4/20/05 - Prep work for the 2005 season.  We were able to get our IH-606D out in the dirt on 3/11.  Very early for us here.  We had an incredible dry February and early March.  Then it started raining.  And did not let up until yesterday.  The grass was close to a foot tall and required several passes, raking, and bagging to get it looking a bit more presentable and less like a field.  Hopefully next mowing won't take two full days.

5/2/05 - 12:00 a.m. Slug patrol.  Been heading outside between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. on slug hunting expeditions.  With the mild winter we had, it is a bad year for slugs and bugs.

5/3/05 - Some of the tomato plants.  These are what I am trying to protect from slugs with my nightly patrols.  Early this morning I located and killed many hundreds more.  I saw considerable less big ones though.

5/14/05 - Spent the day weeding the big garden.  Fall cleanup and preparation really paid off.  The cultivated bed in the foreground simply had the remaining compost racked free and soil loosened with a 3-prong weeder.

5/14/05 - Pea progress.  The trellising was created using twigs and branches from pruning the orchard.

5/20/05 - Starting to fill out (finally).  I think they were really stunted by the pest attacks.