I have posted pictures of our field this past summer.  This is what it looks like today.  We have had a lot of precipitation; rain here and snow at higher elevations.

Elisabeth and Devin visited us this past weekend.  They are graduates from an ag program in California who will join us next season.  If the season goes well for us, they will be our partners in future seasons.  I am really excited about the prospect.

There were some pretty big logs across Little Creek.  I worked with Laurie Allen to remove them and cut them into smaller pieces.  Susan came by and took these pictures towards the end of our adventure.

... and, the tree is down!

We are having an old fir tree cut down.  It has died.  The arborist says it was hit by lightning that destroyed the cambian layer.

 That's me, unloading horse manure with Buddy supervising.

These are rows in the garden that have been prepared for next season.  They are layered "Hugelkultur."

We got more than an inch of rain this past week.  The hills are pretty today.  It looks like it snowed up in the mountains.  I hope it helps our fire fighters.

My supervisor, Buddy, likes to ride shotgun when we take the old pickup into the field to do some weed control.

After a few clear days, the smoke has returned to our valley.  I think it is worse (or maybe just lower) than it was before.

The smoke from the fires made the sun a pretty shade of red.

The air quality is apparent in this picture of Mt. Fanny from our field.  Compare it with the picture of the moose from July 26.

A moose visited today.  Our friend Laurie Allen took this picture.

Weed control is the name of the game in organic farming.  We tilled under the cheat grass infested portion of our field before our first cutting.  Some of that area had to be mowed (and not harvested) due to pig weed infestation.  (But the cheat grass is now gone!!)

I think the mowing is okay, but the tilling should be done with care.  Broken soil seems to invite pig weed.

Next year, we will try using this old cultivator I have redone with some new fittings and chains.  We tried it out yesterday, but the pig weed was too well established and it didn't do very well.  If we use it in the spring when weeds first appear, it should pull some weeds out without hurting the alfalfa.  Alfalfa is a perennial with very deep roots.

Yesterday, two men came in a truck with two trailers and an elevator to take most of our first cutting hay to an organic dairy in Washington.

 

 

The gas engine on the elevator was hard to start.  They thought it had suffered from some vibration that caused oil to accumulate in the cylinder.

 

This is the fully loaded rear trailer.

 

  

Here, they started loading the front trailer.

This is the fully loaded system with over 30 tons of hay.

It was truly impressive to watch the driver back this thing out through the gate and onto the road!

Our first cutting looks good.  There were some weedy spots that we tilled under rather than harvest.

Last year, our friend Wade came by with his bale wagon and stacked our hay.  He is not available at the moment.  I hope we will find some help of that sort, but in the meantime, we hauled in bales with our pickup and stacked them by hand (with the help of our loader).  Fortunately, our son Eli and his friend Fred were available to help.  Thanks Eli & Fred!!!