Down on the Farm

Sun

It has been rain, rain, rain lately. Yesterday afternoon, the sun made an appearance. What a welcome sight. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain again this afternoon and tomorrow. So I am off to plant what I can this morning, and then I look forward to seeing the sun again Monday and Tuesday.

We have company this weekend, so I will be dusting off the camera. Stand by for action photos.

Also, someone has a birthday around here Monday, June 2. And she will be 29 this year!

Here's something else

These folks are into their veggies. All for the humble daikon.

This is cool

I think I will add this to the side bar links. The internet is pretty interesting.

You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

An update: my neighbor's "hired man" came by tonight with the big tractor and the big rototiller, and he made very short work of some of the remaining sod I needed turned over. (By the way, "hired man" is the term used to refer to farm hands. I think it sounds kind of feudal, but when in Rome . . .)

At $40 an hour that was easily the best $40-60 I have spent on the farm so far. It saved me at least 15-20 hours of labor, which is 15-20 hours I just don't have right now. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it to do all the work I have done so far in terms of getting the field ready, because to have him come custom till the whole area from scratch would have been in the $800-1000 range. But having him come zap the remaining sod clumps from a smaller area that needs to get planted in the next two weeks was definitely worth it.

Feeling pretty psyched right now.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good

Farming is definitely a different mindset than lawyering. Both are mentally challenging, but with growing things there is a much greater emphasis on improvisation and risk assessment. Will it rain/frost/tornado tonight? If we are expecting 4 days of rain, what needs to happen while it is still dry? What can wait until it is dry again? If the supplies/tool/part/implement I need won't be here until next week, how am I going to water the plants/fix the tractor/transplant the seedlings? If I plant two millions fancy French melons, will I be able to sell them? Etc., etc.

Lawyering is very demanding in its own way, but it is also very methodical and procedural. Schedules don't change very often. A court date, a brief due date, or a transaction closing date may change occasionally, but you usually have plenty of notice of the change. Lawyers (and I suppose anyone who relies on the rule of law) do not like surprises, so our system is structured to minimize them.

We have now had four days of rain, and while I have been able to get a lot of planting done, I am quickly running out of properly tilled soil to plant stuff. And we still have a lot of seedlings that really really need to get planted soon (they are getting too big and root bound for their present pots).

But it needs to be dry to till things, and I have a big labor crunch -- my tractor implements are good for our long term tillage strategy, but they are not as good for turning sod to plantable soil right now. Between the rain and my labor limitations, I really was getting to the point where I didn't know what we were going to do, and I had begun to resign myself to re-scaling some of my planting plans for the year.

Last week, when I saw this problem coming, I had put a call into our neighbor because I knew he had a massive rototiller on his bigger tractor, and that he could just whisk through ground that it would take me a lot longer to turn over. But I hadn't heard back from him, which isn't surprising given that everyone up here is wicked busy this time of year.

Then last night he called. Sure, he can come over Wednesday night and help me turn some ground, and we agreed on some compensation for the work. Then I checked the weather. It is supposed to clear up today, stay clear tomorrow, and then go back to rain Wednesday night. If we are lucky, that should be just enough drying to let us get our tilling done on Wednesday evening.

What was I so worried about?

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone, and a big thank you to Maryellen's grandfather (World War II) and my uncle Bob (Vietnam) for serving this country in combat in times of need. We here at Old Shaw Farm will be saying a prayer today for all who have sacrificed, and for peace.

Things are growing

Hope you are having a good Memorial Day weekend!

It has been rainy and gray here, but that's great weather for planting and growing. The picture above is of one end of the field. The white strips are the remay covers that we pull over the wire hoops over the crops to protect them from frost. The ten day weather outlook makes it seem like we may be done with frost, but I will believe it when I see it.

Things are growing, growing, growing. The potatoes and green peas are up, we have some lettuce and broccoli and broccoli raab seedlings we transplanted in, and we are growing this gourmet Japanese spring turnip that actually tastes more like a big sweet radish. Plus arugula and tiny French string beans and baby yellow snap peas and carrots and onions, onions, onions. Tomorrow I start transplanting in the melons and tomatoes.

