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summer of sweating
Jul. 16th, 2023 07:20 amThere's something about this summer where I just full body sweat so much. I don't know if I've ever sweated this much in my life. I'm going to blame it on humidity.
Yesterday morning I got the garlic pulled. I pulled them by hand, which is not ideal but I have neglected them this year with everything going on with Mara and didn't weed them at all. Since there was so much rye from the straw and thistle and other junk, the tractor wouldn't have been able to subsoil it without making a giant mess. Pulling by hand is harder but honestly faster than cleaning the mess out of the tractor hitch area. The garlic harvest looks very good, although things could change during curing. It's too bad I already decided not to grow them again next year. I wish I lived closer, then it would be easier. But in previous years it worked because I was getting down here regularly and could keep up. This year I didn't and it wasn't great. I still need to clip the tops and put them up in the barn, but I left that for today since it is wet today.
Yesterday afternoon was extremely hot and sunny, so I cultivated the strawberries. I really enjoy cultivating because I love the cultivating tractor. It's an international cub 140 and was made in the 1950s. It's delightful. Cultivating tractors are set up so the engine is offset or mounted up higher, so the cultivtaing tines/spades are mounted under the tractor and behind and the driver can look directly down below them and see if they're murdering the crop or not. There's something incredibly soothing about cultivating. I put on music under my ear protection and can just cultivate all day and the hotter the day, the better to kill the weeds once they're uprooted. It doesn't have a cab but a beach umbrella shoved into the corner of the seat and tied with twine works really well if it's super hot. in the strawberry fields, it's been about 5 hours to cultivate 2 1/2 acres of strawberries, which isn't too bad since the beds are on 4 foot centers, so there's a ton of rows to cultivate.
There are a few downsides to the tractor, it's a gas engine, so it's hot and smelly and it doesn't have power steering. It's a better behaved no-power-steering tractor than some others I've used (the honor of worst goes to a three point tractor where the front two wheels were mounted in the center of the front of the tractor), and I do know the rules of power steering (most important rule: the tractor is stronger than you, never ever put your thumbs around the wheel because a rock will happen and the steering wheel will turn hard and fast and break your thumbs). Twice in the whole afternoon, the wheel jerked and I felt a small sharp pain in my right wrist, the one I've been babying the last week or so.
Now I'm definitely not allowed to do fiber work for a while. That's how it happens in the summer sometimes though. Work does put a lot of pressure on my hands, wrists and arms and it can cause issues. The work stuff this week definitely didn't help. Good news is that I bought Zelda Tears of the Kingdom on Thursday and I adore open world games, so I'm going to have some fun playing that. If I get my arm and wrist supported well, video games don't usually aggravate my wrist. I'm also going to be cutting the tops of the garlic with my left hand.
I'm staying here until tomorrow, so I can drive without being poured on. Then tomorrow afternoon I need to run some errands, picking up the chainsaw (needed a new spark plug, so not user error), getting more drugs for Mara and maybe getting milk.
Mara has been very pleased with the farm, there are rabbits everywhere and she's very happy. The drugs seem to be working well.
Yesterday morning I got the garlic pulled. I pulled them by hand, which is not ideal but I have neglected them this year with everything going on with Mara and didn't weed them at all. Since there was so much rye from the straw and thistle and other junk, the tractor wouldn't have been able to subsoil it without making a giant mess. Pulling by hand is harder but honestly faster than cleaning the mess out of the tractor hitch area. The garlic harvest looks very good, although things could change during curing. It's too bad I already decided not to grow them again next year. I wish I lived closer, then it would be easier. But in previous years it worked because I was getting down here regularly and could keep up. This year I didn't and it wasn't great. I still need to clip the tops and put them up in the barn, but I left that for today since it is wet today.
Yesterday afternoon was extremely hot and sunny, so I cultivated the strawberries. I really enjoy cultivating because I love the cultivating tractor. It's an international cub 140 and was made in the 1950s. It's delightful. Cultivating tractors are set up so the engine is offset or mounted up higher, so the cultivtaing tines/spades are mounted under the tractor and behind and the driver can look directly down below them and see if they're murdering the crop or not. There's something incredibly soothing about cultivating. I put on music under my ear protection and can just cultivate all day and the hotter the day, the better to kill the weeds once they're uprooted. It doesn't have a cab but a beach umbrella shoved into the corner of the seat and tied with twine works really well if it's super hot. in the strawberry fields, it's been about 5 hours to cultivate 2 1/2 acres of strawberries, which isn't too bad since the beds are on 4 foot centers, so there's a ton of rows to cultivate.
There are a few downsides to the tractor, it's a gas engine, so it's hot and smelly and it doesn't have power steering. It's a better behaved no-power-steering tractor than some others I've used (the honor of worst goes to a three point tractor where the front two wheels were mounted in the center of the front of the tractor), and I do know the rules of power steering (most important rule: the tractor is stronger than you, never ever put your thumbs around the wheel because a rock will happen and the steering wheel will turn hard and fast and break your thumbs). Twice in the whole afternoon, the wheel jerked and I felt a small sharp pain in my right wrist, the one I've been babying the last week or so.
Now I'm definitely not allowed to do fiber work for a while. That's how it happens in the summer sometimes though. Work does put a lot of pressure on my hands, wrists and arms and it can cause issues. The work stuff this week definitely didn't help. Good news is that I bought Zelda Tears of the Kingdom on Thursday and I adore open world games, so I'm going to have some fun playing that. If I get my arm and wrist supported well, video games don't usually aggravate my wrist. I'm also going to be cutting the tops of the garlic with my left hand.
I'm staying here until tomorrow, so I can drive without being poured on. Then tomorrow afternoon I need to run some errands, picking up the chainsaw (needed a new spark plug, so not user error), getting more drugs for Mara and maybe getting milk.
Mara has been very pleased with the farm, there are rabbits everywhere and she's very happy. The drugs seem to be working well.
