We had a really good week this week. It was rainy and drizzly for most of the week, which meant cooler temperatures but wetness of course. On Monday we finished thinning the radishes! We started work on weeding the lettuce. We stopped working a little early because of Memorial Day, but it was wasn't a blazing hot typical Texas Memorial Day, that's for sure. On Tuesday, we cleaned some catch ditches in the rain. I started coming down with whatever the kids had when we babysat them last week. Boo! On Wednesday, we turned on the gravity fed pasture irrigation and built a mineral feeder for the sheep who love to knock over their old one. When we put the newly built heavy duty feeder in their pen, they tried to kick it over immediately. Apparently, kelp meal and diatomacious earth (microscopically sharp mineral that kills parasites) tastes better when kicked around with a poopy foot. We built a compost bin for the compost toilet, cleared out the yurt space, thinned the squash, and potted up our pepper plants. On Thursday, I slept in a little to get rid of my cold while Grant weed-eated the entire farm practically. I weeded the cutting bed and organized the greenhouse later in the morning. Greenhouse update: We have tomatoes! Also the cucumbers, cantaloupes, cabasa melons, pumpkins, and zucchini are starting to come up. Then we started weeding the hedgerow (a strip of flowers in the field that provides habitat and food for beneficial insects.) All Friday we worked on the yurt platform. This is to be the housing for future interns. It is a deck with a circular framed tent-like thing. They are very popular housing here. People can even rent them at state parks instead of cabins. We had our first thunderstorm. There was lightning and thunder and some rain. A very nice end to the week, but we probably won't be able to put the tomatoes and tomatillos outside tomorrow. On Saturday, we had our inevitable cow adventure. After wondering what Saddie was barking about and the sheep were bleating about, Grant looked outside and saw the cows traipsing down the drive way, through the home garden, and some lettuce down to the creek. We ran outside with Tim and herded them back to their pasture. Our weekly adventure.

This was a really fun week for us.
The bike ride vineyard tour turned into going to one vineyard andhaving a couple samples and one of our program directors making uslunch. Then some of rode bikes to a swimming hole while others drove. Grant's pedal fell off part way through the "2-3" mile ride whichturn into 6-7s. The water was running really fast. It was pleasant.On Monday, we moved the irrigation pipes back to the radishes in orderto apply 7 million nematodes to control the cabbage worm. Then westarted trimming the sheep hooves and prepared a new pasture for them. We finished up trimming on Tuesday. We potted some pumpkins, cabasamelons, cantaloupes, cucumber, and zucchini for us to eat. We alsostarted weeding the home garden. On Wednesday, we babysat the kidswho were sick for a few hours and then started weeding the lettucecrop. We learned how to run the BCS tiller. On Thursday, we set upirrigation, moved chickens, and thinned radishes. Friday was arelaxing day. We planted tomatoes, basil, and peppers in greenhousebeds for fall harvest. We also weeded some gallon pots of Oregongrape that we are growing for a local nursery. Most of the day wasspent getting the nursery ready for summer. We rearranged the trees,weeded a little, and composted the trees that died in the heat wave.
Today we will be going to a birthday party, and tomorrow we are takingsome interns climbing.
This week there are lots of pictures and even some videos for you.http://picasaweb.google.com/Lhustahttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6883700921093340790&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=561169902932498216&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7619639541492605599&hl=en

Well, this week was pretty un-exciting, except for the heat. I think it got up to 100. We're happy about the 90 degrees today!
We worked on irrigation stuff (setting up pipes and cleaning ditches). We thinned the radish field and planted 1400 squash seeds in 700 pots. On the cow front, we had a mother-calf reunion today. Grant found a new calf (2-3 days old) laying by itself near the irrigation ditch and out of the current cow field. We ended up putting it into the Gator (a golf cart type thing) and driving it down into some shade. Then we herded its mother down to see it. The mother seemed to recognize it and started licking it, but the calf didn't really respond to it. Tim (the owner) is going to check it out now. The students came out to the ranch this week to finish up their insect collections. Tomorrow is the vineyard tour bike ride. Hopefully it will be a little more bearable temperature.

We had really nice weather which was a nice change. Last Sunday Grant and I went to boulder at Ashland Boulders on a tall hill overlooking the whole valley. It was a beautiful hike, but we didn't end up doing any climbing. On Monday, we celebrated our year anniversary with a nice picnic. Most of the week we worked on backfilling this trench that got washed out during the field getting flooded. We also moved the cows down the road to new pasture and set up a new paddock for the sheep. We continued to work on planting lettuce and thinning radishes. Today we are getting our bikes fixed because there is going to be a bicycle tour of the local wineries which we will be doing with the other interns.

Hoove Clipping and Gardening

Hello friends!
This week started out rainy but warmed up by the end. It has been an unusually cold and wet spring for this area. Its' normally hot and dry (a Mediterranean climate).
Last weekend we dragged some other interns out climbing with us on a very beautiful day. Grant and I found out that we are not allergic to poison oak, thankfully. We finished up the second irrigation ditch which is being opened today. The chickens, sheep, and cows all got new grass to eat this week. The dumb sheep story of the week is: A sheep was bleating in distress so we went over to see what was wrong with it. It thought it was all alone, so it was terrified. However, the other sheep were not gone. They were simply behind the distressed sheep sitting in the shade. Very stupid, but funny. Also we weeded peas and carrots, transplanted lettuces, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, onions, and pak choi. And we started thinning the rows of radishes.
On Friday, we went to another farm and ran a soil experiments station for some middle school students. It is part of a program that the watershed council does with local schools. It was very fun.
We also went to a barn dance on Thursday for our neighbor's birthday. There was a huge bonfire.