a girl and her vest. check it out:
http://www.wolfpinefarm.com/farmers.html
Saturday, April 26, 2008
my goodness!
Plants are in the ground!
While transplanting kale, collards and cabbage yesterday afternoon, it amazed me how much work went into the very simple act of getting plants to grow in the field. It was wonderful to see beds of plants, it felt like a tremendous amount of progress and like we've shifted gears into actually growing food.
That said, my body is aching for the first time since my apprenticeship began. I had been tired and worn out, but after an afternoon of bending over and transplanting, my legs and back are sore, sore, sore. After planting we also covered the plants with floating row cover to protect it from flea beetles and little beasts (voles in the greenhouse, woodchucks in the field.) The edges of the row cover has to be covered with dirt all the way around to not let creatures in, which meant ending the day with an hour and a half of shoveling.
I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend with lots of coffee and a bit of laundry.
While transplanting kale, collards and cabbage yesterday afternoon, it amazed me how much work went into the very simple act of getting plants to grow in the field. It was wonderful to see beds of plants, it felt like a tremendous amount of progress and like we've shifted gears into actually growing food.
That said, my body is aching for the first time since my apprenticeship began. I had been tired and worn out, but after an afternoon of bending over and transplanting, my legs and back are sore, sore, sore. After planting we also covered the plants with floating row cover to protect it from flea beetles and little beasts (voles in the greenhouse, woodchucks in the field.) The edges of the row cover has to be covered with dirt all the way around to not let creatures in, which meant ending the day with an hour and a half of shoveling.
I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend with lots of coffee and a bit of laundry.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
in short
This week has been really tiring. We spent last night's dinner just staring at each other, that hasn't happened since my first week here. Everything we're doing is about getting the fields ready for plants...I thought rather than using my energy to be clever, I would give the run down on my day today in schedule form.
7:00 morning meeting. learn how to drive the Ford 4000. open up the greenhouse.
8:00 work on getting the spader implement onto the tractor. grease the joints of the disc harrow.
9:00 water greenhouse and cold frame plants. move bags of fertilizer around the barn. rearrange greenhouse plants after taking a bunch outside to the cold frame.
11:00 spade the woodside one field on the kubota tractor.
12:00 lunch. mmm.
1:00 fertilizer and cover crop is delivered, move palettes and bags of it around.
2:00 second round of watering of the greenhouse.
3:00 use the truck to help pull a stuck tractor out of the soil. begin transplant cherry tomato seedlings into larger pots.
4:00 more planting
5:00 close up the greenhouse, cover the cold frames.
plus a hundred other little things that I can't even recall right now because I'm pooped. and filthy, I had to be doing something amazing to get this dirty.
7:00 morning meeting. learn how to drive the Ford 4000. open up the greenhouse.
8:00 work on getting the spader implement onto the tractor. grease the joints of the disc harrow.
9:00 water greenhouse and cold frame plants. move bags of fertilizer around the barn. rearrange greenhouse plants after taking a bunch outside to the cold frame.
11:00 spade the woodside one field on the kubota tractor.
12:00 lunch. mmm.
1:00 fertilizer and cover crop is delivered, move palettes and bags of it around.
2:00 second round of watering of the greenhouse.
3:00 use the truck to help pull a stuck tractor out of the soil. begin transplant cherry tomato seedlings into larger pots.
4:00 more planting
5:00 close up the greenhouse, cover the cold frames.
plus a hundred other little things that I can't even recall right now because I'm pooped. and filthy, I had to be doing something amazing to get this dirty.
not as cute as you'd think
The tractor tan has begun. Well, as of right now it's a tractor burn. A very bright pink running down both my forearms. Also, learning how to use and fix tractors means I've added the element of grease to my already filthy day.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
an update and a list
Reasons I know I'm farming for real:
1. I'm sunburned and its April in Maine
2. I wear work gloves daily, for at least 30 min
3. I wear Carhartts in earnest
4. I have blisters from my boots, on my heels and calves
5. I'm thinking about getting a straw hat
6. A guy at the gas station looked at my work outfit and said, "Earned your keep today, eh?"
7. I go to bed at 9:15. and fall asleep.
8. I use hand salve 8 times a day and not just because it smells good
9. My hands are really clean about once a week
10. I know what a mold board plow, a harrow discer and a spader do
11. I know where to find free hay
1. I'm sunburned and its April in Maine
2. I wear work gloves daily, for at least 30 min
3. I wear Carhartts in earnest
4. I have blisters from my boots, on my heels and calves
5. I'm thinking about getting a straw hat
6. A guy at the gas station looked at my work outfit and said, "Earned your keep today, eh?"
7. I go to bed at 9:15. and fall asleep.
8. I use hand salve 8 times a day and not just because it smells good
9. My hands are really clean about once a week
10. I know what a mold board plow, a harrow discer and a spader do
11. I know where to find free hay
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
lifting heavy things and placing them somewhere else
Today seemed to be a day of getting ready. We moved large bags of soil, fertilizer and cover crop seed around in the barn in order to make room for more seed and for the farm store. This task involved a lot of productive heavy lifting and then so some not so productive moments with the hand palette jack.
