(Retroactive Journal Post of Activities on June 1st, 2017)

We gathered at the Richmond campus ready to tackle the day ahead. Our trucks were packed up quickly and we raced under the grey skies to the little orchard at Gilbert and Dyke road. Clouds were heavy, moisture was thick in the air, and it was 18 degrees Celsius. The green leaves of the nearby oak trees were vibrant. 

A few hands got to setting up our work tent while Rebecca Harbut relayed the days tasks:

- spreading compost 

- removing excess brassicas

- limb positioning pears

- weeding

- planting onions

Dr. Harbut also informed us that today would be a day with no "tool time" or "web of life".

The class self-separated into groups, each addressing their own duties. I followed along with the orchard weeding group. After clearing a a few trees I got ahold of the tablet and started snapping pictures. It was the sort of day where there isn't much occurring, but you can really see the foundation that has been laid for the active days in summer; the strawberries were small and green, the tree fruits were just emerging, the new transplants were establishing their roots. In a matter of weeks this place will be alive, but now it remains nascent and quiet - our major tasks were removing weeds and prepping beds. 

The onions that were going into the ground today were for Nicolas Walser's research project. His study looks at the effect of intercropping (onions and carrots) on the presence of two pests, carrot rust fly and onion maggot. I took a moment to mark up some planting sticks to make transplanting his onions easier. 

weeding the tree wells

strawberries, still green and sizing up

garlic, a little weedy but looking good

labeling is integral

I took a little stroll to the brassica block. When the brassica transplants went into the ground a research project had been overlooked and brassicas were placed in the research plot area. When I took a look at the spot that day the brassicas had already been removed by another group and string delineated the research plot. Stark and Eric were busying themselves with spreading manure across the brassica plots. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch...

demarcation of research plot, sandwiched between strawberries (left) and brassicas (right)

... lunch consumed we resumed our class with a training lesson: how to properly attach a tractor implement. Torin Boyle gave us the low down on how to remove and attach an implement and we all practiced on our compost spreader attachment. We also got a lesson on how to operate the BCS walk-behind tractor, but since we were running low on time Torin took on the task of tilling the field. 

tractor implement lesson

walk-behind tractor lesson

With an hour left we reassessed our task list: spreading compost (done), weeding (done), removing brassicas (done), limb positioning pears (undone), planting onions (undone). Since getting the onion transplants in the ground before we left was top priority we all pushed up our sleeves and started to get to work. In a mad dash we managed to plant all of the onions (yipee!) and, with that, we packed up and piled into the vehicles that brought us there.