steel in the field (ver2.4)

kai and i made a little schedule for me to attempt to kill my cover crop better this year. they grow three crops on a 20" spacing in one tilling for cauliflower-size stuff or two 40" spacing with a different rototiller for bigger-frame-than-cabbage stuff. I will do two crops on 24" spacing using a 4' tiller which also helps with weed management in a clay loam soil.

day 01 mow grass with brush hog
day 02 disc three times
day 03 rip with shanks as necessary to avoid hard pan from tiller
day 09 till (waiting a week after discing isn't just about soil drying out as it is helping to kill the c crop, true?)
day 09 to 14 till twice and plant (nitrogen eaten by decaying grass isn't that bad)

during the season use wheel hoe to manage in row and row weeding
in emergency pull sweeps through row

Steel in the Field

Today--- Disced 8 rows today, wait a week for drying
Day 07-- Till if possible, wait a week for grass to decompose (decomposing grass saps the nitrogen)
Day 14-- Till again, sow transplant
(Thanks Jonathan P., Harley S., and everyone else for teaching me about 'steel in the field', and soil basics)

'Fordson Super Major'

Weeding the carrots and potatoes currently.... make sure to thoroughly kill your cover crop; I till slowly twice. First till a week before seed sowing to allow for grass to stop sucking all the nitrogen as it deteriorates. Then till right before sowing. I will buy a weed-wacker as my soil is often too wet to use the wheel hoe. Or maybe a smaller scythe or sickle: here? Jeff at Highwater Farm is making a dynamic cultivator to go under his Farmall! I managed to plant some bush beans yesterday. The potatoes will be ready for hilling pretty soon. I have a tool bar carrier and two potato shovels.

Cabbage is a foot tall!

Both plantings of fava beans are strong. Peas are ready for a first level of trellising.

Half of my summer squash didn't come up? birds, fertilizer too hot, drip irrigation too close, soil temp?, didn't mound? What is the purpose of mounding squash, to keep the water off? Some squash is going!

Chicken fence up! After putting the chickens back in the pen they have not flied over again. I heard if you clip both chicken wings they can still get lift, so you have to clip only one side. My chicken babies are now ovulating teenagers. I gave my first egg to Harley and am collecting these cute little eggs each morning.

Looking for a rabbit/weasel trap. I have seen rabbits eat Christie's farm, and one morning I was checking on the chickens and the weasel was just sitting their watching them! It was a new experience.

I was a machinist! and fixed the Yanmar tiller with Misael. Drove to Hoquiam to get a junk tiller. Jill stated 'a junk tiller... you are a true farmer now.' For the neighbors 'Fordson Super Major' I had to use a torch to take off the 3 point side swing adjusters in order to get the skinny tiller attached.