Ron and Jo headed out to THF on Tuesday, the 13th to pull the mushroom logs out of their 4 hour soak. On their way home they went straight instead of turning left as Ron needed gas in the wagon. Jo just happened to spot someone out working in their own field. She thought it looked like they were using a rock picker. Ron agreed with her and he turned around and headed back. By use of awkward sign language and his bright red Transit he managed to catch the attention of the driver. Once the tractor was stopped, Ron climbed down into the 8 foot ditch and out the other side and across the field. He then climbed up to the the cab of the tractor and once the driver opened the door said “I assume you are Mr Simmons?” And he was, Mike Simmons to be exact and the son of the farmer Ron had already talked to about the fabulous rock picker he owned. Out came the spiel and the long and short of it all was that Mike would meet Ron at THF in a few hours to look over the field and decide if he wanted the job.
Jo and Ron were both giddy when they got home. A quick dinner and we waited for the phone to ring. When it did, Ron headed out. An hour later he called me. Mike was already working on our field and Ron wanted to know if I needed some shots of the process.
Of course, he didn’t have the camera with him so I got myself out the door and out to the farm with camera in hand. Mike and his machine were hard at work scooping up rocks. Very noisy it was too. All that banging from rocks bouncing around in the hopper. He had already asked Ron if we had any neighbors that this would be a problem for.
His machine is quite cool. He drives down the field until the hopper is full and then backs up to where our rock pile will be and dumps them. We watched for about 30 minutes and then walked back to our cars and headed home. Ron was delighted that once again his theory about karma played out.
Mike was back out again the next night. We have so many rocks in that field, one day was simply not going to make much of a dent.
The number of hours that it would have taken us to make this pile of rocks. What with the digging, sifting and wheelbarrowing. While this is this biggest pile Mike made for us, we have another one on the other side of the field. Cannot see much of it as it is hidden by the trees and bushes.
Don and John joined us again on Saturday as we made the final push to get a second row ready for garlic planting. It was the perfect work day. Sunny but with steady breeze that kept it cool. The sun had come out and we tried to use our canopy again, but that was a no go. The wind was just too strong. We kept getting whacked by the poles that were supposed to be holding up the canvas top. 
With John manning the shovel, we flew through the last stages. All of us were hungry and tired, but Ron didn’t want to take a break until we were actually done. We still had to haul the compost from the pile and get it spread over each row. Time for the 4 wheeler to get into the action. Jo, John and Don filled the buckets and loaded them onto the trailer.
Ron drove them across the field and I dumped them into place. Once again those empty cat litter containers came in so handy. They make the best buckets.
And there we are. Two rows done and we are ready for planting early next month. So happy to have this part of the project done.
NEWS FLASH – Ron is such a liar. He started out saying we needing one row for our 2017 garlic. He said we just needed to keep going to get other rows ready for the following years. So we got two rows done and we should be finished, right? Oh no, he ordered more garlic. Wanted to have one more variety growing. Last night we ran the numbers and imagine my delight as we figured out we needed not one but two more rows just to get everything planted next month.
He may end up buried out at THF. Wonder how the garlic would grow with him as fertilizer?