All My Birdies have Flown the Coop

The largest sunflower head we had this year.

We moved Alex into his dorm yesterday with the help of his FiJi friends.... that is the Fraternity that he has pledged for....seems like a nice group of guys.  I had a few moments of panic and sadness throughout the day but he is only 15 mins. away and 2 hours after leaving him at the dorm, he and his friends pulled into our driveway to pick something up from Alex's room.  We will seem him often I am sure. 

Memphis house has had a couple more potential buyers tour it - one is still considering and not sure about the other one...they came yesterday and we have not received feed back from them yet. 

This past weekend we picked up more mulch and did some weed control on the blueberries and grapes.  We put down newspaper, then fabric weed block and then mulch....hopefully that will keep the grass from growing where we don't want it to grow.

The blackberries are ready to have another row added so as soon as we find the thing that we use to hammer down the fence posts, we will get started on that....it is hiding somewhere on the farm.  The 3 little blackberry plants we started with have really expanded nicely.

I finished mowing the back fields and even though you are only sitting on a tractor riding around, it still wears you out after a couple hours.  The tractor's power steering is not working and the bouncing around is a little hard on the back sometimes.   Every time we drive by the tractor store in Bolivar, Cris and I just sigh..... someday we will have a new tractor.

CANNING:  The pears were canned last week as well as peaches we bought at Jones Orchards.  We made a peach pepper jam that really tastes good.  Will go great over cream cheese.  We also canned about 10 jars of spaghetti sauce.  We use about one jar of spaghetti sauce a week so we figured it took 20 pounds of tomatoes to make 10 jars.... so we need about 80 more pounds of tomatoes to make a year's worth of spaghetti sauce.

SUNFLOWERS I harvested the sunflower heads last weekend.  We had ALOT of sunflowers from just a few heads we harvested last year.  They are drying out on the breezeway of our trailer on the farm.  Some of the seeds will be saves to plant next year and some will be used as 'organic' birdseed and chicken feed.  Chickens love birdseed.  No chickens on the farm yet but should have some in the Spring. 

Storage space is lacking in the trailer so we are making plans to install a pantry in the kitchen and some bookshelves in the dining area. 

FARM TO DO LIST:

• Clean up the hoop house to get ready for Fall planting
• Gutters for the trailer
• front/back deck built on trailer
• storage solutions for inside the trailer
• build garden shed near vegie fields
• addition to barn - 2 more stalls for farm equipment

This should keep us busy for a while.... 

This past weekend, the temp finally went below 95 degrees.... I actually saw an 88 during the middle of the day. Saturday evening was beautiful on the farm.... if actually felt cool.  There was a meteor shower over the weekend but it was also a full moon so Cris was only able to see a few fly through the sky. 

Cris bought some new parts for the Massey Ferguson tractor and it is now running much better.  My tractor (the Ford 8N) is still in parts in the barn from last year.  It is his rainy day project.  I bush-hogged as much of the lower fields as I could over the weekend, getting them cut so the grass will grow back in time to cut for hay in the Fall.

We have been working on controlling weeds in the asparagus, grapes, strawberries, blueberries and the fruit trees.  We are putting down weed block between the rows of asparagus and strawberries (and on the strawberry rows themselves) and then will lay mulch down over it.

The greenhouse is our project for the coming weekend - the peppers are done so we pulled those and will be canning and freezing this week.  The tomatoes were attached by hornworms and we also decided that we planted the tomatoes too close to each other so we are cleaning up that area and hopefully what the hornworms did not destroy will produce through the fall in the greenhouse.  We are harvesting tomatoes but not as many as we had hoped.  It's a learning experience

The pear trees did great for being their first year.  We have a large grocery bag full that will be canned this week as well.  There is a great pear/cranberry conserve recipe we are going to try and also a pear rosemary recipe that looks really good.

Cris and Alex installed the skirting around the modular home (ok.... pimped up trailer) and it looks more like a home now.  The front and back deck will be started in September.  We have a WELL!  They only had to drill down about 125 ft which is so wonderful!  We tested the water and it's free of all the bad stuff that we don't want in the water. 

Our remaining bee hive is gone. Not sure what happened.  Sometimes they just leave.... maybe it just got too hot for them.  We found moths in the hive and we are not sure if they caused the hive to leave or they came in after.  This type of moth eats the wax on the frames and they pretty much destroyed the frames and the honey is no good.  We have talked to other bee keepers and they have had the same problem the last few years.... It's something we hope to control a little better once we move to the farm full time.  We won't add any new hives until the Spring.

Our next meeting with our friends a Evergreen Dairy will include a speaker who will discuss saving seeds.  Should be interesting.  Our sunflowers are all in the drying out process now, still on the stalks.  When the sunflower heads turn brown, then it's time to cut them from the stalks.  I will have alot of sunflower seeds for next year.

Cris has been mushroom hunting every chance he gets.  He is finding Chanterelles at Shelby Farms in the hiking trail area and on our farm.  We can't wait for next Spring when the Morels are in season again.  

Alex heads to college next week.  His gets settled into his dorm Thursday the 25th and classes start the 29th.  He's way excited!

Our house has been on the market for a couple months.  Only 4 visitors but we know this is not the best time to sell.  Two have been looking for a house with the master bedroom on the first floor but all our bedrooms are on the 2nd.  We just have to be patient and the right buyer will come.

July 16-17, 2011

Our tomatoes are being attacked by Hornworms.  We are only at the farm on the weekends and hornworms need to be taken care of daily.  We must have picked off over 100 hornworms this weekend, between 2 adults and one labradoodle..... yes, labradoodle.  My wonderful Nugget has watched us take the hornworms (large green caterpillars) off the tomato plants and he now sniffs them out and snatches them off with his teeth. He does a great job too and finds the ones on the lower part of the plant.  But you have to watch him because he also likes to eat the ripe cherry tomatoes.  We are hoping the special wasp shows up that lays eggs on the hornworms.  Once the eggs are laid, then in less than a week, the worms are gone.  Nature is it's own insect repellent sometimes.

Well, the heat has not diminished so we try to limit our workload outside and drink plenty of water.  Every once in a while Nugget will dash from the field and heads to the pond to cool off.... he swims around and then comes back to the field, wet but refreshed.  Smart dog.  

We are still waiting for the well. Suppose to come back out this week and drill deeper.  All we can do is wait.  We have been bringing gallons and gallons of fresh water with us every weekend so we can cook and drink but that is getting old.  

We harvested the potatoes (red & white) and the remaining onions.  The onions are drying out at the farm and then will be stored in a cool, dry place like the potatoes so we can keep them as long as possible.  

My sunflowers have all bloomed and look great.  The cabbage is growing nicely too.  The okra is taking off despite the weeds.  

We had our monthly meeting with friends Sunday at the Bolivar Nursery.  Once again, good food and good conversation.  Michele, the owner of the nursery discussed herbs and the various medicinal properties they have.  

On a totally non-farm related matter - we saw the final Harry Potter movie over the weekend too....it was awesome!

July 9-10 2011

 

Last week Alex and I went to Maryland to visit family and Cris stayed on the farm the whole week with the 2 dogs and cat.  Kitty took a couple days to adjust to his surroundings but is fine now.  He is not allowed outside though, not until he is used to the area. 

We put our Memphis house on the market and had a couple people look at the house.  It is not the best time to sell a house but hopefully we will find the right buyer and the right price.  The house has never been so clean….even Alex is keeping his room clean, but that could be the $20 he gets for keeping his bed made and floor clear of clothes etc…

The well is not installed yet.  We ended up changing well companies because the other kept giving us the run around… it was always, “next week”.  The new company (which came with recommendations from friends) drilled yesterday and hit sand around 50 ft. which is good.  They went to 95 ft. and stopped.  Tuesday another person comes out with a pump to see how the water flow is from 95 ft.  If it is good, then they install the pump and holding tank…..if not, they dig some more.  When the well is ready to be hooked up to the house, we get the electrician to run the electric and then FINALLY, we will have a well. (update - well is not deep enough so they are coming out again to drill....no well yet!)

Two weeks ago we had friends over to make shitake mushroom logs.  Cris hooked up a barrel of water to the house so we could at least use the bathroom.  That was handy and appreciated by all.  The mushroom plugging went great despite the heat.  Afterwards we all went inside to the air conditioning to have a wonderful meal and conversation.  Cris made two different mushroom dishes and others brought dishes from items out of their gardens. 

