Current location: The Farm, North Saanich, BC.
Weather: Sunshine. The special kind of sunshine which ignored the forecast for rain.
Do you see the red Kubota tractor hiding behind the blue Mitzubushi? That, my dear friends, is the tractor I spent 3 hours buckled into this morning. My first introduction to tilling a seed bed. A patch of field. A patch! 3 HOURS! Lesson time doesn’t even count, as that took an hour yesterday…
The day began with me competing to make more noise than the tractor, by singing songs whilst Kubota endured the serious work of tilling. This euphoria didn’t last however, I soon discovered my inability to make 90 degree turns thus creating multiple short-cut bends and taking me until the middle of the row to ‘straighten up’. Ha.
This, in itself, wouldn’t have caused serious heartache had it not have been for the other issue of removing the tiller at the end of every row. Too soon. No, too late. A mound of earth often 3 metres from the row’s end and, BOOOOOO!, another patch left ‘un-tilled’.
Needless to say, I was soon flustered by the experience and started to frantically drive up and down trying to erase my poor work. At least, I drove as frantic as 2 miles an hour would allow. And there was also the mind game of driving in a puzzle-like fashion in order to avoid the need of impossibly sharp bends. In theory, I’m sure it’s a beautiful system. Like, err, whatever.
The patch was as finished as it was ever going to be, so I turned the machine off and jumped down. My body rattled momentarily. It was time for a cuppa tea. The afternoon was spent with plants for the most part.
Below: Photos from the farm!
