Yes, I've been farming

I did go to The Farm last weekend (not the one that ended yesterday, the weekend before that) but I just haven't gotten around to posting about it. I also went to The Farm this most recently past weekend -- both days. Damn near killed me. But I'll get to that. First, the two-weekends-ago post.

 Naturally, Jeb the Wonder Dog went with me, poking his snout out the window as we drove to The Farm:

Turns out we've been having deer-protector problems and, as a consequence, deer problems. The motion-activated sprinklers that are supposed to be scaring off the deer apparently haven't been working, so the deer have been walking through the beds. Also, eating stuff, but I'll have more on that in another post:

On the other hand, the first crop of broccoli is doing well:

I also planted peas in the recently harvested onion bed, and watered the shit out of it. Yes, I know it just looks like dirt. Trust me, there are pea plants in there, just waiting to bust loose:

I returned to The Farm Saturday and Sunday and damn near killed myself. There was a lot of weeding and harvesting to be done of some very labor-intensive crops. The temperature was high. Both days, I busted my ass, went home, took a shower and went to bed right after cooking dinner. That sun will take it right out of you. So will drinking beer in the hot sun. But I digress.

Saturday, I had to weed the potato bed. I don't know what Farmer Tom and his family were up to this summer, but it wasn't weeding:

This is my haul of weeds from that bed:

I went home after that Herculean effort and died. Had to come back Sunday to actually harvest the potatoes. For those of you who have never wielded a potato fork, let me tell you it is hard fucking work. Put the temperature at 90-plus, and, yeah, I went home and died again. But first, I harvested a bunch of potatoes. Pretty good crop:

Probably would have been better if the weeds hadn't been allowed to take over. Oh well. I then turned my attention to the squash bed, which is done for the year. I took down the fence around the bed:

I was too old, weak and tired to pull up all the fence stakes by myself. Fortunately, Son of Farmer Tom helped:

Then I sprayed Round-up all over the damn thing, because I'll be damned if I try weeding that like I weeded the potato bed. There is a limit to how many times a person can go home and die in one week:

 There is more farming still to come. Most of what I have been doing is watering stuff because it refuses to rain around here. I also am deal with what appears to be a near-total failure of pollination of the second and third bean crops, as well as serious deer-munching on said crops. All to come in future posts. Stay tuned.