Farming on the Ark

Snow Day

2011-12-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

Today is a snow day---- it is coming down, covering the buildings and fields. Covering everything, including the dreams and projects. I'll think more about them some other day. Now I am interested in this REAL stuff. This snow will probably stay on the ground. We have had freezing weather for a week and the ground has gotten harder with deep freezing every night. No more digging. No more 'fixing one more thing' in the garden. The frost has put that to rest and this season is ended. I think I did 'good.'

So this morning as I look around, everything seems new and fresh and clean. What a wonderful day to be out here. Winter is here and I want to walk the new trails out in the woods. Last month I got the DR Brush Cutter fixed and I got to use 'my Walker' again. Sometimes when I am behind it, I think I can go all day. Anyway I widened trails and blazed some new ones in the back of the woods where the brush has been too thick to even walk through. Anyway, back there is a different woods--- there are a series of clearings through the raspberry brush with deerbeds and dozens of interconnecting trails among small groves of dense maple and poplar trees. Hmm. Sort of liked I walked into their living rooms. I haven't found nearly all of them yet. But that is for another year.....

Processing......is still butchering.

2011-08-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the day after Processing Day. The chicken yardgates and the coop doors are open. Feeder trays and waterers are in a row-all rinsed. It is pretty empty and quiet. No fat hens clucking, cooing, and squawking. The sunshelters are knocked down until next year. Today the yard is drying in the sunshine. In the mornings when I opened the coop door they would come running out, flapping their wings for lift and speed, and squawking to rejoice the morning and a full grain feeder tray. There I am laughing at them. Thank you birds for what you have given me.

Yesterday, one at a time the birds were carried to the cages in the trailer. We tarped the cages and drove to the Processing Facility. The workers were ready for us and the birds were taken care of for us. Saying butchered is hard. But reality. I needed good healthy food and I raised these chickens for that purpose. I gave these chickens the best non-gmo feed mix I could buy. I did what I could to keep them healthy and fit. My friends and family deserve good food. I am so glad I can do this for them and for me. It is just harder than going to the Supermarket and picking up a tray of chilled meat. So like the Chippeau Indians, I say, 'Thank you chickens for giving me life.'

We all live with a life and death cycle. I feel it and see it all around me out here. The woods, fields and slough and filled with life cycle/ preditor-prey relationships. It is just the way it is. All the plants and animals out here end up being food or shelter for something else. But in the meantime, flowers bloom, fawns run in the field and hawks float on the wind. In the city we controlled it and I didn't see it working. This country life is hard and at the same time it is beautiful. I am lucky to be transplanted here..... Lucky to be living in this real world of sky, soil and Nature. Thank you for letting me share this bit of my heart.

Chickens/Berries/Weeds

2011-07-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

Let's see..... A month of farming-- Well, the chickens are doing great! The are healthy, active and Big. They have three shade structures and they all have a places to go to stay out of the sun. I lost 2 birds to the Sun one afternoon. The decided to keep their heads in a cool shady place and leave their bodies in the sunlight. I felt so bad. Earlier I had walked right by them and did not make them move. So the next few days I came in and gave rain showers in the afternoon to keep everyone active. Lately the air temps are down and it is raining more, so there are no repeats. During the hot week I let the birds sleep out overnight. Then my neighbor told me he lost two chickens at night to something...... We have a lot of coyotes here and they are fearless. So I am back to bundling them in every night. My little wire fence isn't that good. More lessons for me.

Oh, the raspberry patch was just GOLD! It is about 100' long and 3-10' wide. Every mature bush was loaded! What a sight to lift a branch and see 20 big berries. I don't think I have ever had berries like that. So I have been picking practically every morning for 2 weeks. It doesn't get old either. I put my can on my belt, step into the canes and pick. What a wonderful thing... a few hours in another world. My problems dissolved and my busy brain slowed way down. Maybe it wasn't the temperature that slowed me down, it was the raspberries..... Then at night I fill a big mug with berries, drown them in milk and enjoy the best desert ever! Their season is pretty much over. Thank you Hamburg!

So then weeds ...... In early July I had things pretty clean. A week ago the weeds declared victory. They forgot about the lawn mower. I mowed between the rows and gained back some control. Now I am weeding the rows that are in the most need. Maybe in a week their victory will be a stalemate! The idea of gardening from 7-9 am seems like a plan. The summer produce is really starting to ripen. Green beans today!

I'll try to walk all around the land this week and see if I can understand what is going on with the fields, and the season. There is change out here all the time.

Hot Days in Hamburg

2011-07-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight we are all tucked in. The flock has just gone in the coop and I finished the cleanup. The heat was pretty tough on us. Their outside pen is planted in peas 'n oats. The greens are about a foot tall and the birds have trails through the patch. I've been working out some things so they have activity, freedom of movement, and safety. Outside the coop door is an open area with room for the feeders, a waterer and shade shelters. I am trying to have it fixed so that there is shade for all 100 birds throughout the day. Also I want enough feeders so all 100 can be eating at the same time. I got another 3 foot trough so I am ok with that for now. I put netting over the top of the fence to give the hawks some problems. But they are so big and strong they could probably blast right through it. Anyway I feel more secure. So today the birds came out at about six. I fluffed the bedding, aired the coop for the day, and refilled the waterer. Today they drank 5 gallons of water. I watched them for a while. A few maybe a dozen were in the peas-nipping at leaves. Some were running, occasionally pairs were having face-offs to see who was boss. Most were walking around or just standing. The little tiny chick has started growing finally. She is the still the smallest but she is catching up to the others. Most have feathers all over except where they are having growth spurts. They don't look nearly as ugly as they did 2 weeks ago. Anyway by 8 they are ALL eating grain cereal. It is non-GMO grains with vitamins and protein. Probably a lot better than the cereal I was eating.

