Breathing A Bit Easier

Well even though we’re still behind, we put in a good day of work that caught us up quite a bit. Show me a Farmer that doesn’t say they’re behind or that they’re “all caught up” and I’ll show you a poser 😉 Not sure who wants to be a Farmer-poser but work with me here folks.

Spent the entire morning in the rain, weeding and stringing the small yard. Oh how some days I wish it was just the small yard again 😉 After a few other small projects, Dad joined me in the upper yard to take a look as to what we were facing. As before, the growth in the clover cover crop in the lanes was insane. We could cut the field twice a week I swear and barely keep up.

As you can see in the photo above, the clover is growing like…well not like a weed…but rather, a good cover crop. In the lanes where we’re at, we just cut that last week. To my Dad’s left (the right side in the photo) on the outside of the lanes between there and the anchors, I wasn’t able to cut last week and you can see how deep that is. Our first discussion was to temporarily stake the hops so I could get them up out of the hills and get in and weed-whack right up to the hills and around the poles. We’d even laid out the stakes, however giving it further thought, we decided to start the stringing of the coir to get them going and we’ll worry about the clover next week.

Dad and I got started which was tricky as with only two of us, I’d move the tractor a few feet up, then run back up into the crow’s nest string 6-8 lines and drop them down to Dad who ties them together to keep them from blowing in the wind and getting snagged. Then we’d drive them in with “W” clips, then move and repeat the process all over again. So when Mike joined us, we were able to move much, much faster albeit a very uninteresting task for Mike as it involved a lot of sitting and not much “driving”. All the while on a wet seat as the tractor’s seat is beyond shot…I’m sure it’s original to the tractor.

To move things along, rather than doing a section than stomping them in, we left them tied together and continued on making the best use of our time and group effort. On my next trip up. I’ll drive them into the ground and get the bines trained. We’re almost complete with the first alley, and since we’re only tying one bine per hill and not two like in the small yard, we may be able to finish this up in 2-3 days including training them on the bine. Once that’s done, I can finally properly weed using our new propane torch, mow and fertilize before we drop in the mulch.

Again, not all I’d hoped to do but in reality, that never happens. I’m happy with what we got done and as always, so very thankful for the time and efforts my family offers day in and day out!