Farm Happenings

I think where I left off last was that the plants were growing in the greenhouses, and the fields were getting plowed. Here's what's happening now.

These are the plants in the greenhouse that are ready to be planted. I think these are tomatoes.

I think these are eggplants, also ready to be planted in the fields.
Here they are laying the plastic in the fields before they plant. The plastic helps keep the weeds out and allows them to water the plants by drip irrigation and add fertilizer to the soil as needed. (in my not so professional opinion)

Watch this video to see how the plastic is layed. They can now do three rows at a time with the new tractor part they just bought last year. They used to only do one row at a time.

After the plastic is down, they have to pull back the white part (which will be the tunnel), put wire rims up (to make the tunnels) and poke holes in the plastic where the plants will go. Actually I think they poke the holes first.

They load the plants onto trailers to move them to the field for planting.Here they are planting cucumbers in the field below our house.Now that the plants are in they will pull the white plastic up over the wire rings and hold it in place with the clothes pins. The tunnels creat a greenhouse effect, since it is still cold here in Michigan they can plant much earlier in the summer than without the tunnels. They protect the plants and it gets much warmer inside the tunnel than outside which helps them grow, and the end result is produce much earlier. They don't do the whole farm it tunnels because it is too expensive and requires more labor. They do about 100 acres of tunnels. The rest of the plants get planted after it is warm enough to not have to worry about frost. I was surprised to find out that they use the farmers almanac to determine when they can start planting outside.

This picture was taken from my porch. This is a field of Tomato plants. I am super excited to have tomatoes planted by our house this year. Last year they planted pickles which are only grown for a short time in the summer and then they are done. We will have vine ripe tomatoes here from mid July to end of September. And I wont have to go far to get them.
I took this picture this morning. I can't believe how big the plants are now. Here's a view from inside the tunnel.As it gets warmer and the plants get bigger they will start to open the tunnels up more.

On the farm part II

After my last post about the farm my sister recommended this really great website http://www.blurb.com/ for making my farm book. The website is awesome, I have already started the book and it is turning out so cute. It is going to be a rather big book I think by the time it's all done. I may have to edit it down when I'm all done. I also plan on making a baby book for Anthony on it. The books are pretty reasonable priced too, and you can order as many as you like. When you think about how much scrapbooking costs these days, it really is a bargain, and I think I like the look of these books better than a scrapbook. So now I have to divide my spare time (Anthony's nap times) between blogging and working on my farm book. My two hobbies of the moment. Although, once the farming thing gets into full swing, Todd will be working late hours and I will be able to work on it more in the evenings after I put Tony* to bed.

Going back to the beginning. The seeds are planted in the first trays with this machine (which I don't know the name of). The seeds are coated with something to deter bugs and mice from eating them, they are blue to help you see them, otherwise they are the same color as the dirt. Those little green prongs you see pick up the seeds with a vacuum seal and drop them into the dirt. Two cucumber seeds go in each tray and as they grow they form a vine.
After the seeds are planted the tray is topped off with more soil. Here is the big picture of the process. Remember the picture of the empty greenhouse where they were transplanting? It's not anymore. It is now all full with eggplants.Now for a little info on what's going on in the fields. At the end of each farm season, after the fields are all cleaned up, they plant Rye for ground cover. When it gets warm in the spring the Rye starts to grow. The first thing they do in the fields is mark Rye strips with the tractor. In between these 2 lines is a Rye strip, which will later be a driveway for the field. First they do this.Then they to this. That little strip of grass between the two dirt paths is the driveway, not the dirt path, and everything in between will be plowed and planted. Here is a picture of Todd and Tony in the tractor. It was Tony's first tractor ride.
There has been a lot of rain this spring, making the fields wet, so marking the Rye strips is just now getting done. Last year they started much earlier, so Todd is a bit stressed out about being behind. But I'm glad he made time to take Tony and I out on the tractor for some pictures.
I got to go on my first tractor ride of the summer too.

*I am starting to call Anthony Tony now, just so he gets used to both names.

P.S. Did anyone else locally feel the earthquake at 5:40am? I had just put Tony back to bed and was trying to fall asleep myself when I heard the house start to creak and then the bed started shaking. It took me a little bit to figure out what was happening, then I woke up Todd to tell him I thought we were having an earthquake and to verify that I wasn't crazy, that the bed was shaking. We checked to make sure it wasn't just really windy, and no wind outside. Then today on the radio I heard there actually was an earthquake.

P.S.S. I didn't have Todd proof this, so I may be wrong on one or more things, if so I'm sure he will tell me about it and then I can correct it.

A day at the farm Part I

This whole writing a book about farming is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Last week I went over to the farm to take a few pictures of the early planting. I got a ton of pictures and it's only the beginning of the long farming season. So I think for now I will just take the pictures, write about them and then at the end of the season I can review all of them and pick and choose the best pictures to make a book for Anthony. Sorry but blogging about it seems the easiest way for me to keep track of it all, so if you like the TV show Unwrapped, you will find this interesting.

These are the trays where seeds are first planted. They call it a 512 tray because it has 512 cells for seeds in each tray. (The seeds are planted in these trays by a machine, I missed that process, but if they do it again I will try to get a picture of it, it's pretty cool the way it works.)It takes 3 to 4 weeks in the greenhouse (depending on the type of plant) before the plant is ready to be transplanted into a bigger tray.Here is a close up of Eggplant that is ready to be transplanted.Daddy showing Anthony the greenhouse.

In this greenhouse they are transplanting over in the corner.

Soon this whole greenhouse will be full of plants. Here are the 512 trays that are ready for transplanting.In another barn this machine, called the flat filler, is filling up the bigger trays with soil.Each plant is transplanted by hand.The new soil filled trays move down this conveyor belt as each plant is replanted.We let Anthony have a close up look at the process.
He didn't get too excited about getting his hands dirty.

I'm sure that will change soon.

After the trays are planted they are lined up in the greenhouse. This is where they will stay until they are planted in the field.
Anthony with his Dad and Auntie Lisa. Auntie Lisa is in charge of the transplanting process.
This greenhouse is full of Eggplant transplanted into trays with 24 cells.
And that's what Anthony and I learned on the first day. Now I need to let Todd proof this to make sure I got it all right.

Turned out to be a good thing I had him proof it, I had a few things wrong.