Today it was so hot most birds got in the shade, fluffed up and settled on the cool ground. They have good instincts. Then tonight I brought down more grain and grit for tomorrow. After hurting my arms last year I put stuff on the dolly and tow it. No more carrying the 50 lb bags... I put down a new layer of bedding and filled the waterer. When I opened the door to the coop and got out of the way, about a third zipped right in, another third went for drinks and more feed, the rest didn't move at all. Before dark I came back and scooted them all in and closed the door. The windows were all open and the temp was down, so they will sleep alright. Tomorrow is another day.

The Chicks are growing so fast........

2011-06-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Today I let the chicks go from the little 4x12 incubator room to the big 12x12 coop room. They were sooo ready. In two weeks they have tripled in size and become so independent. No more red heat lamps at night.... they are growing feathers instead of the cute chick fluff. They look sort of ugly as the feathers grow in. I guess Pullet is about like Teen. No more cup size feeders and quart size waterers.....They have the adult grain feeders and a 5 gal waterer. There are 100 in this flock and tonight when I checked and shut things down, most were resting together and a few were still eating and getting drinks.

The new Non-GMO feed mix is going well. The birds are really growing and healthy. I found the feed mill company on the internet. Their site explained things well and their rep is down near Marshfield. So I bought 9 weeks of feed. It is more expensive but I think it is better for me to stand up for myself and the people that buy from me. So this is working ok!

I didn't write for quite a while. I've got some excuses: the weather was cold, working outside was hard, the tractor had a flat tire every morning and it would backfire. I think I was grumpy. But one day I was out in the woods in the snow looking at the tops of trees so I could cut the dead ones for firewood. ......... And way, way up in the sky I could see these little white dots. They were white birds moving in circles, way up there. They were just gliding and floating------- Some kind of white swans. Then one flew through the gliders and they all joined up in a white V heading NW. Their rest break was over. I am in Awe of Nature and the workings of the Universe. So much is happening all around. I don't even understand what I am seeing.

May was a tough month physically. I just had to keep working all day and every day. The season was changing from winter/spring to summer. Every day there was another thing that needed to be done in order to keep up with the awakening earth. Then the tree planting took two weeks....I didn't think it would be so hard, but planting a thousand trees, means bending over at least 2000 times. Luckily my partner helped me when I was wearing out. It is done now and in a few years it will really be something!!!! The garden is starting. We had rhubarb sauce and rhubarb cake. It was so good. Then the asparagus started to come up. Such good food. Funny, every day I am doing something I really like to do. How lucky am I!!!!

2011.Can it be the fifth year now?

2011-02-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

Welcoming another Spring! I have been making another garden map. I can just see the plants growing and the berries getting ripe. What a great year this will be. The surgery is behind me. My arms are healing and I am without the constant pain. What a gift! I will have to be careful with my arms and use tools. I can do that. I will have to plan and be smart. I can do that, too.

I am making goals. For the gardens--a kitchen/herb garden, a market garden and a grain field for the chickens. For the edge of some fields, I have ordered 1000 pine trees to make windbreaks and habitat areas. In the woods I can make winter firewood, prune out broken trees and make more hiking trails.

Then too I will sometimes mention 'We' as well as'I'. I won't always be doing things alone. 'We' are sharing some landscape and woodland projects and that is nice. We are working things out. More later as the projects become defined.

The Chicks

2010-07-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

A little time has passed since I wrote. In May I had my left shoulder surgery. With weeks of recovery and all the drama that goes with that. I have had a lot of help and am pretty good now. An hour of exercise in the morning, [when it doesn't hurt too much] and bit by bit I am seeing more movement and strength. Soon it will be August, the month when I should be strong enough to do things here again. Did you notice I didn't mention the garden.... Perhaps some salad and a few beans and beets. Handling the tools and pulling weeds was just too much. This month it has been raining ever week and it is wonderful for the ground. It is too much for me. I think I'll get my vegetables from the Farmer's Markets. That is good too. I'd like to meet some of the other farmers.

I wanted to write because my 2 week old chicks are comedians. They are starting to get serious about eating and being 'characters.' They were in a little protected well heated area for a week. Now they are in a partly heated 6x12 area. They run and climb and travel in packs. They love to get on the top of anything. This noon I put in a three foot 'big girl' feeder tray. It has a rod on the top that can spin, to keep girls from walking in the food. It is a good thing, about 30 can eat at a time. About a dozen little birds walk up to the tray and start to eat. Good new! One bird jumps up on the rod, The rod starts spinning, the bird is flipped off. Another bird jumps on, the spinning rod flips her off too. And I start to laugh. And laugh. It isn't a feeder--- It's playground equipment. They try and try and get spun off. I laugh and laugh. I have been so serious so long. Tonight I came back to check them. They were all sleeping, most flat on the chips, with wings and feet spread out. And there was one bird at the feeder having a good night snack.

I stepped outside, clipped the coop door and heard the coyotes on the hill. Just talking and yipping. I got the shivers in my back.

