Spring is Here!

Okay, so it's not exactly warmed up yet, but the snow is off the roads.  Which means biking is a lot more fun again.  I actually like this time of year, because cool temps are more comfortable for riding.  Though in Boston, the wind can really get stirred up in the spring time--today, riding up Commonwealth Avenue, up Beacon Hill, the wind was definitely not my friend.  Nor are the potholes, which can get pretty serious after a long winter like we just had.

Oddly, the main challenge for me in biking isn't from winter, it's from spring gardening.  I just can't effectively carry some of the more serious loads of compost, soil, or long poles/trellises with my bike.

I'm also looking at a farm business training class that starts next fall, up in Lowell.  The good news is that I can get there by commuter rail, and I can ride my bike to the train station, and bring my bike on the train, so I can get to my destination at the end.  But the trip is still going to eat up a lot more time (probably) than it would if I had a car.  Luckily, it's not that long of a class, about six weeks, so I can swing it.

If, however, in the following year, I wanted to rent one of their incubator fields, to set up a mini-farm, I'm not sure if I could manage it.  It might be possible to do it without a car, but it'll take some serious planning.

I've got to see if I can find any blogs about farmers who aren't Amish and who manage to do without a car, if that's even possible.   I think the guy who writes the Tiny Farm blog didn't have a car for a while (but he has a tractor, or borrows one).  Or I just need to find ways to keep farming close to home (like I have been, but land in Boston is very hard to scrounge).