Monday Night Potato Planting

We stopped at the feed store for fertilizer, and the pile of feed on the dock caught my eye. Llama feed? deer feed? Times have certainly changed in Jackson County.


The pile on the dock included wild game bird, pig, rabbit and goat feed.

Llama feed. I know there are a few llama farms around the area. I hadn't considered that they might have a unique feed. I wonder what's in it.


At home, the tractor comes out of the shed and the toother is hooked up. some people disc their gardens, but with our sandy-clay soil, we've found the toother gives us a better result. It breaks the soil up withough packing it, which was the problem we had when we used a disc to break up the soil after plowing.











Larry prepares row 2 for planting. He pulled the rows while I dropped potatoes. Then he came back with the fertilizer to drop between the cut potatoes.

We only planted 25 pounds this year. If they do well, we'll have mor than enough to feed us. We like to plant the red-skinned Pontiac potato. It likes our soil, and we like its flavor.










Larry comes back up the row to cover the seed potatoes and fertilizer. Rain is predicted today, and that will get things settled in nicely.















As the sun dropped behind the ridge, the small creek far down the hill caught its reflection like a faraway mirror.

Our little creek is really a "run", meaning it has water in it at some times of the year, but does not always carry water. Generally it has water in the spring, winter and fall, and only sporadically in the hot months. It's a pretty little stream, winding its way between tall cliffs.

When my sons were young, they created slicky-slides down the banks to the creek, and would play down there for hours, sliding down the bank to the creek, and climbing back up to do it again.

Further down was a place we called "the deep hole." The boys dammed it with rocks and branches and had a small swimming hole. Last time I was down there, I had difficulty identifying the deep hole. The topography of this land changes all the time, as high water and falling trees change the course of the creek and runoff.

The potatoes are in the ground. Last night we planted more lettuce (the early bed is ready to pick), beets, spinach, onions and chard. the early spring planting is almost complete. The broccoli and cabbage will be late this year because my plants are still small. Other than that, everything is on schedule.

It feels very good.