The farmers are back in the house. We had a great time down at Folly Beach. There were actually some waves, so Alex could go surfing every morning. We took walks on the beach, visited with friends along the tidal creeks, went to the Aquarium, ate well, and relaxed, hardly thinking about the farm all week. It is nice to be home again, though.
Monday was one of those days on the farm, when nothing went as planned and some things went wrong. We rented a Ditch Witch to dig a trench for the new irrigation header pipes for the new fields. Well, since it hadn’t rained in forever the ground was as hard as a rock. It took Nick and Alex about three hours to trench about 150 feet. The Ditch Witch had a terrible time digging through the dry soil and we were shaken about trying to guide the machine. My entire body is grievously sore today. We also were to dig a long trench from the intern house to the farm house, about 200 feet. This trench is for a cable connecting our new solar panels to the internet for remote monitoring (a long story). After the hell of digging the irrigation ditches, I came to the conclusion that neither the machine nor I were capable of digging more trenches, so we called our neighbor with a track hoe. He came over and dug the trench in about 15 minutes. In the middle of this project Vanessa and the crew turned on the irrigation pump, which promptly broke apart in a loud and frightening fashion. What a day! After further inspection, it turned out that the pump only broke a few bolts which we replaced on Tuesday and the pump is running again, just in time for the thunderstorm this afternoon.
Most things do not work out as planned, but they almost always work out.
Nick’s Corner
In the intern circles that exist between farms, it is commonly known that we here at Full Sun have some of the best housing in WNC for farm interns. This is by no means to boast or brag but instead to say that we have some amazing farmers that we are working for. Alex and Vanessa recently applied for a grant, directed specifically toward farms for the installation of solar panels on the farms property. It just so happens that Alex and Vanessa were approved for the grant and we are having solar panels installed on the farm towards the end of this week. Better yet, the location of these solar panels are on the top of the intern house due to it’s southward facing roof. This takes the intern house to a whole new level. Space age if you will. The interns are pretty stoked about the new addition and are hoping that MTV might have a farm version of their star studded show “Cribs” in which our house might appear. Dream on interns…dream on…
In other news we made it through a week without Alex and Vanessa. The week was a success and although it was a lot of work I think we all feel better about our futures as farmers. That said, we’re glad to have everyone back and have the farm back to normal. Thanks to all those who came out to help last week we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you Alex and Vanessa for coming back and not deciding that the beach is where you would rather reside. We’re glad to have you back.