Now that all the seed (or let's say the vast majority of the seed) is in the ground, our thoughts turn to growing and water is obviously an important part of the growing equation. We've been having relatively cool temperatures and only sporadic horrendous winds and we've had ongoing threats of rain, but no real moisture to speak of during the last 10 days.........so it is time to fall back on our irrigation system which is a little bit easier said than done at this point.

We disassemble the farm for the most part at the end of the season in September to allow the elk and deer to roam freely through the meadows during the winter. That means that we have to roll up the drip lines and then roll them back out in the summer, pull out the solar pump and then reinstall it, clean out the filters, roll out the main lines, etc, etc. Another day or two and all should be operational and we can begin watering. Of course it is likely that after we get it all ready we'll get a nice rain-- but so be it. We prefer rain over irrigating partly because it is easier and partly because the irrigation water seems to contain a hefty amount of sodium which has a rightful place in the soil scheme, but not in excess.

Anyway, even without recent rain there is still nice moisture in some of our dirt and things are beginning to pop out including radishes, mustard, turnips and chard. We are using row covers once again which among other things helps to keep what moisture we have in the ground as well as helping to warm the soil and control the weeds and bugs. The row covers are most easily installed after the drip lines are laid out along each row. There is a system to all of this to make things most efficient, but it doesn't always work out in the order we'd prefer. There are days that are just not good row cover installation days-- aka very windy days.

Now that I'm rambling, it must be time to stop. With a little luck we hope to have the drip lines down and operating and the row covers down and secured in the next couple of days and then we really can sit back a bit and wait for things to grow........