Wheelbarrow PT

Sometimes you have to choose between farm work and training.

Or do you?

This week I have been doing “wheelbarrow PT” in the mornings. We are running out of time to plant our winter garden this year. Some of the crops with longer days to maturity (DTM) need to be well established and growing by October 31st. This is the beginning of the “Persephone Period” the time when there are less than 10 hours of sunlight every day. When the plants get less than 10 hours of sunlight per day, they go into a state of reduced metabolic activity, a.k.a., they stop growing.

Not completely. Some will grow imperceptibly. The winter wheat grew very perceptibly last year, so much in fact we had to graze it off. However, for the most part, there is little appreciable growth from October 31st to February 6th in our neck of the woods.

This is related to but distinct from average first and last frost. You could have the best frost protection in the world, and without light the plants just won’t photosynthesize. On the other hand, some vegetables, like last year’s rutabagas, will sit unprotected under 6 inches of snow and still taste delightful.

So I am in haste to plant all my winter crops, but I need to refresh the beds first. To do this, we began two years ago when we first moved the chickens into the new chicken houses, by filling their runs with woods chips. Over the last two years they have scratched and pooped their way through these wood chips until there is nothing left but dirt and shreds.

This is where wheelbarrow PT comes in. In the morning for physical training I spent two days digging up this dirt, loading it into the wheelbarrow, and running it to the garden to dump on the row that we just harvested the wheat off of.

But we can’t just empty the run of dirt, we have to replace the wood chips so the chickens can make more dirt for next year. So for every wheelbarrow of dirt I ran out, I ran another of wood chips in.

Take a minute to enjoy the sunrise.

But…

The dirt takes up a lot less volume than the woodchips. I can dump the woodchips 18 inches deep over the whole run, and in a year it will be reduced to 4-6 inches of compost. So I have to make sure I bring in at least three loads of wood chips for every load of dirt I take out.

Gravity feeding the waterer. It is starting to get pretty slow which means that the water level in the tank we filled up over the winter is starting to get lower. we have been watering the cows, sheep and chickens exclusively off of that water tank since early July so no wonder.

Now that the dirt is moved and on the garden, I still have many mornings of wheelbarrow work to get it replaced, but, so as not to lose training time, I do it…

https://youtube.com/shorts/fYQUIlVJmp8?feature=share

As fast as I can.

Other issues with the winter garden are water. The seedlings have to sprout in the hottest part of the summer, but many of them are actually cold season crops. They don’t like getting hot and dry, especially as seedlings.

The problem is that the irrigation system that worked okay last year has been full of hiccups this year. A combination of another year of UV damage plus the nib-nib-nibbling of sharp little rodent teeth, has lead to leaks in the sprinkler hoses that then need to be replaced.

An hour or so of work yesterday, getting this section covered with pine shavings (to shade the soil and increase water retention during the heat of the day) and replacing the chewed up sprinkler hose. Hopefully with the vole/mole repellant we put down we won’t have to worry about rodent chewing anymore. However, the water system is due for an overhaul before next dry season.