Posted By FarmerJ on May 7, 2010

It was a fairly typical busy week here at the farmstead.  Last weekend, Darling Husbie and I worked on painting half of his shop floor with epoxy.  We weren’t satisfied with the results, so Monday I decided to give the 1,200 sf a second coating while Husbie was at work.  [More photos of the shop later.  I'll do a proper update on the shop once the second half of the floor is painted.]

Tuesday evening, Darling Husbie and I took a little field trip to pick up our newest little treasure.  It’s a 1984 New Holland Round Baler ~ what has got to be the oldest boy’s best friend!  Actually, we’re all very excited to have this enormous blessing in our arsenal.  It eliminates the work of lugging thousands of small square bales off the field this summer.  We’ll still do some small squares, but the majority will be done in round bales.

Wednesday, I managed to get the first sixty onion sets planted.  I also experimented running some new soaker hoses around the plot and gave the potatoes a deep drink.  In the process, I came to the conclusion one 150-foot strand of soaker hose was just not sufficient for 6,000 sf.  We now have enough hose for four 150-foot strands in each plot ~ one strand will get moved back and forth between two rows.

Wednesday evening, after a brief walk through the alfalfa field and a glance at Darling Husbie’s upcoming schedule, he made the executive decision to cut the alfalfa.  It was a tad early, but already over Darling Husbie’s knee.  Winston the Windrower was eager to get out there and work a little after sitting all winter.

Miss Abigail is thrilled to be able to leisurely sprint around again without having to leap two feet off the ground just to see where she’s going during our walks.

Yesterday, I was supposed to get the broccoli and lettuce planted.  But, we’ve got a freeze warning for tonight, so I didn’t think the tender plant babies would like that too much.  Instead, the girls and I did some work in the square foot garden.

Darling Husbie had brought home twenty bags of mulch Wednesday evening.  I wanted some clean mulch to put in the square foot beds and several of the flower beds.  I used five bags between the two asparagus beds ~ well, there’s still one little spot I need to cover in one of the ‘gizzle’ beds.  But, I didn’t want to open another bag just for that tiny area, plus it was time for us to get scarce.

While I was busy emptying mulch bags, Abigail was busy ~ frantic ~ trying to figure out what was so special about this one strawberry plant.  I went about my business, thinking it was likely a vole or a mole.  It wasn’t too long before I heard a faint little screechy cry and the Toy Fox Terrorist’s spaz meter was pegged.  It was a tiny baby bunny.  [Don't worry, the Terrorist didn't harm the bunny in any way.  It was just really scared.]  The cutest, most precious baby bunny you ever did see hopped out of the hole, trying to escape that snout that kept forcing its way in.

I quickly scooped Abigail up, and gathered our stuff.  It was windy and cold, and I didn’t want to have that baby exposed.  I hoped that once we left, the baby would find its way back into its hole, or Mama Bunny would come to tuck her baby back in.

So, we meandered over to the corn plot.  I’d drug the soaker hose over there earlier, and it was time to move it to another row, anyway.  The corn babies are poking up nicely.  Their little heads look a little droopy in this photo, but that’s because they’ve just endured an entire day of 35 – 40 mph winds.  Believe me, I looked a little droopy, too, after spending all day in the wind.

While the last few rows of corn were getting a good drink, I walked up and down each row of one of the 6,000 sf plots with the hoe and whacked every little weed I spotted.  There’s some volunteer corn, squash and melons poking up here and there from having been tilled in.  They’ve got to go, too, along with the weeds ~ they’re not where they’re supposed to be.

Before coming in for the day, I tip-toed back out to the square foot garden to check on the bunny baby.  He was no longer hiding under a strawberry leaf, and the opening to his hole was once again covered up with fur.  Either he’d found his way back, or Mama Bunny visited while we were occupied up front.  That pleased me.

I may have whispered ~ or whimpered ~ to Darling Husbie when he got home from work yesterday that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with the second 6,000 sf plot.  I haven’t spent any time in that plot yet, and the weeds were beginning to take hold.  He told me not to fret, as he had a remedy for that.

Husbie didn’t hesitate to fire up Tym and run the tiller gently over the surface.  Those weeds are now green manure!  Tym has been an incredible asset to us.  He is such a great tractor, literally doing in a few short hours what would take us days to accomplish.

Tonight, Darling Husbie wrapped up the week by turning the alfalfa windrows over.  He used Samson, the 8N, with the hay rake.  It was chilly, and the wind was relentless, but he got the job done.

So, that’s the report for this week.  There’s a long list of things to keep us busy next week.  Vegetable plant babies to get in the ground, flowers to plant, the grass needs mowed ~ again ~ trees need pruned, and there’s more than one painting project calling for attention.

Do the lists ever end?!  ♥

Categories: Farm Life, Gardening
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