First flower of the Year!

We planted a bunch of bulbs last November, including these Narcissus "Paper Whites". They were the first to bloom. Soon to come: more daffodils, tulips and other bulbs.

March 1: Tilling the flower field, part 1 (ripping for roses)

The first tilling of the year happened on March 1st. We opened up new ground at the top of the field, and Matt used a ripper to break up the dense sod. Then he disked the ground (pictured in subsequent entries) before roto-tilling and bedding it up for the new rose bushes we'll be planting.


Below: the end product of the ripping, with Willie looking at...something downhill.

March 1: Tilling the flower field, part 47 (The tractor ride!)

OK, these photos are actually backwards in order (start from the bottom and you'll see the chronology). As part of the tilling festivities, Willie got a ride to the field and back on the tractor from Matt, the first time he'd been on a tractor before. He was pretty happy. This was the return trip.

March 1 Tilling the flower field, part 52 (the roses)

Matt discing the new ground at the top of the field. The next step (done but not photographed yet) was that Matt roto-tilled here and then created 4 new beds; the top two will have 70 new rosebushes bought from a local grower, set up on drip irrigation, and the bottom two will be various varieties of cut flowers.

March 1: Tilling the flower field, part sixty

Matt discing the lower half of the field. You can see the finished product at the bottom here. This area will sit and start to grow weedy until I need more bed space, at which point Matt will come in again to roto-till and bed up (i.e., make garden beds). In the meantime I'll be looking for volunteer flowers that've reseeded themselves, which I'll remove and transplant to the upper half of the field.

Bread Delivery December 2009

I did some deliveries for Jo and Rosie's Rise Up! Artisan Bread company. Above is the checklist of the drops to make; below, the goods -- "JCS" stands for "Jacksonville Country Store" and "RCS" stands for "Ruch Country Store". The calculator is for calculating how much $$ in buybacks the bakery has to pay the stores each week.

Above: Baguettes for the Ashland Food Coop and other various breads. The mainstays are ciabatta, ciabatta with rosemary, goat cheese sourdough, sourdough levain, multigrain, spelt, olive levain, fig sourdough, apricot sourdough, the baguettes and a few more I'm not remembering. Below; the full load of bread for the day. This doesn't include the 60 loaves of ciabatta the bakery usually delivers to Lark's, a fancy restaurant in Ashland.