And we are happy out at Tiny House Farm.

Shoots of garlic popping their heads out of the straw mulch.  The wire was put down to hold the straw in places.  It does get windy out on THF, the flat field doesn’t offer any protection to our plants.  Things will be different once our elderberry bushes and pawpaw trees have some height.   We planted 3 types of garlic last fall, it will be interesting to see which variety grows the best.  Ron has already asked me about possible expansion this year.  How am I supposed to answer that question?  We don’t yet know just how much garlic we will have this year and what we will be able to do with it. This is the first year we are going to try selling it.  We had no trouble giving it away last year, but getting people to actually give us cash for it but be a totally different ballgame.

I have been reading about batch roasting peeled garlic cloves that you then freeze.  As we are growing hard neck garlic, it is not so easy to slice off the top of each head of garlic for roasting.  For the past few years, I have been roasted cloves that I peel.  That is a lot of work.  I have tried the two metal bowls trick which does work.  But it also tends to beat up the cloves.  Not sure yet if that will have an impact on my then roasted babies.

Another sign of spring is repairs about the place.

After using our air compressor to fill the tire a couple of times, it became clear that we really needed to replace it.  This was the same tire we dealt with last year.  The repair was just not holding any longer.  Getting the tire off was a job in and of itself.  No tire jack on THF.  Wonder if they have one for none vehicle use?  An invention?  Something to think about.

I carried the tire out to the Transit and Ron headed back the shop to get the fix.  A couple of days later and we got the tire back on and all was well again.  We cannot do much of anything without our wonderful wagon.

A week later and the growth difference is amazing.  It is such fun to watch what you have planted grow and change right in front of your eyes.  It is a special kind of magic, one that all fellow gardeners know and appreciate.  You plant a seed, make sure it gets water and sun and then wait to see what happens.  Don’t always get 100 percent germination, but that is just part of the experience.  And the agony for all those who accept this challenge.

Ron and I went out after work  on Tuesday, the 17th  to pull the wire screen off the garlic and give it a good dose of blood meal.  Simple, right?  Not so much.  We underestimated how many bags we would need.  I said we should head to the store for more now and get it done as the rain was coming.  Something that was essential in order to have the best results.  Also decided to stop at Lowe’s and see about replacement set screw for the adapters we use for drilling holes in the logs.  We expected to be there 15 minutes at the most.  45 minutes later two guys were still trying to help us find the right screw size.  Didn’t help that Ron didn’t have his glasses with him.  That made him pretty much blind as a bat and useless in our search for the right screw.   I kept trying to have him look at the screw hole so he could see what I saw.   There was a dark lining at the bottom of the hole that seemed to be causing the issue.  We finally gave up with Ron saying he would contact the company to get some replacements.

Back to the farm to finish up with the blood meal and some low dose organic fertilizer.  And then home getting there after 7 pm.  No such thing as a quick job for us.  Just about every task is more complicated and takes more time than expected.

Lovely pouring rain the next day, just what we needed to help the spring nutrients soak down into the ground.

On Wednesday we got the new adapters in.  Ron had gone with hardened steel this time hoping to get longer use out of them.  The order had been shipped from Field and Forest Products before he contacted them for help with the set screws.  Those they would stick in an envelope and send along.  Now we just needed to get the drill bit out of the old adapter to see if the new bit would fit.  I held the bit with a pair of pliers while Ron had the base in a vise grip.  Took a surprising amount of effort, but we got it out.  And discovered that the thing was torqued inside.  And I discovered why we were having such trouble finding a replacement set screw.  The one we thought was missing was actually there, deep inside.  It was that dark thing I thought was a liner.  Ron had assumed that the adapter that still had the set screw was the one Jesse had taken home with him to work on.

We do have such fun.  A very good thing we can laugh at ourselves.

Just look at what a good meal, soaking rain and a few days can do for your garlic.  I even saw new shoots coming up in previously empty spots.  Things are looking good for  2017.