The Hill and I

Yesterday I was extremely tired after watering all our new permanent crops and spreading compost on some of our new trees and our blueberries.  If you think that sounds wimpy, well, you are right -- it does.  Normally this would not be considered a huge cardio workout, by any means. Except when you farm on a very steep hill.

It's the kind of hill where a zipline would not look out of place.  It's a hill that you can't ride your bike up (I actually saw some walkers going up backwards yesterday, probably so they didn't have to look at its looming presence as they were trudging along).  A hill that could be serious trouble going down in a car with bad brakes.  Fatally serious. You get the picture.

Hills are actually great for grape growing, since the slope really helps with drainage, so when we finally put in our vineyard, it will probably do great.  But right now we're doing the orchard and berries, which need quite a bit more moisture, and so every other day or so, I "take the hill" and get after it.

So as one could imagine, manually watering on a hill involves dragging an extremely long and heavy hose up and down, up and down, then standing around for about 5 minutes each while each tree and bush is soaked thoroughly.  Watering generally takes anywhere from 2 - 3 hours, depending on how vigilant I am and how bored I get with the whole enterprise of standing around watching water soaking into the ground.

Even just halfway down, it's a long walk back up

Composting involves dragging full buckets of compost down the same hill, mixing it in around each plant, then trudging back up the hill for another load.

And now that warmer weather appears to be here to stay I'm doing this more and more often, since all the plants have been planted less than 6 months. Walking around our hill with a hose has become a big part of my life. In fact, if I were an American Indian, "Woman With Hose" would probably be my tribal name. 

Big Ag has promised that soon he will install an irrigation system for me, which will allow me to simply turn on a faucet at the top of the hill and water the whole darn thing simultaneously, but when husbands say the word "soon" one can never be too sure what that means so I'm not holding my breath.

I am especially sure not to hold my breath as I'm climbing up and down, up and down, all day long.