Tomatoes and cutting grass

I made a quick trip out to the last yesterday evening to water.  Since it takes about an hour to water everything (with soaker hoses), I did a few things while I waited.  First, I made a couple of alterations to the goat enclosure.  We are now just missing a shelter for the little guys.  It looks the same as the last picture, so nothing new to see on that. 

Then, I planted 12 tomatoes that we bought at the farmer's market last Saturday!  They are planted along the newly cleared fence.  Eventually, there will be grapes along this fenceline also.  With a lot of luck, this means we'll have some fresh tomatoes and maybe enough to make some salsa or spagetti sauce.  There are 6 cherokee purples, 2 amana oranges and 4 black krims.  We also have a rutgers and an arkansas traveler planted in the other bed bringing our total to 14 tomatoes planted.

Newly planted tomatoes

Last but not least, I got to play with the scythes!  I cleared out some brush around the water meter and continued clearing along the front fenceline.  You can see in the picture below that the 2 scythes did an awesome job of taking out the 5 foot tall clumps of grasses that had been in this spot.  Using the scythe was not physically demanding at all.  They were sharp enough to take out all of the weedy/grassy stuff on this part of the farm, although the brush blade did a much faster job on the really thick clumps of grass.  It also cut through this stuff much faster than a weed eater.  I'm excited to continue learning how to use this ancient tool!

Freshly cut grass (used to be 5 feet tall)

We also started the process of getting our tractor running again.  We ordered new brakes for it that should come in early next week.  We'll air up the front tires and see if the tubes inside them are  still good or not next.  Then it will just need a new battery to be in reasonable working order.  For those that don't know, our tractor is a 1949 Ford 8N.  Its a small tractor - not much bigger than a big riding lawn mower - and is very mechanically simple.  That makes it pretty perfect for what we're doing.