Progress!

So we have certainly been busy!

But first we had to hurry up and wait on a tractor part to be manufactured for us - we wanted to rip our field (dig a thin line as deep as we could) to help with drainage.  This is our 9th!!! year of field production, and after tilling and running the tractor across the field for that long, the soil can become compacted and form a "plow pan." This is where the soil you till seems fluffy but underneath everything is getting harder and more solid as it is compacted by heavy equipment.  This happens even though we try to use the tractor in the field as little as possible.  So, it's about time.

Then....we spent pretty much most of a recent Sunday trying to re-orient the garden in perfect north to south rows.

Why, you ask?  Because over the years, our perfect original alignment has strayed from true north as the boundaries of the field have snuck? sneaked? outward.

Why else, you ask?  It exposes the plants to the most sun as it runs across the sky east to west.  On a side note, I once heard that cattle align themselves north to south as well.  I wanted to disbelieve that, but a drive across the US through Texas to Colorado demonstrated that most cattle within a herd do indeed, at any given point in the day, seem to point north.

No, really, why did it take so long to set 12 flags in the ground, you ask?  Well...., I'll tell ya'.  Since we didn't have any cattle on hand, and I couldn't remember where I last stowed our good, or even our not so good compass, I tried the compass app on Anthony's phone.  Please do not use your phone as a compass if you are lost in the wilderness of Saluda and are trying to head to Charlotte. You may just as well end up in Delaware, or South Carolina, or perhaps you would actually get to Charlotte after all.  Turns out I finally remembered where the good compass might be, and lo and behold, there it was.  It was in my dresser I have no idea why, but it went back there for whenever I need to find it next time!

Is that really all?  Well, no.  Because to the north line I needed was longer than my 100-foot tape measurer.  It was 166 feet, to be exact.  So somehow we had to extrapolate a correct line.  In the meantime, the kids got bored, went to check the chickens, and started hollering because one poor chick was getting his foot pecked by all the others.  After an impromptu break (this was a different  break than the one for lunch and nap) during which I cleaned up the blood and put Blue-Kote on the wound with the help of my calm and collected, willing and concerned, confident and gentle in-house vet tech, rehoused the bird by himself with food and water, it was back out to the field to wrap it up.  Except during all that, I misplaced the good engineer's compass my older sister gave me so many years ago!  Aaarg!  So.....while I was counting how many times the thought "if I just drive the family 20 minutes into the next town and hunt down a new compass, we will have more fun AND save time" had crossed my mind during the day, we finished off the task amazingly rapidly by calculating the hypotenuse of the two sides of a rectangle we had already established, checking it against the other direction of the same rectangle, and extending the line from there.  Eureka!  And yes, I did find the compass as we finally drug ourselves back into the house,  It was right by the front door.  Of course.

So, Yay!  Straight lines!

We need those straight lines.  Because after that we put in over 300 asparagus plants which I do not intend to dig back up and straighten out anytime soon.  Straight lines make weeding between the rows with the tractor (cultivating) easy.  And any other work with the tractor is easier too,   We have exciting new implements this year, which have already saved us days of backbreaking work.

Friday, I dug up all the rhubarb I could find, and all the lovely, mild elephant garlic collected from Mexico by and bought from my fellow grower/market friend Carolina (who is also a parol officer!) Saturday, Anthony tilled up a portion of the garden.  Sunday we lined up the rows.  Monday, my good and one of my first friends from the area, Shoko, came and helped replant the  Then Anthony set all the rows with the subsoiler (lifted up a little bit to not be so deep as when we ripped the field) according to the flags.  On Tuesday and Wednesday (today) my good neighbor-friends Jenai and her son Tukki have been coming over for the past couple days and voluntarily helped plant the asparagus, 40 pounds of seed potatoes and 10 pounds of onion sets.  At the end of the morning of planting and fertilizing - and I can't believe it didn't take longer! - being able to bring the tractor down to cover the rows with the new hiller/bedder discs without having to hoe the rows closed is absolutely amazing!  Well, except for the first day, but there is a learning curve for every implement!

Honestly, I am extremely grateful.  To Anthony, for selecting a tractor and implements, getting them running and keeping them that way.  To Jenai and Tukki for helping plant!  And to Simon and Carina, for their patience and cooperation.

Last year, Simon and I planted half the amount of potatoes and onions.  It took us a whole day to get each of 6 rows planted, at 1 row a day.  That is a week of planting potatoes and onions.  Granted, the kids were each a year younger, and I seem to remember it as being colder and grayer.  But this time, we planted twice as much with the help of two friends and a tractor...in just 2.5 hours.  Wow!  I finished before noon, and went to make lunch, close enough to on time for little stomachs.  My main thought was, for that much work, why doesn't my back hurt?

So while it seems like the planting was so fast, it probably really did take a week of work.  Just an easier work.

But we aren't done yet!  I just got our trays of transplants from our fellow grower and market friend, Mr. Richard.  I like to call him Sir Richard because he is always so gentlemanly and kind.  So....now we have to plant like mad to keep these tiny transplants in good shape.  Yes, it is much more economical to buy a tray of 288 or 406 seedlings in a plug tray than to buy them in 6-packs.  IF you can get them in the ground fast enough from the prime greenhouse conditions.  And keep them watered and weeded.  Here we go!

We'll be planting head lettuce, pac choi, kale, kale, and more kale, and swiss chard, Seems like I am forgetting something but I will remember it when I water tomorrow!

Later, we still have to plant sweet potato slips, which we have yet to pick up, and our winter squash.  We are uncertain whether we will attempt the enormous quantity of butternut as we did last year.  Time will tell though!  Oh, and I have to finish inoculating the last about 100 of somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 mushroom logs.  The end is in sight!

In the meantime, my library books are overdue and I will bake cookies for anyone here who will kindly dress out of the clean clothes pile for the rest of the week.

I better get some sleep.

Thanks for reading!

-Mollie and the Crew