Say, "Happy Spring!"

Here we are beginning our soil preparation for planting 1,630 fruit trees.  Grandpa is driving the tractor in as straight a line as possible, from one marker on the south end of the field, straight to the marker at the north end of the field, as slowly as the tractor goes, pulling a two prong ripper.

Here's Julian picking his nose on the tractor with Grandpa.  He picked it until it was raw that day, which taught him an important lesson.  Don't pick your nose.

 Grandpa was an invaluable farm hand this Spring.  He spent days and hours and hours on the tractor with his trusty sidekick between his knees, dropping the bucket at odd occasions and turning the tractor on and off when instructed.  We positively couldn't have pulled off all this tractor work without Grandpa.  In the background is the Grand Mesa, Horse Mountain and our neighbor's hops poles, which are currently the highest hops poles in the state.

 Our soil is clayish but not heavy clay.  Its not the best soil, but its also not the worst.  We do have TONS of worms, so that's good.

 We ripped four foot strips, every fourteen feet.  So what we ended up with are perfect four foot strips for planting the trees, between perfect grass rows for keeping the weeds at bay.  My hope is to find a 10' wide swather and baler so we are still able to bale the grass hay growing between rows of trees.  Hay is at an all time high right now, and although we have plenty in our hay barn, I would hate to have to buy hay for our ponies.

This is our ripper.  The two forks or prongs you see diving into the ground are moveable.  Grandpa ripped the 30+ rows with the forks like this, two times, then moved the prongs out about one foot apiece then ripped the field again, twice, then moved one prong into the middle and went over each row again, twice.  This was the best way to break up the grass without over disturbing the permaculture or plowing, which would have overturned the soil.

The girls ride the tractor occasionally, for about five minutes and then they're done.  Here they're with our neighborhood bestie, Ryker and his new cowboy boots, purchased for $3 at a yard sale.  Francesca also bought a pair of $3 cowgirl boots.  They look great with my old velveteen red dress, right?  Cecilia bought that great water bottle.  Its the little things in life.

Now here is Julian with Grandpa doing some really fun stuff . . . compost spreading.  We bought 40 tons of organic chicken compost from Delta County.  Our neighbor let us borrow his bitchin' track hoe for loading the compost (which was Julian's favorite thing to do.)  I wish I had better pics of this antique compost spreader because its really adorable and did the job perfectly.

We were able to remove the chain engaging the compost flinger (that's the official term, no not really) and so the compost spreader just dropped the compost in neat four foot strips, exactly where we needed it.  Now we have 20 extra tons of compost to store until next year.  Sorry for the doo doo smell, neighbors!  Actually, either it doesn't smell that bad, or I'm used to it.  I'm not sure which.

After the compost was spread, Grandpa and Andrew and I loaded up fifty pound bags of sulfur into the bucket.  Grandpa drove the tractor down the alley way (the grass between the future tree rows) while Andrew and I scooped coffee can size scoops of sulfur and sprinkled it in the tree rows.  Our pH was a little high (8.1) so the sulfur will bring the pH down where it should be (7.8.)  I thought spreading by hand sounded extremely tedious but it was done inside of an hour or so.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

We managed to have some fun on Easter, in between rototilling the rows, two or three times, to work in the compost and sulfur.  I don't have any pics of rotatilling (with a tiller that is pulled behind the tractor) because I was the one doing the tilling.  I got up a few mornings and tilled before Andrew went to work and we both put some time in whenever we could.

 Say, "Happy Easter!"

Say, "I'm Gorging Myself on Candy!"

Say, "I Raked in $40 in Easter Egg Money!"  "I'm the cutest cowgirl!"

Say, "I Fell in the Pond!"  Because a party isn't a party until someone is naked.

Our trees arrive tomorrow so now we will store them in a cool, (34-40 degrees) dark place until we're able to plant them.  I was fretting about this last night, but thankfully, ran into another farmer who reminded me, "It is what it is!" She's right.  There's no use worrying about things I can't control, such as the freaky cold weather, our trees arriving five days sooner than expected, having to keep them from freezing to death or drying out before planting them, etc.  "It is what it is," is sound Farmer Philosophy.  I'll take it.