Comin' Up

THE FIRST SEEDS ARE SPROUTING IN THE FIELD!

GO PEAS!!!

 

...happy dance...

Blow-out

Went up to Hanover area yesterday to pick up some cover crop seed and fetch a row cover/drip tape reel that my farmer-friend Jeff at Cedar Down Farm built for me. About 20 mins into my drive home I heard an exciting noise & glanced in the rear view mirror to see something black flying out behind the trailer.

Pulled over to discover an entirely blown-out tire, with the trailer riding on the rim. Fortunately I'd thrown in a spare! Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me get the jack to work.

Instead, I unbolted the blown tire, lifted the trailer & kicked the old tire off, then lifted the trailer again to kick the spare on. It was trickier than it may sound, I assure you. I tried shoving a bag of oat seed under the axel to lift it a bit, but that didn't really work. Nonetheless...Success!! Until I realized the spare was flat. Grr.

Fortunately, I'd thrown in the air compressor. So I unhitched the trailer & backed the van up so the cord could reach. Unfortunately, the tire was so flat it didn't want to take air. Here's my situation:

Blocking a lane of traffic did not seem to generate enough interest or curiousity for any of the 10 people who drove past to pull over and offer a hand.

Until a nice farmer on a tractor came by and helped me identify that I had a tubeless tire which, at this degree of flatness, was never going to take air from my compressor. There goes the nice farmer taking my tire back to his shop to blow it up for me:

20 mins later, Helpful Farmer Man was back & lifted the trailer for me while I popped the tire back on. Of course, I'd figured out how to work the jack in the meantime...but I didn't tell *him* that! ;)

Seeds in the Ground

It's been dry and warm, and a bit of rain is actually called for (finally!) so I decided to try seeding a few things. If it works, there might be peas at one of the first CSA pick-ups and carrots by early July!

Here are the supplies:

And here I am with the 1st of the carrots, beets, peas and favas seeded. Garlic is coming up nicely through the straw mulch too.

New Toys!!

Went to a farm auction last weekend and scored a few new toys!

Got this wee wagon (the sides are removable to make a flat bed when preferable):

And this S-tine cultivator!!

Tried the cultivators out yesterday and they are SWEET! The rake at the back does a really good job of breaking up clods of dirt so weeds dry out faster. It also leaves a really smooth finish on the field surface. I'm pretty excited...

In other news, here's where the garlic is at now: