Category Archives: Our 3 Acres

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.

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.

Getting through to normal

Our 3 Acres

Tiny House Farm, along with the rest of the world, is still coming to terms with our new reality. Hardest part is, that none of us know what that reality will end up being. It is going to take a lot more time before things shake themselves out.

Nature being what it is, Ron started our normal shiitake process in June. Shifting around the logs and getting them soaking again. Some of our restaurant customers had reopened for either take out or outdoor dining only. This was fabulous news for all of us. Pandemic or no; folks still have to eat, and our Amish farming partner, Rudy had moved forward with planting all the specialty veggies. Ron had ordering bronze and Artesian mix tomatoes, and Blue Viking potatoes, along with Haricot Vert and dragon tongue beans. Chioggia and Avalanche beets and cowpeas were also grown.

On June 11 we had our first orders for shiitakes and Ron did his happy dance. Things were looking up and we started with our micro greens again. Dusted off the trays, soaked the growing pads, opened up the bags of seeds and got growing again. These were familiar things to us and life might be getting a bit back to normal.

We still had our regular life to deal with. I was working from home while Jo was still pulling her nightshift at Walmart. Turns out it was a very good thing that Ron retired last year. He is not a fan of working from home. Which some might find strange as he does a HUGE amount of farm work on his laptop at home. But all of us know, it is just not the same thing. What Ron is doing he considers fun not work.

I was able to use my creative side by sewing masks for all three of us. And this project was an adventure itself. I researched DIY masks for days online and made four different types before I settled on the one I thought best. The elastic was another issue. I had to use what I had in my stash first. And while it was elastic and did the job, I did not like it. It hurt my ears. The thinner stuff I was looking for was sold out everywhere. Once stores opened up again, Ron and I headed out to find material. I had used my fabric stash for our first masks. What a good and useful thing it can be, saving a bin (or two) of material for future use. You never know when it will come in handy.

I decided to jazz them up a bit with mushroom patches. And let me tell you, that was a pain. I ordered a couple and waited for them to come in. Of course Ron spotted my order and had to get in on the action. He ordered 5 different ones without thinking about their size in relationship to the actual mask. And getting them on, that was the worst part. Of course the “iron on” part did not work. So I tried a different iron on work around. Finally had to sew it. And that was not fun. But it does look great and Ron really likes it.

And then suddenly it was September and our Juneberry plants would soon be here. Last fall Ron laid our the landscape cloth in lovely neat rows. Now we just have to drill holes in the ground, 4 feet apart for each new plant. We have done this before; for our lavender, paw paws, elderberries and pussy willows. Ron has added a new twist. He could not bear the thought of seeing the remnants of orange marking paint on the black landscape cloth. So a template was needed. He bought himself a 12 foot board, which turned out to be not quite long enough for his plan to cut four holes in it, each 4 feet apart. There needed to be an actual hole so he could direct the flame through it and onto the cloth. /.So it was time for some brainstorming. And this is where I come in to play. I look at things in the most basic way; so what if we add a foot to beginning of board. These kind of ideas from me tend to make Ron freak out with their straight simplicity. Which can charge up his brain and make him see a workable solution. So he took another board and cut it in half and added to each end of the board. Only needed one trip to Lowes to get drywall screws and a hand held blow torch. He needed a more efficient way to keep the flamer thrower lit. Especially as it was a bit windy outside. We have a clicker for the flame thrower but it is not the easiest thing to use.

He did a better job than he planned on the template. In order to make sure the added pieces stayed attached he ended up making a trough that kept the flame off the landscape cloth. Because of this most of the holes were just the right size this time. The three of us made pretty quick work of it. Jo pulled the template down each row, while I manhandled the propane tank and Ron worked the flame thrower. All in all, it was one of the easiest projects we worked on. Building the template was the hardest part and Ron did most of that.

We just needed to drill the holes in the rocks, I mean ground and wait for the plants to come in. Ron ordered them from a company in Alberta Canada. It was just too expensive to get them from a US supplier. We did take a major hit with the shipping. I nearly choked when I saw the charges for that. But the cost for 240 plants, even with the shipping was less than half of what we would have paid at a more local nursery. On Sept 16, our plants were delivered. Unfortunately, things did not go well. I heard the familiar beeping of a UPS truck and alerted Ron to keep an eye on them. I am so thankful that he was home for this.

Yeah. First off the plants had just been put into the bottom of a large box and then sealed. Without any filler material to keep them stable safe. And even though FRAGILE and THIS END UP was all over the boxes, you can see just how carefully they had been handled.

Ron simply refused the delivery. Then he sent an email to his friend in Alberta with photos, telling him this was unacceptable. Long and short of it, a second batch of plants would be sent but this time on a pallet, and Ron would pick them up in Syracuse.

So there was another week to wait which gave us time to get the needed holes drilled. Ron handled this himself and I don’t have any photos of that. Jo and I were busy working on one of my projects and there will be more about that later. Any way, if you want to see how much fun it is to drill holes at Tiny House Farm, you can take a look at my previous posts about planting the lavender.

The new ones look much nicer, don’t they? We loaded them up in the wagon along with a few bags of dirt and headed out to get these suckers planted. You know what? It turns out that taking things in stages really is the best way. Got the landscape cloth laid out last year so it killed off what was growing underneath it, then the holes burned into cloth and finally the holes drilled. Even the actual planting was easier. The three of us have a lot of practice at this, so we whipped right through it.

So here we are. 240 juneberry plants in the ground. The varieties Ron chose are Smoky, Honeywood and Thiessen. Next shipment with be another variety. And now that we have planted these berries, we will have to take serious steps to protect them from the birds. Lots of netting I am thinking.

Boy, Ron does really need to get the brush hog out, doesn’t he? How does he expect the juneberries to thrive when the weeds are taller and will be trash talking all time?

That which we left behind

Ginny Projects, ,

The year is almost over and we are now looking back to see how we did in 2019. What did we do right and what missed the mark. There is a lot to talk over. We made quite a few changes and additions to Tiny House Farm, but there were more than a few things that got left behind.

My calendula was ignored this year and we paid the price. It started with the huge mistake we made by sowing our seeds and then covering them with straw for protection.

This was what we had in fall 2018, more straw than calendula. It was a sad and sorry site. But I really did not have time to fret about it, or even worse, time to weed the rows. The shiitakes had to come first. And of course, Ron and I spent a good deal of time working on our micro greens. They are a very “hands on” crop to grow.

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This is June 2019 and you can barely make out our garlic growing next to my bed of weeds. The bright yellow blossoms of the calendula cannot be seen at all.

In August I forced myself to find time to harvest what I could of the flowers. I had actually started gathering the seeds and ended up with a good supply of those. The flowers beckoned me and this is what I collected. I thought I would have time to get more over the next few days, but I did not advise Ron of my future plans.

He, knowing we needed to knock the weeds down before winter hit, mowed everything down. Now that he is retired, he has more time to spend on the farm. We are definitely going to work on our communication. I cannot have him slaughtering my flowers again next year.

Our elderberries were also ignored for the most part this year.

I hope the birds and deer on Tiny House Farm enjoyed the bounty this year. Next year, shiitakes be damned, I will get my share first. I managed to harvest about 10 pounds. A sad amount compared to last year when I was struggling to find space in my freezer to stash bags and bags of berries. I think I will have to set a reminder in my calendar so I don’t let the time get away from me. Though we do not yet have a plan to make and sell yummy elderberry jelly; letting the birds get all the berries is not a good thing. I can foresee a netting system in the near future. It will be a good trial run for our future rows of juneberries.

I was particularly annoyed at the deer as I noticed more and more of the brackens missing. I was thinking that Ron’s cousins needed to get busy getting rid of them. Then it dawned on me. Those apparently chewed off branches; I had been harvesting our elderberries.

Our lavender also was forgotten for most of the season. The three of us had worked hard getting it pruned in early spring and filling in new plants were the older ones had died. Then one Saturday we noticed some missing plants. And I found

a dozen plants pulled out of the ground. I set them into a plastic lid and poured in water. Getting them back in the ground would have to wait a bit. The shiitakes again were most important. But we did want to know just what had pulled them out. We set up a game camera on the edge of the field. The lousy weather prevented us from getting a good shot, but we got the proof needed. We have a foggy video of the actual crime. The blasted crows just walked around and yanked the lavender plants out. I don’t know why, but maybe they were hoping for fresh bugs from our digging? We replanted and this time put one of our marking flags with each plant. Hoping that it would keep the crows away. It seemed to have done the trick as no more plants were yanked out.

In mid-August I went out and harvested some of the lavender. I know, I know. I should be doing this earlier in the year. By the time I got out there most of the flowers had opened and you are supposed to get them before that happens. We hate to cut them too soon though. The bees really love the flowers and we enjoy watching them move through our field. Ron especially likes seeing the bumblebees. This even after he discovered that these bees do actually sting.

I laid it all on a drying rack and waited for Mother Nature to do it her thing. We bought this rack system a few years ago just for this purpose. It was very easy to set up and didn’t take up too much room. It is longer than I thought it would be so we will have to hang it up on a higher beam next year. We just slapped it up this time and the bottom rack was just inches off the floor. It did the trick though. I ended up with a quart jar full of dried lavender. And a small bowl of dried calendula. I took this with me to the MV Garlic Fest so folks could see, touch and smell it. Most people enjoy having the chance to actually see or hold the special ingredients in your products.

Obviously things have to change if we are going to see any benefit from our “other than shiitakes” products. This might include my gathering a few friends for a weeding (great fun) party and then later for harvesting events. If I promise there will be no rock picking, I am sure I can count on at least one friend. And she knows who she is.