivation project from yesterday. 2 - 200' beds left to weed.
As soon as I reached the field I was struck by how green things are becoming...





And our strawberry bed. Already.


Back to the onions. Lucky for me, I got some unexpected help weeding from a volunteer/member. She was fast too. Awesome. Aaaaand she brought tasty homemade biscuits that we actually all took a break to eat (w/ coffee of course) around 10. Then back to the onions... again.
Finished right before lunch so had time to hook up the plow to our mid-size tractor (the New Holland). ..to be used in the afternoon.
We had to plow 8 rows of cover crop under in our W2 field (which was suppose to bare fallow for the season) in preparation for a last minute change of location for early carrots, spinach, beans, herbs, leeks, beets & parsley. They were to be in Y field, but Y's soil has been too compacted with standing water to be workable. E & I measured out our 8 rows and she plowed away... and bumped into this monster (that I then unearthed) in the process.



In the meantime I set-up and ran irrigation for our assorted greens in W1. After this watering (approx 4 hours) we'll want to hold on doing so again for several days as a little bit of surface dryness will force the new transplants to extend their roots further down. If we were to baby them (plenty of "rain") their roots would remain close to the surface leaving them weak and vulnerable.

Plowing completed, we headed back to the barn to help D with The Machine.

This morning:





This evening:





Sylvester McMonkey McBean. Indeed.

I will post a step-by-step of this machine "doing its job"... as soon as I see it do so.

Dig

to cultivate is to weed

What of the past 4 days?

Friday:

E was still down for the count so D and I metered out a manageable day for ourselves.
Set up irrigation lines in our W2, SL and E fields as it was to be a bit of a dry, hot(ish) one. Glad we did as it was just that.
Most of our day was spent running errands after the initial set-up.
Picking up: hardware; electronic supplies; 1000 lbs of potting soil; 1000 lbs of potatoes.

A partial view-



Speaking of views... the mighty Hudson-



...and a bird's-eye view in the greenhouse-



On Saturday I attended the first of many CRAFT meetings for the 2008 season. CRAFT stands for Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training. www.craftfarmapprentice.com if you would like to read more about it.
Roughly 30 apprentices and 12 farmers from the region attended. This meeting was more of an orientation to the program than a specific look at the farm we were visiting.
We did, however, have a basic tractor safety "seminar" to end the day. What did I learn?
1. One's finger(s) holds up to "run-ins" with heavy farm machinery (pto shafts especially) about as well as a fresh carrot might (read: not so well).
2. If you flip a tractor (the #1 cause of injury/death with tractors), well, you're doomed. Seriously, I asked the speaker if there was any "out" or "best course of action" if you felt the tractor start to tip. His answer: I can't give you an answer, because, well, there really isn't a "best way."
So definitely read your instruction manuals and practice safe tractor-ing. Remember: Keep your tractor's center of gravity LOW.

My Saturday evening through Monday morning was wonderfully relaxing and fun.
Many laughs, lots of good food/drink, a trip to the local antique store and some moon watching through a telescope.
A few pics:


I. Really. Dig. Beets.









...Aaaaaand, finally, today.

Straight to this guy:



That holds this guy:


That mechanically cultivates/weeds the soil between rows like this:


This was my first time cultivating. I was amazed at how delicate of a procedure it actually is. And to be doing it on a tractor?? In the second picture above, notice how there is space, laterally, between each wheel of blades. That space, that 2-3 inches is for the planted row of young/fragile transplants that you'll be cultivating around. Trying to make sure you don't harm or pull up any transplants as you barrel along as straight as possible on the tractor is quite a task.
After the tractor cultivation comes the manual part. On hands and knees with a hand-held weeding tool making sure that every last one of those rye roots comes out of the onion rows. This kept me busy for the majority of my Monday. E spent her day in the greenhouse seeding tomatoes, escarole and fennel... among other good stuff.

Knees are feelin the burn a little and I'm ready for a little rest, but it was surely another wonderful day to be outside diggin in...

dig.

major transplant

This morning was absolutely gorgeous.
Dew on the fields, a little nip to the air but not COLD.
A breakfast of eggs, grapefruit and buttered, locally made, organic bread (see new link in "more fresh stuff"). I had their Raisin Walnut Multi Grain loaf & Everything Onion Rye loaf. Sooo good.
I donned my MuckMasters and hit the greenhouse.
Today we made our first big transplant of the season from greenhouse flats to field. Kale, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Chinese Cabbage and Broccoli were all "up to bat".





