Not a Drop to Drink

Our 3 Acres, ,

Across this country this year, one of the top stories has been about the lack of water. Too little rain and snow and too much need are causing serious issues from the east to west coast and lots of places in between. Here in the Mohawk Valley in NY state we are blessed with lots of water. At times we have a little too much of it as flood warnings and rivers rising are common occurrences after one of our strong storms. As with most things, just because you have something available does not mean one can use it. Or at least easily use it.

We have a good stream on Tiny House Farm. One that we can use to water our plants as long as we don’t get the water actually on the fruit or vegetables. Too much nasty stuff in the water. Most of the stuff is the result of runoff from the local farms. The E-coli numbers are too high to allow us to use it even for soaking our shiitake logs. We know how high the numbers are as we have gotten the water from the main stream and the smaller spring tested on a regular basis. So we can water the plants with the stream water before they produce anything or just the ground around them. The other issue is actually getting the water to our field. We have used several methods of getting water around the farm. Filling big tubs on our wagon resulted in us losing at least half of the collected water before we got to our plants. Once we got the water tank, we filled that but then still had to walk behind the 4 wheeler with pitchers or buckets. Filled those and emptied them on each plant. That was a good way to get all your steps for the day, but it a long process to get each plant watered. Especially as we increased the number of plants we had growing in our 3 acres.

Too many of both the paw paws and juneberries that we planted over the years have sadly, failed to thrive. We planted 40 something paw paws and over half did not survive into the second year. The remaining ones did not grow very well. There are just 4 of them that look as though they might produce fruit in the next year or so. Once these plants had over wintered, we let nature take its course and depended on rain to keep them watered. That was probably a mistake. This year we have ordered more paw paws from Perfect Circle Farm in Barre VT. And another 245 juneberry plants to fill in where we lost ones and finish off the remaining 4 rows. This time we have to water them on a regular basis.

Ron’s new veggie patch and my sunflower garden also need to be watered. That means we need a more permanent and agile way to get water from stream to our field.

Ron’s first attempt was to get more hose and a rolling water canon. Thank goodness we already had the needed water pump to make this work. With this set up he is able to water our lavender and sunflowers. But it cannot reach out far enough to reach our juneberry rows that are beyond the sunflowers. Nor can it reach Ron’s tomatoes and squashes. So another plan was hatched in Ron’s brain. Again he got ideas from You Tube. I really wish I could put a blocking filter on his account. One that would prevent him from watching anything that is going to cost money.

I have to admit that I knew it was coming. Drip tape was going to be the best way to water our assorted patches. Having watched Ron spend hours getting water to his tomatoes and squash plants, I knew the money would be well spent. But I really had no idea how much “stuff” he was going to need, how many trips out to get just one more piece would be needed and how much money it was all going to cost.

So the list of purchases included two water tanks, three, no four water filters, assorted lengths and types of hose, too many connector bits and pieces, another 2 water pumps, and the actual drip tape kit itself. That includes tape, tubing, more connectors, a punch, shut off valves, pressure regulators, staples, end caps and adapters.

Ron set himself up in our living room and began work on the filter system. He had already spent serious time on the internet researching how this should work. Now he just needed to get it set up. I had to be careful during this step. Any time I walked by him, if I paused for 30 seconds too long, he would start explaining the filtering process to me. Again. The idea was to have this attached to side rail of our trailer, where the water tank would sit. He needed to be able to access the filters so they can cleaned when needed. And as this will be set up on our only road worthy trailer, we have to be able to take it all off when we need to. We needed all these filters due to the amount of silt that is in our stream. Even the smallest amount of that getting through would clog up the drip tape.

