Stream of Consciousness

It's Friday eve and time for a blog post for the farm.  What is there to say or write?  You want a theme?  Ok, how about whatever comes to mind as I type.  that sounds like a good one for tonight.

• Tom Sawyer Week:  We'll term the week a qualified success so far.  A huge thank you to Megan, Ben, Sam, Kory, Max, Sophie, Emma and Zeb for taking the time to come do a little work on the farm.  Fabulous progress on the winter squash field and some loads of roofing materials moved.  Excellent.  Plusses include the fact that people were able to determine how long they wanted to stick around *and* they could get an idea of how things went on a typical farm work day with our crew.  At present, we know of no one attending tomorrow - so let us know if you were going to do so.  Hence, the qualifier... we thought we might open this up for more people, but only three family units were represented in this event.  So, that target failed.  We suspect it has a lot to do with the status of this week as prime travel time for many.
• Just Serfin':  Our work crew of Denis, Andrea, Anden, Sally and Jo provide us with much needed help each week.  Denis and Anden are usually out for three days of the week, Andrea two and Sally and Jo each spend half a day on the farm each week.  Thanks for tolerating us and working to get things done on the farm!
• Hot Buns:  The strong sun this time of year can heat up the black Iowa soil!  We (everyone who worked on the winter squash field the last few days) can attest to this.  Usually, we weeders will crawl, do the 'sunny-side up' or do the 'sit and scoot' in order to weed a row.  Those who crawled may have noticed sensitive knees after due to the hot soil.  Those who did the 'sit and scoot' probably had the hot buns.
• Gasp!  Water! :   It's official, plants are starting to cry at us for water.  So, we're working on the irrigation thing.  Please, please - do not blame us if it suddenly starts raining buckets.

Recent Tasks and Accomplishments on the Farm:

• We did manage to build a new 'portable' shelter that should be the ducks' night time home this summer.  We'll try to take a picture for a July "Picture This" post.
• With the shelter comes a second solar charger and electric fence set up.  The henlets (baby laying hens) are in the other half of the 'figure 8' of fencing on that charger.
• With the exception of a few feet of companion flowers, the winter squash field is weeded.  That's a 200' x 60' plot.  Nice.  We can say the same thing for the tomato/basil plot (with the exception of the outer zinnia row.
• The pea/cucumber plot is also weeded - but has a few rough spots.
• The southwest plot has had old  crops removed and the ground tilled once.  A second till and we plant the next succession!
• Speaking of the southwest, we put up pea fencing and did some wheel hoe work between rows.  Beets can be a pain... 
• We managed to order new carriers for chickens and they arrived this week.  Now...to put them together.
• Speaking of some assembly required - we ordered a couple of hose reels.  We are tired of the seasonal hose meets mower accident that happens this time of year.  We'd like to prevent it if we can.

Coming Up:

• Oui, we STILL weed (lots)
• Set up drip tape irrigation system and then Oui, we water.
• Broilers go to the park on Tuesday night....  uf, that's a CSA distribution day too.  Oh dear.
• GFF hosts Scattergood Friends School Farm, Grinnell Heritage Farm and Blue Gate Farm on Wednesday afternoon.
• GFF hosts a local food buyer group for a tour of the farm Wednesday morning.
• Looks like some gate making and fence repair is on tap so the turkeys can begin day ranging this coming week.  They're ready!
• We've got to put in a batch of lettuce, zucchini, squash, cucumber, etc etc.   There will be alot of planting to do in the next week.
• Garlic digging is just around the corner!

Life on the farm.  Never a dull moment!