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Here is an update on the addition to the house. Last we saw the spruce trees, they were being sawed up for lumber for the addition. After 3 months of drying, Mark returned and we re-sawed them to size. Here is the work on the house so far. The OSB is covering up the window space but I will post pictures when it is further along.
The next step will be to insulate and shingles. The siding will match the house. Trying to figure out how to fit some furniture inside is a fun puzzle.
Some people spend money on spas or jewelry; I like to spend money on inventions and experiments. The latest is the green machine to roll down rye. Even appropriate technology has trends and fads and the newest is rye roll down. There are advantages to conventional no-till agriculture. The soil is not disturbed; there is less erosion etc. Much of it depends on using herbicides to kill the existing plant cover. When you grow winter rye and roll it down in the flowering stage, it dies. Jury is out. Much of the university research on this is being done where the spring and summer are longer and the rye matures early enough to then plant crops into the rolled down rye. The rye suppresses the weeds and adds organic matter to the soil. This takes some heavy metal to crimp and kill the rye. The green machine fills with water to add weight to it. Transplanting into the flattened rye is tricky too and I have yet to get my transplanter set up well enough. Spending more money is inevitable. Some of my experiments are successful and some are not. The local welder often shakes his head at the equipment he builds. Is it worth the money? Yes! American farmers have long been the innovators of the country developing all kinds of new technology.
How is the experiment going? In the fall, I planted rye and then when it germinated, I used the small rototiller to make rows without rye. This allowed me to plant the pumpkins and winter squash before the rye was ready to roll down and I could use my regular transplanter. Drip tape was laid as the plants were transplanted in case of dry weather. I rolled the rye and hairy vetch mix. It killed the rye but not the vetch and I will hit it again with the green machine. If the vetch does not die, I will need to mow several times and the plants will be at risk of being smothered by this aggressive plant. Next steps: work with the welder to attach a trash coulter and chisel tooth to the transplanter to allow it to plant right into the rye. I'll keep you posted.
"Storms may produce large hail and strong winds." Those are the words a farmer hates to read in the forcast. Before meteorologists and forecasts, we didn't know what was coming except by watching the sky, noticing if the flies were biting or whether the underside of the oak leaves were exposed. For the last 3 days, I have been rushing around because it might rain. It hasn't. At 6:00 a.m. I jumped from bed having realized that I could till between the plastic mulch rows before it rained. Its 9:30 at night and it still hasn't rained.
I am not a native of the Midwest. Garrison Keilor on A Prairie Home Companion has made me smile with descriptions of the "don't get too hopeful, things could get worse" part of the Midwest. After the tornado, I suddenly saw the root of this feeling and understood it better. We had just finished moving the hoop houses when one was destroyed in the winds. At least for now, things feel more tenuous. They feel tenuous and I have neighbors close, telephones, forecasts, and a local grocery store full of food. This past week I have been thinking about the early European settlers on the plains who had to survive by their own effort and hard work. I am honored to be among those who work the land.
A tornado crashed through the Prairie Farm area on Sunday, May 25, my birthday in fact. Good reason not to take things personally. The storm broke trees and at the farm, twisted and ruined one of the hoop houses. The hoop house had just been moved to the new location. Members had just planted the new tomatoes in the ground. In no time flat, the hoop house was destroyed. Neighboring farms lost sheds and barns. No one is hurt, the rest is just stuff. On Tuesday morning 10 neighboring farmers showed up and in only 2 hours the damaged hoop house was removed from the other hoop house and disassembled. A new hoop house has been ordered and order will be restored to the farm. The tomatoes that had been planted have been moved back to the green house and will have to wait about 10 days to get back into their new home.
Surely Dr. Suess was a farmer. How else would he have invented the book, "Bartholomew and the Oobleck." The weather has been cold and wet for a while now and the delay is showing up both in the field and the greenhouse. It seems as if this climate was conjured up by wizards from the dungeon. Warmth is not enough for plants to grow, they must have adequate light as well. A cooler, clammy greenhouse is also a good place for disease and other problems. A few days ago, a mouse ate all the summer squash seeds out of the soil blocks. There they were, all piled on the corner of the tray. I set a trap and the next morning, some more seeds were missing right next to the trap. Hmmm. Dashing out between rain storms, I managed to get some peas, spinach and beets planted. Sometimes getting them into wet, cold soil doesn't really get you actually ahead but it works wonders for the farmer's worry level. We even got in about 4 rows of potatoes. When planting potatoes, I try and warm them up for a while ahead of time to break the dormancy of the potato. This way, once it is in the cold ground, it has a better chance of starting to grow. The colder, wet weather has set the garden back about 10 days. The weather in the next 2 weeks will determine if we can catch up.
Cowboys and stockmen sometimes use the term "dirt farmer" as a derogative term for a vegetable farmer. Certain jobs make me think that they are right. One of the helpers on my farm termed these jobs "crawling and grubbing" jobs. They involve dirty knees, dirty fingernails and very good tunes on your ipod. Today's c&g job was uncovering the garlic. Luckily, its one of the first jobs you can do in the spring and my enthusiasm, at least for the first hour and a half is pretty good. Garlic is planted in the fall and is covered with mulch to keep the ground from freezing and thawing over the winter. In the spring, the garlic struggles to get through the mulch and has to get help being liberated. If you wait too long to liberate the garlic, it gets leggy and anemic under the mulch. On my knees, I dig at the mulch half way across the bed and fold it back towards me revealing some of the garlic. I then put me knee on the mulch to keep it in place. When this is repeated on the other side, the three rows in the bed are uncovered. This is one of the jobs I do in incremental steps. After about 90 minutes, getting a snack or checking my email seems vital and has to be done right now.
(The garlic pictured at the right is not mine, just a good example of garlic)
Fred is truly a modern barn cat. Yesterday he was diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (He is pictured here on the right.)"You're kidding," I told the vet.It was April Fool's after all."No, he is doing this to himself."This is a series of small scabs on his back and head. Apparently, unfulfilled as a mere barn cat, he has turned to self abuse. Therapy prescribed will be sessions with a cat psychiatrist and new interactive toys. Actually, we gave him some long acting cortisone and will see if the arrival of spring will take his mind off his obsession. Having grown up with two people who struggle with OCD, I know that it is a very difficult condition. While I am sympathetic with Fred, he is a very lucky barn cat after all and I am sure in days of yore, barn cats were not diagnosed with any kind of psychological conditions.
Here is a picture of the spring onions previously mentioned. Many of the photos are taken by my mother, Meredith Stout. Thanks Mom! This one was taken by me however. I can't seem to get the photo strait. Well, here it is anyway. 
Welcome to the North Creek Community Farm Flog (Farm Blog)I will try and add timely postings with news and pictures from the farm.
The official date of spring has come along with its discouraging snow storms. What is encouraging are the signs of spring that appear in spite of Mother Nature's best attempts at putting off the inevitable.
Smelling the warm soil and seeing the onions poking up in the green house is a sure sign of spring. The onion plants emerge like so many green bobby-pins. They pop out and stretch their stems up towards the growing light.
The chickens know that the days are longer rewarding me with an abundance of smooth brown eggs to give away to friends and neighbors. The older hens hiss as I open the roost and steal away their eggs. As soon as the soil is dry enough, I will build them an outside yard so that they can scratch in the fresh air.
The horses too know that spring is on the way, shedding great clouds of hair that finds its way into the house and all over my clothes. They look spiffy in new spring hair cuts. They nibble hopefully on the small bits of last year's grass as it emerges from the snow.