So this was the end result. You also see part of one more of his purchases, an ICB tote that stores the water we pump from our stream. The whole process does work, but needs serious tweaking. It takes less than 3 minutes to fill our regular water tank from the stream. The one we have been using for years, lost in the great flood of 2017 but was rescued. It takes forever (15-20 minutes) to then pump water through the filter system into the ICB tote. Ron’s goal is to get the water tank filled, connect everything and be able to walk away to get something else done. Right now, he has to waste time waiting for the tank to empty so he can go back and get more water. We have to fill the water tank 3 times in order to fill the ICB tote. Which works out to almost an hour of down time watching to make sure the process of transferring the water going smoothly. And that is before any water actually starts through the drip tape itself.

So once the filter system was set up, it was time to get the drip tape laid down.

One of the first things that had to be done was to “try” to straighten out the tubing. We started out by setting the coil out in the sun to warm and and the Ron and Jo pulled on it. Not a great improvement, but it was a bit straighter. And that did make it easier to work with.

With the tomatoes and squashes growing nicely, Ron and Jo feed the line down each row. The idea behind drip tape is that the water is “dripped” on or just around each plant. This saves water while ensure each plant gets what it needs. So that means that the holes in the tape need to be lined up with where the plant is. This is harder than it sounds. And it does not help that we are dealing with the landscape cloth we used to keep the weeds down. Even though this stuff is water permeable, you still need to get the things lined up correctly.

There were a lot of steps to this project and much fiddling to be done. And a few missteps along the way. We struggled to find a way of getting the connectors into the tubing. No matter what we did, it was not working. Finally we called it a day and headed home. If we fought with it much longer, something rash might happen.

Of course, back at home it with just two minutes on YouTube and Ron had the answer. We were going about it backwards, trying to get the tube over the connector. That was never going to happen as it was not supposed to happen. If we had a better Wi-Fi connection out on Tiny House Farm, we could have gotten the answer there. And if there were actual directions included in the box. Maybe with a couple of diagrams?

Ron does love his Rube Goldberg style fixes. I believe he would be very disappointed with a project that he did not have to come up with a work around on. And he has more work to do on this one. While he has this set up so we can break it all down when we need to use our trailer, that is not very practical. Next year, fingers crossed, we will be vendors again at multiple events in our area. And we will still need to water next year’s crops. So a plan has to be thought up.

When it comes to these type of farm projects, I tend to leave them to Ron and Jo. They have a very good working relationship. Jo listens to the plan, gets clarification when needed and then helps execute it. Me, on the other hand. I listen to his plan, get clarification and then offer suggestions as to another way we could accomplish the same thing. I am sure that all of you know that Ron just loves it when I do this. He welcomes any adjustments to his plan with an open mind. Does not matter if my way would be better or save us some time. Even when I am right, I am still wrong. Cuz this is his plan and that is how we are going to do it. Almost 35 years of marriage and I still cannot help myself. I have to offer my suggestions.

Do fences help make good neighbors?

Veggies, , ,

May 2021 was a very busy time at Tiny House Farm. We started our normal shiitakes season by soaking our first set of logs. In between starting and planting numerous sunflowers, we also began working on Ron’s specialty tomatoes and squash patch. He had over 200 seedlings growing at the house waiting for their special place at the farm. We needed to install a trellis for the plants to grow up and it needed to be strong. That meant cattle fencing panels. Which we had to buy and bring out to THF. That process took some serious help from Tractor Supply employees and lots of tie down straps as we bent the panels into a U shape so they fit on the trailer. Once we were sure everything was secure, we headed out. That was another slow drive to the farm. And once there, we realized there was no way just Ron and I could safely manhandle the panels off the trailer by ourselves. And we were beat. So they sat over night on the trailer and that, turned out to be a mistake.

We struggled mightily but there was no way to get the waviness out of the panels. Leaving them tied up on the trailer set the bentness in place. Thank goodness Ron had long ago lost his perfectionist ways, so he was willing to live with our trellis work. And let me tell you; it was major work to get these things up as they were. If we wanted them nice and straight we would need a lot more muscle or a come along tool. Ron had already laid down the landscape cloth and marked it up accordingly by himself. All we had to do is burn holes for each T post, pound those in and then attach the fencing to the posts. Easy, right? Not so much.

