unicornduke | Busy Weekend

I took Friday off work and headed to my parents. My grandpa's burial and the family hangout after was this weekend and they needed someone to cover the farm while they went. It was causing them so much worry that I said I would cover watching the stand and berry picking and all that jazz if they just went. It's been so long since mom saw her side of the family.

I drove in Friday morning because I wanted a good sleep and I got a good sleep. Drive was easy. I went down to my garlic and it was ready to harvest. So I grabbed the middle buster and started running down the rows.

First problem: I had made the beds for the garlic very late one night before planting and the beds were extremely high. I hadn't bothered to adjust anything and just went for it. It was probably six inches high, and the bed maker pulls the dirt from the aisles. So the tractor was just barely missing the top of the bed, maybe 3-4 inches of clearance. It's a good thing I planned to clip the stalks off because I was crushing them.

Second problem: the middle buster. I knew it wasn't the best tool for the job but dad hadn't gotten around to building me a bed lifter. Bed lifters are essentially, two bars that come down vertically on either side, generally at least 3 feet apart and a vertical bar between them. The bar then digs into the ground under the crop to loosen it and nothing really gets stuck on the side bars because they are on either side of the bed. The middle buster is similar to a cultivator foot, it has a crossbar in the 3 point hitch and then comes down vertically in the center to whichever blade attachment you want. We typically use them to dig really nice trenches because they push the dirt up and out. We also have a subsoiler attachment. The big issue is that the clearance on the middle buster from foot to crossbar is small. I'm using it for something that is not it's purpose. And the high beds plus restrictions on the 3 point hitch meant that the straw and garlic would get flopped across the center bar, build up in front of it, get stuck on the underside of the tractor and then I would have to stop, pull it all out and then keep moving.

Not ideal. But it wasn't bad! The subsoiler worked best to loosen the garlic and even without success, I was still able to pull the garlic out of the ground. It was pretty wet.

So on friday, I dug bed 3 first which was a half bed, and bed 2. I grabbed the bobcat because it was the only pair of forks available that minute and a bin and picked up all the garlic and put it in the bin. Awesome. I did row 3 completely first, dug, picked up, stalks clipped off and put up in the barn before eating dinner and starting row 2.

I was mostly done with row 2 when the bobcat slid off the top of the high bed of row 3 (because it was wet) and beached itself on the bed. The bobcat has like four inches of clearance, it is so low to the ground. I got it stuck lol. So I brought the tractor and chain over, texted my dad so he could come help me. He took a bit doing something, so I finished harvesting row 2 and started clipping the tops sitting out in the field. Dad came over and pulled me out which the bobcat didn't like at all, but we got off the high bed and there was no repeats of that. I just stuck the bin of garlic in the barn since it was getting dark and called it good.

Then Saturday morning, they left very early in the morning. My older brother has been in town with his dogs, and I didn't think I could take care of the farm, harvest garlic and take care of four dogs (two extremely wiggly and high energy - my brother's, and two low energy - Mara and my parents' dog Iggy. Plus Mara hates my brother's dogs). So they dropped my brother's dogs off at his girlfriend's parents' place to be watched, picked up my younger sibling from the train station and then made it to the service.

I watched the farm stand since it was blueberry season and we were open for picking. Basically I just had to hang out, weight people's containers and check them out. I was sitting around and it was awesome and relaxing. I read a book, spun on my spindle, fiddled with my phone. Since it's a lot of time of people picking and there wasn't a ton of people, it was overall quiet and relaxing. The weather was a bit cloudy but not rainy. Book I read that day was The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H Wilson that I thoroughly enjoyed.

We were open 8 to 1, so I would be able to eat lunch and use the bathroom and do other things after watching the stand. On saturday, people stayed until 2:30. Because of course they did. And I could boot them because they were across the road down at the blueberries. Ah well. After that, I walked the dogs real quick and got back to harvesting.

I ended up harvesting row 1, throwing it in the bin just so I would have everything out of the field. Then I took a dinner break, walked the dogs and then started clipping stalks. I finished row 1 bin of garlic and dumped the stalks down at the compost pile. Then sleep.

Sunday, it was dreary and a tiny bit drizzly. Not a ton of people came by but it was good. I read another book, This Poison Heart by Kaylnn Boylan, which I LOVED, it was SO GOOD. And spindle spun so much that I finished spinning all the fiber I had brought with me. So I grabbed my computer from the house and played Stardew Valley until close time.

Zipped out, got row 2 garlic clipped and in the barn in record time. Then cleaned up, picked blueberries and got on the road back home around 4. Very busy weekend. But I'm so glad the garlic is out of the ground and into the barn. Cleaning will happen when I go down next time. I've definitely helped myself by cutting the stalks now, because it gave me more space and also it is much easier to cut green stalks than dry stalks.

Garlic estimate: 500 bed feet x 3 rows = 1500 row feet planted at 6 inch spacing = ~3000 heads of garlic.

Garlic! I had two more pallets elsewhere

Seven pallets of garlic tucked into the corner of a barn.