It is going to be a long fall this year.  Ron plans on the 3 of us working until the snow flies.  He wants us to get a total of 5 rows ready for garlic planting.   We are only using one row this year and will then be rotating between them, but he figures the sooner we get them done, the less work we have to do next year. Personally I am hoping for an early winter.

Last Saturday Jo took her shot at shoveling and found out pretty quickly that it is seriously hard work.  I like taking the pick ax and breaking the dirt up first.  I find that cathartic and it certainly burns off the calories.  The whole process is great exercise but it is also very noisy. No conversations to make the work go by faster.  We have to use hand signals to communicate.  But Ron’s sifter does a good job of getting out the rocks.  We end up with lots of worms too.  Have to wonder what they are thinking.  First they are dug up and tossed into a bucket, then dropped onto a contraption that is constantly shaking.  Must feel like an earthquake to them.  We try to grab them up and drop them into the dirt, but sometimes we miss and they go right through the grid.  I try very hard not to squish them against the grate.  Yuck.

Depending on the heat index, it takes the 3 of us two days to get half way through each row.   So we need at least a solid weekend to get one done.

Exhausted work crew so ready to head home.  I came up with fabulously smart idea of using our slightly beat up canopy as shade.  Took a little maneuvering to get it to cover our working area and three of us, but let me tell you, that helped a lot.  Reduced the temp by about 10 to  15 degrees.  We were able to get at least an hour more in.   Then it was home for a welcome shower and clean clothes.

Friday I headed out to THF with Ron and Jo to do a final cleaning on a batch of our mushroom logs.  They had already been out twice that week and come home with pounds of shiitakes.  Made for some happy friends at work.  We were now just going to get whatever is let and dehydrate them.  I still have to find some recipes to use them in.  That will come this winter when I have a bit more free time.

This is why Ron is using plastic pallets to stack his logs.  Every time it rains, we end up dealing with this.

Jo and I tacked the job of getting the logs out of their 4 hour soak.  I make no attempt at keeping track of what the two of them are doing.  The logs are all numbered and they have charts and schedules and it all more than I want to be involved in.

You can see the all rocks on the right side where we dumped them in our efforts to make it a bit dryer and safer for our travels back and forth.   And can certainly see that we have a lot more work to do.  Ron would really love to have a bridge though.  Anyone out there have the know-how to build a good one, on the cheap?  No wood, of course as that will rot real quick.

The last step in mushroom harvesting.  This involves the generator and air compressor.  Ron blows the dirt and any stray bugs off and tosses them into a basket to carry home.  It generally is a two person job.  Like most things on THF.  It is after all, our family adventure.