May Garden Walk

2010-05-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Today is warm-70s, sunny, and the wind is calm. So this morning was a good time for a walk-around. The lower East garden is mostly tilled bare ground. The bare ground is 3 gardens that rotate companion-ized vegetables. Our last frost date is June 10. So this year,with the weeks of cold weather and arm surgery, I am a lot slower with my planting. The LE garden has a long [50'?] asparagus bed. So guess how much weeding there is? About 2 hours

and it will be fine since the birds are so busy in the early morning. In a week I will know how my arm is healing and start with onion sets.

The other gardens are waiting and warming too. I guess my goal is to keep up with weeds in the herb garden and build up my strength again. A good deal all around.

An Amazing Sunrise

2010-04-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

I seem to be writing in the morning before life gets going and I get into activity. The sunrise today is oranges, into purples, with bands of intense yellow near the Sun emerging spot. I can't believe how far north the Sun migrates in the year. Living in the city or in the world of trees, I missed that connection with the seasons. Now living in a 'Sun centered' house, we see the stunning sunrises as we start the day. Then we feel the light and heat as the sunlight comes through the big windows all day. Up in the High Field we can see the sunsets all the way to the horizon. We see above the roads, powerlines and farm poleshedseds. A full horizon sunset is incredible. Dress warm and pull up a chair. There are so many cycles, connections, and seasonal changes out here. This is a Science Teachers Dream. I never thought that when I moved out here that I would be so affected by the sky. I was thinking of the 'effects' of the Sun not the 'Affects.'

I wrote before about 'freezing nights' and the poor tulips. Well in the morning the flowers were on the ground, but as it warmed up they popped back up again, by afternoon the tulip flowers were open and basking in the sunlight. It must have just sent its water into the root so it wouldn't freeze. Then as the day warmed the water came back up the stem and the flower recovered.

Up in the woods, the early May flowers are out. One called the Bloodroot, has a single leaf with white daisy-like petals. On the cold mornings the flower is closed and the leaf is wrapped around the stem and the flower. It closes itself up like a clamshell with the cold and then opens up in the warmth. There is a lesson here.

The garden is empty--- Just bare dirt. I don't have the strength to do the work. I have tried starting things but don't get far before the arms hurt. The surgery on my right arm is healing very well and it is so much stronger and with much less pain. The left arm hurts, I find out about a surgery date today. I have started a salad patch in the greenhouse. The little plants are an inch high and doing well. I just have to fit my mind into the cycles I see around me. So life is good.

Cold Nights

2010-04-18T02:29:00.000-07:00

It is 4:30 in the morning. The temperature has gone down to 26F. and will probably keep dropping until after dawn. We have had a string of warmish days and even a shower in the last few weeks. The asparagus is under a deep hay covering and insulated. The bulb flowers like the tulips and irises, the rhubarb, and overwintered onions are all pushing out of the ground and through the hay ground cover--growing and blooming. The flowers of the tulips were beautiful.

So I sit in the dark and I wonder, could I have done more? The weather this season has lulled me into thinking it was May and we should be planting. But the ground is still cold and the maples and oaks aren't budding leaves yet. Dad would say, 'Plant corn and beans when the new oak leaves were like a squirrel's ear'.

This week the weather switched back on us and we started getting North winds from Canada. They just pulled the warmth out of me. Back to layers again. My arms still hurt. I tried to shovel up a wash-out in the slough. I didn't do much but I had to quit and icepack again. I hurt when I have to extend my arms. I am a lot stronger when I can keep my hands by my chest. My right shoulder is getting better all the time. I think I am lucky to be healing so well.

Yesterday I sat with the radio in the greenhouse. I cleaned out the winter stuff that was piled all over. I got the weeds out of the bed and raked it a little, Slowly.... with my arms in. I planted it with hardy salad seeds and covered them with composed dirt. I added a lot of water, and now it feels like Spring. If I take care of them we can have fresh salads in three weeks. I know I can't do much, but I will try to do somethings. AND if/when I ask my neighbor and family are helping me with jobs I can't do. That feels good.

It is getting to be morning. 30 degrees now, there is light in the East, a bird is really fussing and I saw the lights from the car that delivers newspapers. The wind is down, the sky looks clear, another day is starting. It is time for a 'walk-around.'

November Carrots/ Jewels in the Dirt

2010-04-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

The last rows of carrots got left over the winter. I tried to give them a break by putting bags of leaves over them. The Frost is out of the ground now and my daughter brought me a handful of carrots. The tops were soft but the rest of each carrot was crisp and sweet. What a moment! I'll dig a bunch up later this week.

It is raining now, a break in the drought we have been having for the last 3 years. All the time I have been out here there has been a drought. There are acres of wild raspberries up on the hill and I haven't taken a bucket up yet. It is nice to listen and hear rain all afternoon.

This morning I covered the asparagus bed and walking path with loose hay. If someone roto-tills for me, then they know what to miss. So there is a 30' by 5' bed soaking up some water. I was just walking around thinking about what I could do this year. The surgery has left me with upper arms that can't take stress, or twist, or lift. But I can hold things that aren't heavy. Maybe with help I could manage enough to fill the freezer and eat like a vegetarian all summer. Maybe.... Maybe....

2011 Garden ----maybe.

2010-01-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around changes. I think I have been struggling for months to figure out what to do. Do I ......? or Do I not...?