Once again we fought against the rocks in our soil. I still think that we should have named our farm, “Rots of Rocks”. I know I am not the only person who wishes someone could invent a way to melt rocks. Without needing laser vision or risking blowing up the world. Brother-in-law Don showed up and always, his help was greatly appreciated. Even with the extra help and our previous experience, we had a serious fight to get this part of the project done. Getting the whole thing done took us a month of weekends. But we got it finished. Then Ron and Don got the plants into the ground and we considered this a job well done.

I almost forgot to share the tale of Ron’s new delivery vehicle. His Ford Transit is no more and really, we were not sorry to see the last of it. While Ron loved the quirkiness of it, that thing was a money pit from the second year on. And when it was last in the shop to have the snow tires swapped out, he was told that it would not pass its next inspection. Ron delayed and dawdled about getting the get rid of/selling process started. But he was not so hesitant when it came to finding a replacement. He got himself his own Subaru, this time an Ascent. We went old school with this one by actually ordering it from the local dealer. Absolutely no moon roof, but trailer hitch and safety features were a must. And red; it had to be red. While it won’t be as easy to load up with bags of shiitakes, buckets of flowers and trays of microgreens, the back seats do fold down nicely and he found himself covers to protect the seats themselves. It will be interesting to see just how much he can fit in “Big Red”. That is the name Ron came up with and we will call it BR for short. Cannot call it our wagon as that is what we called the Transit. He is still tweaking the set up trying to get it just right.

Of course, we were not completely done with the veggie patch. We caught this guy on our game camera. Obviously he was checking out future snacking opportunities and Ron freaked out. The camera had been set up for just this situation. The woodchucks have been part of Tiny House Farm for years. But they never been a concern. Until now. So the next thing we had to do was put up a fence around the patch. More fun for us. Ron got some fencing and more T posts and the 3 of us battled the rocks again to get a fence up and around his precious plants. The fence would not stop every critter from getting in, but it would make them work for their meal. Once again we used cinder blocks to set up a way in and out and that was that.

At least that is what I thought. Ron had more plans in mind for his veggie patch. But that will have to be another post.

Let the Sunshine In

Ginny Projects

Once our 600 new logs were inoculated and stacked, it was time to begin the rest of our 2021 list of things to do. Ron had been adding to that for at least 6 months. I really do think it is time to cut him off from YouTube. He gets too many ideas from those videos. He watches it all. Narrowboat living, flower and veggie growing, homesteading, sailboat living and whatever else catches his attention. Interestingly the pandemic and its effects on the world were clearly visible on all these shows. People dealt with being unable to travel, lack of supplies, lost customers, lost jobs and so many of them; did what people have always done. Figured out a work around. They made do until they could actually do again. Ron is determined to do what is necessary for Tiny House Farm to be at least a moderate success and he is will to have us try just anything to get there.

This year we are growing some specialty produce. Tomatoes and one squash variety to start with. And flowers of all things. I have three rows of my calendula of course, but we are trying some other, more showy flowers. Sunflowers, which I have always loved, to start with. We took the advice of a few other flower growers (from YouTube of course) and ordered our seeds from GeoSeeds. They have a wide selection of seeds, but a bare bones catalog and no website. Which made placing my order a bit tricky. They only have a scientific name listing so you need to know what you are looking for. And then you need to fill out their order form. My handwriting sucks to be honest so I always try to type when I can. This form was not one of those fillable ones. So I had to download a trial PDF program. And blasted thing was not that easy to use at all. Took me 2 hours to get it all done and emailed it to GeoSeeds. Seven different varieties of sunflowers and assorted other cut flower selections. I am looking forward to this project. I really do like flowers. Have never tried growing them though.

