Make Work

Today was a bit of a day of random jobs. The farmers are all waiting on the edge of their boots for the fields to dry enough so that we can out there and seed and plant. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and dry so I think we'll do it then.

That reminds me, we begin working Saturday mornings from now on. We're still only working 8am to 6pm, at least for another week.

Today:

• Jarrod and I put a rail on the cart to stop the boxes of veggies from sliding off if the cart is tipped too high.
• We discovered that the forks we had built for the bicycle wheels were too flimsy, so we scrapped them for an entire wheel and axle assembly we dragged out of the scrap heap.
  
• Lunch. I dug out some wild leeks from the sugar bush and made a spinach salad with them. It was rather basic. I guess I had hoped for more 'cause on their own the leeks are quite sweet, oniony, and also have a strong table pepper taste.
  
• Amanda and I weeded the unheated portion of the green house, and then strung rope to hold up the tomato trellising.
  
• Ali and I removed the piles of rock from our earlier rocking picking sessions (totally not mundane) into the bucket of the tractor which Leslie drove.
• Jeff and Jarrod set up the basic framework for the irrigation system.
  
• Ali, Jeff, Leslie and I picked some of last year's kale and collards that are regrowing. Just for eating at home.
  

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.

Picking Rocks

Yesterday's activities:

• Did the 'chores' for the animals. (Essentially just mucking out the milking stalls and giving the cows and pigs hay, and also yummy slop for the pigs).
  
• Transplanted lots of tomatoes, and peppers. This took most of the morning.
• Lunch.
• More transplanting.
• Ali and I dug up and transplanted a 200 foot row of Sweet William that survived from last year.
  
• Jarrod and I worked on resurfacing the harvest table.
• Jeff and I did an inventory of irrigation equipment and decided on what joiners we'd need for the delivery and header lines.
• Jeff worked most (all?) of the fields for veg. The intention is to break things up, kill some of the weeds -- in particular the Twitch Grass (aka. Couch grass. The same annoyance I fought with in Australia, along side Kikuyu).
  

Today's activities:

• Chores.
• Changed the oil, and oil filter, and battery on one of the white van.
• Jarrod and I made tables to fit in the van so that we could carry an extra 16 flats of seedlings out to the field.
  
• Lunch. Ali made smoothies. That's a highlight.
• I washed four crates of potatoes, two of beats, and one of rutabaga.
  
• Jeff, Jarrod, and I cleared a space along side the greenhouse, laid tarps and pallets down so as to make a space for 'hardening off' the seedlings before we transplant them. 'Hardening off' refers to giving the seedlings time to adjust to being outdoors (rather in than in the warm, moist, and very controlled environment of the greenhouse).
• The three J's then went to pick rocks from the fields.
• During this time Ali walked the fields to measure and mark them so that we know exactly where the rows begin and end.

Picking rocks is a rather fun process, especially in the afternoon. The three of us spread out about 10 metres apart and then walked the length of a field searching for rocks as big or bigger than about two fists held together (i.e. from average human brain-size to genius human brain-size up to genius Martian brain-size). There's something extraordinarily pleasant about walking under a big sky and talking about whatever (family history, television shows, garden tools, ....). All the while criss-crossing the field and lifting stones out of it, hearing them quietly clunk together as you each throw them into piles. It's the sound of rocks hitting each other that I find most alluring -- such an essential and calm sound.

Today was the first day I've felt any real sense of tiredness during the day. Sluggishness is more like it. I think it's the heat. It only lasted for about twenty minutes. I'm sure I'll meet this feeling again.

Doing the chores has been quite fun. Minus the fact that everyone calls it "chores". I've always hated that word. It reminds me of a vaguely delirious world, slightly askew from my realm of comfort and normality -- i.e. marshmallows baked on top of sweet potatoes, cottage cheese, saying Grace at dinner, face cloths, brick walls in a kitchen, etc. If I think too hard about it these things individually and out of their context they all seem just fine (in fact, I love the idea of taking a moment to cultivate a thankfulness for your food before eating it). It must just be my history, or memories I have associated with these terms.

In any case (phew!), actually doing the morning chores is great. It's a entirely new experience for me to navigate around a living chesterfield with horns (i.e. a cow), unclip it and then pat and talk it out to the paddock. The routine involves releasing each cow (just five) from the milking stalls and leading them out. These animals seem to emote surprise and a little knowing and willful stubbornness with the way they turn only their eyes back at you when you direct them to move. Then, after a moment of consideration, they give up with a small huff as if acknowledging that the outside world isn't so bad after all, and swing around to leave in a wide and lazy three-point turn.