Had a great weekend planting and mulching!

Wow, what a beautiful weekend! Thank goodness it stopped raining for a few days, as we are painfully behind where we would like to be in regards to weed control, planting, and growing veggies.

We were able to plant some seeds, such as peas, beans, beets, and the like. We got 200 pounds of potatoes planted as well. We transplanted some more sweet corn and our first tomatoes outside. And the strawberries are now mulched between the rows. It's amazing what you can get done in a long weekend!

We're still behind, though. We still do not have enough veggies getting ripe each week to fill our subscriptions. We may even have to postpone our start of our veggie subscriptions a week. We usually try to start at least by mid-June, but we're afraid it may be later in June before we start.

So for a few more weeks we'll just take everything to the farmers market in Morgantown. The Cumberland market starts this week, but we don't have enough to go to both.

Pray for more sunshine!

Planting Has Begun!

We got a couple rows of cabbage, cauliflower, and the like planted in the patch along Rt. 219 on Friday evening. If you drive by while we're transplanting, you'll think we're just sitting in the field, but we're actually moving, very slowly! The tractor has a "creeper" gear, so it can go down to as slow as 0.1 miles per hour.

It goes that slow so we can plant behind the tractor. After the wheel pokes a hole and dumps some water in it, we have to shove the root-ball of the plant into the hole, and squeeze some of the mud around the roots to get the plants started nicely. So when you see someone riding behind the tractor, with their feet up, know they are actually planting furiously, not just sitting back having a joy ride!

Making Progress with Planting and Mulching

Over the weekend Charles was able to lay a bunch of the plastic mulch for our plants to be transplanted into soon. Then it started to rain, so that gave him a day or two in the greenhouse to get more plants ready to be transplanted!

Thank goodness for the pretty days we can get out in the field, and thank goodness for the rainy days that force us to get into the greenhouse and get more seeds in trays. Sometimes if it's sunny for too many days in a row, we get behind in our greenhouse work. And vice versa when it's rainy, we get behind in our field work.

Such is the life of a farmer, though, we're at the mercy of the weather - big time! Who needs a one-armed bandit when you have mother nature to gamble with?

The Tractor is Ours! (Finally!)

The final payment is in the mail - our M6800 Kubota tractor is ours!

It has sure helped our operation to have a new tractor, but man, we hated to take on that debt. Now it seems worth it, though, as we've been able to accomplish more work with less labor because of having the tractor.

We ordered the Kubota with a "creeper" gear in it - meaning it will go much slower than other tractors. In fact, it's hard to walk as slow as this tractor can go - down to 0.1 mph, or so. And that creeper gear really helps when we're transplanting in the field.

One person can drive the tractor, and one or two can sit on the back and plant. If the tractor is going fast, you can get pretty frustrated as you try to keep up!

Anyway, we're so tickled that the tractor is paid off. On to the next project!