We had our first actual cash sale today! A bunch of tomato seedlings for $15. I know last week I said we had a sales call, but that person ended up buying some of the seedlings that we had donated to the church plant sale. So now we are starting to build our millions.

Maryellen made an exciting discovery while working on the house today, but I'll let her tell you about it.

Now we are going to re-watch the Fellowship of the Ring. We sure know how to party around here!

Happy husband

Ever have one of those days when you get home from work and you feel like you ate too many donuts and really didn't get very much accomplished? I felt like that today, and I didn't even get to eat any donuts!!! (Poor me!)

The problem is that this was a farming day for Peter, and whenever Peter is farming, at the end of the day, he gets that FIRED UP feeling of like after you just kicked butt on the field hockey field or even just kicked some slimelord bootay in court. Like let me at those chunks of sod I am ready to plant some veggies because LIFE IS GOOD!!

He even does the screaming grunt through gritted teeth that we used to do at field hockey games to try to scare the other team into thinking we were completely mental (or at least get them giggling).

I couldn't get him to do the screaming farmer FIRED UP thing for the camera but here is him cracking up as I get him to try.

This is after a shower.

It takes real skill to remain grumpy living with this guy.

Busted

I stopped by the West Barnet general store this evening to satisfy my sweet tooth. On the steps outside was the dairy farmer who rents some of our land, eating a snack and talking to someone else. He knows all about our vegetable plans, and he and I have actually had to work together on several occasions to coordinate our farm plan needs. He is not an organic dairy farmer, so I think he thinks some of the organic restrictions I have to work with are a little overkill.

Anyway, I said "Hi" to him on the way in, and as I am walking out of the store he says in this thick northern New England accent, "That Kit Kat don't look too organic to me." It was pretty funny.

Bad news

Black flies. Yesterday, nothing. Today, I was up on the field in the evening and they were everywhere. And they bite. Folks around here say black fly season is Memorial Day to Fourth of July, so we are just starting. Last year we found that tea tree oil works pretty well to keep them at bay. Various other natural remedies can work too.

Luckily this year we live in a house where the screens fit. Last year, we rented an apartment in an old farmhouse. The screens in that place were so bad that when it got dark we had to just shut off the lights and go to sleep. Otherwise, if we stayed up with the lights on, all the black flies found their way into the apartment and made sleeping almost impossible. So we would go to sleep at 9:00pm and get up at 4-5:00am, which actually wasn't all that bad. Very in tune with the earth, and all of that jazz.

Updates

Wow. It has been a day or two since the last post. Time flies when you are wicked busy.

I think I got a woodchuck. He was standing on the cusp of his hole. I had him in my sights. I let a shot fly. There was a puff of dirt, and then nothing.

I had originally thought I missed, and that he got down the hole in time. But there has not been any subsequent traffic in or out of that set of holes. Our friend Steve, who is a biologist, thinks I wounded the critter, it then dove into the hole, and he or she has now gone on to his or her eternal rest. Is this way too much detail? Sorry if I grossed anyone out. This was the woodchuck closest to the veggies, so I am glad to not have to worry about this one anymore.

Otherwise, we are expecting a frost tonight. Hopefully our last. The long range forecast looks good after tonight. We already have onions, beans, peas, potatoes, and salad turnips in the ground. When it frosts, we need to cover everything with some type of remay. "Remay" is a trade name for a very light spun plastic fabric that protects plants down to about 27 or 28 degrees. We have a big roll of it and we spread it over little wire hoops on each vegetable row. I don't have a picture, but the Johnny's catalog gives you an idea.

Beyond that, my affection for the tractor continues to grow. I spread about 4 and 1/2 tons of compost on our field today and yesterday. I only took me a couple of hours. It would have taken a really long time with a shovel and wheelbarrow.

