Making Plans for a New Farm Year

That's a mighty title! Our new farm year plans are not impressive ones, but we are excited! I can't wait to have the new, twice-as-big greenhouse. Adam says it should be ready for me to fiddle around in by the end of January. Yippee! Meanwhile ...

 I remembered that I'd kept dried cilantro seeds (i.e., coriander) from the summer. Why not put some in soil and see what they do? Adam brought a bucket of nice compost/soil to the front porch.

 I grabbed a pot and put those seeds into the loose lovely soil. It felt just wonderful to have my fingers in the dirt again!

 Also on the front porch are several basil plants. This is the healthiest:

 This morning at the breakfast table these two men put their heads together over a new method for growing tomatoes. Peter learned it in the summer at the farm where he worked, a system with posts and cabling. He's diagramming it for Adam.

 And so we can remember -- this is the year when Peter is growing his hair out quite long. He wants the front hair long enough for a pony tail. His front hair is massive, but his hair is curly and it piles up instead of hanging long. I can't wait to see how long he goes with this, until he gets sick of it and cuts it all off.
On Monday the menfolk did what menfolk do best. They worked outside with large tools, wrangling nature around and doing stupid stuff.

 Adam had cut the trees in the lot around the little out-building. The boys hauled them over.

 Plans were made for a large fire.

 Adam's been watching youtube videos again -- you know the type of videos: 16 year old geeks trying stupid stuff in their parents' basements. He wants to have a sort of forge. He asked me to buy a blow dryer at the local thrift store. He then taped a pipe to the end, wrapping lots of electrical tape around it to make a tight fit.

 He was unaware that there was a blockage in the pipe, so it didn't work.

 He dumped the metal pipe and went for a bigger PVC pipe.

 The brush was rather green and wouldn't burn well. The blast of air did indeed make it burn vigorously.

 When he saw that the idea was valid, Adam opted for his leaf blower to get more power.

They succeeded in burning out a big hole in the middle of the pile of brush, but couldn't get it lit before Adam had to come inside and make lunch. I imagine we have not heard the end of this idea yet -- running a big electrical tool in order to make stuff burn. Hmm.
Today Adam will work on the herb bed border some more. We have volunteer parsley popping up, which is fun. Not sure if it will survive the rest of the winter! But I'm finding this light farming habit quite delightful. I've never looked forward to spring before this much. Chaio!!

First Hurricane on the Farm

Hurricane Matthew was kind and skirted out to sea, leaving us with high winds and a dab of rain for us, but no serious damage. Saturday evening brought the heaviest rain and the beginning of flooding in our house lot.

With a forecast of 10-15" of rain, I was quite worried our house would be stranded like Noah's ark in a small pond by morning.

We moved our 3 vehicles by evening to get them out of the water. That was a pain! Adam had to walk back from Bayboro twice.

The wind howled loudly most of the night, and our electricity went out. I tossed and turned. Everyone I spoke to on Sunday said the same thing: "We have no electricity. I slept horribly last night."

Sunday morning, we walked the farm to assess damage. I'm happy to say we had only one branch fall on the barn roof. Otherwise, the yard and field were strewn with hundreds of small branches. Adam got one small hole in the barn roof that he'll repair.

The chicken yard was attacked by the pine tree overhead.

Before the storm hit I removed everything on the front porch -- 65 mph winds were expected and they did arrive! I noticed my rose bush had one last bud just opening. I cut it and brought it inside, a little touch of warm, bright summer as autumn's stormy season takes over.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and suddenly cool. What a relief!

We began gathering debris, two truck beds full.

Monday morning Adam began a fire to burn it all. The wind had died down.

Strong winds robbed most of the county of power, and work continues to restore it. Ours came on Sunday night, and I'm so thankful. The farm is fine. Our young pea plants and lettuces were battered by wind, but I hope they'll recover. But another crop was encouraged by that wind ... the pecans! Quite a few fell, and I began gathering them today. Pecan-gathering means that autumn is truly here!