Anyway, last summer I did days of too much lifting and heavy work. I hurt my shoulders. I thought I would get over it.... and besides I had too much to do and I couldn't stop. So this winter I have been going to doctors and a physical therapist. I am getting stronger but not healing. Next month I go in for Rotator cuff surgery on my right and in a couple of months, I get my left repaired. As I heal I start a 6 month recovery and I pretty much 'not do anything.' So I have to pass on gardening and raising chickens. The chainsaw gets to sit along side the lawnmower, the tractor and the weed wacker. What a deal. It seems like a black hole in my life.

The gardens? I'll get rhubarb and asparagus for sure! Left handed. I'll have herbs coming up again for cooking and salads, raspberries, apples, and mutant squash from the compost pile. Well thats ok. Maybe by August I could plant some fall crops.

No chickens. No lifting. No driving. But I can walk! I like that as much as anything. So I'll do OK. Maybe now I'll really retire........ Sure.

The 2010 garden

2009-12-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

The 2010 garden is taking shape. This cold weather experience has given me the energy to adapt and change. My papers have a plot that shows the borders of fences and woodpiles. The center is blank. No rows or crops yet. OK, I put in the small greenhouse in the upper left corner. Next to that in the upper right corner is a dotted rectangle [maybe a high hoophouse] about twice as big as the greenhouse [about 15x20]. Down the page from the greenhouse is a row of 8 cold-frame boxes. Then beneath the 'maybe' hoophouse draw 2 more rows of cold frames. That would be 24 cold frame boxes. The rhubarb bed is in the way, so take 2 boxes out of the center row. Now there are 20 Coldframe boxes that are the Kitchen Garden. In '09 I had 11 frames. Some were perennial herbs, others flowers, garlic, leeks, and vegetables. The big summer garden is farther down the page --for another day of planning.

So here are spots for about 6 coldframes that I can plan with night covers to start a March garden of frost-loving plants. My wood-shop got finished this summer so I can saw and assemble the pieces inside. This could work. The studio is slightly heated so I could germinate some seeds inside at maybe 50 degrees. I will keep thinking......

Merry Christmas!

December carrots!!

2009-12-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm bad. There were two rows of carrots that were planted late and weeded over. I got one row out in November and I thought that was pretty good. With this late season, I got some out when the ground wasn't too frozen. They were good. Last week after the ground had frozen hard, I put bags of leaves on this last row. I thought maybe some insulation would help. So this week I went out with a bucket and started digging and chipping. Most of the ground was soft and the carrots came out easily. On the outside edge I had to chip out chunks of dirt with the carrots. So I got a bucket of dirt and carrots. I put the bucket in the bathtub and filled it with cold water. Today I cleaned them. They were crisp and sweet.

So I will think about this. How about a winter garden? Planting hardy plants like Kale, spinach, beets, carrots and turnips in a section of the garden, could be a good idea here. So I can do that. I will even get to eat some foods that I haven't had for years.

The snow is serious here. My homemade hoop house got a big snowdrift. The more it collapsed, the more snow piled on top of it. Is shoveling snow a garden activity?

Smart talk

2009-11-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I got out in the carrot patch, nipped the green tops off a row, got the fork out and found the ground frozen hard. Chip it or wait...... I decided to wait and dig them out later. I'm not totally stubborn[determined]. Since the ground was frozen I spread hay on the trails where I am laying out next years beds. I make 4x8 planting beds with paths around them. This part of the garden had daffodils last spring. We moved them and the ground got chicken manured hay that composted in during this summer. So next year I have plans for more herbs and flowers.

There should be 25 beds and rhubarb in this part of the garden. So now I have the paths made for walking between the future beds.

The logging was tough. We worked steady for 3 hours. He sawed trees and I carried wood chunks to the edge of the trail where the wagon can pick them up. When I am by myself I work like that for about an hour. So I guess I am way stronger than I thought I was. Am I sore now. Tomorrow we do the same thing. Then I should have wood until March. Life is good.

Happy day to you.

Frosty morning

2009-11-03T04:46:00.000-08:00

It is cold and crisp this morning. Soon I will go out to get some buckets of carrots. Not going to the store for them anymore. I have 3 rows still in the ground and this 20-40 degree weather doesnt seem to affect them. After the rains and snows thing have dried out a little so I wont be digging in mud.

Anyway the garden is mostly put to rest now. The tall plants have been mowed and the ground has been shallow tilled to compost the greenery and extra zucs. I have about 40 garlics to plant this week and that is about it. My sister got me onto a Greenhouse experiment. She is moving little beets and kale from her outside bed into a greenhouse bed. She hopes to keep them going for salad greens until Dec.

Today I am working in the woods cutting firewood. I am working with a 'pro' so I can keep on task and work with some urgency. I work alone toooooo much.

Happy Days!

YES!

2009-10-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big test day. I brought a frozen chicken into the kitchen to let it thaw. This is is the first cooked chicken from the second flock. After it had thawed I split it and covered it with some spices. Then baked it in the oven. The smell was wonderful and the taste is awesome. YES! YES! I am validated! Some of the things I tried as I raised these birds came through in the taste. The green oats/peas as an suppliment food, the sunshine hours they spent outside the coop, the buckets of fresh water. When these bird went for processing they were strong, active and fit. So I hoped they would be good. I just never thought I could do this on my own. So this winter we will all eat like kings and queens. Now I know it is worth all the hours of work and observation to keep them fed and sheltered. So the meat from this bird will go on to be the main course in two more meals. Then the bits will go into a baked dish. The rest will become soup stock for a few lunches. Funny! Until last year I had never tasted a Real chicken. Now I am proud to be raising my own and feeding other people.