Been working like crazy. Time for sleep. Good night everyone!

What a day

Today easily could have been the first day of summer -- 85 degrees and clear sun. Absolutely beautiful. Funny, but it seems like it was only a few weeks ago that it was snowing here.

One interesting thing about living up north is that the transition seasons (spring and fall) are really quick. It was like that in Minnesota as well. I guess it makes sense when you think about how the Earth tilts with the seasons. In winter we are tilted further away from the sun up here, and in the summer we are tilting more directly at the sun. So we have more more of a swing to cover in the spring and the fall.

Anyway, after working at my day job I did some planting (beans) and then attempted to take the first dip of the season in the stream below the beaver pond. It was more like a wade than a dip. The water was still so cold that it hurt my feet. But I did splash in for about a tenth of a second. The water still needs a couple more weeks.

But I bet almost all the snow is gone up on the Presidential Range of the White Mountains.

Nesting

Looks like we're not the only ones around here who are expecting.

I am pretty sure the nests in the photos above are barn swallows' nests. I love to sit on the porch and watch the the barn swallows swoop through the yard and into the barn.

There is also a robin who I think must be nesting in the barn. Whenever I walk in that part of the barn, she acts very annoyed and flies at me as she flies out.

I am pretty sure that the nests in the photos above are the robins' nests. But I could be mixing up the barn swallows' nests with the robins' nests. Does anyone know which is which?

Finally, yesterday I inadvertently scared a turkey off her nest. She made her nest in the burn pile by the shed. I am worried that she won't come back and sit on these now that she knows she's close to where we live. She sure laid some nice looking eggs though.

Now serving number 1

I received our first sales call last night. A neighbor wants to buy some cherry tomato seedlings, and we certainly have some. Plus, this morning I am donating a tray of seedlings to the church plant sale. I put little labels on the seedlings with our farm name, etc.

It is a little strange to put yourself out there in a business sense. For example, I was tempted just to give the neighbor some seedlings, but then I thought, "It will be hard to make money at that rate."

And then you realize that as soon as you start marketing and selling you start to develop a reputation, and that reputation matters. I suppose this is obvious to anyone who is even remotely connected to a business, but this is our first foray into business ownership, so a lot of this stuff is somewhat new for us.

Warming trend

It is not quite summer yet.

From the field on top of the hill behind our barn you can see the White Mountains in New Hampshire on a clear day. The past few days have been cloudy and rainy, but this afternoon it all cleared up. When I was up there working today I noticed the White Mountains were still white. That means when it is raining down here, it is still snowing up there.

The White Mountains do lose their white for summer, but we still have a little bit more to go before we get there.

Stinky farming II

To review, we have about 22 acres of big open fields. We are using approximately 2 acres for vegetables this year, and a neighboring dairy farmer is renting the other 20 acres for hay. Part of our "rental agreement" is that the dairy farmer is to spread manure on the hay land. This practice (1) replaces the nutrients and fertility he is removing with the hay, and (2) allows him to do something with his excess manure.

The way dairy farmers spread manure over 20+ acres is to liquefy the stuff, and spray it out the back of customized manure trucks. Yesterday was the day the trucks came.

Pretty stinky stuff. I hope the guy driving the truck didn't see me taking this picture. I think people around here already think we are a little weird.

Politics Shmalitics

Having a keyboard and an (albeit small) audience, I am constantly tempted to post political rants on this site. Especially when I see things like we haven't found any WMD in Iraq, or that the Bush administration is suing to force Europe to accept genetically modified food (I thought the customer was always right -- see, I couldn't resist).

The problem is that there already are many people on both the left and the right doing political commentary on the web better than I could really hope to do myself. So I have revamp the links, etc., on the left side here and added some political sites. The first is the blog of a professor from Yale Law School (our alma mater), the second is just a bunch of good old fashion liberals, and the third is a Vermont based group. Anyway, if you are left leaning you will probably enjoy my political tastes, if not, this post will in all likelihood be the beginning and end of my foray into web politics.

