Aphids!!! And, Matt Moran is a Genius

Those little buggers all but ruined our day. We hit Garden 3 bright and early to get more flats out of the Arc greenhouse and into the ground (time's racing to get them in!). So we brought out some tatsoi and got to planting. You know the routine: hoe rows, water, plant, water, repeat. Add one more step: Dave constructed the hoops for the row cover.

Right as I took this picture, he smashed his finger good.

But then, disaster! After planting a pretty big section, we discovered aphids on the plants. Not good. Well, it wasn't awful - there were only some tiny ones. Laurie thought the plants were salvageable if we wiped the leaves off by hand. So we did:

Dumped the tatsoi, chalked it up as a loss, grabbed another flat and started again...

Meanwhile, Laurie joined us in Garden 3 to work on the in-between rows. She's laying out layers of hay and cardboard to kill the weeds below, compost the top layer, and then next year or the following, will use those rows to plant. It's a kind of crop rotation. So our walking rows, kneeling, bending over rows will become the future plant rows if all goes as planned.

Sara and I got another good chunk planted. And then... more aphids! (You saw this coming?) And that was it. It's too risky to continue planting out as they can spread and devour all of Garden 3. Laurie called it, we need to regroup and work on other stuff until we (she) figure it out.

So that's the risk of farming. You can work hard as hell every single day but you're dealing with nature and it's less welcome elements. The odds are already stacked against you in so many ways in a place like this - growing in Montana's clay-filled soil with howling wind and a short growing season; finding, maintaining and growing a market for your produce; covering production and labor costs. It's seriously risky business, not for the faint of heart. That's what we're here to learn.

So here's all the things we did to fill up our day:

Transplanting tomatoes and peppers

Seeding new flats

Just as we were wrapping up, Dave and I got the most welcome visitor: the UPS Man!

Funky truck, Mr UPS

For all our bitchin and complaining about cold nights in the trailer, my brother Matt bought and shipped us an electric blanket! It was no surprise when he rolled up - Dave told us all to look for the UPS truck all day. Matt sent us the tracking info and Dave's been giving periodically updates. This morning's update: our blanket was in Bozeman at 4am so it must be getting here today.

And ta-da! It arrived.

Describing us as "excited" would be an understatement. Dave was stoked that the forecast called for mid-30s tonight. Bring it, Montana. We got this.

I love my brother Matt.

As I write this, Laurie is whipping up what she calls American chop seuy. Her niece Emma asked her what that is (we were all wondering) and Dave chimed, "It's noodles with vegatables, you'll love it." So that's what it'll be.

Looking forward to a cozy warm night's rest.