Water and diesel. Somewhat ironically, these are the lifeblood of just about any farm. Without either one, farm systems grind to a halt. So when I came in the field on Monday evening and noticed the sprinklers weren't working any more, my heart skipped a beat. I quickly tried several outdoor hydrants, to see if perhaps the first one I was using had malfunctioned, but each time came back with the same result: no water. Of course it was too late to get a hold of anyone to fix it that evening, and it took all of Tuesday before I could touch with a well repair outift.
Normally, we're a dryland farm here, meaning we don't usually irrigate our field crops. Mother Nature usually supplies the 1" per week most annual crops need to grow well, and often times in the spring especially we are getting much more precip than a single inch per week. But we do have to water our greenhouse transplants and hoophouse crops on a regular basis, as those are covered spaces and don't get "rain." Luckily, I had just irrigated the hoophouses over the weekend, so they were good for a few days, but the tender transplants in the greenhouse - tens of thousands of them - need to be watered at least twice a day, 3 times a day when it's sunny. And of course, that sun was shining brightly earlier this week. To keep those babies alive, I had scoop water from our pond with a 5 gallon bucket into a 200 gallon stock tank on the forks of the tractor, drive that tank back out in front of the greenhouse, and manually apply it to each flat with a watering can. Not counting scooping all of that water out of the pond with the bucket, it took me over an hour to just get the greenhouse watered once, walking back and forth, in and out of the greenhouse to refill.
Luckily, farmers Eric and Ryan could keep the regular farm work running while I took care of watering. Tomatoes got trellised, and the last of the hoophouse peppers got transplanted. Above is a shot of our pepper hoophouse, and below that a picture of our tomato house getting all strung up and tidy.
Thankfully, once the well repair folks showed up, it was a quick fix - the well pump was fine, it was just that the control box (located externally on the side of the pressure tank) had burned out. After replacing the control box - a 3 minute job - the water was back on, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hauling all that water from the pond for another day made me tired just thinking about it! With water weighing in at 8#/gallon, that's a lot of lifting and carrying! Once the water was back on, I went out to water with the hose, and had a newfound appreciation for how simple it was to turn on the faucet and deliver 200 gallons of water to all of those transplants while just standing beside them with the hose in 10 minutes. Pure bliss. The things we take for granted.
Once the water crisis was averted and the tractor was relieved of water hauling duty, we got back in the fields planting the first rounds of sweet corn and green beans, as well as prepping beds for broccoli transplants today and squash transplants next week. For me, it's so comforting to see those orderly, clean fields at planting time. Amidst all the chaos and uncertainty of life, of Covid-19, of spring weather, sometimes it helps to just be able to look behind me and at least see order in my small corner of the world. I surely hope you can find the same peace too in your days as well. Now more than ever, it's the little things in life that make the difference.
That's it from the farm for this week - thanks so very much for making us your farmers.
Yours in community -
Chris Duke
Farmer, Great Oak Farm
CSA Manager, Bayfield Foods