Organic pest control

We have a problem. Woodchucks.

They eat lots and lots of vegetables, if given a chance.

Fortunately, they are on the far side of the field and haven't discovered the peas yet. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time. That is why we also have a 12 gauge solution.

Overflow

Well, I officially exceeded my own grasp. This morning I planted 17 trays of melons and cucumbers, which brings us up to speed on our planting schedule, but I have nowhere to put them. Once they germinate in a couple of days I will have to think of something. I suspected there would be a log jam with the seedlings right about now, and I was right -- we have all the seedlings in play and yet it is still a little early to be planting them out en masse. (Insert sound of hyperventilating here).

Editorial comment by Maryellen (who is reading over Peter's shoulder): We at Old Shaw Farm strictly stick to the One Day at a Time philosophy (well sometimes we try to at least) so we have a home for the seedlings today, and I am sure a solution for the future will present itself in the future. Perhaps in the form of a seedling sale? Perhaps in the form of an early and long lasting warm spell? Wait and see . . . .

Oooh Oooh that smell

This time of year there appears to be an incredible smell up here -- and no, I am not talking about the manure trucks. It is the smell of pine and cedar and spring and rain, and all things good and sweet and filled with the beginning of life. And it is everywhere. It really is an incredible smell. And it seems to last for about four to six weeks in the spring.

The only other even remotely comparable smell I have run across is late summer sweetgrass. I once worked on an Indian reservation in north-central South Dakota for about three months, and when my friend Steve and I went fishing at Buffalo Lake, we would walk through acres of beautiful smelling sweetgrass. This smell up here in Vermont is not as perfumey, but I actually like it a little better than South Dakota.

Trees

We have this old maple tree just west of the big vegetable field. I mean, it is big -- probably 4-5 feet in diameter. I am thinking about hooking up with these folks to see how it stacks up with other big trees in Vermont. The internet is amazing because it can show you just how many different things people out there are into.

Happy Mother's Day

In case you hadn't heard, someone around here is going to be a mother in a few months. I'll give you a hint -- it is not me.

We are about four months pregnant!! Actually Maryellen is. But we are both very excited!! Our due date is the end of September, but we tell everyone October 1. And no, we don't know the sex, we don't plan to find out, and we are not publicly discussing names (we actually hardly ever discuss names amongst ourselves yet -- as we both like to say (jokingly), that stuff is months and months away).

We are very fortunate that we both have the greatest mother in the world, so parenting should be a snap. We both have had excellent examples set for us. Thanks Moms!!!!! Happy Mother's Day!!!! And a happy first Mother's Day to Sheri and Barbara, and a happy first double winner's day to Martha!

Mark and Lori and Wiley and Nanook

Sorry no posts lately. It is supposed to rain for a couple of days and stay warm for the next couple of weeks, so I have been rushing to get some stuff planted. So far, so good. And as I type it is starting to rain. Perfect.

Our friends Mark and Lori and Wiley and Nanook came to visit this weekend. Mark is a mechanic studying to be an engineer. Not only did he help me pull the starter off of the tractor so I could have a minor repair done to it, but he also helped me clear sod from part of a field (which is an unpleasant task), and he basically built Maryellen a table for her beehive. Thanks Mark!

Maryellen says the best place of the bees is up off the ground and sheltered a little bit. So she decided to house them on the second floor of the barn. The problem is that the hive also needs to be near a window, and Maryellen needed a stable support for the hive high enough to reach a barn window. Mark's table is perfect. Here is the hive peeking out of the window, waiting for the arrival of the new bees (which should be this week some time).

Lori is about 8 and a half months pregnant. Go Lori!! Here she is with two of our favorite doggies in the world, Wiley and Nanook. We have a dog across the street who likes to think of our house and land as part of his domain, but that changed this weekend with Wiley and Nanook on the beat. Lookout!