Also, as this is the first year D is using a new brand of 128cell flats, we seeded broccoli in both 50 and the new 128cell flats to determine what will be best to use going forward.





The cell of the 128 is smaller than the 50. Therefore the root mass of the seedling getting transplanted is smaller. So we'll see if less root mass at time of transplant means longer amount of time to take hold in the ground or not.

We loaded up the hay trailer bed with all of our flats and irrigation equipment and headed to the W1 field. By this point the sun was staring down at us pretty solidly and the gnats were more than happy to join us.
E took an early day as she was (and still is) rather sick. She stuck it out as long as she could. So, D and I were left to transplant roughly 4,000 seedlings...
Surely not as many as we did on our onion day, but quite a bit more movement per transplant (from flat to ground).
A few pics of the process:


The cells are pulled, gently, from the flat and laid/dropped on the ground/grid at intervals specific to their spatial growing needs.





This is what I see as I work my way down the bed on my knees. Right hand grabs the cell, left hand punches a hole in the soil, right hand places the cell and both secure soil over the roots.

This we did for the remainder of the day, save for a few breaks to run irrigation lines.





The seedlings wouldn't stand a chance in the midday sun without water... especially on their first day. And yes, getting hit intermittently from the water sprayers (called wobblers) felt awesome in the hot sun.

We finished our day strong and feeling great about what we had accomplished. Our backs are none too happy with us, but they'll have a weekend to mend.

At sunset I closed the greenhouse and put our feathered pets in their coop. D and I took 30min to lay covers on what we planted today as a measure of defense against any curiously early flea beetles.

Post workday saw (and is still seeing) ice cold Yuengling and crazy wonderful sights like this.



And this for a friend...



Dig.

wordless wednesday (well...almost)

Dig...

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.

dreams and 2-plate slip clutches

I am back from a wonderful weekend in the city.
Wonderful indeed.

As I left right after work on Friday I was not able to post about the day.
Quick recap:

As Thursday was total "onion"ation and stiff muscles were a direct result, we were "semi" promised an easy Friday. That easy Friday didn't happen so much...

In the morning we sat down, planned out our day (which initially involved some errands in town and general tractor implement maintenance) and proceeded to ignore all the plans.
First, we covered all of the beds we seeded the day before with HUGE 200'x30' pieces of floating row fabric which is like very heavy cheesecloth.
Then around to all of the fields to pick up sandbags that were left from last season.
To the office...
The weather was to be rainy, etc., but alas, no rain. So...we quickly researched cover crops for several beds that needed to be seeded days ago. Seeding of actual cash crops in those beds will be happening in 40 days so cover seeds need to go in now if they have any chance of growing and getting tilled under. But what to plant last minute while the weather is still relatively chilly? Why 10 year old fava beans and rapeseed (canola) of course. We hand scattered them after D rototilled. Then pressed them in using the Brillion...



which we then used (as it was intended) to seed 5 other rows of a different field with cover crop.
Some real fun followed.



We raked/burned/spread all of last year's "leftovers" that were in the large flower bed and the asparagus/raspberry bed. I must have a little "pyro" in me as I really enjoyed that part of the day.
To close the day we washed the remaining dirty harvest bins from last year. Cold wind, cold water, brrr!!! For real.

--Weekend--

The first few hours today felt rather dreamy as I was transitioning from the craziness of the city. My mind was not completely present and somewhat vulnerable to mistakes.
E was busy most of the day spreading compost on our Z field (which she did rather well I must say).
My first task today was to replace 8 tynes on the rototiller as hitting rocks at 540rpm has a tendency to wear down even the most hardened steel.



Old tynes are the shiny ones.



This I undertook without a hitch.

