What Have We Been Doing on the Farm Lately?

One word: hoeing.

Would You Buy Produce From This Guy?

Farmer Brock decided that, no, people would not buy produce from this guy. So the photo was nixed from the newsletter and replaced by this one:



Personally, I'm a fan of the first photo. Apprentice Tim has never looked so good!

(Layout and newsletter design by Apprentice Jill)

Farmer-Apprentice Relationship

Here's a couple of photos of Apprentice Tim and Farmer Brock. Obviously they're discussing important farming issues and cultivating the mentor-mentee relationship.





And for shits and giggles, here's a picture of Tim enjoying the tractor and a t-shirt that references a little television program by the name of Northern Exposure:

Tim "Squeaks" Robinson

Here's Apprentice Tim attempting to watch an episode of Parks and Recreation on his laptop while outside and lounging on a hammock.



In other Tim related news, he's recovering from a pretty terrible cold and has lost his voice. I've started calling him "Squeaks" and I'm hoping it sticks!

Tomaterly Hills 90210

Apprentice Tim and I transplanted some tomatoes into the older greenhouse the other day. We tried to get them in a straight, mounded row down the middle of the greenhouse. The row has three different varieties of early season tomatoes and the plan is to eventually have rows of strawberries on either side, too.

Here's Tim showing off his mounding and raking skills. The soil in the greenhouse was nice and fluffy because Farmer Brock had just tilled it.

A line of drip tape along the top of the mound will water the plants:



As you can see, our row's a little bent. I blame Tim.



And in other news, Tim and I have taken to watching episodes of the original Beverly Hills 90210 in the RV after a little dinner and maybe with a couple of Cariboos. (See? The title of this post isn't just a lame tomato mound joke/early 1990's pop culture reference.) We've watched a few episodes from the very first season and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We especially enjoyed the pilot episode which featured a short-lived Jason Priestly mullet, a lot of talk concerning Kelly's summer nose job, and Steve Sanders' drunk and loutish behavior at a party where everyone else in attendance appeared to be drinking Pepsi.

The next couple of episodes, truth be told, were a little disappointing. We were pretty close to giving up on the whole show, but thankfully we hunkered down and watched an excellent episode where Brandon lost his virginity and that ended with a spirited game of pickup basketball between he and his father. Who knew the two-handed layup and blind, over-the-shoulder hook shot could be so effective?

You Say Potato, I Say Potaters

Thanks to a long awaited week of warmer and drier weather, we've been busy planting and transplanting into the fields. Apprentice Tim and I got our tractor/transplanter feet wet with some potatoes. I drove the tractor, while Tim sat poised upon the transplanter.

1) Here we are getting ready to plant. I like to chat with the potatoes before they're planted - you know, just a little assurance that everything's going to be okay.



2) Up and running! The goal is to drive the tractor slow and steady down the beds, so we've got a nice, straight row with a potential potato plant every few inches. I'm looking back to make sure Tim hasn't fallen off the transplanter and been buried with the potatoes. I'm also making sure the potatoes are getting buried deep enough into the soil. If even a little skin pokes out of the soil, the ravens will want to snack on them.



3) Here's what Tim's dealing with. He sits perched on the transplanter's yellow seat, looking down at these cups as they circle around like a wheel. His job is to drop a potato in each cup as they turn. The cup's job is to dig into the soil and release the potato into the ground.



4) The beds end up being lined with a row of these pockmarks. Each pockmark has a potato hiding beneath it!

5) We ended up planting 4 different varieties of potato. It'll be interesting to see which one does best in this climate and soil.

6) Look at that straight row! Farmer Brock and Apprentice Tim take care of business.

Check Out That Head Gear!

Apprentice Tim proves that one doesn't have to give up fashion in order to be a farmer.

Motley Farming Crue

From left to right: Apprentice Jill, Apprentice Tim, Apprentice Me, and Farmer Brock.

(Photo by Heather)

New Roommate - Part II

Good news! My new roommate, pictured above cutting vegetables, isn't a passive aggressive raw-food vegan. Turns out that email I received before moving up here was just a joke. Shits and giggles. What a kidder!

Based upon a week's worth of observation, here are a few things I can say about the stranger I'm living with in an RV:

1) His name is Tim and he's originally from Toronto, which is only an hour or so from my hometown. I like this because it means I can make jokes about Rance Mullinik's mustache or Popeye Jones' ears and he actually knows what I'm talking about.

2) Within the first three minutes of my moving into the RV, he let me know that he tends to scream in his sleep. So far, I've only heard him speak/speak loudly while sleeping, but I'm crossing my fingers for some screaming! An added bonus is that I, too, occasionally talk/scream in my sleep. I'm hoping that one night we'll have a Deliverance inspired, dueling banjos of sleep-talking/screaming....

3) Tim eats incredibly quickly. Really. The expression "inhales his food" doesn't do it justice.

4) Although he's not actually a raw-food vegan, Tim is a vegetarian. He also enjoys black licorice, specifically Panda black licorice. I tried to be polite about it, but I think Panda black licorice is a little gross.

5) He needs to drink more water when he's working on the farm. Dude's gotta hydrate!