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Have to give credit to my brother Paul for the artsy shots of the farm. He came in town for the bridge race on Saturday, and of course I put him to work on Sunday out at Fiddler's (you might want to think twice about coming to visit me...you might leave with a sore back and blistered hands!). Here is his simple photography website for those that are interested.

The bridge race was an absolute ZOO...34,000 people trying to squeeze onto the bridge makes for some fun bobbing and weaving. I didn't hit my stride until the turn onto Meeting Street (just after the Krispy Kreme hand out station!), and I quickly realized that you don't run this race for a personal best...it's more for the experience. Paul and I got separated just after the first mile, but we both finished the race without any physical or emotional injury. HA! I did see that a 75 year-old ran the 10K race in 48 minutes, and a 10 year-old ran it in 38 minutes! Cheers to being as old as you feel.

I am quickly learning that the soil in the garden is sandier than I originally thought. This means that my plants will dry out quicker and the nutrients will wash away faster. It may take a few seasons to increase the organic content of the soil, so for this spring I am riding along with the weather roller coaster. I went out to the farm today to continue planting (Rita has been a saint helping me plant in the clouds of no-see-ums), to feed the tomatoes some fancy seaweed fertilizer (thanks again to Rita), and to water all of my wilted plants. I got the generator started on the second pull, but upon plugging in the pump, no water came out of the pipe. Mystery. I thought maybe the pump was bad, so I asked Seale to have a look, and she said I better check to see if the supply pipe was broken. True to form...the high pressure line that runs from the well head to the pump was accidentally and unknowingly broken by a fellow farmer installing her irrigation system (no blame....this stuff just happens). Finding something positive out of the predicament, I got a really nice shoulder work out lugging 40 pound water jugs around the garden. It's supposed to rain tonight...big time, so the garden should get a nice soak. I have more beds to finish weeding, more transplant trays to plant, and of course more leaves to spread. Fixing the well supply line now supersedes everything else. No water = no veg.