Garlic under straw, equipment repair, school tours

The weather has been dryer and also a bit colder. We’ve been seeing more frost in the mornings.

With some care where I set my feet, I was finally able to walk the garlic rows and check out the new sprouts. After digging around in the straw mulch covering the garlic beds, I found a number of pale sprouts that weren’t finding their way through straw to reach the sunlight. I decided we needed to pull back enough straw to expose the yellow sprouts. Enrique did that Wednesday, and of course it has been getting colder since. I still see only a very few sprouts of the garlic variety Zemo.

Rob is still spending most of his time on equipment maintenance. He is replacing some of the bearings in the spader, has been setting up the Weed Badger, and has been doing repairs on the corn and pumpkin seed planter. The spader is much easier to explain with a photo, but I couldn’t find any in my photo collection. That explanation will have to wait until we start the spring fieldwork. In short, we use the spading machine where others might use a plow. The spader is much easier on the soil than is a plow. The Weed Badger is an orchard weeding attachment. I’ll wait on explaining that some other time also.

Rob brazing: repairing a part for the corn and pumpkin seed planter.

Rob learned welding in the Navy, and had a later career as a fire and accident prevention inspector for insurance agencies, which explains why he is kneeling in a sandy area, far from any flammables. For a while now, Rob has been lobbying for a proper workshop.

Enrique did start pruning the blueberries this week, but hasn’t gotten very far. We are asking the rest of the crew if they can come in next week to get the pruning done.

I’ve been sorting through choices for winter squash and pumpkins for this year, as well as other new vegetable variety choices. I’m continuing working thorough my paper piles. Ruth has started assembling her new desk. Even with more furniture the office is feeling more spacious due the reduction of clutter.

The King County Agriculture Commission  meeting was Thursday. We’ve been working on setting priorities for what we hope to accomplish this year. I am on the committee to interview candidates for seats on the Ag commission, we will meet soon. I thought many might find two of interesting. The 2006 Small Farms Expo is scheduled for Saturday, March 18 at the King County Fairgrounds in Enumclaw. There will be lots of information for those with small farms or acreage and for those just interested or thinking about starting up. Extension is compiling a list of farms willing to host school field trips. I don’t know when or how the list will be distributed, but I’ve already submitted our farm information. Our pumpkin patch school tour was one of our very first farm ventures, and we have continued and expanded our farm tour program since.

What’s playing in the Jeep CD player today? Trio di Clarone – Blues for Sabine