Following all the given advice I started my first batch of the sunflowers inside. Apparently if you plant the seeds straight into the ground, the squirrels and other critters come for dinner. While I do like squirrels, I don’t want them eating my seeds. We had tarped our planned flower rows and that did a great job on getting rid of most of the weeds. There are still remnants of the straw we mistakenly used as mulch on both my calendula and our garlic rows. I fear we will be dealing with that for years to come. It is strange how often we are reminded that one decision made can have such a strong and lasting impact years later. Even in gardening.

My seeds grew well and it soon was time to get them in the ground. Over the years we had learned that planting was best done in the evening if possible. That was so your new seedlings do not have to take on a full day of sun and heat right from the start. So I had to get this planting done after work and of course it was a blistering hot night when Ron and I headed out to Tiny House Farm. Ron came with as he did not want me out there by myself. And he always has projects of his own to putter with. On May 24th, I took my first set of seedlings out with me and got to work. Divided the first row into 8 blocks, one for each of new varieties and the last for the mammoth variety. I really want to try getting those huge sunflowers to grow. The ones that people buy and hang on their doors as a fabulous decoration or set out for the squirrels to enjoy. I had a packet of those seeds from a few years ago, but do you think I could find it when it came to planting time? Of course not. So they would have to wait for my second batch of seedlings.

It was so hot out there. The day’s heat had baked into the ground. I had to get Ron’s umbrella out of the shed in desperate attempt to provide some shade for myself. Foolishly I did not bother to get out the kneeler too. And my knees paid the price later that night. 2.5 hours I worked digging out holes in the bone dry and rock infested soil to planting my seedlings. Watering them was another project. We still have not come up with a plan for getting water from our stream up to our field. In the past we have used our water tank to fill up pitchers and walk up and down the rows watering as we go. That takes some serious time. The first night, Ron filled two of our white 5 gallon buckets with water and hand carried them to my rows. Informing me when he got there that he wasn’t going to do that again. I got the last of the plants into the ground, watered each of them and covered them all with insect cloth. That was in the hope that nothing would saunter by and nibble on my new babies. Do woodchucks eat sunflowers?

We repeated this process the next night but Ron came up with a better idea for the watering process. He went back to the 4 wheeler and bringing our water tank up to the field to fill the water buckets. Work smarter, not harder. But this is still seriously hard work and he is now on a mission to solve our watering situation. I again left the insect cover over the entire row to give the seedlings just that little bit of protection.

While the cloth did help keep my seedlings safe from critters, it was no match for the rain we got. Even though we could see they were growing, our new plants were being held down by the weight of soaking wet cloth. So I made the decision to take it off. That was on June 1st.

There days later and something had themselves a very good meal of my sunflowers. Crushing sadness. And anger. And determination that this was not going to happen again. Problem is that we have too many suspects out on THF. Rabbits, deer, birds, chipmunks, and woodchucks all live out there. While we could never stop all of them, we could make a good start by fencing in the sunflowers. We used the fencing that was previously used on our garlic beds and a few of our T posts. The problem was that our length of fence was shorter than my sunflower bed. So we started at the back end of row where I had the mammoth variety planted. Those had not been touched so either the snacker did not care for them or they were full by the time they made their way that far up the row. I ended up with a row about 3 feet shorter than I started with.

But at least they should be safe from marauders. With our plan being to sell sunflowers to our restaurant customers, we needed to plant more rows of flowers. More work was needed and a larger fence too. I started more seeds at home and then got busy with the massive job of weeding.

Once I had yanked most of the weeds out, I got Jo working to break up the soil for me. And we needed to move the rocks around. They tend to get in the way when planting anything. Ron has plans for us to get out our dirt sifter come fall and tackle those rows; getting most of the larger rocks out of our way. But that is a project and story for another time.

The weekend of June 19th the three of us set out to get the fence up. We had 4 pieces of fencing to use and scrounged up more T posts. Whatever we ended up with, that was going to be our flower garden. Overall, things went smoothly once Ron and I stopped arguing about our plan. As we worked, it dawned on us that we needed a way to get into the bed. Unhooking the fence from post and re-hooking it was going to get old very fast. But luckily we have lots of cinder blocks laying about the farm.

