Summertime and the willow is high?

Lower bed on left - 7wks; Upper bed on right- 4 wks

Lower bed at 7wks

Look how great this year's babies are doing! The lower bed is at 7 weeks now and the upper bed is at 4 weeks. The prize for the overachiever of the lot is still Jaune de Falais, nearly 3 ft tall at 7 wks old. Even with the dry weather, I haven't lost any plants and only a few in pots are showing yellow leaves, so I am feeling more positive that they got enough spring rain to get a good start on the summer.

Jaune de Falais

Americana 1 yr

Now that the new stalks are establishing, all they need is regular watering. We can start cleaning up the area, weeding and finally paying attention to the 1 year plants. Some are doing particularly well, some are just hanging on. Below is a group of 4 Americana stalks I planted together in a larger pot last year and it is now almost 6 ft tall (I am 5'7"). Long, almost straight rods, while the other two-each pots are smaller and bushier. All are about 8" apart. Significant? Don't know. I have several over-performing individuals from last year, hopefully ready to pollard in the fall. I will try to get some landscape fabric and mulch down in that bed this week.

And this week will be a scorcher. They are calling highs near 90 this week, and working on a property with no shade is punishing. Heat exhaustion is a real possibility at our age. Even though we got the new trimmer mower last week and have mowed the immediate planting area, the other 80% of the property still needs to be mowed. It's going to be a challenge to get to the farm early enough in the day. Neither of us are morning people, and we're an hour away.

We are still going up every other day to hand water everything during this stretch of hot, dry weather. We are currently filling a dozen gallon jugs and an RV fresh water tank that is one day destined to be installed in our project Airstream. We can get about 30 gallons in it, and with a jury-rigged spigot, we manage to soak our 25 ft.x35 ft bed in about a half hour.

The 1 yr bed is getting cleaned u

It would be really nice to not have to drive up and back every other day, and the cost in gas (not to mention water) is rising and it's only June! The long term irrigation plan is in the works, but it will take at least 2 weeks to get it in place, if not more in this heat. Social media has provided a short term idea, but that will take a bit of prep too. Until then, taking a drive in beautiful weather to a mountain valley every other day is hardly torture! But yeah, there are many loose ends to tie up.

Last night we talked about

• A siesta schedule, taking off from noon to four every day. Not sure if we can actually do this.
• Taking the camper over to a campground, 15 minutes from the farm, and spending cooler mornings and evenings on the farm and afternoons at the campground, plugged in and AC blasting. The only negative is $$ - campground fees + sitter fees for 3 kitties in need of food and attention.
• A storage shed again. Right now, loading and unloading our trimmer mower takes a fair amount of time, and we need some secure storage. Horse trailers are again being searched on Craigslist. Pro: no foundation required. Con: Expensive, if they are in shape enough to actually tow. What can I get for $1500 or less?
• Some of the short term irrigation supplies will also be needed for the permanent system, Probably anything I find at Home Depot or Lowe's will be crap so I'm researching online. Dripworks.com looks interesting.

Funny how many solutions require money.