Rockin' It

Today's Activities:

• Put out the rest of the onions and leeks to harden off.
  
• Transplanted plenty of tomatoes, seeded lettuce(we'll do this every two weeks), and sweet basil.
• Lunch. We had a meeting where we discussed lunch and dishwashing schedules, and other administrative stuff.
  
• Amanda (who just started today) and I put up lines for hanging the plastic liners we'll use in the boxes holding salad mix.
• Amanda, Ali, and I picked rocks for the rest of the afternoon. A good three or four hours.

Again, another beautiful day picking rocks. I might have to add this activity to my list of favourites (right up there with digging holes, turning compost, and hoeing). Again, I assert the magic inherent in the action of bending down and pulling up these sleepy rocks. Ali correctly placed the sound they make as the sound of large marbles colliding.

I'm right-handed, and today I noticed very plainly how much I favour my right side. The actions in picking rocks go something like this: walk in a direction until you notice a rock big enough to pick, bend over (either by bending at your waist... gah... or crouching slightly) and grasp the rock with one hand, and then stand up and carry on to the next rock. At this point I typically shift the rock in my right hand to the nook of my left elbow so that I have a hand free again. Picking rocks like this continues until your arms are full, it's too heavy, or you're close to a pile, so that then you head to the nearest pile and drop everything off.

The thing is that when you pick up rocks with your right hand it takes a bit of a twist at the waist and lower back as you reach down to grab it. Especially to hold on to the several rocks you're cradling in your other arm. Repeating this action for a while meant that my left shoulder got cramped up into your my neck in order to hold the weight of the rocks (I know, I know, there's no need for that, but it's a strong habit); my right arm got a bit tired at the shoulder; as was my lower back from bending and twisting; and my knees were getting a bit achy from bending and lifting.

Switching sides so that I work the left side of my body seems like an essential thing.. something I didn't do enough of today and so something I'll likely feel tomorrow. The thing is that because I must typically favour my right-side I'm so much stronger there, and so working with my left side is rather awkward and I get tired much more quickly. In other words, there's a strong physical incentive to keep favouring my right side.

Still cleaning...

Today's activities:

• Seeded several trays of lettuce, fennel, flowers and tomatoes.
• Collected maple sap for the last time. The sap is flowing pretty regularly but it's been consistently cloudy for the past while, and the sap from certain trees tastes very... green. And by that I mean, much like how willow or grass tastes green. When the sap runs clear it tastes pretty watery and plain.
• Spent a long while with Jeff scratching the top layer of fungus laden soil off of the onion trays. The fungus appears either dark green, really dark green, or orange (when it has dried out), and makes the top 1-2mm of soil stick together and resist water. Scratching it off often reveals quite dry soil underneath which is a big problem if you're a... you know... water gulping seedling.
• Lunch.
  
• Met with the Jeff, Leslie, Ali, and Jarrod out in the barn by the new piglets that were born Saturday morning. This is to be a regular meeting time to discuss any issues. The only real issue was sorting out that Jarrod would no longer be doing chores (feeding the cows and pigs, milking, mucking out the milking area, watering the chickens, and collecting eggs), and that I'd start doing that for a bit in order to get the hang of it.
  
• The rest of the afternoon Jeff and I worked on cleaning up the disaster area that is the main shed. Part of this shed will eventually be used as space to process (wash, sort, and bunch) the produce from the fields.
  

Watching the piglets was a bit of a mixed experience. They are pretty adorable creatures. About the size of a loaf of bread (and with similar proportions), these eight little dudes spent most of the time clambering to find a nipple, or sleeping for 20 seconds at a time by resting their heads on another feeding sibling. The mother, the size of a small sofa, just lay on her side grunting occasionally and snuffling distractedly.

Actually, one piglet was away from the action, right by the mothers head, laying on its side and obviously dying. How so? It had glassy eyes and twitchy breathing and was occasionally pawing around at the air in a pathetic way. Over the course of our meeting I watched it slowly become less and less active until eventually its mouth hung open and it wasn't moving really. Between you and me, I silently repeated a little prayer for it. Maybe we'll meet up on its next go 'round, or mine.

I checked back just before I left and discovered a bit of gruesomeness. There were now only six piglets feeding (originally there were seven plus the sickly one). There was one piglet which was dead and only the remains of another piglet (just the ear and a bit of something). So it goes. I was told that the male pigs are kept away from a new litter because they'll occasionally eat the young ones but, as I found out today, in some cases so will the mother.