Three stacked outside the fence, and three more inside and we had our way in and out. I have already lost count of the number of times I have used them so far this year. Every time I am at the farm, I have weeding to do. So much weeding. Both in this flower bed and in my calendula rows. I count my blessings though as these particular weeds are pretty easy to ID and yank.

This is what I have been waiting for. Signs of life from the actual flowers. There are a massive amount of leaves on every stem but we chose to grow single stem varieties. So one flower on each stem. Which is why I have been starting more seeds after I plant the seedlings. Succession planting is the way to go. There is so much to learn about growing sunflowers. Not only the variety, but the spacing between plants. Closer together gets you smaller flowers. Which, going against common sense, is better. Smaller more compact blossoms work better in arrangements. Do you use weed cloth or not? YES, use weed cloth. And yes to fencing if you can. But then you have harvesting questions. The goal is to have the flowers fully open just when customer needs them. So you cut them ahead of time and let them sit in water. But timing is a bit tricky and another learned process. We will know better next year. Because, yes we are growing sunflowers again next year. I am already working on our 2022 order. Even though we have not yet sold a single flower. Which is the biggest issue we have. How do you decide what to charge for your product? The large grocery store prices are a starting point, but really, they can afford to sell for less than $1 a flower only because they buy in such massive quantities. And bring them in from Colombia and Ecuador. And they are not selling the more specialized varieties we are. So we have to decide how much to charge. Enough to make a profit for THF while keeping the price low enough for customer’s to agree to pay it. A delicate balancing game. One that all small business owners have to play. One that is not fun at all.

I started and planted more and more sunflower seedlings over the weeks. And it turns out that planting in well watered soil is much easier. So next year, I will make sure my planting beds are thoroughly watered before I get started. I used our garlic dibbler to make the holes and it worked a treat. And it turns out doing extreme weeding is also very good at preparing your planting bed too. As I toiled in the hot sun and yanked out the weeds, that was loosening up the soil. Which then made it easier for me to plant our sunflowers. I won’t have to deal with weeds as much next year as we are going to use weed cloth with burned in holes. That will be a huge project but will mean less work for me in the long run. Another upcoming project and story.

This was my goal for the year. Bright and happy sunflowers growing in our field. It is still early in our season and I will have better photos later. Next year I will have a different planting schedule and layout. Before this fall we will make the final decision on which type of flowers and how many of each we will grow and I will get them started sooner in 2022. Everything is a learning process and this will be no exception. THF keeps us busy, gets us out of the house, meeting new people, learning all the time and gives us lots of exercise. All in all, not a bad thing.

2021 just might be a return to semi normal

Mushrooms

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.

Requiem to a Backyard Garden

Backyard Gardening, ,

It was a convolution of events that led to our drastic action. First it was the pandemic. With our events cancelled and our restaurant customers ever so slowly re-opening, we THF folks had time on our hands. Then on June 2, Ron’s mom Anna May died. She was 99 years old and the youngest of nine children. She outlived her six brothers and two sisters. The Halpin girls got the better end of the family genes though, as they lived to be 101, 98 and 99. Again because of the pandemic, we could not have the funeral services she had planned and prepaid for. We could not even have a small family get together. This left Ron feeling very unsettled and with time for pondering on the meaning of life.

His once lovely and loved garden had been overrun with weeds. Our family had for years enjoyed its bounty, as did lots of our friends. But now, it was a sad sight and one we bemoaned but did nothing about. We had made attempts to get it under control or cleared out, but Tiny House Farm interrupted, as did our lack of enthusiasm for the work that would be involved. Weed pulling ranks right up there with rock picking on my list of things I would rather not do. But that was neither here, nor there and Ron dragged me and Jo along with him in his plan to clear out our yard.

