Suby Is Dead

Interesting week. The water pump went out on my big truck that I use to haul my equipment. Fortunately not an expensive repair, just an inconvenience to not have my rig for a week. Ironically the day the dodge is back on the road our trusty ol $600.00 Subaru wagon AKA (farm jeep) bites the dust hard. I think she's a goner folks. It's hard to spend more money on a car fixing it than you paid for it. That's a bummer. The Suby had shift on the fly 4wd and was great for loading flats from the muddy greenhouse access to the waiting fields. Oh well. Anyone out there need a Subaru for parts I'll make you a great deal!

More importantly, We appear to be farming again. We transplanted quite a bit this week and hopefully can crank out a little more today. Looks like we get one really nice day of weather and then return to gray, cold, dankness. At least one more shot of frigid air for next week coming. It'll be back to the greenhouse for us. Sowing more flats as we make room from the transplanting. Today will be a big tractor day. Scrambling to get as much of our remaining bed space worked as possible. Where is everything going to go? Always a big question this time of year.

The next big thing here is getting all of the irrigation systems up and running. It's quite a task and one of my least favorite activities. Life would be so easy if we just didn't have to water:o( Wah.

Farmers market starts three weeks! I think we are looking OK for product. The weather is definately putting everyone off schedule. The first market could be a "crafters market". There have been some unfortunate developments within our market this year. Few people seem to understand how fragile our farming community is here on Orcas. It would not be to much of a long shot for our farmers to basically dissapear. I have to say, I've actually considered boycotting the first market this year in protest and to increase the awareness of the role small scale growers play in our community. It would be a sad day indeed if one went to the farmers market only to find no farmers. But that's a whole other issue that is probabaly not in by best interest to explain here. I just want to grow food and that's where my energy is focused at this point. We will be at the market regardless. We need the the market as much as the market needs us. See you there.

Anyway, It's the beginning of a beautiful day. Take advantage.

Keep well,

John