My NEXT task? Hitch central...
In summation, when servicing your rototiller's 2-plate slip clutch:



If Step 5 of your 2-plate slip clutch disassembly instructions



says to remove the thrust plate with the Belleville Springs and lug rings (all at once and not piece by piece) to access the friction disks and hub for inspection... then you best believe it is probably a good idea to remove the thrust plate with the Belleville Springs and lug rings (all at once and not piece by piece) to access the friction disks and hub for inspection!! If you don't you just might snap a bolt off the base plate that holds the Belleville Springs rendering the entire 2-plate slip clutch useless unless... D tries to weld said bolt back on, then snaps it again, then goes to the neighbor to drill out the old bolt in the base plate after having gone to the hardware store to get new bolts, then measures out the length of the new bolt, welds it back into place, cleans all the other bolts and you both attempt another reassembly of the damned Bellville Springs... successfully. The whole ordeal eats up half of our/his day.



Otherwise I spent 2 relaxing enjoyable hours in the greenhouse seeding for Lettuce, Bok Choi, and Leeks. Definitely needed after my morning/afternoon.

Closed up the greenhouse, corralled the chickens, chopped and roasted these



for what was a delicious dinner.

Happy and relaxed now. Looking forward to tomorrow... as long as slip clutches aren't on the "to do" list.

Dig.

land of 10,000 onions

First, I've added a space to the left to link to blogs that I dig (and perhaps you will as well). E's blog of her experience here on the farm is first up. Check it out.
--------------------------
A real short post as we basically did one thing for the entire day.



We hand-planted 10,000 onions! 8800 onions & 1200 leeks.
An absolutely gorgeous day to do so.

Here are D & E planting just after lunch... and one of the finished rows (the depressions between the rows are knee marks).





Around lunch time I made my watering rounds through the greenhouse. It is becoming greener every day. Very nice.



....and... scene...

dig.

i could lift a smaller one...

As we have 29 - 200ft rows of varietals
(assorted greens
spinach
kale
parsley
swiss chard
parsnips
carrot
turnips
lettuce
broccoli
broccoli raab
cabbage
chinese cabbage
kohlrabi)
going to ground in field W1 within the next two weeks AND because the weather has been too cold/wet to do so AND because we have not had the crop maps until two days ago....
We did ALL of our soil prep for this field (+ 10 rows of W2) today.
As E has been under the weather for the past couple days
(she worked hard in the greenhouse all day)




it was up to D and I to tackle the field. As I was perpetually in motion, I unfortunately didn't get that many pics. So? To the list...

8:15-10:00 - Continue and finish spreading compost on W1 (New Holland Tractor). Got much more comfortable with front end loader. Nice.
10-11am - Hand raked uneven piles of compost to spread them over the beds.
11-12pm - Pulled last year's pepper stalks/roots from a 200' bed (as they are rather woody and would not till well back into the soil). Done pretty much all on one's knees.
12:30ish - 2:45 - Spread fertilizer over all of W1 and 10 rows of W2 (Cub Cadet). Wind was a little blustery at times, so I had to stop in the middle of the bed and wait fairly often. The fertilizer mix is rather like sand. The lightest material of the mix is nitrogen (a coarse dust) which happens to be the most important. Dust + Wind = (a terrible song by Kansas...) Waste of good (and not so cheap) fertilizer.

D (using the new John Deere) chisel plowed all of what I had fertilized. Looking like this.


As one might imagine, LARGE rocks "surface" after tilling so deep. So..
2:45-3:45 - Collecting large rocks from chisel plowed field (There was one roughly the size of your average pillow that I absolutely could not pick up. I rolled it. Visions of Bill Murray for some reason...) and depositing them in the front end loader for later drop.
3:45-4:20 - Pulled up a 100'+ bed of last year's kale. Same story as the pepper stalks. Way too woody to be beneficial to this season's soil.

4:30 - Gather tools, close field gate, tractor back to barn, done for the day.

Tomorrow morning, first thing, we'll be using the rototiller on W1 & W2.



From there we will be spending most of the day hand planting 10 rows of onions/leeks. They were actually to be going to ground May 1, but they've arrived early. If we were to wait on grounding them, they would probably go bad within the next week.

One more pic for the day.



The "pets" on the farm followed me (I was taking 10year old beans) to the compost pile in hopes of getting the "table scraps." They were ultimately unhappy with my contribution to their buffet...

To rest now. Dig...

the new arrival

Right. So. The newest member of the farm family???



