Stalled

So... I have a breather for a few days. Monday starts the 'real' work!

We have been busy working at the farm - and also where Farmer Sarah lives. At the farm we've been prepping the fields, adding fertilizer, pulling weeds out of the compost. One of the big worries is the orchard. Those sweet trees that we planted are getting eaten alive (literally) by ground squirrels. Those little buggers. They are chewing around the base of the trees to get to the sap. That chewing is called 'girdling'. So the ground squirrels are getting the trees' life blood, and the tree slowly will fade from lack of nutrients. We are working on a plan to a) get rid of the squirrels - a HUGE task as we are faming with organic practices and b) save the trees. It's a tough job. Not all of the trees will make it, I am sure. It's sad.

At Sarah's house, we have been planting and transplanting seeds and starts. They didn't take off so well, so that is an issue. However the BIG issue is that the spader has not yet arrived at the farm. A spader is a tool that attaches to the back of a tractor that performs the double digging task. The company is also creating and attaching an additional adjustment that will allow for double digging and furrow creation to happen all at the same time. Well, the spader was stuck at the Port of Oakland for 2 weeks, and the company is taking it's sweet time making the modifications. We were supposed to get the spader this week, allowing us to begin to PLANT this week. Now it seems the spader will arrive on Monday. So we are a week behind on a job that is already 2 - 3 weeks behind when we should have planted in the first place.

Oh well.... can't do anything about it so I must enjoy the time off.... I have 4 days off before I begin 50 hour work weeks! YaHoo!!!!!!