Below is me using the broad fork. You stick it in the ground and work it back and forth, like a lever, pushing the handles towards the ground. This fluffs the soil without compacting it by driving a rototiller or a tractor over it. Also, it lets you work just what you want to--not the entire garden at once.
We started prepping the beds for potatoes and peas. First Pat used the broad fork and then I came behind him with the hoe and weeded and chopped up the clods. Then he spread compost and forked it into the soil. We will plant potatoes and peas next weekend. Two rows of potatoes and one double-row of peas. We're going to try a fenced in enclosure of peas, hopefully keeping the deer out. It will be a nearly continuous pea fence, wrapping around in a rectangle, with about a 2 foot opening we can go in and out of. Deer supposedly don't like to be in enclosed spaces, so if we plant the peas on the inside, it might deter them. Rabbits may be another story...
Pat also checked on his bees. This year he is using a different feeding type of device called a feeder frame. It is shaped just like a frame of comb and has little floats in it so the bees do not drown. It is supposed to be better for them because it does not drip like a bucket feeder would. He said he liked the way it worked and was pleased with it. The "old" hive had eaten a lot of their sugar syrup and ALL of their pollen patties! He was shocked when he saw that, and luckily we had a spare to put on them. The "new" hive was not nearly as strong as the old one. In fact, the new hive is about on par with the way the old hive was acting last year. Maybe it takes a hive 2 years to really get established.
At any rate, the old hive is extremely strong for this early in the season, with tons of brood and sucking down sugar syrup and bringing in pollen...hopefully we'll get some honey off of this hive this year.
We spent the rest of the weekend working on the inside of the cabin. We have the drywall up, so now we are taping and spackling. It is coming along well, and probably another couple of weeks we'll be painting. Yea!