The joys of farming

So I was standing in the kitchen waiting for the coffee to brew at about 5am this morning, and in my half awake state, I heard a funny sound. It sounded like rain a little bit, but we weren't really supposed to get showers last night. At least I didn't think we were supposed to.

After mulling this over for another minute or two, I finally stood bolt upright -- the seedlings! I had left about ten trays of seedlings (out of 50 or so) outside last night, not in the seedling house, and not under the overhanging calving room of the barn. They were just sitting out there exposed to the rain and I realized at that moment that their little tiny trays were probably filling with water fast. I threw on my boots and rain jacket and was out moving seedling trays in the rain, pre-coffee no less.

But all ends well -- it was just a localized downpour (not uncommon in the hilly terrain up here) and it didn't last long. I got the seedlings under cover in time. I just won't have to water those trays this morning.

The funny thing about this farming stuff is that you really need to keep one eye on the weather. Will these agricultural insights never cease?

Beekeeping extravaganza

So when Peter goes away my life goes to pot. First, I can't seem to get out of bed. Though the thought did cross my mind today that I could have set an alarm. What a novel idea! Plus, all he asked me to do was open the door to the greenhouse in the morning and water the seedlings, but somehow it takes longer to water the 500 million seedlings Peter planted this year than it did last year to water the 4 trays we had. Shocker! So I am only now just rolling into work and so I have to be fast.

The beekeeping workshop was awesome!!! The best part was being able to hold a frame of bees in a safe setting. I mean I am not particularly afraid of bees, but still, I've never specifically gone into their homes to visit. The people at the Pfeiffer center don't really believe in wearing protective gear on a regular basis. They just go into the hives in t-shirts and without gloves or veils or anything. They believe that if you treat the bees gently, slowly, carefully and with respect, the bees will treat you the same back. I know it sounds kooky, but we hung out with the bees for at least three hours and I think of a group of thirty or so people only two stings total. (I didn't get stung.) Anyway, being able to hold a frame of bees without gloves (I was wearing Mom and Dad's mayfly veil though) was really cool and really helped me get over some of my initial hesitation.

The workshop was a little advanced, but I think that was good. Like someone trying to teach you to make chocolate chip cookies by telling you that "I've always thought that you should have more brown sugar than white, and never, ever run the mixer once the chips are in." I mean, a beginner like me is left thinking, if this is the innovation, what's the normal way? On the other hand, I am generally in favor of the total immersion method of learning, so I think I learned a lot.

The teachers -- and a lot of the students -- were obviously very knowledgeable and very respectful of bees and had lots of interesting ideas. For example, most beekeepers give their bees the wax comb within which to lay their brood and store their honey. That way the bees concentrate on making honey rather than building comb. The teachers of this workshop though thought that you should only give them some of the wax they need, not all, because it is good for the bees health to do some of the work of building the wax comb. The teachers had some expression in German about how "work sweetens life" -- that we need to work to be healthy -- and bees too.

Also, the teachers of the workshop believe you should not force your hive to become artificially bigger than it would naturally be. Most beekeeping books tell you to take steps to prevent the hive from splitting into two hives as it grows -- because having one big hive gives you more honey than two smaller hives. But these teachers thought it was healthier for the bees to be able to "reincarnate" (that's their term) periodically into a new hive. Of course the trick is catching the new hive as it swarms off. I think that is a little advanced for me, but I have to say it looked really cool in the video we watched.

I've ordered my hive of bees from a guy a friend recommended. I don't know much about him other than his email address and that his name is Butch and he lives a couple towns South of us. I need to email him and see if the bees are ready yet. I'll keep you posted!!

So much for my short entry. Peter will be back late tonight!! Woohoo!!

Peter has left me!

Peter has gone to St. Paul for three days. So you're stuck with me today and tomorrow. I forgot to get the right cord for the camera from Peter's office before he left, so no photos.