(p.s. for those who didn't know, anytime there is a word in my blog that's a different color, you can click on that word and it takes you to an explanation or an image. This save us both time, so I don't have to write in detail about things like hand palette jacks, or voles and you don't have to read about it...)
Also, the fence started to go up. Its a fence designed to keep deer out and broccoli in. Since it is electric fencing, it is put up and taken down each season. So we spent a nice part of the day putting stakes in the ground 20 feet apart around five fields and each stake has three clips where we attach electical tape. So when the current is running through the tape, it borders each field.
And anytime I am not getting fields ready, I am in the greenhouse getting plants ready. I've seeded heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers. The cold frame is up, which means some plants have left the greenhouse and are closer to being in the ground (the cold frame isn't heated, but it protects the plants from the cold at night a little more than if they were outside). It sounds like we get to plow and disc some fields next week! There will be food growing anytime now...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
picture time
the cabin
the greenhouse
Saturday, April 12, 2008
farmers vs. voles
Now we think they're voles. and we caught another one, but now they're into the kale and collards. This is why you sew 20% extra of everything.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
cabbage eating bastards
There are mice in the greenhouse. And they are eating the cabbage. As a result, the new task added to greenhouse chores is setting and checking mouse traps.
I am on greenhouse duty this week which means I make sure everything gets watered, the temperture stays regulated and mice get killed.
So far, we've caught four. gross.
I am on greenhouse duty this week which means I make sure everything gets watered, the temperture stays regulated and mice get killed.
So far, we've caught four. gross.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
machines can be our friends
The chickens are in! Coop construction is finished, their little home was done on Monday afternoon, and by Monday evening, all the chickens were moved out of the greenhouse and into their coop. Then we disassembled their temporary brooder and put away for next year's little chicks.
After a construction project that lasted three days, I was definitely ready for some low key labor that did not involve insulation or chicken wire. I was rewarded with a full day of greenhouse work and an introduction to the tractor.
The plants we eat in Maine during July and August (peppers, tomatoes, eggplant) are heat loving plants. And heat loving plants want things warm from the beginning. So even though the greenhouse stays between 60-80 degrees (70-75 with moving air being ideal), these little seeds need to be warmer in order to germinate. They are put in little slot trays, close together and then put on a warmed germination table until they sprout. Once they sprout, we transplant them into either single cell trays or their own 4 inch pots (aptly called "potting up") and they grow in those pots until being put into the ground. So today was all about taking tomatoes and celeriac out of their germination trays and putting them into individual trays. It was great, I was warm all day and listened to crappy pop music.
There is heartier stuff in the greenhouse, too. Chard, kale, lettuce, cabbage, onions and kohlrabi for example. These plants that can go into the ground as soon as the ground is ready. Which is not yet. Even though a couple of fields are no longer snow covered, all that melted snow makes the ground too wet for the tractor. If a tractor is used on a field that is too wet, it can compact the soil in a way the makes it unusable for a long time. There are couple of ways to check the soil to see if its tractor and planting ready, the one I liked was simple: squeeze the soil in your hand, if you can get water to come out, its too wet.
Our tractor introduction was brief and there will be more to come, but my comprehension of how we use machines to make the work more is efficint is much better already. So the tractor below is the one we'll be using and I have no idea who that guy is.
Some things planned for the rest of this week: putting up electric fences, tractor lessons, potting up more celeriac, de-green onions, learn how to take care of the chickens and de-rope the spreader.
Off to the cabin for dinner...
After a construction project that lasted three days, I was definitely ready for some low key labor that did not involve insulation or chicken wire. I was rewarded with a full day of greenhouse work and an introduction to the tractor.
The plants we eat in Maine during July and August (peppers, tomatoes, eggplant) are heat loving plants. And heat loving plants want things warm from the beginning. So even though the greenhouse stays between 60-80 degrees (70-75 with moving air being ideal), these little seeds need to be warmer in order to germinate. They are put in little slot trays, close together and then put on a warmed germination table until they sprout. Once they sprout, we transplant them into either single cell trays or their own 4 inch pots (aptly called "potting up") and they grow in those pots until being put into the ground. So today was all about taking tomatoes and celeriac out of their germination trays and putting them into individual trays. It was great, I was warm all day and listened to crappy pop music.