Last week we had two nights of deep freezes. Now there are beets, carrots, squash, and sun chokes left growing in the garden. I have bags and bags of carrots but I dont know how to store them. In the store they come bagged and chilled. I'll try to keep them in the shop but they might freeze. Anyway they will be my snack food this month. It has been raining and misting so I'll try to stay out of the garden. I'll need different breads this week for the dinners and soups. So Baking is on my list for today. It is Saturday and electricity is cheap today.

Last Wed we got up on the hill and cut firewood. We have enough for Oct and Nov now. We are cutting near a trail so I can get the wagon in. This part of the woods has mature aspen trees dying off as maples, basswood, ash and balsam are growing up to replace them. So we cut the little trees that didnt make it and the aspen that died out. I am not so good at aiming the big trees as they fall, so I am taking the little ones first.

It is getting nicer outside. I'll start the bread and do some chores before I go up the hill.

Ending the garden for now...Harvesting

2009-09-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Harvest is starting here. I am pulling out the onions and storing them in bags. The carrots are going into plastic buckets. The blessing of the drought is that the cold weather is holding off for another week or so. So this week I'll be pulling things in and tilling the ground and finishing up areas where the plants are done. I decided that I am going to put up a small hoop house. It may give me some choices on an earlier spring and a little more weather control for next year. Anyway I need to get it up now in order to have the structure ready for Spring. The little apple trees [two years] are having a few apples. Good eating! Just not enough yet. So I will spend some afternoons in the orchard, cleaning up around each tree and setting in braces and wire cages to keep them mouse and rabbit proof over the winter. I am pretty happy to be a gardener. These projects feel good and it is nice to see things fixed up. Of course the trees are turning yellow and orange so I know the seasons are moving along. And I can do my fussing now when it is nice or do it later when it is 40 degrees, wet and windy. It is so good to have choices.

Speaking of choices.... This year I have a torn rotor in my shoulder, two sprained thumbs and a torn thigh muscle. All of these are slow healing and painful. I could quit doing this work. But I believe in it. I am setting the framework/schedule to heal and strengthen myself during the gardening 'off season.' I have to do it before I can write about it. But I have made my decision.

2009-09-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

I spent a long time watching the sunrise today; from dark to day. Incredible color... so soft and flowing in time. These moments this morning are helping me. I have to change my life. I don't know how yet. Anyway the doctor and the torn shoulder have forced me to look at my life directions. The deal for me is that I have to do 6 weeks of guided physical therapy with daily home exercise to restore my shoulder. I can't do my farming like I thought I would even after 6weeks of therapy. So maybe the 'soft and flowing' of the sunrise can help me today. Maybe I can change in a soft and flowing way too. Maybe.....

So today I can do a few things. The meat chickens were processed last week. It was sad to put them in cages but I know we could not have such good food without them. We pick them up today-wrapped and frozen real food. Most are sold already and I will send out some notes to other past customers to see if they want to order again. The other good thing here is that I am not carrying buckets of water twice a day and lifting 50lb bags of feed and bales of bedding. So that daily strain wont be present in my schedule. I start therapy and I will know a lot about what and how this will work.

In the garden the drought is back. We had our last good rains two weeks ago. The ground is dust again. So I am gathering and ending sections of the gardens. The seasons are moving on. It is hot now and soon the freezes will be here so I will be getting ready to have the gardens getting ready for winter and next year. It is that time. I bet there are a lot of one-armed gardeners and 'soft and flowing' gardeners.

Catching you up...

2009-09-07T16:36:00.001-07:00

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last writing. And some big things have happened. There have been some disasters and many wonderful times.

As for disasters.... I wrecked my shoulder carrying too many hay bales and I had surgery to get a bad mole removed. I had to let a lot of projects go undone. I couldn't do the work or adapt for a way to get things done. I have so much respect for people that live and function with daily pain. Next week I go to the doctor to find out about my shoulder. It won't heal by itself.

Now the good stuff. The sunrises have been incredible. The last two weeks there has been ground fog and the sun comes up into a mystical landscape. Most of the garden has survived the 'end of August' Frost. I put a big fence around the tomatoes to keep out the cold. Because of me a lot of beans and lettuce didnt get picked. I sort of let it all go. The orchard is needing me, some of the trees had apples and I didn't help them this month. I ate a few and they are very good. I feel like working in the garden again now. The second flock of chickens is adult and going in to be processed this week. I took care of them every day and they are really healthy. So I did something very right. Probably I did more right than I think I did. But for sure the weeds are all over. I can do something about that. So that will make me feel better anyway. REDOS.

Garden days

2009-07-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

These have been calm days. The 'meat chickens' were processed and now in the freezers. We get to deliver and visit this week for part of each day. It is refreshing to see a job get finished. Well this is a farm and there are more jobs in the wings ---- The gardens are getting covered with baled grass. The drought is bad. We had a rain last week but the ground is back to dust. Last night the rain missed us again. I am doing a watering as I weed. I keep a radio and coffee by the chair and move it around to where I am working. Then I get little breaks where ever I am. It is beautiful outside. The third crop of lettuce is peeking through the hay. The onions are getting big. The cucumbers and squash are fruiting. So it is coming as long as I water. Maybe I should make trenches and call it irrigating.

