6 days of solid rain finally ended on Sunday. Three days of welcome sun, some wind, and 70-80 degree warmth have dried the dirt over the 80 x 180 feet area (14,400 square feet, 1/3 acre) enough that I can get back to picking out rocks and prepping it for fall planting of grass and a small patch of garlic. This rock I’d the biggest I’ve uncovered so far. Other rocks range from about 1-4 inches in diameter, many large enough to sheer bolts on the rototiller. I sheer a bolt every 25-30 ft, but I keep trying to till at 4-5″ deep because it’s less laborious to replace bolts than dig 1/3 acre up one shovel or hand mattock at a time.
I don’t have it so bad. Cyrus Kirby, my 4th Great Grandfather and early settler of Menard County, lIlinois. In 1822, he came to Illinois from Kentucky with no horses or plow and tilled 2 acres of dirt near Clary’s Grove with a hand mattock like this. His story: https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/113782092/person/140129358687/media/6a908af1-90cf-4cfc-802d-27eef85247cf?_phsrc=esx186&usePUBJs=true
His gravestone in an old abandoned cemetery near Petersburg. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/113782092/person/140129358687/media/6a908af1-90cf-4cfc-802d-27eef85247cf?_phsrc=esx186&usePUBJs=true
Here’s to you, Cyrus. Back to work.
Small Calm Farm 