Damn. John Deere 5325 Turbo Diesel. Custom designed for this farm, hence the ultra thin rear tire.

That's Jerry



He walked us through the specs and operational procedures of this bad one for 2 hours. I know there are those of you that would like me to review our orientation point by point, but, alas, time and space prohibit. Hit me up if you'd like to know any particulars. A real bad machine.

I will give you my day in pictures as I'm beat and it's late.
Suffice to say the day was absolutely gorgeous. Weather especially. 60ish and sunny. Light wind.
Beds were fertilized, chisel plowed and rototilled. Rows were marked/measured. Peas were planted. Transplanted peppers in the greenhouse stood tall. Compost was spread... some by me. Laundry was done... finally!

---------












(This is Peter. He clears rocks from the fields, among other things... voluntarily. At his age he's more active than most people I know...including me. Amazing)


This is what E used to direct seed the peas today.





Well, yeah, that's me just back from spreading compost on our lower fields in preparation of next week's planting. Need work on the front-end loading skills. Not bad for a first day. D made it look soooo easy though....

On and on. Dig.

a transplant(er)

After a failed (depending upon how one looks at it) culinary adventure with 10 year old Pinto beans (re hydrated/cooked) last night and a consequently bad night's sleep, I thought today might be my first "way less than positive" day on the farm.

Thankfully... wrong. Another beautiful one.

Oats/Honey/Raisins & Eggs/Greens/Garlic got the morning started well. Was feeling rather "off" when we began our triple tractor (2 Cubs & 1 New Holland, pics below) maintenance @ 8:30.
Oil changes
Greasing pivot points
Check/filters - Oil & Air
Fuel pumps/filters
Tires

...as one might periodically do on their car.

First greenhouse check around 10:30. By that time it was actually sunny and getting warm. (Woohoo!! Me feeling better already.) As a result we opened the greenhouse fully to allow for maximum circulation. Seedlings looked great overall but a few needed a drink.
Our first task was to transplant 1000 Ace & Red Knight Pepper seedlings. Transplanting is moving the seedling (via a tool called a widger) from its original 20 row flat to a larger 50 cell flat so its roots can extend a bit more before grounding.

Before transplant:



After:



They are placed in the shade of a fully covered greenhouse table and watered with a misting nozzle so the seedlings have a chance to stand. We'll check on their progress in the morning. Should be good.

After lunch we planted approx. 600 lettuce seeds in 128cell flats. Hands firmly in potting soil.

E was in charge of watering/dancing this afternoon.



As the latter half of the day was just as busy as the first, it's list time.

Cleaned tractor maintenance area.
Debated about planting peas today or no.
Decided against. Wait til tomorrow.
Prepare pea beds today.
Perform mntnce on Drop Spreader (spreads fertilizer from behind the tractor)


D makes first two passes and E makes 2nd two. Very good I must say.

Before the day ends we have our orientation on this mad bad machine.



The New Holland 1920.

So.. I got to drive it up to the field that we were planning to chisel plow.
D took the reigns for the first 2 passes


and I got the second two. YEAH! I think my enthusiasm might have scared D a little. Too fun. Learning learning learning.

Speaking of D... here he is. Our fearless mentor.


Closed up the greenhouse, did dishes, corralled the chickens... and ordered out for pizza tonight. Sometimes you just got to.

Btw, there will be a new addition to the farm tomorrow. Exciting. Will post pics.

Until then, dig...

to rock

Before getting started, I want to direct anyone interested in reading about sustainable agriculture to www.attra.org - THE site for all things sustainable/organic.
I spent some time today researching different cover crops. We are going to bare fallow (no seeding during the whole vegetation period) 1 1/2 of our fields (gotta give'em a rest for a season or two). The cover crops that were planted after harvest last year in those fields will be allowed to grow through the season. They will naturally add biomass/nutrients to next season's soil as well as protect from erosion, weeds, pests, etc. Rye and hairy vetch are mainstays on this farm as they fare well in the colder parts of the year.

