Up to my knees!

Spring at the farm means there is a ton of work to be done. One big job that needs to be tackled every year is getting our garden in order. The garden area doubles as our alpaca poop storage area. Luckily, alpaca beans don't smell bad. Our deck is about 75 feet from this area and you would never know what lurks in our 'garden'. A few passes with the rototiller turns the alpaca beans into really nice looking soil - ready for a few veggies to be planted. I was a little worried about planting veggies directly into the poop - I didn't want anyone getting ecoli from my food. She said that because alpacas are vegetarians we are safe.

Before I can get to the rototilling job I must get rid of all of the weeds that have popped up this spring. The area we are talking about is about 25' x 100'. Cleaning it up is an enormous job. I already did some work a week or so ago and now I am finishing up.

Weeds Eveywhere!

Front of the garden, not yet weeded

More before photos

All these need to go too

And this too- Eveything behind the chives in the middle is alpaca poop!

This is the pile of pulled weeds - it was double the size when I finished

I tried out a new bug band bug repellent. I think it worked well but it smelled like citronella. This gave me a headache after a while.

While I was working our new dog Murphy wandered near the alpacas. He has been here 2 months and the alpacas are just noticing him. They are saying 'Emergency! A strange dog is in the area'. Murphy could care less about the alpacas. He was just happy to be near me in the garden.

Meanwhile, Vic is busy working on his lawn. He loves the lawn like it is one of his kids. This looks much easier than garden weeding doesn't it? The entire family refuses to help with my weeding task - it is that bad.

This is our fabulous rototiller. We bought it 9 years ago when I was pregnant with Annelise. This is a machine that I can start with one pull after it has been sitting for the entire winter! It is worth every penney we paid for it.

The rototiller's first pass through the garden. See how nice the dirt looks after being tilled.

This job gets ugly once you get to the poop area. This picture shows my leg sinking into the poop 1/2 way to my knee. Yuck!

Making Progress!

After doing all this work I was too tired to actually plant my veggies. Today we will do the planting. I will post the results in part 2!