Dinner at 10?

I'm 2 for 2 the first two days of this week. Yep eating dinner at 10pm. This is NOT what I would do on a normal day, but summer is not normal on the farm.

Yesterday was my first experience riding the transplanter out in the field. I pretty much try to avoid doing field work because I am just so busy with work at the clinic and taking care of the chickens, dogs and cats at home. I do pitch in a bit, but for the most part, I leave the field work to Mike and the boys that work for us. But since planting is so far behind this year because of the weather and since 2 of the 3 boys that work for us are off on a family vacation and since I had a three day weekend, I told Mike I would work for him one day either Sunday or Monday. He chose yesterday.

The following are some pictures I took from my day working in the field. Click on any picture to make it larger.

Ed and Mike loaded flats of cantaloupe onto the pickup.

Then drove the truck out to the field and loaded the flats onto the transplanter.

This picture Ed is adjusting the flats on the transplanter. You can see the row we just finished planting out in the field. Then Mike mans the water pump on the big water tank while Ed holds the hose that fills the small tank on the transplanter.

Since I was riding the transplanter, I was kind of unavailable for photographer duty, but I'll throw in a couple of pictures of the transplanter in action from last year. Basically the tractor pulls the transplanter. The transplanter has a wheel that turns and punches a hole into the plastic. The hole is filled with water from the water tank which makes a slurry of wet dirt in the hole. Then the two people sitting on the back of the transplanter place plants into the hole. In these pictures from last year, the boys are planting either broccoli or cauliflower which get planted much closer together than the cantaloupe we planted yesterday.

We planted about 2000 cantaloupe in the morning. Took a break as Mike had a court hearing to go to and I had a meeting to go to. Then we planted 400 watermelon in the evening. Not bad for my first time on the transplanter methinks.

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This morning, we had rain come through in the morning. Mike and I both had to tend to our normal jobs. Mike and Ed did label all the containers of wheat flour that are going in the first week's CSA's. Then Mike cultivated (weeded) the potatoes this evening. After I got done with after work poultry chores, I spent the evening walking the dogs which turned into the beagles chasing a rabbit for over an hour and me thrashing through the brush to go get them when it started to get dark. Good exercise for both dogs and their owner though, but made for a late dinner. Again.