I thought it was hot two weeks ago, that was until we hit this weekend….. The heat and humidity are horrible.  We are not getting as much done as we had hoped for fear of heat exhaustion.  This morning we weeded the cabbage and ended up a drenched mess.  This evening we hope to start weeding the okra plants.  Last week while Alex and I were in Maryland, Cris weeded the 500 strawberry plants and then covered them with weed block…. That took him 3 days because of the heat and humidity. 

We are thankful that it has rained…not like last year  when it was so dry.  I think that is why the weeds are so bad this year….not really weeds but just grass.  Our cows will have some wonderful grass to eat because it grows like crazy. 

Since we are limited to what we can do outside, we “went to town” to pick up materials to make a solar clothes dryer (clothes line) and we installed that today.  I plan to buy a used washer when the well is ready and will only wash on sunny days so I can use the clothes line.  We will see how long that lasts before I beg for a dyer.

We are also pricing the sheeting that goes on the bottom of the trailer.  As soon as the well is installed, we hope to get the heat pump and then we can put the sheeting up…that will keep the dogs out from under the trailer. They love hunting for frogs.

Cris has been mushroom hunting around the property and has found chanterelles, which are in season right now.  They are all over the place.  Our dinner tonight will consists chanterelles freshly picked, and freshly picked cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and onions. 

The potatoes and remaining onions are ready to be dug up but the ground is too wet so that will have to wait.  We did some more tomato staking (the tomatoes we planted outside, not in the greenhouse), weeding and then called it a day at 6pm…. Just too hot for man and beast. 

Our farm home is currently a mish mash of furniture and boxes and there is NO method to our madness, as they say.  We are slowly moving items out to the farm but some items have to stay at the Memphis house since it is for sale and we want to make it look nice for potential buyers. We will not have the storage space we have in Memphis so we are coming up with ideas to create storage.  Our project list just keeps growing. Luckily, my daughter Lindsay has moved into a townhome and needs furniture...I am glad I can pass some of my mother's furniture onto her granddaughter.   

Weekend of June 18-19, 2011

We went to our friend’s farm today to pick out some more cows.  When we do live on the farm full time and have the fencing up, we will have four beautiful Scottish Highlands; Hyacinth, Henrietta (Hyacinth’s cousin, their moms are sisters), Mindy and another one that is a blonde beauty; forgot her name. 

Today we harvested the wheat.  Cris used the scythe to cut the wheat, then we gathered it onto the trailer and used the wood chipper with the medium size blade and shredded the wheat.  This took the wheat kernels off the stalk.  We then set up a fan next to a large container.  We picked up the pile of kernels and shredded wheat by the handfuls and let it drop next to the fan.  The kernels were heavy enough to drop into the container, yet the shredded wheat stalks flew away.  It worked great but we will have to run through this procedure a couple more times to get all the shredded stalks removed.  The wheat berries will keep forever in a tightly sealed container; you just grind the wheat as needed and the use that wheat flour within 2 weeks.  The wheat was grown on 1/20 of an acre.  I am not sure how many pounds of wheat berries we will end up with but we think it should be enough for a year. Kitchen Aid makes an attachment to grind wheat so that is handy.

The well has yet to be installed, which is very aggravating.  We have been told the last three weeks that it will be "next week”.  We are having people over to the farm to make mushroom logs on the 25^th and I was sure hoping to have running water.  We shall see. 

The English Peas are finished for the season, they turned out great and we plan to grow a lot more next year so we can freeze them.  They are not something I want to sell at the farmer’s market though unless we get a pea sheller.  I don’t mind shelling peas while watching tv for our own enjoyment but it would be a lot of shelling by hand to have enough to sell at the market.

The shade cloth we put on the hoop house works great….. Too great I am afraid… we may have to remove it so the tomatoes can get more sun.  It does cut down on the temperature in the hoop house though.  Some of the tomato plants are taller than me and green tomatoes are starting to grow.  The peppers are plentiful as well. 