When I say clear out, that is exactly what I mean. He had plans to gut everything; front, back and side yards. Then we were going to cover all the newly cleared spaces with black plastic and let Mother Nature do her job by killing all the weeds. This was not going to be a simple, done in a weekend project. We got started on Saturday June 5th as we had no Tiny House Farm plans. Because of the pandemic, Anna May’s service could not be held until Monday June 8th. The numbers of way this virus is messing with our lives is just unbelievable. And we were all edgy. We hit the front yard first. Yanking, digging, weed whacking and chain sawing everything in our way.

Ron’s chain sawing came to an abrupt stop when he spotted 2 young morning doves in our front yard tree. He was in the mood to chop the whole thing down, but he would not risk harming morning doves. So the tree got a pass. For now.

Our local dump is just a few blocks away and that turn out to be a very good thing. Ron and I took five or six or twenty loads (I lost count) of green waste there and then about the same number of dump loads. The wood from our garden beds, old pallets that our firewood stacks sat on, the sad little greenhouse that sat, ignored for 3 years; all of it went. The five trellises that Ron built for the tomato and cucumber beds went to Rudy, our Amish farming partner. Things Ron builds tend to last and I refused to toss them in the trash. Ron does have some regret about getting rid of all his trellises. We have a pair of mourning doves that lived in our yard and with the trellises gone, they lost their favorite sitting spot. He misses hearing them each morning.

Once we dug up, chopped down and dragged out everything that needed to go, we were left with the dirt, weeds and grass from the raised beds. Not a pretty site, but we knocked them down the best we could.

It is a good thing we already planned to cover the whole area with our old and critter chewed tarps. Our yard actually looked worse once we got all the tall weeds and raised beds out. On top of those we laid out the larger tarp that we used on Tiny House Farm. While we expect Mother Nature to do her thing and kill off the weeds, which will take a few years so it does not hurt to help her out a bit.

A few days after the tarps were laid down we got hit with a wind and rain storm. I had already made the executive decision to take down our rail fence. It only lined both front side yards and was in a constant state of needing repair. We have replaced all the rails and shored up every post with rocks and dirt over the years. The fence parts came in handy as we used them to weigh down the edges of tarp and plastic. But they did nothing to stop the wind from getting under the tarp and making waves. I tried to catch this in action with limited success. But as consolation prize I caught a mama deer and her baby walking along our hedge line. Do you see them? That is something else we will miss. All the critters that enjoyed our overgrown garden. And we enjoyed watching them. One of the mamas would bring her baby into our yard and bed down in the overgrowth. The rabbits and squirrels running all over the place. They were such fun to watch. But we will not have so many of them now, without the weeds that they could hide in.

This was a major project and a lot of work, but when we were done, we really felt a huge sense of accomplishment. We had tackled the beast and won.

BUT, wait there’s more.

Ron decided to take advantage of the situation and find someone who would cut down and mulch up our cedar hedges. They also had seen better days. I believe they were planted when the house was built in 1985. Now they were overgrown and the lower parts were dying off. They were a sad sight indeed. And certainly did next to nothing at keeping out critters and such. I felt rather guilty at ignoring them for years. But I have seen other houses with the same hedges that they kept cut down and still had the die off. So it was not just our neglect causing the problems. That made me feel a little bit better.

Getting ready for the hedges to come down meant we had to move all of our stacked wood piles. By piles I really mean remnants of said piles. We had gone through most of it last year. The actual wood had to be moved along with the pallets it sat on and the metal posts that held it all together. Well, was supposed to hold it together. We had more than a few collapses over the years. Last year Ron had a ready rack made to hold wood on our deck. Our previous situation left much to be desired. It involved two pieces of woods and two metal ends holding the wood in place with a tarp covering it. Our new one will hold more wood and do a better job at it. Now he wants two larger ones that would sit in our backyard and hold the rest of our wood. That should prevent pile collapses and keep things much neater.

Then we tackled the burning bushes on the other side of our house. Every couple of years we whack them down but, along with several other things, we ignored them for the past four years.