The baby chicks have grown wing feathers and need to leave the nursery crate. This afternoon I will finish cleaning the coop and they can go to the little room there. They need the heat lamp but they want to run and flap too. They grow so fast.

This isnt a job ---the raspberries on the hill are calling. So I am out picking this week!

After the rain

2009-07-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I haven't written for 3 weeks. There were good days and 'gritty' ones too. Lots of family days and getting to know my grandkids. Definitely 'good days.' Then coming to terms with the weeds in the gardens, just going out and pulling them every day, making one plot after another look good, watering them and covering them with mulch. It is really getting dry here. I am planting for fall beans and salad greens. They are tiny but with watering they are growing. Lots of work that is wonderful but I get too tired. I get behind on my list of jobs to be done.

My over/the/fence neighbor lived here for years. She lived her own style. We were getting to be garden friends. She was sick and died sometime last week. She was alone. I feel sad when I think about her. I look at the sunrises longer, I stare at the long grasses bending in the wind, today the raspberries were so good, only half got in the bucket. How do you celebrate life? I look at her house. She was an original Master gardner, all combinations of plants were in her beds. You never knew what would be blooming there. I think there are gardens in heaven too. Now the clouds keep going over me. The grass is growing and I should mow. I want to spray oil on the trees in the orchard. I have to feed the chickens.

Delicious pain in the garden

2009-06-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

Oh I know, no pain is good..... except the muscle aches that come from planting, hoeing, tilling, transplanting, weeding and dreaming. The hours of bending, stooping, and crawling are so worth it. The zuchs, cucumbers and beans are breaking through the clay soil and the vines will be coming soon. The transplants are getting used to life in the wilds and flourishing. I've got a chair out there and I watch or dream or just 'feel' the place. The greenhouse is getting empty of the transplants. It will have some experiments through the summer. I have samples of the tomato plants and I can see the difference between the tomatoes growing in open air and their twins growing in the greenhouse. I have some broccoli that I will raise in the greenhouse bed [hopefully away from the moths and their baby worms that love my plants to pieces.

Today I worked all day out there. It was wonderful. I planted seven frames and got the fence up [with the vital help of my son-in-law]. I mowed weeds, pulled weeds and tilled a sod bed of weeds. Walking through it tonight I got a little smily--- it is starting to look like I thought it would look. This ark farm is a place of dreams. It really is.

And tomorrow, my grandkids will build a salad, with the lettuces and herbs from the coldframes, and it will be a salad of foods they will happily eat. Does it get better than that for a Grandpa?

Gardening in the cold

2009-06-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

The date is June 7 and I am wearing my winter coat. Alright I asked for this. I moved here because of the fresh air and the landscape, the quiet and the beautiful everchanging sky. It is also cold a lot, and windy. So I am building my character. Last week I almost quit and gave the gardens to the weeds. All week I was interrupted and emergencies jumped in, like the flat tire on the tractor and I didnt have a wrench to take it off. I was changing my work goals again and again. We had frost two nights and I am still holding the tomatoes and transplants in the greenhouse. I broke the big job into little jobs and tried to do a little. So Friday I did the carrots. I love carrots. Saturday early I put in the squash, pumpkins and cukes. It only took a couple of hours--big seeds. And now I will hold. Late this week I will plant the next series of peas, beans, lettuce, etc. Then I will have a succeeding harvest. Cold or not the tomatoes and herbs will go out too. As an experiment I will keep some samples in the greenhouse to see how they do there. So the garden is officially planted, even though unofficially there are a lot of empty spots and full seed packages. I am fencing the garden before the rabbits have too much lettuce and I am making a row of cold frame boxes that I can plant in all summer/fall. I guess I am ok now. With the cold it is raining. It rained yesterday and will again tonight. No dust now and that feels good.

Some of the funny stuff is working out so well. After winter feeding my big bag of sunflower seeds got wet and I just broadcast them along the fence line. Well, thousands of little sunflower seeds are starting out and really growing. They are almost too thick, I'll move some with the shovel. Next winter the birds can get their own sunflower seeds.

Chicken Teens

2009-05-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

In the mornings-every morning-- for the last few weeks I have been visiting the chicken coop and our 100 Jumbo Cornish Rock chicks. They have a big title because they are going to be food. I am on a farm and we are raising clean, active, heathy birds that will feed my relatives, friends and family. I am proud of these birds and what I will be able to do to help others find 'un-chemicaled' food.

Another part of me so admires this growth process as I see them changing every day. Last week they were losing their yellow downy and starting to get white feathers. They would run around flapping and sometimes 30 or 40 would all go flapping together across the pen. This week they are growing so fast they have bald sections of their body. The feathers cant keep up. I am challenged by them to keep their environment correct. This week we put 2 inch wood blocks under the feeder and the water tank. If we keep the rim of the feeder at 'chest high' the feed will stay cleaner and more birds can get to the feeder at the same time. This morning I adjusted the feeder so more grain would come out for them. They ate 20 lb. of feed yesterday. So I don't want waste but I have to keep alert to what they are doing. I started 'turning their bedding' this week. The bedding is straw and wood shavings. I move slowly through the coop, forking over the bedding. It fluffs and unmats from the floor. Now that they are used to me doing it; dozens swirl around me, pecking straw, chirping , and fussing like they are cleaning their playground. Then I add some new straw and shavings. They go to work on that too. Tomorrow I will dump all the bedding into compost and bring in all fresh bedding. As these teens get bigger I will need to do this more.