Weeding is a big issue with the farm.  We did not put any weed block (liner) down this year and that was a mistake.  Who wants to spend time weeding in 95 degree weather….not me!  Nothing gets planted without weed block ever again. 

TEDDY VS THE SNAKES -  last week (June 11th) Teddy came up to us acting funny….. Cris went to look at his face and Teddy cried in pain.  He apparently went after another snake and this time he got bit.  We gave him some Benedryl and off to the vet we went.  The vet gave him a steroid shot to help with the swelling.  He got bit but a rather large snake from the size of the bite. We were never able to locate the snake that bit him so I guess it got away.

Farmisms.....

A few little Farmism's from Sandy:

Living in the country, the phrase, “Let’s run to town to pick up beer (or milk or a tractor part or gas for the mower) gets me super excited.  I just love “going to town”.  Of course, I usually sit in the truck and wait for Cris to get whatever he went to town for but I love it. I sometimes end up with a Dr. Pepper and a Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake ice cream.

Give me a tractor or riding lawn mower with a full take of gas and I could mow all day long.  I just love the feeling of accomplishment….. It is immediate gratification….you mow a strip and right away it looks better.  I feel that way about vacuuming too.  Just ask Cris about my fascination with vacuums, brooms and mops. 

The difference between 95 degrees and 85 degrees is night and day.  I learned that a couple weeks ago after we had a brief drizzle at the farm…. The temp turned from 95 to 85, humidity was lower and it was heaven. 

Two people working together make the chores easier to handle.  (duh!)

Just because the Great Pyrenees your friend owns had 6 of the most adorable puppies you have ever seen, that does NOT mean we can have one.  They are livestock guard dogs and we don’t have livestock yet. 

It is OK to name the female cows but not the male cows.  The female cows stay on the farm to have babies and the male cows end up on the dinner plate.

As usual this time of year, along comes the heat and there goes the rain.  No rain to speak of for over 2 weeks. Cris' irrigation system has come in very handy at the farm.  The pump can run for about 3 hours before running out of gas so we can give the plants a good soaking...but nothing beats a nice rain.

We spent the night at the farm last weekend and our dinner was almost 100% from farm to fork.... we had freshly dug up red potatoes with onions and a pepper salsa topped with grilled sea bass. (you guessed it....the bass did not come from the farm...but everything else did). 

Still waiting for the tomatoes to turn green but when they do, we will have tomatoes, onions, peppers, radishes, peas and maybe potatoes ready for the market. Later in the summer there will be okra, squash, cucs and beets.

The septic work starts tomorrow (Thursday June 9th) and the well installation has been changed to next week due to some equipment repair with the well people.

Cris installed a window AC unit in the kitchen/living area until we have enough in the budget for the big heat pump that needs to be installed.  (around $3500-$4000).

The Memphis house is about 90% ready to go on the market...waiting for my landscape guy to get here to do some trimming and mulching and Cris has to get on a ladder (not his favorite thing) and fix a couple paint spots on the siding.  We have hired The Alex's (Alex and his friend Alex) to do some power washing and mulching next week.  After all that, we should be ready.... keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to be on the market too long.  When we bought the house in 2007, it had been on the market less than a day.  But that was before all the housing market mess.... :(

We are done planting things for a little bit so now we are concentrating on getting the fields mowed and especially the terraces.  The terraces are where snakes like to hide out and hunt mice..... as we found out last Sunday when Teddy the Terrier found a cotton mouth and killed it.  It was about 2 ft. long and Teddy shook the living daylights out of it.  I think Teddy saw stars from shaking his head so hard and fast.  Luckily, no snake bites this time. 

Our goal is to eventually get a new tractor (nothing huge) so we don't spend so much time working on the tractor and less time actually using it.  My tractor, the Ford 8N is still in several parts....waiting for a rainy day to work on it.  The Massey Ferg. is having carburetor trouble.... Cris cleans it out but then after a while, he has to clean it again.  He said he thinks it has to do with stuff they put in the gas now.

When the temperature reaches 90-100 and the humidity is high, we seem to get less than we want to done.... I guess it is because we have to take more breaks and work slower so we don't dehydrate.  It will be nice when we reach the point where we can hire interns in the summer.... cheap labor!