After getting our first round of seeds and transplants in we began to plow in earnest. Very few people plow any more, it is a real lost art. When you see it done correctly it can give you shivers. Here is a view from the seat of the John Deere 3020. We are working about 12 acres here; trying to plow straight and true and flop all the grass from this winter's cover crop under so we can follow with discing and tilling.
Much like with the transplanter I keep my eye on the furrows and endeavor to keeps things straight straight straight. There are a few jokes around here regarding plowing; 1) Always plow parallel to the road so people can't see your furrows, and 2) Plow after people are home from work and disk in the morning.
The tractor we use for plowing and disking is a 1969 John Deere 3020 Diesel. If you close your eyes and picture a tractor, that's the JD 3020. She is in beautiful condition and builds horsepower based on displacement rather than any of that newfangled gimmickry. A very simple machine that sounds great and is a joy to run. Many old timers will tell you that the 30 series is the last real tractor. I don't know about that but I do know this, it is the only tractor we own with a factory hood ornament and cigarette lighter.
When you're plowing you should always look forward. When you turn in the seat you naturally turn the wheel slightly in the direction that you are twisting your body as you look over your shoulder. If you do turn around you should definitely not hold and focus a camera, however if you did, you would get a glimpse at the plows as they fold the top layer of soil over and under the soil below.
Here's what we did for lunch that day. While plowing one of my plows "tripped", which means.....Well on a set of "breaking plows" they are held in place by a big old pin, if you hook something large enough and are moving with enough force, the plow will trip and sort of flop up out of the ground. They can easily be reset by backing up with the plows on the ground. However, then you are obligated to find out what did it. In this case it was an old cedar tree that finally decided to surface. You can see the pile of limbs forming just behind and to the right of the loader bucket. It was a crying shame to dig a big hole in middle of this field but well, we had no choice.
It started me thinking about farming and all other things I suppose. It seems to me that you can teach anyone to plow in a straight line, that the technical skills of any occupation can be developed, even mastered. But the true measure of ones achievement has to be how they handle adversity, how they get the job done under conditions that are unpredictable and sometimes downright unpleasant.
So how did we do?
I think we did real well.
I finished plowing this field yesterday while Patrick mowed the cover crop of the next. By 6pm I had plowed three acres at our third field and Patrick had finished all the field mowing and even spruced up around the edges. We had a short day today as the rain that I have been hoping for to water in all our transplants came late last night and into morning.
We have enough ground ready now that we can start fertilizing, and getting ready for the next round of seeds, and transplanting onions.
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