-----------------

"Started" (read: woke) at 8:30 this morning. Eggs and greens for breakfast again.
To the greenhouse shortly after for the first check. Not a whole lotta sun (or warmth for that matter) today so watering everything was not necessary. However, we've got some lettuce (the variety escapes me at the moment) that is really taking off. As its leaves get bigger its transpiration rate increases so even if there is little to no watering for other plants the lettuce will still need water daily.
Oh, and check out our "lil" onions. Awesome.



So... to rock. That was the large part of my day.
This in the middle of field B (mug is to get idea of rock size. Mugs do not occur naturally. ha).



3-4 hours of swingin any combination of these



left me with this...



What to say...? Body rockin. Kids, remember to wear your safety glasses if you're going to do anything like this. Saved me a couple times today. Must remember to stretch before bed too. Or else.

This evening was spent refining our crop maps and starting to document (pics) the weekly progress of each field/crop. This will be used for reference in coming years. Along those lines, I mentioned field F (this year's new field) a couple days ago. Just for reference, here's what it looks like today.



Will definitely keep you posted on its progress.

Btw, thanks for reading this blog and for the comments so far. Much appreciated.

And now, a little rest and thoughts of the coming week. Dig.

of the body

I woke (slept in.. til 8) to a bit of muscle pain today.
Happy to have. My body still works and mends.
And so I did, work and mend, all day.

As this morning was overcast, we didn't have to water in the greenhouse initially. There was enough moisture still in the soil from yesterday. If we had watered yesterday afternoon we would have run the risk of molds beginning to form. We must allow the seeds/plants a cycle of wet to semi-dry soil. Never too dry though. D & I saved some wilting peppers. Within hours they were standing tall again. Beautiful.

Opened the front door to allow for air circulation and headed to the office.
Added a couple more essentials to our dry-erase board. Hung a blown-up scale map of the farm that E made yesterday (she was/is a landscape architect). And... the weekly forecast. Because, well, farmers kinda need to know these things.



2 major tasks today. Break-in new air compressor/fill all tires on farm/record psi's for future reference. A little more involved than one might think.
Yeah, this thing and I hung out today:



Pulled chairs from the second barn for the owner (who I finally met. Very nice.) to use for her meeting w/ members. Met some of them as well. Enjoyed the short conversations.

Later, I finalized the organization/cleaning of the tool room in the barn. Happy with the results.



(and that's only about 1/4 of the space. much more...)

The latter half of the day was warm-ish and sunny.

Spending my evening relaxing a bit. Relaxing my hands especially. Been hitting the Burt's Bees Hand Salve obsessively.



I realize more and more how much I enjoy working (truly working) with my hands.
I get that one directly from my parents. Absolutely.

Pretty spent. Laundry tomorrow. Might actually sleep in until 8:30. Dig...

...tha funky agrosapien

A little Del winding its way through the office/my room as I write this. A glass of Salmon Run - Petit Noir (local from Hammondsport, NY) in front of me as I celebrate my first "officially completed" week on the farm. By myself... breathing... writing this blog. Nothing but silence in all directions... Good, good stuff.

I am definitely here now. Physically, here:



That's compost in the foreground. We received tons this week. Hows about a closer look?



It's alive!! Aliiive!! Well not really. But I think of it that way, so, if you want to as well... feel free.

This morning I made breakfast for myself and E. Fresh sauteed kale, collard greens and garlic wrapped in scrambled eggs. Toast and some yogurt with raspberry preserves mixed in. Munched on flax seeds. Did I mention that my appetite has doubled?
We finished our preliminary crop maps by noon. They will probably change a tiny bit as the season matures, but damn. Visualizing row after row of fresh veggies/fruits popping up in their proper places is kinda blowing my mind at this point.
Also, today, we decided to (well D made the final call) oversee the birth of a new field... throughout the next week or two. Field "F". It will house all of our cucumber and summer squash. Mad exciting... Will surely be taking pictures of its metamorphosis from 40'x200' grassy plot to 8-bed growing field.

This afternoon we took a 2 1/2 hour trip to outlying towns for supplies for the upcoming week. Before getting the supplies we made a drop off of parsnips & celeriac to a local charity. Too funny: Standing at the desk in the lobby of a converted high school, we announced to the attendant that we were there to make a food donation to the charity on the second floor. The first question from the security guard behind the desk??? "Hmmm. You got cake?"

I'll leave it at that.

