2018

OCTOBER 2018

Lots of problems with the mower.

SEPTEMBER 2018

Harvesting winter squash.

AUGUST 2018

Katherine back from Spain, keeping things irrigated, and remodeling the house.

JULY 2018

Whew! That went fast! Robin and Jake kept things irrigated.

MAY 2018:

The farm looks great. Robin planted all sorts of vegetables in the low terrace on May 17: winter squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, lots of sweet corn, and quite a few other things! Michael and Katherine got the drip irrigation is working, which is a good thing, given that the Pecos River is lower than I've ever seen it in May. There is still a trickle of water in the acequia, but not much!

APRIL 2018

Every weekend was busy, with spring cleanup and getting ready for a dry summer. In a major reorganization, we moved the barnyard from near the driveway to near the acequia sangría at the northwest corner of the farm--and also moved the inevitable piles of junk there. Now we have access to the wonderful shade tree near the house. Also, Katherine successfully planted two 15' cottonwood poles which will start providing shade along the southwest field. 

Last year we only cultivated one of the three terraces. This year all three are active. K planted alfalfa in the upper terrace and plowed furrows for irrigating it. The middle terrace is planted with eight rows of sweet corn and one row of field corn (for drying/animal feed). The low terrace is only being irrigated using drip irrigation. 

On April 21-22 Third Weekend: Saturday was VN Community Center storyteller day. Katherine and Cathy led historic NM dances, using music played by Cleofes Ortiz, fiddler from Bernal, and recorded by Ken & Jeannie Keppeler of Bayou Seco in the early 80's.

MARCH 2018

The 2018 season of community farming, our second year of VNF Third Weekends, got off to a jackrabbit start. I shouldn't have been, but was, surprised to get a call from the mayordomo of the acequia in late February that we needed to clean it by March 10 due to summery winter weather (instead of the usual end of March). On March 3-4 Elio and Melvin, for the second year, did the massive labor to dig out the 250' of dirt enfrente (burning last year's weeds, and digging to a flat bottom, six feet wide), and the rest of us (Abigail, Chris, Jamie, Lisa, William, ?Michael, ?Leo) dug out the 250' of concrete enfrente. 

On March 10, Robert and James put the finishing touches on that, and the three of us were my two peones and joined 50 or so neighbors to make sure all two miles of our Villanueva Southside Ditch were ready for water. Robert and James helped with repairing the drip system drain valve too.

The week of March 17-25, my spring break, Rudy came by with the backhoe and leveled the terraces and the acequia bank, and he disked the terraces and uplands. Robin and Jake spread buffalo grass seed, and worked on readying the drip irrigation system, which we're going to need as we anticipate the river going dry. He also augered holes, and pulled unneeded railroad tie fence posts. We did a lot of acequia irrigation, and Katherine, Robin and Jake spent a lot of time postholing around in the mud filling gopher holes. There are very few weeds this year, thanks to Bob Cordova’s sheep--beautiful pictures of the Joseph Project coming soon!

On April 1, Helio and Melvin and Katherine built a fence by Servando's property, and pulled down fences from near the driveway. 

DECEMBER 2017 to FEBRUARY 2018

Katherine and Abbey WWOOF'ed on two farms in Chile in December (summer there!), and had an awesome horseback expedition in the high Andes.

Robert and James (the Joseph Project) were at the farm for a couple of months, with a beautiful herd of 42 churro sheep, along with a guard donkey, and Baruch, the Great Pyrenees herd dog. With the weeds eaten down and fences neatened up, things looked good coming into the spring.