More than half planted!

Three kinds of cabbage and onions are now keeping the bok choy company in the field. Friday afternoon brought a welcome respite from the rain and a beautiful day to fill in the rows with plants from the greenhouse. This morning we had more rain, so tomorrow we'll make one last push to get our entire acre planted. The weeds are already showing themselves, all over, but the corn is not peeping out yet. The two irrigation parts we ordered over a week ago finally came in at the irrigation place in Klamath Falls, but we'll need to wait till Tuesday or so till the UPS guy brings it to the farm. Luckily, we have natural irrigation lately (with nitrogen from the air), so it's not a totally huge problem to wait. The plants that are in the field now seem to be very happy to be there.

Is Nature Cooperating, or Not?

In the week or so since the last update we have been preparing the other half of the field for the rest of our crops, had a couple of days of rain, were scared that the boulders placed to shore up the dam had ruined the foot valve that connects the creek to the field via our ancient pump (it seems okay, at least for now), and had a planting party in the rain with Jerry, Tong, Nini, Kayte, Sheila and Laurie, which was yesterday. That cold wet morning was a perfect way to prepare for a delicious Chinese banquet courtesy of Nini and Tong. An unusually cool spring has turned into quite a wet one -- we were behind on rainfall for the month, so we're catching up, I suppose. We're definitely saving money from not running the pump, and the corn, still underground, is probably really loving it, but it's a little too wet to get the rest of the plants into the ground. Jerry says that whenever it rains people say we need it, but it doesn't need it, at least not this week. Farming is always interesting!

Rain!

Half an acre of Kandy King corn is planted, and we're battling little crap in the sprinkler heads while we get the ground nice and wet for the cabbage and other crops that will take up the rest of our acre of deliciousness. Today we had a welcome respite from the west coast heat wave (it got to to be in the low 90's here in Fort Bidwell) in the form of a showery early afternoon. The sun came out and will hopefully create a few thunderstorms before
the evening is over. Regardless, the field got a little over 3 hours of mechanical sprinkling and about half an hour of natural sprinkling (.20 inches on the rain gauge). The next few days promise to be a lot of work. Our WWOOFers can't arrive too soon! It was a wonderful morning to stroll up and down the irrigation pipes and to sit in the field watching the clouds and wind all around.

Planting Day!

The soil test is done, and it's looking good. Jerry, Nini, and Tong have been working hard at the greenhouse planting tomatoes, strawberries, and cabbage. The weather finally warmed up - it was in the high 80's today. Like Jerry said, "one day it will just be summer" -- it seems like it's at least a very warm spring, if not summer. Derk was here to look at the pump, the rows are set up, we planted half an acre of corn, and the ground is getting watered, though there are some funny things happening with the pump heating up and losing pressure. Hopefully those will be taken care of soon. The creek is high and it was a busy day at the farm today.

Water's High, Weather's Warming Up!

Well, Jerry and Nini got married, the pump has been moved (it's going to get its water from the area in the lower right of the photo), the ditch is dug, and of course there is plenty more to do, but we're looking at temps in the high 70's and even 80's at the end of this week. Wow! There is plenty of water in the crik, the indoor plants are pretty happy, and we're getting ready for a very busy month here at the farm. It's very exciting!

Another Week?

Today was what we hope to be a harbinger of a late but beautiful and productive spring. We should be planting in a week to ten days. Tong's watering the garlic, and in front of that you can just barely see the spinach coming out in front of Jerry's Little Green House (tm). In the background you can see the chicken coop. Once the chicken abode is completed at LJP, some of the chickens will be visiting for the summer, providing eggs, fertilizer, and entertainment for the people on the farm. We are extremely excited that we are getting a lot of WWOOFer interest, and delighted that Julie, Jon, Brigitte, and Quinn will be joining us for a time in the second half of June. Hey, guys, we'll try to save at least a little work for you!

Today Jerry came by with a different big tractor -- one with more personality -- and leveled the field. The next step is making rows, which should happen next week or so, then we get to plant!!!

We finally got a nice sunny day, but it was breezy and in the shade it was quite chilly, in the low 50's. It was a fantastic day. The only sad note is that the leveler blew a hydraulic hose at the very end of the job, which makes more work for Jerry and also made it so he had to rush to get back to the ranch before it all ran out.

I like this picture because it shows the native scrub and scrub-encroached pasture in addition to the beautiful field.