Preparing The Danger Zone for planting

After weeks of waiting, the community land where we have our farm plot has been plowed...and it is time to get our farm on! David and I have been very excited to started. Now that we have the experience of last summer behind us, I think we will be able to "farm" much more effectively this year.

However, Ithaca is currently a soggy, swampy mess due to the unusual amount of rainfall (which is why it took so long to plow the land in the first place) and so we did not make as much progress last weekend as we would have liked to. Above is the river that is currently running through one side of our plot.

We did manage to put up our fence and set aside some compost for future planting. David was in charge of putting the posts in to hold up our fence, and he did an awesome job despite the mud. It was really not an easy task, because David was sinking into the ground as he was trying to stabilize the posts!

Here are David's shoes after he was finished putting the fence in!

And here are mine after securing all of the zip ties needed to attach the fence to the post!

David is standing next to our beautiful metal fence. You will notice that we upgraded the orange hazard fencing from last year to something more sturdy this year. We are still trying to figure out what to use for a door though, so perhaps the orange fencing may resurface in some capacity. The plot next to ours (with the yellow yarn on top) belongs to two of David's friends, Jon and Lexi. It is nice to have some company on the farm this year!

My manual labor contribution to Saturday's farming activities was shoveling compost into a wheelbarrow that David then took back to our plot. (We did not trust that I would be able to transport the compost without spilling it all over the place, as I am too uncoordinated to avoid falling in the mud.) I shoveled this entire pile that I am standing next to, which is quite a feat for someone with arms as noodle-like as mine are!

We are hoping that the rain will hold off over the next few days so that we can begin planting!