My daughter Kira and I headed up to the plot today to get a little bit of work done, and to help skin the hoop houses at the two incubator sites. (Which just means we helped put the plastic covering on them.)
Kira helping with the row of peas (at the plowed field)
The big surprise was that the new incubator farm coordinator, Matthew, had already plowed the field. This is very good news, because now we can easily get in there with the BCS rototiller and set up some raised beds soon. (I’ve got a class on using the BCS on Thursday.)
We checked the peas, and some of them are up now. A little more rain would help the rest. We’re supposed to get hot weather on Monday, and I hope that doesn’t cook them too much. When I initially planted the peas, I ran out of time for making the small wire hoops to keep the rover cover off the seedlings, so today we added about fifty new hoops to the row. (We also picked up a couple buckets full of rocks that the plow churned up.)
After that we joined some of the other incubator farmers at the other farm site (Ogonowski. We farm at Smith.) to work on the hoop house. The slight breeze made us appreciate all the hands we had–besides me and Kira, there was JoAnn and Kamal and Kamal’s niece, Shanti, and Jeff and Erin, and DC. A 60’x30′ plastic sheet can act like quite a sail when the wind grabs hold of it, but we managed to get it on. At the Smith field, there was no wind, and the hardware was easier to attach, to it went on quicker (though Kira and I had to leave early, so hopefully the finishing steps weren’t too tough).
JoAnn helped organize today's work. This is the hoop house without the skin.
Working together with the other farmers was a valuable opportunity to get to know them better. We’ll all be counting on each other a lot as the season progresses. I’m the rookie, so I have a lot to learn from them.
Kira helped bolt on the end of the plastic sheeting to the hoops.
with everyone's help, we got the hoop house fully covered and ready to go.
Next week, it’ll be time to start kale and chard indoors, and plant a few beet seeds in the farm. (I have a very detailed planting schedule written now.) Can’t wait to get my hands on the rototiller.