We took a day off on this holiday weekend and did no work on Sunday. Monday we were back at it and now the irrigation is finally fully installed in all 3 fields.

This photo shows the onion, leek, beet and turnip bed (and a few radish stragglers which will be harvested any moment now). The 2nd planting of beets went in Monday (Memorial) and the turnips got their initial sowing. The drip tape is watering it all in.

I'm standing in Field #2 (which is in garlic) and looking past the grasswater way can see Field #3 which is in food crop production this year. I've had to buy many seedlings, the most of which I got from my pal Penny at Wishful Acres Farm (http://www.wishfulacresfarm.com/. I trust her growing methods and she is a like-minded farmer and friend.

I have an additional day off from my off-farm job so today we are pickling scapes.

Doing some weeding in a garlic bed, I pulled this strand of quack grass. As much as I despise it, I also am impressed by it's tenacity. Look at the length of that root!

Broken tractor

Sparky's starter stopped starting. He is stalled up near Field #1. Bill is on the quest to find a starter that works on a 60 year old tractor - not an easy task.

Garden is looking good. I spent Saturday weeding and enjoying the farm solo as Bill was at prairie plant nursery for a field day with one of his landscape groups.

Sunday was spent digging burdock and cutting blooming thistle. My efforts last year at hand control of the thistle were positive so I've continued another portion of the hillside below the feedlot.

Slope stabilization and barn columns - Check!

On Sunday, 3/27, we finished the slope stabilization/erosion blanket project. Turns out that we had only gotten about 1/3 of it done on the first day. At first we were laughing and joking about the project but by 2:30 or 3:00 we were exhausted. Bill is in incredible shape and can climb up and down hills in mud all day long - he is going to be a great farmer!

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. This was a lot of work, effort and expense - so we are hopeful that we can stablize the slope AND get ahead of the invasives. We're going to have to learn how to do a burn because there is no way we can mow this area. Additionally, Bill finished the columns in the barn and has started cabling it together. Using wire rope and come-alongs he is pulling the areas with broken columns back together. I wasn't there when he was doing it (was working at the church/house) but he said it was creaking and groaning. I think I am glad I wasn't there!

One of the new concrete footings

We are in the upper part of the barn and sliding the beam down thru a hole in the floor to rest on the footing down in the lower barn.

This is all the siding from the summer kitchen that I took down a couple of years ago

Most of the beams that you can see in this photo are new

(Great light coming thru the slats!)

Bill is standing on the scaffolding and chain sawing through one of the old oak timbers to install the new beams

Photo of the beam resting on the new footing

Both Gardens - In!

I both both gardens in: the one at home in Chicago and the other in Wisc at our church-house. Nothing at the farm this year - we just aren't there enough to tend to crops. We would like to get some beds prepped and seeded with cover crops this year, but that involves buying a plow and we haven't focused on that (yet).

I planted all seedlings that I started myself. The weed pressure at the church-house garden is severe. In fact, it isn't just weeds - sigh... it is quackgrass and it is a formidable opponent for organic gardeners (all gardeners in fact).

I turned the soil with a garden fork and removed as much of the top grass and the roots as I could. I then went through it again with my Cobrahead (looove this tool!) and my hands and pulled every piece I could out. The soil is really friable and lovely thanks to the huge compost addition two years ago so it is almost enjoyable to weed quackgrass. The roots just go on and on!

We won't be back up for several weeks, so I am sure that it will take over the garden by then.

Meanwhile I'm doing some research on how to eradicate it without using Roundup. I've read that a cover crops can smoother it. A rotation of buckwheat, winter rye, buckwheat and winter rye again can almost eliminate it. The rye was sown at 175lb/acre in September and disced in April at knee-high. Buckwheat sown in May at 70 lb/acre and disced in full bloom. Repeat for a 2nd year.

All of this has made me realize that we better get shopping for a plow - I think we should get this cover crop rotation going on at least an acre at the farm this fall. Judging by the amount of invasives that we currently have (thistle, wild parsnip, burdock), it is pretty obvious that we will have quackgrass too.

One other note on quackgrass. I did hear that ducks love it and can clear a garden of it in no time.

Seed drill - drilling for time

Bill has a lead on a seed drill that would work on our tractor. Its a 2 - 14 (or 8 or something like that). I don't know anything about seed drills. It's a manual one that will work on our old tractor. Supposedly this drill can even be pulled behind a 4wd ATV. This could be a nice find as we try to improve our beds and the overall pastures. I spoke to an organic consultant at MOSES organic and she recommended that we cultivate and seed drill our garden/fields with cover crops and then turn it in. At this point, I mostly want to get rid of the massive amounts of thistle we have. Oh, and the buck thorn. Goodness, do I hate buck thorn! I think I'm going to be fighting that fight for a long while. We've actually decided to let the it be for now until we live there full-time. It really needs constant, vigilant attention to be eradicated. We seem to be doing more harm than good with our occasional attempts. So much to do and so little time.