Next Project – The Garden

Now that we have the success of the eggs under our belt, I think we get a little cocky with the.. “aren’t things just going so well!”  Time for a new project.  We need to get the garden ready.  What garden you say?  Well, it’s the one you can’t see because it isn’t there yet.  The land really hasn’t been worked for quite a while, so we will need to lay out the garden spot and get the land tilled, so it will be ready for us to start planting in the spring.  Sounded like a much easier project than the chicken coop to me!  Something I could understand.  You turn over the soil and you plant seeds in there and they grow into food and you eat it.  Simple Simon…….when will I learn, it’s not that simple.

So once again we all stand around and look at the options of where to place the garden. Once again, Chuck and Darren have done some garden research, I have done none.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am really good at the helping thing…. not so great at the research thing.  Anyway, we are all in agreement as to where the garden should go.  So far, so good.  And this is where all the good feeling ends.  Next Chuck brings out this huge measuring tool, like a big spool, and he tells me to hold one end while he paces out the garden.  And he walks, and he walks, and he walks.  I keep shouting at him “What are you doing?” and he says “Laying out the garden”.  I am so confused because we said the garden was going to be where I was standing.  Next Chuck pounds a stake in the ground where he has finally stopped, and then starts walking again.  With the next stake in the ground it dawns on me just how big this garden is going to be!  Our very first garden, the garden of these city people who never even tried to have houseplants, is laid out as a full quarter acre.  I can’t say anything because sheesh, I didn’t do any research but really, even I know this is a lot of garden for beginners! I start praying that the boys know what they are doing! 

So, we get the garden laid out, next up is to get it tilled.  Fortunately, part of our farm purchase included some old equipment from the prior owners.  We had spied an old tiller in the barn and Darren spent some time getting the engine working again.  We haul that puppy out to our field to till the land.  Ha ha ha ha ha! You gotta know that it is just not that easy! No No!  Now I have no idea how exactly a tiller works and exactly how you maneuver it around your field, but even I knew something was terribly wrong with the workings of this tiller!  It bucked and jumped around like a bucking broncho, practically dragging Darren behind it.  The noise was enough to wake the dead and the possessed machine seemed hell bent on pulling Darren’s arms out of their sockets!  After less than 5 minutes of this Darren is out of breath, practically panting, and it had kinda tilled about 2 feet of the garden.  Time for a re-think.  Darren drags the machine off to the barn to sharpen the tiller thingy’s to see if that is the problem.  Uuuhhhmmm! Nope!  This time Chuck gives it a go…… we get another 2 feet.  The city folks are beat by the tiller – how the hell do farmers do this??

We are nothing if not persistent.  Plan B – we need a proper tiller.  So we get a sweet weekend deal on renting a large tiller. Perfect! We unload this puppy from the back of the truck and fire it up.  No more bucking broncho, and the sound is tolerable – however, it was just as hard to control and just started digging gigantic holes, and all of the roots from the hay that has been growing there are getting all tangled up in the machine.  How on earth can this be so hard??  What was so appealing about a garden again?  Then I get all city – as well as all typical woman – and start looking for the instructions!  Surely we are doing something wrong – farmers have been doing this for centuries, why can’t we figure it out.  There are no instructions and the damn machine has now dug several potholes where our lovely garden is supposed to go.  Good lord, no way are we getting this tilled before the first snow! Crap, now what?

Shortly after we arrived, Chuck got us all hooked up with a Facebook page that is all about farming in the Kootenay’s. Local farmers use this page to post things for sale, how to treat sick animals, where to get the best feed… that sort of thing.  All kinds of information that we figured we might need, and also a way to get to know some of the local folks. Since the land needed to get tilled before the first frost, and time was running out, we put up a post – essentially calling Uncle – we need help getting our garden tilled!!  Country people really are the salt of the earth, always willing to lend a hand and help out another farmer!  One of the local guys agreed to come out and get the garden tilled for us.  Now you gotta know, the machine he brought with him in no way resembled the one that we were trying to use!  This one came on a flat bed trailer and he DROVE it off the back. Our saviour has arrived!  This beast plowed through the old hay and soil like it was nothing, and in less than 2 hours we had a beautifully tilled, enormous garden.

Tick! Another project done, right?!  Wrong! Say it with me…… it’s never that simple!