Out like a lamb

Today was a perfect spring day.  This is one of the few times I can remember March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb.  Usually it's lion all the way from start to finish!  60 degrees today, blue sky and sun and just the slightest breeze.  Two days ago I was wearing long underware, a wool scarf and three layers on top, just to survive working outside on the harrow.  Today was a delight!

The shop daffodils came out to play and make us smile.

It was so warm and sunny that I hung the sheets on the line to dry and they actually dried!  Oh, the fragrance of line dried sheets.

We took a long drive in the gator today to check our fields.  Here's what we found....

Snow mold

This is what can happen when the show lays for too many days on the wheat.  

Ir will come back, but will never be healthy and won't produce a good yield.

The lighter color in the field is the area that has snow mold.  

More snow mold.

And another shot.  Most of the south facing slopes have this amount of damage.  The wind blew from the north east, causing large drifts on the south slopes.

Winter damaged wheat

The bronze color on the leaf tips show that wheat plant suffered some winter damage.  This is the wheat that was uncovered when the wind blew the snow in to drifts on the south slopes.

Some really pretty wheat

This is what healthy wheat plants are supposed to look like.

This is a nice slope, but up at the top right you can see a pocket of wheat that is winter damaged.

Also looking healthy is the cheat grass.  That's the tiny green plants that are growing on the top of the furrow.  If left unchecked, this would cause some yield loss.  But look at that residue!  We have lots of composting straw between the rows of wheat which is a good thing.

Water where there isn't supposed to be water

We were buzzing along in the gator and almost got stuck in this draw!  Yikes!!!  And this wasn't the only spot that this happened today on our drive.

There is actually water running in the bottom of this draw.  A spring that only runs when it's very wet like this year.  We've never seen this before.

A balloon.

The next time you feel the urge to release a balloon in to the air, give some thought to where it will end up, and the fact that it's actually throwing thrash out in to the environment.  We find several balloons in our fields every year.

And to top off the day, a beautiful sunset.

Saint Francis finally emerged from the snow bank!

The first, of hopefully many evenings on the porch with a glass of wine after a long and productive day of work.

Planting garlic

A short break in rain showers today so I took advantage of the partly sunny day and planted the garlic.  I had to turn the soil by hand as it was too wet to get out the rototiller.  I'm happy that I don't have to turn the whole garden like this.  It may not have been the smartest thing to do right before we worked on the harrow.  By the end of the day my back was not happy with me, but it will soon get over it!

Turning this little patch of soil with the fork, to get ready to plant the garlic

This is a head of garlic that Stacy Timm Rasmussen gave me last fall from her CSA.  I have had it in the fridge all winter, waiting to plant it.  I have no idea what variety it is, so I'm going to call it #Stacy because I love her Instagram posts so much!

These are some bulbs that I saved from last years garlic crop.  

The cloves are quite nice and large.

I have been planting my garlic in the early spring, thinking that winter would/could kill off the cloves.  Obviously that is not true, as is evidenced by this very happy looking volunteer garlic plant from last year.  

The sky was amazingly beautiful today.  Please indulge me while I post more than one pretty cloud photo.

I don't know how this bird nest has survived the days and days of high winds that we had this winter and spring.

But here it is, safely lodged in this quaking aspen in the pasture.

The chickens were enjoying the sun today.

The rhubarb is starting to come through.  Don't you think this would be a good time for a slice of bee-bop-a-ree-bop rhubarb pie?  Can hardly wait for those first stalks to be ready for harvest.

Rhubarb!!! 

Since it's been so cool the last few weeks, the crocus are lasting longer than usual.  It's so nice to look out the window and see these bright and happy spots of color in the flower beds.

I really like these miniature iris.  

The daphne is blooming also.  I wish you could smell this heady fragrance.  Such a treat.

I thought if I got close enough, maybe you could catch a whiff!

My little ceramic figurine is happy to see the sun today, just like the rest of us!

Harrow

We've been working on changing out the bajillion harrow teeth this week.  OK, there are only 300 but it seems like a bajillion!  Those are the ones that Reynald hard surfaced a few weeks ago.  We knew it was going to be a big project and it is.  As of yesterday we are half finished.  Reynald has also been working on two of our tractors that needed some repair, and the combines are still in the shop.  A flurry of activity as we wait for the soil to dry enough to be worked.  The abundant rain is nice though, so we're not complaining!

Another look at the hard surfacing on the harrow teeth.

This little cart is a great way to tote the teeth to and from the field where we are working. 

There are 12 harrow sections and each section has five bars.  Each bar has five teeth.  It takes us about an hour and a half per section to change the teeth. We are refining our process though, becoming more efficient as we go along.

This is one harrow section.  The first step is to remove the top and bottom lengthwise flat iron.  This is the mechanism that adjusts the tilt of the teeth on the frame.  

Then you remove one of the bars that hold the teeth, by taking off the u-bolt that attaches the bar to the frame.  At first we thought we needed to take this section all the way out to work on it.

We discovered that it's just as easy to drop the bar. loosen the bolt and nut that attach the teeth to the bar, slide the old ones off and the new ones on, then re-attach the u-bolt and just like that, five new teeth in place!  The two holes that you see here in the frame are where the u-bolt attaches.  There is one on each side of the bar.

You can see the new teeth on the front bar, while the old ones are still on the bars behind.

This is a really handy invention.  A magnetic tray!  The magnet both hold the tray to what ever piece of metal you are working on or near, and the bolts, nuts, and tools.  Keeps things organized and avoids loss of tiny, or even not so tiny pieces.

And this is another handy thing.  This swivel socket.  

The swivel socket is the only way you can squeeze in and get to these tight space bolts and nuts.  

 Just when we think we can beat our one and a half hour mark, a problem arises.  It's OK, we will finish eventually!

It's never a good thing when you have to drag the cutting torch out to the job site!

The carriage bolts that attach the lift chain to the harrow frame were smashed so that we could not remove them with a socket and drill.  They had to be cut off with the cutting torch.

Happy that we have a trained technician on staff when such problems arise!

One morning, while I was waiting for Reynald to be ready to do harrow work, I pruned the two columnar apple trees in the garden.  I didn't get it done last year so these poor trees needed a good haircut.  You don't prune these like a regular apple tree.  They are supposed to be long and narrow.

Columnar apple trees.  I have already topped the one on the left.  They were just getting too tall.

Job done!  These poor guys look kind of naked now!!  You can see that it was raining a little bit while I worked.