Ron took the chainsaw to the bushes and Jo and I dragged them to our trailer for the ride to the green waste drop-off. Less than 30 minutes and we were done. One more thing checked off our to do list. I would be happier though, if we had not already added four more things to that list.

Then Ron’s wood sheds were delivered and more fun ensued. We had already hauled the 4 wheeler to our house so we could use it to move the sheds into place. The plan had been for Ron to take our trailer and pick up each shed. Unfortunately, our builder Rudy did too good a job in the actual building. Very strong, very heavy and just a smidge too wide for our trailer.

Thank goodness there was a back up plan. We are after all, talking about Ron. He always has a back up plan. Now we just had to get them off the hauler and into our backyard. This was the best part of our fun. First task was to shift the sheds around so we could attach a large tow strap to it and the 4 wheeler. Took more effort than we thought it would and we needed to use the wheeler to push the shed into place. The second obstacle was our yard. The grass and the mud it was growing in refused to cooperate. There was no sliding across the ground for our shed. The edges kept digging in and creating a mud dam. We tried a small piece of plywood under the front edge but it was not big enough nor could we get it fully under the shed. Ron used the wheeler to yank and push and generally bash the shed up the slope to our back yard. In the process he managed to leave his mark not only on our lawn, but on the shed too. Nothing a good hammering won’t fix. But it was the final straw for our day. We were ready for plan G, at that time I believe.

Two days later Ron come home with Plan G, Rudy and his son David. They arrived with a long metal bar and a “come along” jack. Less than 30 minutes later, both sheds were in the back yard just where we wanted them. A man with a plan is a good thing to have around.

So here they are. Ready and waiting for our wood delivery. And for Ron to get a few tiny, almost unnoticeable dings and dents banged back into place. You remember, the ones that were direct result of his 4 wheeler use.

Thus ends our backyard gardening. Sad really, and terrible timing given what this country is going through right now. We grew so much in those years of gardening, but did not end up with the root cellar filled with canned veggies. I was really more into the dehydration process. But Ron learned a lot about growing veggies and even more about doing the necessary research to find out the best ones to grow or the ones that will sell the best. He is all about finding the new product, the one that no one else has. Which means that while our backyard no longer has a garden, we will not be without one. A simply location move will give us the chance to make some big changes for 2021. Those changes will be revealed in future posts. All I can say is that they involve a horse plowed field, an air blower, a “yet to be named” event, a whole bunch of filled out forms, and a lot of work. We will keep you posted.

Calendula Woes

Ginny Projects, ,

You would think that as calendula infused oils are the base of my soap, lotion bars, lip balm and cream that I would be very invested in the rows of flowers Tiny House Farm is growing. This year, not so much.

Behind all those weeds is my calendula. My poor, neglected calendula. We had covered the rows with a tarp to kill off the weeds and that part worked out great. When it came time to sow the calendula seeds, I had to wait for the right forecast. The rain we had in this area was hit and miss over the summer. I waited for a clear day with two days of upcoming rain. Sadly, the Weather Channel let me down. We pulled the tarp off and I scattered the seeds and then no rain. For a week. I took a quick look at my rows during every farm trip, but the plants were slow to grow and soon the weeds took over. And the real neglect started.

I could tell myself that I was busy working on the farm books and the masks and daily life, but I simply did not get out to the farm. Except when I went along with Ron to work with the shiitake logs. Which turned out to be a bad thing for me. While moving logs from the soaking tank into the wagon, I tripped on a root, fell forward and hit the wagon rail with the log I was holding. Lost my grip and the damn thing landed , cut side down, full force on the right foot. Good lord, the pain. But I managed to hold it together and we got all the logs moved and the two of us out to the road. I spent the next week or so walking gingerly around the house and trying to get my foot into a comfortable position for sleeping. It was painful putting on shoes and my work boots were the worst. But no long term damage, so I was lucky.

Here are our lovely yellow calendula flowers. Trapped and hidden by the straw and other assorted weeds. If I was going to salvage any of it, I needed to get started. Weeding, really does not make me happy.

