I didn’t plant tomatoes. They were planting across the road.
Here is the view this morning. It’s a big operation involving lots of people.
Each tomato planting machine is pulled by a tractor. There were four in this field today.
There are six people sitting in the machine. Two other people were following. One of those moved the trays of seedlings, keeping up with the planters. The other seemed to be filling in spots where a tomato wasn’t planted. There is the tractor driver too. That is 9 people for each of these machines.
Zoomed in view under the canopy.
I was amazed at how smoothly the beds were prepared a few days ago in preparation for this. Three beds are planted at a time, each with two rows of tomato plants.
I took Ginny for a walk in the evening after everyone had left for the day. The job was not finished. I was surprised to see how much more there is to go. I continue to marvel at the amount of people and equipment involved here. I’m sure that this tractor will pull the ditcher around the field as soon as the planting is finished.
These are the crates that hold the tomato seedlings.
These are stacks of the empty trays. I think I count 28 spaces in a row. These trays are square so that would be 784 seedlings in each tray.
This is a view of the field looking south to Mt. Diablo, just visible in the haze. Last year I took a photo from this same spot weekly and intended to have a post that followed the sunflower field from start to finish. I still have those photos but never had time to do that. I’ll try to continue with the tomatoes.
There were two portable “comfort stations”. I just made that up–I don’t know what they are called. They have seating under a shade and toilets.
I’m not sure if these tanks supply water or fertilizer to the tractors pulling the planting machinery. About a week ago another machine was pulled through that I though injected something as they made the beds–maybe that was fertilizer. I think the seedlings are getting water now to keep them going until the whole job is finished and they can irrigate.
Here is what the planter looks like. There are six chairs facing back.
It’s really hard to describe how this works. I don’t understand it without having seen it in action close up. The seedling is put into that v-shaped thing in the middle. It is on a rotating disc and it gets put in the soil. Every pair of seats had one disc with three of the v-shaped slots and one with two. That means that the two rows of tomatoes in each bed are offset to give the plants more room.
This is the view from sitting in the seat next to this disc. I just found this video to show how one works. It’s not quite the same, but the same function.
More infrastructure. There was a forklift to move the crates around.
The front view of the tractor with the tanks that I assume hold water. This part of the field is already planted so I think they just took it off the dirt road to park or maybe they needed to go back over this part for some reason.
This shows the beds behind the tractor planted and beds in the foreground not planted yet.
Even more equipment. The disc had gone around the edge of the field followed by the grader to smooth it out. They are parked on the dirt road in this photo.
View to the north.
Another view. That’s a lot of tomato plants. There are a lot more to plant. I don’t know if they will finish tomorrow. I’m sure they are under pressure to get those seedlings in the ground since those crates were delivered yesterday. At least it’s not very hot right now.
I hope I didn’t bore you with all these photos, but I’m fascinated by this.
The wagon worked well for Kasen and had the added benefit of taking all the necessary things like water bottles and the doll.
Meryl and I traded off with the wagon, but part of the point of this walk was for Kirby, wearing her black and pink Nikes, to run with Aunt Meryl.
Eventually Aunt Meryl tired and needed a ride.
Time to go home. Kirby started to pout because she wanted Sawyer’s leash.
I let her take Rusty and all was OK.
Leaves are turning color and falling.
They will be gone soon.
The black walnut leaves are already gone. Or maybe this is one of the trees that is dead. I think the drought took it’s toll on some of these.
The view looking southeast.
Ginny’s ball was cracked and even with the “Chuckit” I couldn’t throw it very far.
Rusty runs after Ginny every time she goes for the ball. Then he runs back with her but he doesn’t always keep up with her now.
There were sunflowers in one of these fields and there were lots of seeds dropped on the road at harvest time. Now they are all sprouting.
This is Ginny while I was on the ground trying to take seedling emergence photos.
So you know that she put the ball right under my camera.
Ginny, do you know that broken tennis balls don’t float? She spent time looking for it after she had taken it into the canal.
Back at my driveway there were beautiful leaves to photograph. A wild grape vine.
Walnut tree.
This was taken on the first walk a few weeks ago. The dogs are on the leash until we get off of Meridian Road.
The field was bedded up and planted about two weeks ago.
Can you see the sprouts when you look at one of the lines almost right in the middle of the photo? Those are sunflowers.
The most exciting thing for the dogs is that the canals were filled about a week ago.
On the last walk I noticed that Rusty spent more time than usual in the water. He usually just goes in when he’s hot and gets out again, but this time he spent time cruising (the best way to describe his half walking/half swimming) up the canal. I think his hips are bothering him so much that it felt better to move that way.
He also needs help getting out now. Last year I helped Ginny out. This year it will be Rusty. 
Wet dog.
The alfalfa has been cut and baled once already and is now being irrigated.
Here is another week’s growth of the sunflowers.
The best surprise for Ginny I think is that she got to chase the Toy into the water again. Rusty will have more of these photos on 
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