Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A Slippin' & a Slidin'

The past few weeks we’ve been getting so much rain! The road out to our place has been closed a couple of times already for repair as the dirt under the pavement has literally washed away underneath it in some places, causing the pavement to cave in, and, for some unfortunate drivers like ourselves, to fall through with it! (It’s a rather startling experience to be driving along on what seems like solid pavement & collapse through the road...) Fortunately, for us, our son, Charles, & son-in-law, Andy, were able to come & rescue us from our plight with our tractor and without any damages to our truck.
The rain has been good for the field crops though – it’s a mass of green out in the fields, such a stark contrast to the desert brown. But as can be expected, it’s not just our lovely crops that are growing – it seems that the rain has called forth from the dusty earth a whole bunch of unwanted weeds, which has required drastic measures to be taken in taming them down.
It’s a big job for a little farm, but the other day we had a surprise weed crew show up – it was Dr. Timothy Crews & his AgroEcology class from the University of Prescott who came down for a tour of the farm.

They were an awesome group, and you could tell that they were all passionate about farming. While we were out showing them the field crops, they asked if they could help us weed an acre. It took them less than an hour, and the results were a beautifully weeded acre of sweet potatoes! Thanks guys for the help – we enjoyed having you down for the tour & wish you all the best in the rest of your class & your future farming careers!