But now there was no choice. I simply had to work on this. If I am going to have any calendula blossoms to dry and seeds to save for next year, the weeds had to go. So when Ron headed out to THF on a bright September Sunday for mushroom log soaking and I went out to weed. It got hot quickly so I swiped Ron’s work umbrella and kept working. My goal was to get one row done. Remember these rows are 60 feet long and 4 feet wide. No easy task. By 330 I was just about done with one row and was exhausted. Tomorrow was another day.

Labor Day actually, and I had the day off. So while I yanked more weeds, Ron harvested and cleaned shiitakes. It was a good day for working outside. It was windy and while I lost count of the number of times I had to chase down my hat, it was easier to work

One row and part of a second have been de-weeded. So many weeds. There was straw, dandelions, thistles and several different types of vine weeds. It wrapped itself around everything. Sometimes that came in handy by letting me grab hold of the vine and pulled out a big chunk of weeds. Also discovered we had Chinese lanterns growing in the mix too. They brought back memories of my grandmother’s house in Herkimer, NY. She had Chinese lanterns in her yard for years. Not sure if I will let them stay though. They can easily overwhelm an area. And I want and need my calendula to be the focus of this side of our field. There will be no harvesting for me if I cannot even get to the plants.

I asked Ron to brush hog the ends of each row and the far right row for me. There was no calendula growing there and I wanted to see what I just how much more I needed to get done. There was no weeding done during the week. This is the type of job that needs to start early in the morning if you have any hope of making headway. I conned our Jo into coming out with me the next Saturday and her help made a huge difference. Lessons learned – I really should have gotten the straw pulled out while it was still green. Once it was fully dried, the seeds flew everywhere when yanked. I foresee more straw in my future.

My poor calendula patch. Most of the weeds are gone but it looks very sad and forlorn. The last thing I did was sweep between the rows. Getting the last of the weeds and, hopefully most of the weed seeds further away from the planted rows. Then I took flags and marked the bare patches where I needed to make sure seeds are scattered next spring.

I then started with the deadheading process. For those not in the know, this is the term for snipping off the actual blossom. Doing this results in more flowers growing and allows me to dry those picked for later use in my products. I also harvested seeds that I will cast around the next spring. Left most of them to fall where they may. Ron wants me to lay down weed cloth and grow the plants in nice neat rows. That is not for me. I much prefer the happenstance of nature. If only I could get that result without the weeds.

Collecting the seeds is easy enough. Once they have fully dried on plant, they fall off into your hand when you tug on them. I store them in paper bags for next year. Drying the calendula flowers is a bit more complicated. You can gently pull the petals off each flower before laying them onto your drying rack. Or dry the whole flower, trying to set them upside down in the process. Either way, your fingers are going to get sticky in the process. I did a combination of both and have decided that removing the petals before drying is the better way. More work up front, but the petals dry more evenly. And once they are dry, the only thing you have to do is collect them all for storage in a large glass jar.

As usual, I made it more difficult for myself. My set of drying racks was in shed at THF and I had just left them alone to dry. As the weather got colder, I needed to bring the dried calendula back to our house. Was not sure if colder temps would effect it at all, but I was not going to take the chance. I didn’t think the logistics through and failed to bring a container for it, so I had to collapse the whole rack and bring it home as is. The dried petals had to be pulled off and transferred to a smaller tray covered with mesh. Needed to be sure everything was fully dry. In the process, I managed to dump a good chunk of the petals on the floor. I didn’t take a photo of that as it was just too depressing. Carefully picked it all up, petal by petal and let them sit for another week before I put all of it in a jar for long term storage. Or start infusing olive oil with it. If I do things right next year, I will have even more calendula to work with. The long term goal is to have enough to dry and then sell to others. That is going to be a lot of calendula. What I harvested this year doesn’t even fill a quart sized canning jar and is just over 1/2 an ounce by weight. I may have to plan holding a calendula harvesting event next year.