This week, the Monday/Tuesday off time was happily spent helping our friend harvest on his navajo tea farm. For those of you who haven't the foggiest as to what navajo tea might be, (a) look at the picture and (b) it's a native herb in our region that grows wildly but can be cultivated, needs almost no water, grows back each year almost double what it was before, and the plant can be harvested, dried and bundled to be steeped as tea. In this case, our friend is getting it bagged, boxed, and sold. (http://www.highdesertfarmers.com/) He is one of the best tinkerers I know, and had rigged a saw on the back of his tracker, along with a tarp to catch the fallen plants, that would help with the harvest process. Not to mention some handy (hand-held) tools for the job. In the end, it was exceedingly successful, but took some practice to get the routine down!
Tinkering...
Reaping...
Steve's tractor (this shot's posted for John)
Turning with the tarp of day one (blue)...day two was a stronger white one that was more effective..
Grin reaper
Surveying the scene
Day two with a three person team
Bundling the harvest
Whew.
Tired but happy with Steve Heil and a harvest
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To watch a film clip of how this worked, you can see the one Steve posted on YouTube of us at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D78R_ka8eyE
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