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It's 18.35 on the 4th June (happy birthday Grandma). So just another quick blog to let everyone know what we've been up to.
Monday was a pretty average day, we had a lot of seeding to get done so that took first priority. This simply involves filling small cell trays with compost and putting a seed in each. Sounds boring I know, but it's not unlike just sitting around a kitchen table - easy work and sociable too. As well as the potting, we also had a little planting of peppers in the greenhouse to get done, as well washing out 40 odd boxes for the box program the next day. Not really much else happened on Monday, just the usual evening routine, and bed relatively early.
Tuesday was a more interesting day. It was the day that we fill the boxes full of produce for locals, so the first job was harvesting all the produce that needed packing. Laura, Dakota and Mel were also going to a market that day, with basically meant that the 4 of us were in charge of running the packing of the boxes. Rosie and I went to cut down some of the biggest cucumbers
and zucchini (courgette), then moved on to digging for wild leeks and green garlic.
Once everything was cut or dug up, we all headed to the big orange barn. There we spent most of the rest of the day cleaning the leeks and garlic, weighing up the lettuce and salad mixes and bagging them up. We had both the market goods and the box produce to process so this took some time. It's a good atmosphere in the barn however, the four of us & Laura and Dakota chatting while we work, Mike bustling around with his clipboard and Sandy popping in every now and again to see how everything was going.
Once we'd finally finished in the barn we quickly watered and closed up the greenhouse, then headed over to Sandy's hop yard to do an hour or so of weeding before clocking off. It wasn't bad work, the weeds being pulled out pretty quickly and satisfyingly - and Sandy brought us out some cold beers which helped. As with Monday, the evening followed its normal course - usually we're too tired to do anything else. I train, Kate tends to cook, we all freshen up and maybe grab
a drink and sit eating and talking with whoever is around until about 10 when we all head off to bed.
So Wednesday. It turned out that we had a huge order in on Wednesday from supermarkets, so that was too priority to get sorted. First thing to do was cutting the salad mix. All told, we harvested 20 crates of mixed lettuce and about 5 each of baby kale and arugula. Once that was sent to Laura and Dakota to be washed, Matt and I cut peppermint and spearmint, as well as rhyme, chives and chive flowers (which were covered in bees).
After lunch we took on the task of weighing and bagging up everything we had harvested. We made 50 boxes of all 4 salad mixes as well as 3 5lb of each. It was a huge order, but with everyone working hard the time passed quickly. It was 5pm by the time we'd finished, so we watered the greenhouses, locked up and headed back to the house.
We spent most of the evening chatting to Adam, who was home earlier than usual, and before we new it, it was time for bed.
So there we are, just
a short update. Only one more blog will come from here at MSF, after that we take on the voyage across the country, through Winnipeg, and to Banff.
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Dr John HW
John Hyder-Wilson
MSF endings
My goodness, that's been a successful place! I guess in some ways that you will be sorry to move on, but in other ways it probably feels about time. Not sure I like the sound of chive plants covered in bees. I do hope they were not the Africanised 'killer' honey bees, although apparently they are only aggressive if they feel their hive/nest is threatened. Out in the field, they are the same as any other bee. You are probably too far north for that sort anyway. It seems to us blog readers here that you have been 'just about' to move west for a long time, but it really is nearly on you now and we look forward to the accounts of the journey and of the new places. All OK here, although in a very busy work phase. Harry has finished his exams and is looking for work and has also upped his hours at CAB. This still brings out some of the residual Tory elements in him, as he really is quite unsympathetic to the feckless and the impecunious of Worthing, who are regular visitors to CAB looking for advice on debts and other money problems. His account of such encounters is laced with astringent and acid references to people who have got themselves into a mess of their own making. My challenge about not blaming victims gets fairly short shrift. Looking forward to speaking tomorrow.