The daytime air is in the 50's and 60's so I open the windows to knock down the humidity during the day and with the cross breezes dry the bedding a little. So food--water--shelter, then I sit a while and watch. They are funny, clever, pushy, and so active. Tonight the windows are mostly closed, 40 degrees by morning, one heat light is on in case someone needs it, and the feeders are full. As the sun goes down most just flatten themselves into the bedding and sleep.

Rain Train

2009-05-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

We had the experience of having rain for 30 hours. I've never been in a 'rain train' before where one storm after another after another after another moves over us and it just rains continually. Now after the rain has stopped, in the slough the water is rushing over the tractor trail as though it were early spring. In the woods, every low spot is a pond. I noticed that my fine homemade driveway is puddle after puddle all the way out to the road. Hardly any level spots at all. That is not the way I had envisioned it. It must be practice..... My rain gauge showed 4 inches. Wow!

I am not complaining at all. Last week I was walking around in the dust, I was planting onions, beans, peas and the first line vegetables out in the garden. I was hoeing dust, raking dust, and covering the seeds with dust. I wasn't feeling like the brightest bulb in the bin. But now everything is good. That Gulf rainwater warmed everything up. The quack grass and dandelions are almost up to my knees. My strawberry bed disappeared. But I'm not complaining at all. It is a wonderful week . I think I have some new fun projects to do, like finding the strawberry plants and mowing the grass. Everything is so green. I love it here.

A Week Later

2009-05-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

I think the chicks are double in size---- Their feet and legs are so much bigger and their bodies are becoming so lean and tall. They get fed 3 times a day and I keep the water jars full. We are introducing little grit and sand for their digestion. I worry a little so I am keeping watering the dry food. I suppose I should let that go and start doing half mash and half crumble feed. I'll try. Tomorrow I get to change the poopy wood chips they have been calling home. They will probably be chattering a lot when I get in there. I think I will feed them at the same time and most will not notice what I am doing. I guess the chicken chores are becoming routine now.

This morning it is still freezing outside. This area is North and West of the main weather stations and they seem to be at least 5 degrees warmer. So I have learned to do some subtraction from the weather report temperatures. My garden is still empty and the brown dirt is looking at me. I have onions, peas and salad seeds ready to go in the garden and in covered frames. So I am getting motivated. They will go in the ground this week. Also I want to start the tender plants in containers. So I am planning a big gardening week. The seed packages are spread all over the big studio table and I am starting to arrange them for companion planting.

This farm living is sometimes difficult for me. There are a lot of 'facts' in my head that have always known, but they don't really work. This area is really cold, really dry and really windy. The soil is almost 'pottery clay' and it needs coaching to be its best. The idealized things that people say just don't quite work. My independence is coming slowly. The earth and sky are teaching me.

It is still freezing outside, but the sun is out and the greenhouse should be warming up by now. The little salad garden there is under pink insulation sheets on freezing nights. Out there I am moving my tomato plants from little pots to big pots. They look like gawky teens for a couple of days until the stems get tougher and they stand on their own. I have one little corner of the greenhouse that I will use for a tomato garden. Maybe I will call it 'Georgia.'

The chicks

2009-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight we brought the chicks home. They are 3 days old, they have yellow feathers and are soooo little. And so full of life! They got a sip of water as we took them out of the mailer crate. We put them into their heated area and they ran and pecked mush and just got busy. After an hour half of the chicks were eating the softened mush and some were running and a big clump were under the lights sleeping. This was a good delivery. None were dead or acting damaged. Now I can go to bed too.

I remember that in the bigger picture these are Jumbo Cornish Rock hens. They will have wonderful tasting meat and because of their genetics they carry double sized breasts when they are adult. So it is my job to give them a good environment with excellent feed for eight weeks. Then they will be processed so family and friends can have wholesome food. That is my job too. One day at a time I am grateful for what I can do.

Summer Sun!

2009-05-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Today we had sun all day and the temps were in the 70's. The Earth up here came alive! The popple trees opened their leaf buds and the hillside took on highlights of light green. Finally. Something besides Black, white gray or tan---- real green. Speaking of green the grass is a pretty bright green too. I think I can crawl through the asperagus and weed them. Monday I will start planting the garden. Now I am planting in the Greenhouse and in Cold Frame boxes near the greenhouse. My daughter planted the coldweather salad greens in the greenhouse three weeks ago and they are up and growing now. The ground was so cold I didnt think they would grow. By this weekend we can have a salad and aspeargus Is this worth the wait? Yes.

The garden is cultivated, the oats field[about 1/2 acre I think. I never measured a half acre before, but a big city lot size.] had it's first tilling. Many weeds had a tough day. Tomorrow I can seed some of it with oats/peas. I have to do that by hand some how. The egg-layer chicken flock in the orchard is really getting into 'bugging.' They hardly ate any of the feed I put in there. AND they are back to laying eggs again. I gathered twice today and totaled 3 dozen! The rooster had them all gathered in an assembly this morning. ---Like Johnny Cash singing to the crowd. So I'll change their name from 'egg-layer flock' to 'Johnny's Flock.' This is a good day!

Coop Cleaning!!!!

2009-05-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

What a day! We got into the Chicken coop today and Cleaned It Out! Straw, dust, dirt and all the mess that chickens can leave behind. So sweep, scrub, rinse, bleach, rinse, scrub, rinse and the coop is cleaner than our studio! We just kept at it, we both felt good to have it done. I tilled out the yard and planted timothy and wheat seeds. How could we be so motivated?? This is a new year on the Farm! Next week the chicks are coming from McMurry. By Monday the coop becomes a nursery for 100 Jumbo Cornish Rock hens. The farm will be in operation again.

