Karate Karrots

Some inquirers have wondered what is difficult on the farm for me. Everyone has their fun job. For me it is hoeing. I enjoy carefully, yet quickly, scraping the surface of soil around the delicate shoots of a young plant. It's like massaging a scalp so that the hair will grow well. The true purpose of hoeing is to dislodge weed seedling and their seeds so that they won't take over a bed. Hoeing is a relaxing, useful, and a good time.
However, opposite the excitement of raking over the tender shoots of weedlings, is the monotonous and imposing task of hand weeding carrots. Last week I met a true challenge. I will do my best to describe hand weeding.
After seeds have been placed in a row their young sprouts are suddenly in a contest for their life against voracious and quick growing weeds.
In a newly planted bed, carrot sprouts are slow to warm up while weeds are feisty and quick to hog the sun, water, and nutrients. Thus carrots need a lot of help to stay alive until they are big and strong. In comes me with my trusty butter knife. It is my job to get down to the ground and meticulously scrape away the weeds between each carrot. Butter knives seem to be the most appropriate tools as they have no harp edges.
This might sound simple, but on a hot day, in the dust, with 850 carrots sprouts to care for, at 1000 ft per row, and 3 rows to do, suddenly I am not a happy farmer. I am lost in a desert trying desperately to keep my carrot crop alive.
No, I do not do this alone. There are two other hand weeders with me. One in particular is super fast at hand weeding. The entire time I was weeding I became obsessed with how he moved so fast down the rows. I tried going quickly but only got clumsy and ripped carrots out of the ground. I tried different sitting techniques. I scooted backwards on my ass, then forwards. I straddled the row like sitting on a horse, I bent at the waist. If you video taped me and put it into fast forward it would appear I was doing aerobics because I changed positions so many times. I just couldn't seem to find a groove and this guy was moving faster and faster ahead of me. I became super competitive. At one point he got up to get a drink of water and I furiously scraped away at the soil with no regard for carrots or weeds just to catch up to him. When I actually passed his stationary knife I felt victorious only to be overtaken again once he returned to his usual efficient and quick pace.
No, even copying his style did not help even the gap. The inequity in our pacing was really getting me down. At one point I got up and walked to the end of my row and worked backwards just to feel that I had somehow got ahead of him. This was only a momentary balm as he finished his row and was still scooching forward to where I had left off.
After 5 hours of hand weeding I had given up hope of ever going faster. I settled in, ready for a life at the bottom wrung of hand weeding society. As I acquiesced to my new station on the farm I suddenly found myself on my hands and knees doing a double scoop with the knife and a shuffle forward. I was moving, quickly!. It was like I was Ralf Machio in the final tournament of Karate Kid, "Nothing is Gonna Stop You Now" played on the wind as I raced down the row destroying weeds and saving carrots. It was incredible! I found my groove.
While I didn't beat the other guy (he's a master) to the end of the row, I felt I had overcome the challenge of hand weeding. My self dignity was restored. It is still my least favorite activity but I now know how to get through it.

The other night I came across a mother skunk and her three little babes. They were so cute. I did not get sprayed.