Oh. The view from the security guard's desk...



And so, tomorrow, Saturday will find me working still. Good momentum at this point. As usual, more then...

Ooo. One more pic. Last night's sunset from where I sit presently. Dig.

a thousand words

Looking through the pictures that have been taken each day, I am finding it increasingly difficult to pick the "best" one(s) to post. What a gorgeous day! A little cold this morning (19 F @ 6:30am). Consequently this has forced us to push our "ground" date for peas back. Beautiful though...



What wonder. What stark contrast to "the city." Sure. Rather obvious... but, really... this on my way to breakfast??



We spent the better part of today mapping out this season's crops. A process I find I am enjoying. We know what we're going to grow and how much already. Now we have to find the proper fields/beds/soil for them. By taking many different factors into account (variety by variety) we rotate/place crops in the beds that will ensure the health of the soil from last year through this year and next year. Diversity is the through line...



While walking one of our lower fields (to get a visual on what crops were there and what ones could fit this year), I found a few of these from last season:



Dried tomatillo husks. Took many different pics of this. Wish I could post them all. A whole other world to explore...

Then.. More time "dancing" water over the planters in the greenhouse. More time cleaning tools. And then...

I got to drive this wild sonofabitch



Yep.

A good day.

Supposed to rain all day tomorrow. We'll see if my poncho holds up.

More then.

tools of the trade

"Although growing commercial crops is often considered for 'experts' only, it most emphatically is not. The world of plants is vital, vigorous, and self-starting. Drop a seed in the ground and it wants to grow. The common wisdom possessed by successful farmers is that they understand how to help the seed do what it is already determined to do. The more successful the farmer, the better the understanding of how to enhance the natural processes without overwhelming them. That simply stated idea is the key to successful organic food production." -Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower

Wonderful! How empowering... felt that today. "...help the seed do what it is already determined to do."

--------------------

Seeded 17 128cell planters this morning in the greenhouse. 3 different varieties of spinach: Space, Springer, Lombardia. Watered all planters (learned how to "dance" with the greenhouse hose).
This pic from the greenhouse. Man made vine meets nature's vine.


...later

Focused on rejuvenation of all field hand tools. Scraped off rust, sanded wooden handles, sealed tools with linseed oil, sharpened edges/blades. I will be using every one of these soon...


Late afternoon, walked the fields to consider last year's crops and their rotational possibilities for this year. Learning, learning, learning.

Traveled into Red Hook for groceries. Quaint "upstate" town. I will surely be there again soon as my food intake has increased two-fold. Or at least it seems so. Hungry man.

This evening I began my book studies with what is considered by some to be the Bible of organic farming, The New Organic Farmer. Excerpt above.

My excitement only grows.

Looking forward to tomorrow. We put our first crop in the ground: peas. Veeery nice!

first day. to work.. and work. and learn.

6am - UP
6:40 - Breakfast (PBJ).
7-8 - Move a whole set of barbell plates/dumbbells/weight bench/etc up a wooden ladder to the 2nd floor of the barn.
8-9:30 - Cleaning/organizing office space/barn space w/ D(Mentor) & E.
9:30-12 - Greenhouse time! Hands in potting soil for an hour. Filling 50cell and 128cell planters w/ soil, "dimpling" each cell, dropping in one seed at a time, covering seeds w/ more soil. Today we (and two volunteers) seeded for Broccoli, Cabbage and Lettuce.

1-2 week old peas in greenhouse


All from something this big (see brown dot on finger)


128cell planter


12-12:30 - Lunch

12:30-1:30 - Finish seeding for lettuce. Done in greenhouse.

1:30-2ish - Back to office to prioritize laundry list of tasks around the farm.

2ish-3:15 - First task from list? Clean the chicken coop. Yes, this is the "after" photo.


3:30-4ish - Clean root cellar. 5 month old veggies in cellar still good. Roasted some for dinner. Yum. (View from outside cellar)


4:30 - Done for the day.
5pm - Bike 2 miles to grocery store. Back wheel comes loose. Walk bike back to farm. No worries. Beautiful day for a walk.

7ish - Dinner... and this (view from my front door). Yeah....


I have truly worked through (and truly enjoyed) my first day on a farm.

Mas y mas...