Does anyone know how to tell where the beavers are living? I've explored the beaver pond some, and I see lots of things that look like beaver dams, but I haven't ever actually seen a beaver. Are the multiple dams just old homes now abandoned or are they like storage sheds or what? As I walk downstream, beaver activity looks more recent -- the stumps and chips are not yet faded -- so I suspect they are moving downstream. I suppose I should have researched this so I could be more informed before I post!

On the other hand, it is awesome to see the work that the beavers have done. I mean, it is a lot of work to take down a tree and they have taken down a bunch. So, so far I have been happy to just admire their handiwork. (We have even had at least one car full of tourists stop and take photos of the beavers' work.)

Anthony, a kid who lives two houses down, says he's been exploring the beaver ponds for years, so I am hoping he can show me where the beavers are now living. Or maybe someone will come visit this summer and figure it out. I'll keep you posted. (Get it?) Also, hopefully I will be able to post some photos later.

The fields

This entry is supposed to complement the earlier entries about the barn and the house, in order to give people a sense of what we are dealing with here. The delay in getting this is up is due partly to being busy, and partly to the fact that I couldn't think of much interesting to say about the land except that it is big and beautiful.

We have about 158 acres, of which 45 are open and the rest are wooded.

The forty five open acres break down into about 22 acres of prime vegetable land (flat, good soil profile, good soil fertility, good drainage), and the other 23 are old pasture land (more hilly, wet in spots, starting to get overgrown). The good vegetable land ("the big field") is all in one field, which is on top of a hill behind our barn. The pasture land is spread over two smaller fields (the "second" and "third" fields) which attach to the south side of the big field.

We really bought this place for the 22 vegetable acres. It is absolutely beautiful Dummerston sandy loam.

The wooded land is about one third soft woods, one third hardwoods, and the last third is a cedar stand that surrounds a big beaver pond and meadow area. The beaver pond is about 1/2 acre in size, and about 3 feet deep. But the beavers are there -- you can see their handiwork everywhere.

There is a conservation easement on 156 of the 158 acres. What that means is that the good folks at the Vermont Land Trust hold the development rights to the land. In other words, we cannot subdivide or build on the land, and we cannot clear cut it either. But those are about the only real restrictions. The previous owner donated the development rights to the VLT, as a part of some sort of tax planning I suspect.

Some people aren't big on conservation easements, but it has been great for us. I really think that the conservation easement is the only way we are able to keep this land in agriculture, which, or course, is the point of the easement -- preventing development.

The easement enabled us to buy this property for much less than it would have gone for if all the land was subdivide-able. I also think it made it harder for the previous owner to sell, so it was still available when we finally got up the courage to come look at it. But since we wanted to build a farm and have a home for 30+ years, we were not scared off by the easement. Of course, our property may not appreciate as quickly as other land might, but there is an "estate value" to having such a big parcel. And in any event, it would probably break our hearts to have to sell our farm for development in order to retire, so we are not too worried about the effect of the easement.

So maybe there was something to say about the land after all.

Swimming holes

Like any group of people who deal with long winters, the folks in northern Vermont enjoy summer with some gusto. And since there are a lot of hills and mountains, there are a lot of streams, and the roads tend to follow the streams through the valleys. As a result, there are tons of swimming holes all over the place where people can just pull over and pop it for a dunk. Most aren't really huge, and you won't be swimming laps or any thing, but they are fun and refreshing. So if you are up here in the summer, and you see two or three cars on the side of the road every mile or so, you know the stream you are driving along has a lot of good swimming spots.

Of course, if you don't mind a walk or a hike, the world of swimming holes increases exponentially. I was walking down from our big field yesterday scouting out spots along the stream that runs through our property. I actually think there is a good spot below the beaver dam, and since the water at this spot has been sitting in a shallow the beaver pond, it should be a little warmer than the rest of stream. It is too early to try it out now, but soon!

Maryellen has left me!

At least for the weekend. She and our friend Tamara have gone to an organic beekeeping workshop over in New York at the Pfeiffer Center. She got a bunch of beekeeping supplies from a neighbor of her parents, and she is keen on starting a hive this year. Besides honey, the bees are great for pollinating our vegetable crops, especially melons and squash.

