This is my first post in so many months. Not that I have not wanted to write or rather vent about what was going on in our world. My worries about COVID and so many Americans not getting the vaccine, fretting about the cancellation of our upcoming 2021 events and life in general. But this blog is supposed to be about THF and our adventures there, so I needed to wait until we had an actual adventure to document. Then I had another issue. Not really writer’s block, but our adventure was slow to be completed. Which meant I had to wait until we were done before I could finish writing my post. And it took longer than normal and then I got distracted by other things that needed to get done.

While we are not sure just how this year will turn out, there are still things that we need to get done on Tiny House Farm. There is always weeding, mowing, pruning, planting and now more rock picking that needs to be done. And we have no choice but to get 600 more logs inoculated. We have to keep the number of logs in play steady over the years.

In late 2020 we loaded up all of the first 200 logs we started way back in 2006 and drove them to the designated bolt graveyard. Most of the logs were so eaten up that they weighed next to nothing. Ron calls them punk wood at this stage. Now that we have gotten our use out of them, they will slowly decompose and add all sorts of good stuff back into the soil. As usual with any of our projects, this was a 3 person job. And one that we could not have gotten done without our 4 wheeler. Hard to believe but I was once very against getting one of those contraptions. THF could not function without it.

This year we are expanding our specialty vegetables selection. Found a few more tomatoes and a mini squash to add in. And we will be growing these on THF itself. On the 1st of May, Rudy, our Amish farming partner sent a couple of his boys out to plow up the part of field we are going to use. This was the area that we tarped last fall in order to kill off as many weeded as we could. And we shall see what comes of it. I can see more rock picking in our immediate future.

The boys also brought out the last of our 600 logs to be inoculated. This year we did not get the full 600 delivered all at once. They came in batches over the course of a month. Once again this work was being done by just the 3 of us. With brother Don popping in on the odd day to help out. Ron is still retired so he was able to get out to the farm during the week to nibble away at our stack. We got started on Saturday April 17 with the 3 of us pulling a full day. As usual, we were doing them all in 25 count blocks. Easier to stack and keep track of that way. They are just going to sit at our south end, letting the inoculation process work. They will not be in production until 2022.

Once again we learned more about making the inoculation process easier. Ron made each of us foil pouch lunches that were easily reheated on the grill. Then I had Jo buy a small crockpot to use for the waxing process. I still shudder when I look at my poor pan / double boiler. Cannot believe I was OK with letting Ron use this. Of course I do remember that I dropped the crockpot I was planning on letting him use. So I guess this is all on me after all.

The double boiler did work for us but remembering to keep enough water in the pan is a pain and both the pan and hot plate are now completed coated in wax. Some one made the mistake two years ago of setting the still hot pan down on the wax covered table and so we had to pry it off. Crockpot won’t solve all our issues, but if we start off with already melted wax and then add small chunks of wax slowly to it, we should be fine.

Our first day, April 17th, was a perfect day for working on the farm. Sunny and just warm enough. And that was our one and only nice day. After that we dealt with cold, wind, sideways rain and snow. SNOW. On May 1st.

While it looks beautiful, it does make work just that much harder. Mud is harder to walk in and slippery. And the rubber boots Jo and I wear don’t do much good at keeping the cold out. Nor did our smart wool socks. The logs were wetter and harder to move around too. But we drudged on. We had to get the logs done. Our other, much needed to get started projects could not start until all 600 logs were stacked safely on the south end.

We also had to learn how to take apart and fix the inoculators. Most of them were sticking and/or driving the spawn too deeply in the hole. They got a good soaking in mineral spirits and Ron put them back together. He had purchased replacement inner parts a few years back and finally used them. They will get a more through cleaning once we are done for the year.

Again this year, Ron pulled solo work days during the week. With Jo still working the overnight shift and me working from home; he was on his own. Ron also learned that his sole work days are much easier if he pre-drilled the logs the day before. So now he drills 25 logs and leaves them in the tent. This so they stay dry. Wet logs means the sealing wax does not stick. Next day all he has to do it is the inoculation and waxing. He takes the completed logs across the stream and then drills out 25 logs for the next day.

On Fridays he started drilled out 50 logs so all three of us could jump right into work. This made good sense for getting the work done, but really made our work area crowded. Especially when we needed to have the heater going first thing in the morning. But we will remember this and continue the practice of getting some work done before hand when we are able to hold our actual inoculation events in the future. We will have a stack of logs already drilled and a dozen or so already inoculated. Then we can have everyone jump in to their tasks. No standing around waiting for logs to be ready for one of the stations. Everything is a learning process with us. What we learn now will help us in the future. Fingers are crossed that 2022 will bring back our inoculation events.

Such a relief to have these 600 done. They were finished on May 7th. Ron and Don pushed hard and finished the last 53 off on Friday. They will now sit here until next spring when we will add them into the log soaking rotation. Ron still has to look them over and decide which ones will be our “pretties” . The ones we will set aside to sell to others so they can grow their own shiitakes. These have to be smaller so they can be more easily carried. These are the ones we sell at local events like the Garlic or the Flower and Herb Fests. I bought him special red construction crayons that he can mark them with, but am not sure he will actually do that. He does tend to get distracted and forget things.

Now we can get started with the rest of our 2021 projects. Growing flowers, tomatoes and squashes means more work. And Ron has some ideas about how we can improve our watering process. The tank and water pitchers get the job done, but it is work.