“Almost there…almost there…”

Based on the weather and conditions where my wife and I live (State College, about 90 minutes South of Saint Marys), it appeared time to start making the weekly trip to/from the Farm. No snow, warming temps, clear blue skies for more than 30 minutes at a clip. Surely things at the Farm must be somewhat in the same ballpark no?

That’d be a big negative there good buddy…

As such, I did some work prepping the tractor for the season and revisited a set of black locust saplings my Dad and I planted a few years back. The idea with the locust was that we could start growing our own poles as the cost to harvest, transport and debark them from another supplier is quite costly.

And just as I was packing up from the shortened Farm day to head back to State College, guess what arrived? Our new “ballistic” soil probe from SpraySmarter. In years past, we would borrow a soil probe either from Penn State Extension or most recently, from the Elk County Conservation District which is now just a couple miles down the street from us. However, I hate borrowing the equipment of others and also, our heavy clay soils are so damned “bullet proof”, it is a real struggle getting those style probes into the soil. They’re shorter, not as rigid and don’t include a step.

Well my friends, this one I’m quite certain would let me sample soil through concrete. Behold…

So now we begin work planning out the projects and work activities for the season. Lots to do and anxious to get going!