Personally, I have not been too big on bees ever since I disturbed a hive last summer and got stuck 4 times in about 1.5 nanoseconds. I never knew I could run that fast. But if Maryellen wants to be in charge of the bees, more power to her. Maybe they will teach her how to do a bee beard this weekend.

The rookie swings and misses

Well, it has been an eventful morning at Old Shaw Farm. I was supposed to have a load of composted manure delivered first thing this morning. It had been raining all night and morning, so things were wet. When the guy came with the truck, I told him I wanted the compost dumped at the top of the hill behind our barn. The top of this hill plateaus out, and we have about 20-22 acres of relatively flat land up there. But there is a bit of a hill to get up there.

Suffice it to say, the compost guy got stuck. I couldn't pull him out with our 2-wheel drive tractor, so I had to call our neighbor Allen. When Allen got over to our place with his big 4-wheel drive John Deere, he must have struggled to keep from chuckling. He, and everyone else who farms in Peacham, knows our land better than I do. So he wasn't surprised (a) that the truck got stuck, or (b) that it got stuck right where it did. It was a rookie mistake to try to get up that hill in the kind of rain we had this morning. The truck driver shares a little of the blame, but I egged him on because having the compost up top was going to make my life a lot easier.

Don't get me wrong, Allen was super nice about the whole thing, and he did just drop everything and come over to help. But it definitely was a newbie move. Good thing there won't be anymore of those . . . right?

Tractor talk

We received two of our three implements yesterday -- a manure spreader and a set of disc harrows. Sorry, no pictures. There is a steady rain out this morning and I don't want to risk getting the camera all wet.

The guy who brought them down was a lot more subdued than his brother, who was the original guy I talked to on the phone. So the transaction wasn't that eventful. But they both had cool French Canadian accents because they are dairy farmers from Derby, Vermont, which is right up on the border.

The last implement we are waiting for is a chisel plow. (The link is just for background. Our plow is not as huge as the ones discussed there.)

Perhaps some background is in order. We have an area of one field that is in hay/sod, and we need to break up the sod, and create a level seed bed for vegetables. If you have ever tried to stick a shovel through a spot on your lawn, you can imagine how challenging this transition can be.

The first step is to use a two bottom moldboard plow to break up the sod. What the plow does is almost completely invert the sod by essentially flipping the top 5-8 inches of soil. Once this field is opened, we won't need the moldboard plow again for a while, so instead of getting one ourselves, we borrowed/rented a two bottom plow from our neighbor for a modest rate. I spent about 10 hours this week plowing an area that is about 80 feet by 1000 feet. (There are 45,000 sq. ft. to an acre, so we are talking about an area that is a little shy of 2 acres.)

The next step is run a disc harrow over the field to further break up the sod and begin to level things out. A disc basically tills the top 2-4 inches of soil. Since we will be needing a disc for a lot of things we will be doing, including light tillage and incorporating cover crops, we sprang for a set of our own.

Next, we spread compost or manure on the area, and then incorporate that into the soil. Since this is our first year, we have not developed a composting system of our own, so we are trucking in some compost from the extremely helpful folks at Vermont Compost. We will probably run the discs over the field a couple of more times to incorporate some of the compost.

After applying the compost, what we will probably do is use our chisel plow to both break up the subsoil and to further incorporate the compost. I also have a plan for fashioning a home made bed former on the back of the chisel plow, so that after the plow breaks up the soil, the soil is forced into a formed and level seed bed, ready for planting.

In theory, this all should work. But as with everything else around here, we don't have much experience, so we are learning as we go.

The only thing that is clear so far is that I am already forming an unnatural attachment to my, I mean, our tractor. Like I said, it took me 10 hours to flip the sod on a piece 80 feet by 100 feet. Do you know how long that would have taken me to do that with a shovel? A long, long time. But with tractor it was a relative breeze.