Day 25 (7/9/12): The Desert and Jungle

I’ve never missed cereal so much, so raisin bran with milk (I kind of miss my skim) was perfect.  The plan for the day was outlined by Mary as follows:

8-10 plant peas

10-12 hoe-weed one footpath

1-4 plant peppers

If time, help weed

What actually happened was this:

8-10:40 hoe-weed and hand-weed pea trellis

10:40-1:45 plant peas (side 1)

2:10-4 plant peas (side 2)

4-5:30 plant peppers with Kenya

5:30-6 pick peas for Katie

I wanted to get the hoe-weeding out of the way before the day became so hot, so Katie and I ended up taking turns using the stirrup hoe and picking up the grass behind us.  We’re trying to throw the gathered weeds farther into the woods and spreading them, rather than dumping them all at once close to the edge.  We’re trying to keep things nice for Open Farm Day on July 22^nd.  This was the fastest hoe-weeding I’ve ever done, also the easiest footpath, too I guess.  

However, the weeding did take a little longer today in that I had to do a bunch of hand weeding around the pea trellis¹ to clear the soil for planting peas.  Planting shelling peas today, the dead vines I had unrooted the other day, I dug a trench along the entire side of the pea trellis with a pointed soil scoop² used usually for tilling the soil when planting.  This trench had to be at least 1” deep so that the seeds wouldn’t surface when it rained next (there isn’t rain in the forecast for days though).  The trench was 10” away from the bottom of the trellis, and I planted each pea 1½”-2” apart from each other.  We’re still out of planting compost, so I covered the peas with our homemade compost, generously watered the entire trench with a watering can, and covered it up with dirt.  The compost was filled with what I thought were gigantic cutworms, but they turned out to be grub³, although this made no difference in me having to kill them.  Kenya started finding baby hornworms⁴ on the tomato plants; we’re going to have to be very careful to keep an eye out for these guys for a while.  I didn’t dilly-dally at lunch since I didn’t feel that tired, so I went back outside after eating to do the same procedure on the other side of the pea trellis.  By this time it was 4, and I doubted I’d be able to finish the peppers.  You can’t start planting something like peppers unless you’re going to finish it all because once planted, they have to be put under remay to protect them.  Mary suggested I grab Kenya to help me out.  Kenya had been in the fields all day with us, some welcome help.  We started and finished the peppers in less than 1½ hrs.  Until 6, I helped Katie by picking the Sugar Anne peas, although most of these vines are dead or yellowing too, so my work wasn’t fruitful. 

Bing and Sage had been trotting around together all day.  They’d gotten a ride from Gilbert in the steer’s cart, and they were walking around, both in Sage’s sun bonnets – so cute.   I got a little sunburn on the top of my legs today, but at least I won’t have too bad of a shorts tan for once in my life.  

After heading up, Mary recruited everyone’s help to move the heavy maple syrup house roof from the barn, and then she had me direct making dinner with Katie and Jillian: tarragon chicken salad (from Thia), plain mayo chicken salad, and potato salad (from Thia) on greens (kale and swiss chard leaves).  After dinner, we all went down to the public lake beach, but I thought it was too cold to get all the way in, so I stood in the water and watched the sunset instead.  

I’m truly weary tonight and it’s hard to keep my eyes open.  My hands have already become so rough and weathered, that I can’t put on my clothes or pull up the covers without the fabric kinda snagging on my skin.  Gee whiz

 ¹ Pea trellis is a fence for pea vines to climb up.  

² Soil scoop.

³ Grub (larvae of Japanese beetles) look like gigantic cutworms, although aren’t as hazardous to the plant as cutworms are.  

⁴ Hornworms blend in quite cleverly on tomato plants, and can eat through half a tomato in one night.  With a horn on one end and teeth on the other and growing to be bigger than a quarter around and longer than 6 inches, it’s no fun to squash them as adults.  Usually they’re fed to the turkeys or chicken, but Kenya wants to make sure none escape, so she freezes them in a bag and throws them away.