There is a little more to this.... The coop was being used by another flock of chickens. So last night in the dark we moved the Egg layers into the orchard. That is their summer hangout. There are about 30 Bantams and Leghorns and we moved them back to their old hangout from last summer. They will be outside all the time. They have a nesting [bad weather/night] insulated box and a sports bar box if they need a separate shelter or if there is strife in the flock. These chickens have personality and there is always fussing going on. Today they were ranging through the grass with a lot of clucking going on. It was good to see them being so comfortable right away. This is a good day. We are tired, we hurt. But this is what I want to be doing with my days.

Slow Spring

2009-05-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

Here I am excited about 2 nights in a row when it didnt freeze. Well, except it was freezing this morning, so I am thinking it is plodding progress not a leap into summer. The May flowers are out in the woods and it is so pretty to be walking up there. Sometimes we step on a leek and you can smell the onion...... The aspeargus is coming up. So Spring is here. The farmers here are starting to till and disc and plow so I started tilling up some ground too. The soil is dry enough and the frost is deep enough that it seemed to be fine. So today I will do some more tilling. We have to move the egg layer chicken to a new spot so I will get that ready next. There are just so many jobs to do. I have to stop and think. I am not a working machine. Maybe now I can plan the next 3 weeks, make a schedule and do work and play in a balanced way. I have all wonderful things to do and it will be just fine.

This is a good time for a walk. Maybe I can see one of the wild turkeys I have been listening to this morning.

Slow Morning

2009-04-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

This morning is not slow because of anything but me. The sun is stirring up the birds, the sky is clear, the wind is still from the SE and the chickens are out checking for something. But me, I am energized in my head but my arms and legs are saying, 'Slow is good.' When I walk around a little more parts will get more interested in activity.

I do have a great day planned! I am going to assemble another section of fence. [The old fence between my neighbor and I didn't match the property line. So I am remaking it. ] Yesterday the little boy she is babysitting came wandering over. So I am really motivated to get it finished. Also I am going to paint the last section of my new woodshop. I don't know why but I am getting my first woodshop and I will have it ready for my 65th birthday. I guess life is like that, dreams sometimes have to wait. Oh then I am going to go through my old potting trays from last year. I am getting ready to move my 2" transplants to the 4" pots. I still have to keep the seedling trays inside the house and studio. I have a new small greenhouse but it gets around freezing every night. By next week I will start to move plants out there. It should be warmer by then. So three things today; paint, fence and clean greenhouse trays.

This is a good day. I think that before I start I will walk up on the hill. There are Mayflowers starting to carpet the forest floor. The buds are opening and Spring is starting.

Earth Day Gathering

2009-04-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend my family came to Talk, connect, and do things together on the land. We met for a noon potluck in the studio and then spread out to start worm compost boxes, exchange seedlings and walk up to the woods on the hill. Little snippets of conversation mean a lot. Watching the grandkids run and laugh and climb trees makes a heart warm even on a cold raw day. At least the rains stopped for a while. I was tired because I was Spring cleaning for two days. But I was smart enough to let everyone lead and be in conversation. I didn't try to make the day be all about me. It is all about them. We all have so much goodness and creativity. The day is about the Earth and about us too.

Then last night it rained again and off and on today too. The land needs it. The water will pull the cold out of the ground and awaken the plants and trees. The grass is getting green and the trees are budding. It is cold and raw but Spring is starting.

Snow to Sunshine

2009-04-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

This morning the snow was covering the ground, the sky was gray and the day looked dark. Well, I planned to do a favor for a friend so that all didn't matter so much. We were off to the city to get photo equipment checked. My partner is assembling a quilt in the ArkStudio with her day of solitude.

When I got home the weather was sunny and very windy. It didn't seem like the same day. The wind had damaged the hoop house. but I got it back together again. I think I left the doorway open and created a parachute. So that problem is solved. Now another one, some chicken is eating the eggs in the coop. How do you find out which one is doing it? I'll try 2 or 3 visits a day for a while to see if I can see anything. I am so glad to be home. The tension is creeping out of my arms and the hill looks beautiful.

April 20 Snow Flurries

2009-04-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

We have had a week of thawing weather, with temperatures in the 50's and 60's. Now it is back, snowy rain and foggy gray skies. So I dressed warm and got going. The birds were all over. The ground is just thawing and they were checking everywhere for seeds, worm, grass and bugs. I could hear geese and cranes flying in the fog. They were close but I couldn't see them. I cleaned up two piles of wood chip around my much smaller wood pile and spread them along the fence line. It was muddy and wet working outside so I switched to the Rainy Day list. Things to do when I have to be in. Painting in the woodshop came up number 1. My tools and saws and boxes of nails & stuff got moved into a mound when a carpenter came over to insulate my metal pole building. So that job got done and now I have walls of 4x8 plywood. So I started painting. I hung a plastic sheet over the doorway so the heat would stay in this smaller room. I painted and painted with 60's music. It wasn't long and I didn't want to be anywhere else. I got about half done, cleaned up and volunteered to cook. We had a spinach omelet. My pan was too hot but it tasted good. I tucked in the transplants, the snow is covering the ground, it is getting cold. This has been a good day.