Seriously, is that a noble beast or what?

Jeb the Wonder Dog is a winter warrior. He never shows signs of being cold, he doesn't care about snow or freezing rain or any other form of winter weather. Dude is into it. So when we got 9 inches of snow last week, Jeb's main response was, can we play in it?

Yeah, he's digging it. I'll probably take him to The Farm Sunday for the opening of farming season. He digs that, too.

Sign of spring?

Immediately after last week's 9-inch snow dump, Mrs. Wolves was out photographing and spotted a whole bunch of robins. She has a couple pictures of a tree with maybe half a dozen robins in in, but they were too far away for decent viewing. Then she got this one, the first robin of spring:

Never mind that there was a ton of snow on the ground, this bird is making a statement. Spring is here. Unless, of course, it isn't -- I hear rumblings of a winter weather event next weekend. Guess we'll see. In the meantime, farming starts Sunday!

Yeah, we been farming

Not much left to do on the farm except wait for shit to grow, but there were a few things for me to do yesterday. Still, Jeb was ready to play with his buddy, Willy.

Yes, the car was in motion when I took that picture and I did. in fact, risk death and dismemberment to get the shot. Problem?

Anyway, wasn't expecting to have to do much, but would up spending two hours at the farm. Put up the deer fence around the squash/zucchini bed, since the squash are coming up:

I transplanted some beans to fill some dead spots:

I noted that the potatoes really don't need my help at this point:

Same for the cukes:

I assisted some peas in grasping the trellis:

I noted that the radishes and spinach are doing well, and then I harvested some spinach:

We really are in wait-for-harvest mode at this point, and the radishes and spinach are the only things in the harvest cycle at this point (they grow fast). Everything else is quite a ways off. We'll see how that works out. Might be a while before we see another farm post. Yeah, I don't see that being a problem for most folks. Please see the title of the blog.

The Lord farms in mysterious ways; Update!

Update: Added photo at the bottom.

Went to the farm today, and when I got there, my farming partner was just setting up the deer fence for the squash bed. In other words, he had already tilled the bed I was not looking forward to tilling. Thank you, Lord.

Anyway, religious experiences aside, we got a lot done on the farm today despite uncooperative weather.The forecast called for afternoon thunderstorms, so I got there early, shortly after 1 pm, but already the skies were ominous.

Looking southwest:

And looking northwest:

Since our weather comes from the south and west, I was hoping that the front line already being to the northwest was a good sign. It wasn't.

So first, I checked our existing crops. The asparagus looks good:

And the beans are popping up:

The spinach and radishes are solid:

And the potatoes are coming up:

The onions, carrots and strawberries are, as you know, coming in well, so I didn't take more pictures of those today. Perhaps later.

Anyway, I got to the farm, my partner was setting the posts for the deer fence around the squash bed:

Once he had them positioned, he was happy to let me drive them into the ground. He has a device that looks like what SWAT teams use to bust down doors. Fortunately, this device is used only for good:

So I drove the stakes into the ground:

Next week, we will put in the squash and zuchinni and put up the fencing. But not today. This wasn't the reason we didn't plant those things today, but it so happens that the skies opened up:

It actually dumped on us twice. As soon as it appeared the first thunderstorm was done, I went out to continue working. It almost immediately began raining at least as hard as before. Jeb and I both got really, really wet. Fortunately, wet is a transient state. Befor the rain started, I had positioned some more peppers for planting. They got seriously pummeled by the rain:

They got planted OK, though:

Next week, we will put in the zukes, cukes and squash. After that, we go into weed-and-feed mode for about two months before harvest time comes. I'll keep you posted. I know you can't wait.

Update: Almost forgot to add, we put up the string trellis for one of the beds of peas:

They all talk about you, down on the farm

The cows asked, the pigs asked, the horses asked too. Well, we got no livestock on our farm, no respect meant to Little Feat, but it is that time of year again. Saturday I went to do some farming with my friend who has a few acres. Put in some crops. Sorry it took so long for me to post about it, but here we go. Naturally, it would not be a trip to the farm if Jeb the Wonder Dog did not hang his head out the window. While this is nowhere near as scary as the scene in "Jurassic Park," Jeb is in fact closer than he appears:

But not like this:

So anyway, we got to the farm and Jeb had to buddy up with his fellow dogs:

Above, he bonded with Willie, the yellow lab, and Goose, the Irish terrier (I think). He also chilled alone with Willie:

After the initial canine contretemps, I got down to farming. My partner was off on a 100-mile bike ride (fool!), so I was on my own, dealing with stuff like this:

Apparently, when he went to mow the lawn (it's several acres, so he uses a tractors with a mower deck) he had to move some stuff out of the way and put it into the cucumber bed (above) and the squash and zuke bed (below):

Naturally, I shied away from the difficult stuff, since I was working alone that day. I planted a tomato plant (most of the others were already in, and we are still waiting for our cherry tomato plants):

I also put in some pepper plants. These were all hot peppers. The bell peppers (and probably more hot peppers) will go in this coming weekend):

I checked the onions. They looked good:

Finally accepting that I could avoid real work no longer, I attacked the cucumber bed, even though I couldn't get the tiller started, which means I had to hoe it manually. Nontheless, I cleared the junk, hoed the bed and got the deer fence up:

I left the squash bed alone. Maybe next week. In the meantime, they all talk about you down on the farm: