Category Archives: Our 3 Acres

Garlic is good for your heart

Our 3 Acres

But growing it really stress us out.

On November 17, 2018 we  had our first significant snowfall here in Upstate NY. This is much too early and THF is simply not ready for this.  Once again Mother Nature is reminding us that she is in charge and we had scramble to get caught up with our prewinter chores.  It is always a  matter of getting things picked up, stored away and prepped for the cold weather and snow.  We had so many plans that fell by the wayside.  Getting the lavender pruned was one of the bigger ones.  The wet and nasty weather we had in October prevented us from getting out to THF for more than the absolute necessities.

At the last possible minute we made a mad dash to get just one row of garlic planted.   We lucked into a  Saturday when Jo was not working and amazingly, it was not raining.  What it was; cold and very muddy. 

I offered up the unused but already tilled row that I had planned to test some medicinal herbs in.  We just had to pull off the landscape cloth and till it up a bit more.  Sounds a lot  easier than it actually was.  The ground was so wet from the constant rain that it stuck to everything. Our boots, hands and tools.  And the tiller, making it a major bear to work with.  Ron had to do some serious manhandling to get the blasted thing up and down the row.  And of course we had to deal with the rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.   

There was no way we were going to make the same lazy mistake we did last year.  We made sure we took the needed extra time to run the straw through the chipper shredder.  It is the only way to get rid of most of the seeds.  I cannot be sure but am pretty convinced that it was the massive amount of straw growing along side our garlic that caused the majority of our losses.  It was a long day with hours of hard work and exhausting, but such a relief when we were finally finished.  One important thing checked off our must get done list.   

In the midst of all the things we really needed to get done, Ron was busy working on his next project.  Finally getting what will actually look like a “Tiny House” on the farm.  He went back to his Amish farmer/builder to have him get started on another shed.  This one would be taller with a loft on each end.  These will be used for storage and other future projects.  We have already learned that up is best when it comes to protection of our stuff.   Vivid memories of the flooding in July 2017 still make us worry when a flash flood warning pops up on the TV or cell phone. And I want to use it to store all the props needed for our selling events.  The purpose of our house shaped shed will really be preparation for our many products, especially the shiitake cleaning.  It is time to move more of the operations out of our home and out to the actual farm.  Our first shed will be for storage of our equipment and the drying processes.   In the coming years we will have our lavender and calendula air drying there.  As well as our garlic.

Of course Ron (being Ron) he just had to complicate the issue by deciding that we needed to move the first shed from it’s original site.  It was getting too much of a full day’s sun which left the interior too hot for our purposes.  Even with the solar fans running full speed, the temps were going to be just too high to safely dry our herbs.  In the new location, the afternoon sun should heat it just enough.

And then in April 2019, we knew we had done good again. The lovely reward of our hard, wet work. Yeah, we ran out of our chopped straw for the row, but the ones on the end still grew nicely. Always so nice to see the garlic sprouts, but there was no time to revel in it. We were so busy getting ready for the new year that we walked by our rows without much thought most days. We always grow the hard neck varieties of garlic as we really like the scapes. I make a fabulous garlic scape pesto from them. It can be frozen too, so we can enjoy it all year long. This year I decided to try pickling the scapes. They won’t be ready for months, so they are sitting out of the way in our frig. I will let you know how they turn out.

We had some seriously hot days in July which made all of us think twice about working on out on Tiny House Farm, but the garlic had to be harvested. I was not going to lose it again. Armed with pitchfork and my trusty hat, I tackled the job. We didn’t have the yield that we had back in 2015 and 2016, but it was respectable and I was happy with it. For the first time since we first got the 4 wheeler, I actually drove it around the field. Ron was busy with him own project so it was up to me to get the garlic from field into drying shed.

And there it is. The fruits of our labor that we can now enjoy for many months. For all you garlic lovers out there, whether you grow it yourself or buy from another grower; do some research about fermenting it. I did that in 2017 using the directions on the internet for what they call lacto-fermented garlic and we used the delicious results until they ran out in June of this year. My first attempt was only two pint sized jars. I will be setting up many more jars this year. I just have to make sure I have enough room in our frig for what I ferment. I froze several bags of the really small cloves we salvaged but they don’t work as well as the fermented garlic does.

Yesterday was another lovely morning and it was finally time to get our garlic out of the shed and safely into our cellar. There would be no leaving it as not so important and waiting until we find time on another day. That is what we did last year and what garlic we did have froze and thawed several times over the course of late October and November last year. We ended up tossing out all of it out. That was a very sad day.

This is our end result. This picture doesn’t do our haul justice as we have just over 12 pounds of garlic. Not enough to sell to anyone, but more than enough for our needs. And more set aside that we will be planting again come fall. We will stick with growing just for ourselves from now on. Our original plans were to grow enough to sell. But there are so many growers in our area, including many home gardeners that we could not find consistent buyers for THF garlic. We made the decision last year when we did just one row. Before we knew that our local restaurant customers would be looking for good quality garlic in quantity. At the Syracuse Regional Farmers Market, Ron struck up a conversation with one of local farmers. That resulted in a north country garlic contact who will sell their certified organic garlic to us in multiple pound increments. They also have organic shallots that Ron buys. He then re-sells these products to our customers. And we will make it available to family and friends who are looking for the good stuff, one pound at a time. Ron is all about making good and solid local connections. He tends to find a lot of same minded folks who are happy to work with him. This has expanded his access to variety of local products. As our growing list of customers has found out. They ask him if he has or knows where they can find this or that and he proceeds to find a way to get it for them. Ron thrives in his new role as facilitator. He does love a challenge. As anyone who knows him will attest.

Spring time at THF

Our 3 Acres

This is really the busiest time of the year overall. There is so much we have to get done just so we can get started for the year. As usual, there are a number of things that we did not get handled last fall and we are paying the price now.

Ron and I had been out to Tiny House Farm a few times in January and February, to check on things and pick pussy willows. It wasn’t until mid April that we got out there to actually get some work done. First thing on the list was our lavender. Time had gotten away from us (again) last fall and we did not get the pruning done. We had it planned for, I swear we did. I even researched and ordered three special knives for us to use.

This is what we needed to take care of. Nine plants per row and 17 rows makes for quite a lot of lavender. Thank goodness Jo had the entire weekend off so we were three strong. Saturday the 13th of April was a nice day and perfect for getting work done. We loaded up with water, food, gloves and kneepads. And my knives, cannot forget those. Small problem. I could not find them. I was sure I left them in the shed at THF so they would be handy. Jo and I searched thoroughly but they were simply not there. So we knocked off the branches from last year with our handy clippers. Hours and hours later, our hands were sore and we were ready to stop. We were just over halfway done.

Ron’s best work is done while sitting down.

Jo and I left Ron behind and headed home. He was going to get one more row done and then be home himself. I looked again for my knives to no avail. So frustrating. But par for the course. I do tend to have the habit of putting something away so it was safe only to discover it is so safe that I cannot find it.

We already have some green showing on our plants so are hopeful for this year. Ron had mentioned buying some more plants to fill in where we lost previous ones, but here we are at planting time with nothing to plant. Last weekend he came across the last email he had from Harris Seeds (he never delates anything) and shot them a note asking if they still had lavender to sell. I guess they do as we received a box of those plants labels from them a few days later.

We really have some serious weeding and mowing to get done. Maybe we need to have a weeding party in 2019?? This mess is where my calendula will soon be growing but we have to get our fabulous brush hog fixed first. Our first repair of the year. Fingers crossed that we won’t have many of them. This one way relatively easy as it was just flat tires.

Part of getting ready for spring is also getting ready for our shiitake mushroom inoculation event. Every year we add more logs to our laying yard. Strange as it is, laying yard is the actual name Cornell gives for the stash of mushrooms bolts. Stash sounds better in my mind. That word implies something of value. Like a stash of yarn or material. And this is something we always need help with. We are still trying to recover from the flood of 2016 when we lost a good number of logs. Sadly those we did find and bring back are not going to be viable after all. Based on the other mushrooms growing on some logs, the long soak in the stream prevented the shiitake spawn from taking solid hold. They will be added to our stash of fire wood. (you see what I did there, right?)

It is now May 3rd and we are in final stretch of prep for our shiitake event. We pushed it back this year based on previous years. The weather has always been the decided factor and we are hoping that the first weekend of May would prove to be a wise choice. At least we will have less chance of sudden snow storms. Pouring rain outside now but tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and 62 degrees. No matter, rain or shine, the bolts have to be inoculated.

And we have a lot of bolts to get done this year. A few last minute things to get done today including stops for tomorrow’s food and anything we might have forgotten. That is why we live with lists in this house and check off as we go. This is only way to be sure everything is on hand and ready to go. I have even put a sticky note of front door to remind us not to leave the house without our spawn. Something we have done before. To use one of Ron’s favorite phrases – forgotten spawn would be a “show stopper.”

We, and by we, I mean Ron is trying to keep things low key this year. (Don’t laugh, Josi) This is our fifth year of doing inoculation and we know what we are doing. More than a few of our workers tomorrow are repeat helpers and we will get done what we get done. Of course, we will be more than happy to have a few more people show up. There will be lots of food, good conversation and laughs to be had. You will learn something and work off more than a few calories. What better way to spend a day in May?

When will he make it end??

Microgreens

To hear Ron tell it, the farm and all it entails, is my fault. This was my idea and he is just helping me out to make it successful. Don’t you believe it! (this is from Tom and Jerry cartoon and should be read in spooky voice). From the first raised bed in our backyard to buying a farm, this has been all him. Every time I think we are getting settled into a solid place with Tiny House Farm, Ron throws everything out of whack. He had shoulder surgery in January and was out of work for two weeks. It was just two weeks, people, but he was bored out of his mind by the end of the first day.

Ron has always had a serious addiction to YouTube videos and will search it whenever he has a project and needs some advice on it. But he also searches the site for new and interesting things to do. During those two weeks, he watched, I don’t know how many videos on a number of different subjects.


Which is why THF is now experimenting with microgreens. These are young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs harvested less than 14 days after germination. They are usually about 1-3 inches long and come in a rainbow of colors. Basically you use the same seeds you would grow a full sized plant from, but you eat these when they are still tiny; just a few inches tall. Microgreens should not be confused with or compared to sprouts.

Sites such as WebMD tout the nutritional value of these tiny plants. There has been a serious amount of research done, and most scientists agree that microgreens have up to 40 times more vital nutrients than mature plants. Of course some plants have more bang for their buck. As with regular sized plants, the most intensely colored ones will have the most nutrition. Microgreens can add incredible flavor to salads, soups, stews, pizzas, egg dishes, potato dishes, sandwiches, pasta dishes – and anywhere else your imagination takes you.

This was soon in my living room. Ron started ordering things that came in large boxes. A large tub, trays, seeds, lights, racks, sprayers and, of all things, a mini Shopvac. I was lucky in that we already had a Brita water filter that he could use, but he needed a PH tester in order to make sure our water was good to use. Turns out our tap water is alkaline and needed to be tweaked. Our costs would have just gone up if he had to buy special water to use. And that was a good thing as growing microgreens takes a lot of water.

And the water issue has been the biggest pain in the butt. Ron runs our water through the Brita water filter, into an empty water jug and then works to adjust the PH. This he does by adding a few drops of vinegar. You would think this would be easy enough. Just add the same amount of vinegar to the same amount of water in the jug and all should be well, right? Well, not so much. He sets out to get 4 gallon jugs of water ready to go and each one came up with a different reading. More vinegar and then more water added again and again. This seems to be his Achilles’ heel.

The growing process itself is simple enough. You soak purchased OMRI certified coconut coir pads in your PH balanced water for 24 hours, I already had a pot large to hold 16 of the pads at one time. (thanks Gram). Then you wring the pads out, lay them on a rack in a tray and then cover with your seeds. Four pads per tray and eight total in your growing trays. Those are the green ones on right side. Turns out it is pretty difficult to get the seeds evenly spread on each pad. The blasted things bounce all over the place. After you get the seeds in place you have to move the pads to another tray and then pour in more water. You are trying to get each pad thoroughly soaked, so it “sparkles”. Then you move them onto the white spacers in your green tray. Each move results in more seeds falling off the pads. Oh, and you have to spray the seeds with hydrogen peroxide. And the green tray and spacers.


Each tray is covered with a Styrofoam lid and left to sit overight. Then for the next few nights, you spray each tray for 30 seconds and cover it again. It only takes a few days before the seeds start to sprout.

Based on germination tables. the cover is taken off and the seeds are then under lights. . We started with kale, radishes, peas, kohlrabi and my personal favorite, shown below, leeks.

These things are just so pretty. As backyard gardeners we have always grown our veggies from seed but are used to seeing one or two seedlings. Not a carpet of plants like these.

Once the cover is off, you no longer spray the plants. Water is poured into each tray, making sure it is deep enough for the roots to reach it. Ron discovered that my fat separator is the perfect vessel to pour water with. It measures out one cup at a time and has a spout for easy pouring. I was just happy that we didn’t need to buy another item for this project. Though I did lose one of my cooling racks and a colander. Now it is a matter of judgement to decide just when these microgreens are ready to cut. We are not cutting them off the pads to sell, but cutting the pads themselves. Each one is cut into thirds and then placed into a food safe container. Yes, that meant more boxes arrived. Ron did serious research to find the right container. They had to be food safe and clear so the product could shine. He found one that was made in the US and partially with solar energy. Made with 70% recycled materials and is recyclable itself.

Timely is everything as our first batch of peas went a day or two too long and we had to crunch them into the container. We packed them up into shopping bags and took them to work. Our test subjects were more eager to try them. They used them in salads, as garnish on eggs and in bone broth. Ron and I sprinkled our leeks on potatoes to give them a solid burst of flavor.

We have been practicing for the last month, trying to get the growing time from start to finish locked in. In Ron’s effort to get this just right he bought a new set of lights. Yea, more boxes in our living room. The lights were pretty cool too. LEDs running at 6500 K that cost much less to use and are designed for easy instillation. No need for the lights to be set inside a bracket system. And each set has its own on / off switch.

Ron has been posting some of our photos on THF Instagram site and they have received positive feedback. We are hoping that our current shiitake customers will become microgreen customers too. Our first real attempt at selling them will take place at the Cornel Cooperative Extension Herb and Flower fest on June 15, 2019.

I really should have sprung for a TV streaming service for him. It would have been much cheaper.

We be in the “pink” on THF

Our 3 Acres

Just as January was winding down, Ron went out to THF to cut some of our pink pussy willows. Last year we made no attempt to work with them. It was the second year of growth and we made the decision to just let them be. Of course the deer out there made no such commitment.   Last spring we found gnawed off ends on most of the plants.  A disheartening  sight to be sure.

I assume it was the deer, but we do have rabbits on the farm too and I guess they could be the culprits. No way to know for sure.   We really do want them to grow well on THF. In the early spring their nectar and pollen are a much needed food source for local bees. And who doesn’t want to help out the bees? And as a bonus, they are lovely to look at too.

Anyway, Ron came home with the cuttings and put them into a jar with a few inches of water. This was to force the “pink” color to show.  Then we waited.  And nothing much happened.  Ron always has a vision of the final product in his head.  And he will do whatever it takes to make it come fruition.  But even he cannot fight Mother Nature.   So in early February and then a few weeks later, the two of us headed out to cut more and this time to grab some dogwood twigs.  For contrasting color in the arrangements he had planned.

By that time we actually had more pussy willows to cut too.   Apparently the guidelines are that you need to have at least 10 catkins on each branch and no major empty spaces.  Especially near the top.   You want each of them to look their best and a lopped off or empty top does not improve things.


Now that we had our pussy willows in hand, the next step was to find inexpensive vases for them. Ron’s hope is that we will be able to sell vases of our willows for Valentine’s Day with the red twig dogwoods and maybe a red ribbon or heart. So Jo, Ron and I hit the thrift stores in Syracuse looking for clear vases of just the right size. We were not sure if we would find enough for our purposes. But we did, as unneeded vases were everywhere.

Ron had specific styles and sizes in mind and these are the ones we came home with. They also had to be under a dollar. While the pussy willows would look even more special in a fancy vase, the goal is to keep our costs down. I put a couple of the vases into use by stuffing some of the willows into them. I want to dry them so we can use them as a display at our events. People sometimes do need a visual aid in order to see what is possible. Adding the Easter eggs is a nice touch, don’t you think? The dried ones could be out year round and decorated for just about any occasion. Maybe some tiny Christmas ornaments come December? Shamrocks in March, turkeys in November and hearts in February?

One added bonus to rooting our own pussy willows, we were left with what is known as pussy willow tea. Once your willows have some great roots growing and you get them planted, you can use the left over water to root other plants. This is because all willows have a natural rooting hormone and the water they sat in is now infused with this hormone.

The red twig dog wood cuttings we left in the bucket sprang to life in our living room. We actually had some flower buds showing. It will be interesting to see how well they transplant once the weather gets and stays warmer. We have a good number of the pussy willows that rooted too and will plant them all on THF. Going on the advice from gardening site, Ron has a vision of a solid hedge of willows. At least this vision will be easy enough to make happen. As long as Mother Nature cooperates. And the deer stay away.

THF wrap-up for 2018

Our 3 Acres, ,

This is the time of year when all of us sit and look back to see what we have done and how far we have come.   We had some major changes at THF and more than a few ups and downs.   Money was spent on repairing our equipment such as our fabulous and much needed trailer/wagon.  We use it to haul just about everything around the farm.  Money was made by selling our shiitakes and my new skin care products.  We added a third event to our schedule and kept our eyes open for any other potential customers.   New people were met and a wonderful friend, Bob Crane was lost.

The weather played havoc with our schedule and plans.  Too much rain at the wrong times kept us from harvesting, planting and painting.  Yes, we had more painting to do.  Ron finally moved forward on getting buildings for THF.  It was a big deal when our shed arrived.  It was Amish made and just what we needed to store our equipment.  Well remembering the time involved in painting our first tiny house, we decided to have the builder paint the shed for us.  We still have a few tweaks do to.  I want to paint green around the windows and door to break up the massive sameness.   And we desperately need more of Ron’s whimsies to hang on the building.   Especially now that it has been moved.

Yes, after all the time and effort Ron spent to have the shed set in just the right position, he decided to have it moved.   He pulled the trigger and had the same Amish man build another shed for him.  The two families we have been working with have been a huge help to us.   Ron has plans for them to build him a few other things over the next few years.   And kids are just delightful.   The second shed is bigger so we can use as for processing our products.  Cleaning and bagging the shiitakes, sorting the elderberries and drying our calendula and lavender.

Once Ron decided where he wanted this new building, he also decided this was the time to move the shed too. He did not like the current location as it got too much sun and there is no way the two fans we had installed would keep the shed cool enough to dry but not damage either our lavender or calendula. So we had two cement slabs poured. Though I fretted about our budget, it was exciting to move forward with his plans.

By the time both sheds were moved into their new spots it was late November and too late to get a coat of primer on it. Hey, I have a great idea. We need to have a painting event come spring. I am sure we will have lots of volunteers for that project

You can tell from this photo that we had one big project that didn’t get done. We had planned to mow down the proposed future site of our juneberries and get the landscape cloth rows set up. We just didn’t get to it. Too much rain, too many other things to get done and too much inference from our normal daily lives. Things like our jobs caused us to miss some wonderful THF work days.

I continued working on my calendula products, though by the time our events started I stopped making our goat’s milk soap. I had enough of that to sell in 2018. I did learn that soap making can be wonderful fun but frustrating. You will remember that my first attempt of making soap was a simple calendula soap and the bar Josi and I made turned out great. I decided to try making more but this time a double batch using larger molds. I used the on-line lye calculator which is a fabulous tool for all soap makers. It will take any recipe and allow you to increase or decrease the batch size. Or change your ingredients but always making sure you end up with a usable bar of soap. What they can not help you with is making sure you pay attention to your process. When I poured the soap into the molds, I immediately realized something was wrong. I didn’t have enough to completely fill both molds. I couldn’t figure what I had missed. While driving home from work the next day, it hit me. I had not added enough water. I used the amount from the original recipe.

That is when I learned about rebatching. That is when you chop up your not quite right soap and melt it down, adding what you need in order to fix it. That goodness I had a large crockpot to use for this.

I actually kinda like the way it turned out. But it was a lot of extra work. Especially as you cannot be sure you have fixed the problem. This was not the end of my troubles. I tried again with the same recipe but this time it was too oily. I think that was because I put the soap molds right into the insulated box I used for the goat’s milk soap. That meant the soap stayed hot much longer that it should have. So crockpot to the rescue again.

In the middle of all this I also made my first attempt at elderberry jelly. And that turned out to be a huge success. I cannot wait until we have it ready to sell. I plan to make more from the berries I have stashed in our freezer. Our elderberries bushes produced so many berries. I make elderberry tincture and syrup. We sold more than a few pounds, gave away some and froze the rest. I deliberately did this in order to have jelly to sell at the CCE Herb and Flower Fest in June 2019. That means more work between now and then as Ron has to come up with the label design. But first we have to decide on the right jar. Needs to be 4 ounces and able to go into a water bath. We are thinking that the Ball jelly jars while the right size and easy to pick up locally, will not work. Their quilted outside will not take a label easily.

Another hit we had was the pawpaw butter I made. Ron came home with a box of pawpaws from Cornell and I stumbled onto a recipe to turn them into a butter. I learned one of the best ways to cook the pawpaws too. You peel the soft fruit and then toss the whole thing in to the pot. Once it is cooked enough you run it through a fool mill to remove the seeds and any peel that is still in there. It was a solid home run from almost everyone we had try it. Now we just have to wait to have our own fruit to use. That will a few more years. I really do like being able to offer more than one nonperishable product that I can make ahead and not worry about. And both the jelly and butter would be wonderful on a toasted English muffin.

We had a huge set back with our garlic. We had planted 4 rows again in 2017 and were expecting to see another great harvest. But it was not to be. We are not quite sure what happened but we tossed out more than we salvaged and got the remaining set up for curing by hanging it from the rails in our work tent.

Once it was fully cured we moved it to the shed. That was another mistake as time got away from us and we left it there too long. We had a surprise cold spell here. And by cold I mean several days well below 32 degrees. When we finally got out to pull it in, we discovered it had frozen and then thawed. We had to toss most of it. It was very depressing.

Also depressing was the set back I had with growing calendula. I had watched a video from a farm in Maine that grows this herb and they used a bed of straw as mulch. Since we had a bale left over, I thought it would be a good idea. Yeah, it really wasn’t. We didn’t think much of it when the straw started growing in the beds, thinking we could spend some time weeding it out. Of course that didn’t happen either.

In the beginning the flowers were lovely and grew much better than Ron expected.

This is what I had come fall. You can barely see a few yellow flowers amid all the straw. Now I have to wait until spring so I can mow all the old dead stuff down and try again with more seeds and serious commitment to weed pulling. We left most of flower heads to go to seed and drop where they where. I did snag seeds from a few orange flowers to grow next year for sale. We are going to plant again next year in our old garlic rows.

We have January, February and March hash out our plans for 2019. There will be another log inoculation event, more planting, much more weeding, and painting. Lots of decisions to make and assorted mistakes too. And I will certainly collect a few more bruises. But we will have tons of fun, meet more great people and if all goes well, we will make some money in the bargain. We are all really looking forward to it.

Battered and bruised

Our 3 Acres, ,

Wet, exhausted, dirty. And hungry. And it turns out, bug bit. But more about that later. That is how I ended my Mother’s Day 2018.  Ron had big plans this year and the festivities started on Thursday May 10th when Jo, Ron and I headed out to THF after work.  Now that winter had finally released its grip on Upstate NY it was time  to start our lavender planting process.   Last year we laid out two extra panels of the landscape cloth.  This in prep for our 2018 planting.  First step was melting holes in the landscape cloth. As it was just the three of us, Ron had to come with up a plan for us to use the blow torch.  When we did this last year, we were six people strong.  Luckily, he is very good at finagling things.

He used his favorite thing; bungie cords to attach a propane tank to the log hauling rack we bought a few years ago.  Then he hooked up the blow torch and strapped that down.   It was amazing how well this part of the project went.  Six rows with 19 holes each and we were done in just under two hours.

Friday we headed back out again after work to drill the holes we needed.  Why are we drilling the holes, you ask?  Because we have lots of rocks on THF.  Check out the picture I posted on our Instragram  page.

Jo really loves digging out rocks.   She is just like her Uncle John, simply does not want to leave rocks were they are.    And this is where the bruising came in.  The drill we were using had a 3 inch auger attached and it was a beast to work with.  As I was not at all familiar with how strong the thing was; my knees, shins and wrists got a beating.  And we also had to deal with the auger deciding not to stay locked in.  After it fell out for about the 10th time, we took it as a sign and packed it in for the night.

That turned out to be a  mistake.  Saturday was a rainy, chilly day.  We never did make it out to THF.   I made soap in the morning, re-potted 80 of our lavender starts and got a few of the normal life things done while we waited and hoped for better weather.  Just after noon, Ron decided that he was calling it.  This day was a bust.  And then it dawned on me – the next day was Mother’s Day and he was going to do it to me again.  The tradition of hard, outside work on the day I should be pampered by him and Jo was once again going to happen.  He gets me every year.

Ron and I headed out Sunday morning.  It was a beautiful day and we hoped to get everything done in quick order.  While we were able to get the lavender planted easily in the newly drilled holes, things got harder once they were done.  We now had to re-drill the holes from last year.  Now we really wished that that we stuck it out longer on Friday night.  The day started to really drag.  It was hotter and buggier that I liked.  We slogged on determined to get it done.  We were working on the last row when, thank goodness Jo arrived just after 2 pm to help out.

Now we had to water the blasted plants.  That involved the 4 wheeler, water tank and wagon. Jo and Ron got that set up and filled while I finished planting the last few lavender.  It was a nice surprise that I had guessed just right with the number needed.

The watering process was, shall we say interesting.  There was no way to regulate the strength of the water flow.  It was full blast or nothing.  Am not sure our new plants enjoyed getting their first drink of water this way.  It was such a relief when we were finally done.  Now we just had to put everything away and head home.

It doesn’t look like much right now, but in a month or so we will have a lot more green and lots of blossoms.  Ron is looking forward to the invasion of the bumblebees too.  They really love the lavender.

I did not forget that I promised some info about my getting bug bit.  Turns out I am suddenly allergic to black fly bites.  They nailed me at least 3 times even though I had sprayed with bug spray.  They got me on each cheek and the neck.  Monday morning I woke up to my right ear being red, itchy and swollen.  By Tuesday I was so done with the burning itch that I headed to urgent care for help.  I am better now, but will take more serious precautions when working on Our 3 Acres.  Ron has even ordered us a couple of fishing hats.  Again I will be styling while on THF.  I cannot wait.

On a sad note, our farmer friend, Dick Crane has died.  Ron and he always had a great time talking together and he was fascinated by THF.  Every wild thought or idea Ron had, Dick was on board with.  He knew everyone in the area so Ron would reach out to him and ask if he knew a guy who could do this or that.  Dick was such a great help to us with his big machines, especially when we had to set up our outhouse.   He would stop by the farm anytime he had a spare moment just to see what was new.  We will really miss him.