There is heartier stuff in the greenhouse, too. Chard, kale, lettuce, cabbage, onions and kohlrabi for example. These plants that can go into the ground as soon as the ground is ready. Which is not yet. Even though a couple of fields are no longer snow covered, all that melted snow makes the ground too wet for the tractor. If a tractor is used on a field that is too wet, it can compact the soil in a way the makes it unusable for a long time. There are couple of ways to check the soil to see if its tractor and planting ready, the one I liked was simple: squeeze the soil in your hand, if you can get water to come out, its too wet.
Our tractor introduction was brief and there will be more to come, but my comprehension of how we use machines to make the work more is efficint is much better already. So the tractor below is the one we'll be using and I have no idea who that guy is.
Some things planned for the rest of this week: putting up electric fences, tractor lessons, potting up more celeriac, de-green onions, learn how to take care of the chickens and de-rope the spreader.
Off to the cabin for dinner...
Saturday, April 5, 2008
back in Portland
After a day of cold, rainy and grey weather, coming into Portland to take a hot shower with water I didn't have to pump was amazing (and really, I was filthy, so being clean was amazing as well.)
Yesterday was a two pants day. We spent the entire day (and a nice chunk of Thursday) putting up a winter chicken coop in what was once a tractor garage. I am now intimately familiar with chicken wire, staple guns, staple hammers, electric drills, insulation and how to attach things to rotting boards.
This is the first year the farm is raising chickens. They arrived in the mail, little, peeping, balls of fuzz and they are currently living in the barn and in the greenhouse. As we prepare for the melting of snow, seedlings are taking up more and more space in the greenhouse and the chickens need to move into new housing to free up space for plants.
We took a tour of the fields this week, and though they are still under snow it was nice to get an idea of what food will be grow where. Crops are rotated to different fields each year, because different plants take different amounts of nutrients from the soil, therefore, moving crops around helps to preserve the soil. Some fields are also fallow, they take a rest, get a cover crop and gather strength for another season. There are eleven fields on the farm, all different sizes. Should be no surprise then, that the farm manager spends the winter planning out how to grow food for 230 families over 20 weeks.
I drove back to town yesterday afternoon, exhausted and looking forward to a weekend of rest, food and time with my darling. I'm looking forward to next week, ready for our next tasks, see how much the little greenhouse plants have grown and hopefully watch more snow melt.
Yesterday was a two pants day. We spent the entire day (and a nice chunk of Thursday) putting up a winter chicken coop in what was once a tractor garage. I am now intimately familiar with chicken wire, staple guns, staple hammers, electric drills, insulation and how to attach things to rotting boards.
This is the first year the farm is raising chickens. They arrived in the mail, little, peeping, balls of fuzz and they are currently living in the barn and in the greenhouse. As we prepare for the melting of snow, seedlings are taking up more and more space in the greenhouse and the chickens need to move into new housing to free up space for plants.
We took a tour of the fields this week, and though they are still under snow it was nice to get an idea of what food will be grow where. Crops are rotated to different fields each year, because different plants take different amounts of nutrients from the soil, therefore, moving crops around helps to preserve the soil. Some fields are also fallow, they take a rest, get a cover crop and gather strength for another season. There are eleven fields on the farm, all different sizes. Should be no surprise then, that the farm manager spends the winter planning out how to grow food for 230 families over 20 weeks.
I drove back to town yesterday afternoon, exhausted and looking forward to a weekend of rest, food and time with my darling. I'm looking forward to next week, ready for our next tasks, see how much the little greenhouse plants have grown and hopefully watch more snow melt.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
day two
Turns out that when there is snow on the ground, there is still plenty of things needing to be done on a farm. The list posted on the white board in the farm office for this week is as follows:
Things to do:
seed: kohlrabi, peppers, eggplant
pot up tomatoes
fish alliums
dig out implements
move chickens/help with construction
check hoses
wash greenhouse trays
inventory slot trays
write bios
A lot of time is spent in the greenhouse, so if your food comes from a local farm in the northeast, the tomatoes you eat in late July are beginning their lives in a greenhouse somewhere now. Time is also spent cleaning things out in preparation for the season, or cleaning things out in preparation for creating a new indoor chicken coop.
My day seems to be filled with a combination of big, heavy, loud, dirty tasks and delicate, quiet, detailed, dirty tasks.
Things to do:
seed: kohlrabi, peppers, eggplant
pot up tomatoes
fish alliums
dig out implements
move chickens/help with construction
check hoses
wash greenhouse trays
inventory slot trays
write bios
A lot of time is spent in the greenhouse, so if your food comes from a local farm in the northeast, the tomatoes you eat in late July are beginning their lives in a greenhouse somewhere now. Time is also spent cleaning things out in preparation for the season, or cleaning things out in preparation for creating a new indoor chicken coop.
My day seems to be filled with a combination of big, heavy, loud, dirty tasks and delicate, quiet, detailed, dirty tasks.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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