Loose Strife

Our Ashfield farmers market was hopping this morning. I’ve read that, ironically, as the harvest really starts to increase in the late summer and early fall, many shoppers start to get farmers market fatigue, but our town seems to have remained committed.
With a 60% chance of rain, I was up early. Joe and I messed with the sickle bar a little more, shook our heads, and I decided to give it a try mowing down the buckwheat. Well, it sort of worked, except it kept getting clogged and the teeth would stop and then a tooth assembly came loose and the whole thing stopped. A valiant attempt to use what seemed like a perfect tool, but it’s time to send it to craigslist.
I then tried putting the tiller on the old International, but there are problems with the hydraulics and I would almost stall the tractor as I pulled it across the field. I switched to the Massey (my new sub-compact) and I moved through the 1/2 acre like cutting butter. It hasn’t rained in a month, so it was dry as hell. The dust was fierce and I put on a mask. With the tiller I can’t turn in all of the organic matter, but I probably get 75%, which seems good enough for seeding the next crop.
Not moving quite fast enough, I got the broadcaster attached and a roughly half-and-half mix of hairy vetch and winter rye loaded just as the winds whipped up and the lightening flashed. I didn’t quite get the seed down before the rain, but it turned out to be a relatively light shower, so I still managed to spread the seed afterwards in wet dirt.
Broadcast seeders are a pain! The documentation will have a chart that will tell me to do something like set the opening at 1/2″ for oats when traveling at 7 mph. So what do I do with vetch and rye when there’s not even a speedometer on the tractor? My answer was to set at the smallest opening that still allows flow and then hope. Which wasn’t such a great solution. I managed to go through almost twice as much seed as I had intended after just one pass — and vetch is expensive! Oh well. Live and learn.
After all that, it was late, so I held off discing the seed in. Instead I took the girls for a swim at the lake and some chow at the Lake House. Laura had her first real meal in a couple days.
A busy hot day. Finally some much needed rain. More possible every day for the next week.