Pea Planting

Jeff and Lars planting peas

We planted 50 lbs of garden peas in the field that is supposed to grow grapes next year.  Since peas are nitrogen fixing plants, we figured we can't go wrong sowing them.   Hopefully they will grow and we have time to pick some of them - we did find someone with a mechanical pea sheller...We'll see if they grow first.  Jeff adjusted the gears on our corn planter and used a different seed plate for the peas.  We had actually bought 100 lbs (not knowing exactly what we needed) - luckily the peas came in 50 lbs bags, so we are returning the one unused bag.



very long rows of peas!

It was a bright sunny day, but not very warm - mid 40's...also spent a lot of time hoeing and rototilling the blackberry patch, we are almost done - less than half a row to go!!!  Also cleaned up the asparagus patch, dug the first 37 holes for the grape vines, which should arrive next week, and started cleaning up the herb garden.



Plowing and Planting in March

Jeff has been busy plowing and disking our various "plots" during the last two weeks: 

• the vegetable garden (which he "squared up" -  meaning he made it even larger)
• the field below the barn, where we will plant our first 200 grape vines in April
• half the field above the pond, which we will plant in peas (about 100 lbs) and sweet corn this year, then cover crop it to get it ready for more grapes next year



Last weekend, with unseasonable warm weather, we started planting the garden:  

• 50 lbs of Kenebec potatoes
• 25 lbs of Red Pontiac potatoes
• 300 "Candy" onion plants
• 1 lbs of red onion sets
• 5 bulbs of California garlic
• 3 seed packets of Hollow Crown parsnips



Kept on hoeing the blackberry plants from last year, working on about 25 at a time each evening after work - as of today, we have 362 finished (=138 to go).  The ground is perfect right now, weeds are coming out easy and the weather has been holding up just fine - though we are supposed to get rain and sleet tonight :(



garden patch





Chambourcin patch



pea & corn patch



500 More Blackberries!

We learned a lot from last year's planting and had a much more efficient system going this year, when we planted our second "batch" of blackberries. We knew the plants were to arrive sometime last week, so we spent every evening setting end posts for the trellis system and marking out the rows.  Our rows are 10 feet apart (marked those with string), and the plants are set 4 feet apart - used orange spray paint to mark each spot.  So when the 500 Triple Crown plants arrived late on Wednesday afternoon we were set to go.  We only had enough daylight left that evening to set 50 plants, but Thursday and Friday evening, after work, we got another 100 plants into the ground - Jeff and Lars used the rototiller to dig holes, Tina followed and planted. 

We finished the rest of the planting on Saturday - which was good, because on Sunday we got one heck of a storm.  Heavy rain and blustering wind quickly turned to ice and snow. We lost power late in the evening and by Monday morning, 7 of our largest pine trees had been knocked down :( 

It was an extreme temperature change, we went from seeing the first crocus on Saturday to having ice and snow the next evening.  But we did order our first set of grape vines:  200 Chambourcin should be shipped in early April.

Clean Blueberry Patch

Took advantage of a beautiful warm afternoon and hoed and rototilled our young blueberry patch.  We have 45 plants that all are showing signs of budding leaves - so hoping they survived their first winter.  



hard to see the little plants, they are close to the irrigation lines


Waiting anxiously now for the arrival of our new blackberry plants - all 500 of them should be shipping sometime next week.

Ditch Digging

We rented a jackhammer over the weekend, to break through the concrete and dig below the barn foundation for putting in drainage pipes and water lines.  Luckily Jens came over to help as well - he and Jeff took turns running the jackhammer, while Tina and Lars dug away the loose dirt.  It really did not take as long as we had thought - got it all done before the weather turned ugly again.

Filling in the Barn Floor and Setting Posts

 

rock pile after 70 loads were taken

On days that the weather was warm enough to melt some of the gravel, Lars and Tina filled up wheelbarrel loads of gravel and carted it into the barn - where Jeff distributed it and tamped it down.  We are over half way done - and so far pushed 70 wheelbarrel loads (yes, we counted!!!).



barn floor with 70 loads dumped

Once the back third was gavel filled and leveled (we used our handy laser level to make sure it stayed even), we mixed up some cement and poured two slabs (into a form which Jeff had build), as bases for setting new support beams.

 While the concrete hardened, we started jacking up the barn some more to get the cross beams level.  We had borrowed two barn jacks from one of Jeff's friends, and eased up on the cross beam a little bit each day for about 1 week, until it was level - we had to move it up nearly 2.5 inches at the far end, about 1 inch in the middle. 

We used some of the old (Beford) barn beams we still had left over, cut them the right length and set them in, next to the old beams.  To get these in, we had to jack the crossbeam even higher, until we could slide the new support beams in, and then lower the jack until the new beams were able to support the barn.  It felt a bit like playing JENGA, as the old beams toppled. We set 6 new posts so far, for the back third of the barn, and it looks great!







Digging Out the Barn Floor

  

It took four wagon loads of old straw, hay and crusted manure to get the barn floor down to the hard dirt level.  We had to use the small rototiller to dig out the very last layer (and this was only for one third of the barn floor, as the rest of the floor is cement). 

The four wagon loads were spread on the garden - which means we not only had to shovel the stuff onto the wagon, but shovel it back off as well.

 

Lars had two snow days in a row and he worked hard at it - but had some fun too!

We had ordered 15 ton of gravel, which was delivered earlier this week - and now the hard part starts:  spreading the gravel in the barn with a wheelbarrow and help from a laser level.  What fun!