September on the Farm

We survived Tropical Storm Hermine over the weekend, and now temperatures are definitely cooler compared to a month ago. Phew! We're weary of that heat!

The hens continue to give us about three eggs each day. I think maybe my Rhode Island Red is the freeloader holding out on me :) Goldie loves going to the field with us and rolling around in the grass. We call it her "Salsa Dancing."

Hermine dropped lots of rain, but she moved quickly through during Friday night while we slept. She left a soggy yard.

 Lines of pine straw indicated to us how high the water washed up, but it didn't stay long.
This is the bottom of our house deck ramp, just a bit of water.

 The path to the out-building was soggy too and scattered with fallen pecan limbs. One large one punctured the ground.

 On the other side of our house deck, I finally told Adam to remove the huge holly bushes that flanked the steps.

 They were quite tall. Walking between them each morning was a little creepy. The spider webs were significant.

We'll find something else to go there eventually.
Yesterday Adam had a big fire in the pasture for all the brush; it was cool enough at last. Soon he will pull almost all the remaining tomato plants out of the ground. They still have fruit, but the tomato hornworms have found them at last. I pulled off and squashed about 25 of them yesterday. Most of the remaining fruit doesn't look good. A few plants we put in later are still thriving and healthy. Adam is putting in peas in the two tomato rows.

Cucumbers continue to bear a bit. Our watermelons have come .. and come ... but each one rots. Adam investigated and found they were deficient in calcium. Next year we'll know better. I've picked two pretty gourds and one pumpkin. They sit on the front porch.

Not an impressive return for the massive gourd plants twisting their way 'round the garden!
Adam admits that he spent an inordinate amount of time MOWING, all summer long. It eats into his available time to do other farm work. Next year, if finances permit, maybe we'll get a better mower. Maybe!
Next year:
We hope to get grapes from the vines, if they're getting enough sunlight.
We hope to use the dehydrator.
We hope to harvest honey.
We hope to double our greenhouse space.
We hope to have successfully had a winter garden and corn and sunflowers.
We hope to have a Sheltie and for Goldie to have moved outside full-time.
And many other things ... we hope for.

My Husband Is an Onion

Yesterday morning Adam dug the third long spring bed near the greenhouse.

He hauled more compost to mix in. See Maggie in the floorboard? She loves to ride in the truck. She prefers the bed though.

This morning we did this:

We had several big piles of trimmed branches and cuttings from the orchard and elsewhere. Adam got a burn permit. And lest you think he does all the grunt work and I do all the dainty work, I'll have you know that I tended the fire and he potted new seeds in the greenhouse. I love tending a burn pile.
Sandy's always standing hopefully next to a ball or a stick or a pine cone. Her eyes say, Please throw it!!

The fire was nearly done ..

... when I burned my finger.

I dashed immediately inside and smothered it with my "green goo" -- homemade plantain salve -- and wrapped it up. It feels better already.
Adam's worms are in the mail, so he's preparing a place for them: dark, moist, protected, in the barn bay next to the "office."

 A few cement blocks, a bit of soil and compost ~

 A worm bed:

Back in the greenhouse, Adam  started squash and gourds.

 Broccoli and zucchini

And some cantaloupe. Adam loves cantaloupe, and even though we've only once ever grown a successful delicious cantaloupe, he still wants to try. This variety is "Heart of Gold."

 He wrote out the name, but realized he didn't want to write all that on a dozen sticks. So ...

I thought that was rather adorable. And I'll tell you, that's a part of what I love about my husband -- he is complex. If you peel away the farmer, there's a scientist. If you peel away the scientist there's a chess player, and under that you'll find an astronomer, and beneath that layer is the mathematician. Peeling back that layer, you'll find the theologian. And there are a few other layers I won't mention. He is not a simple man, and I've found him fascinating these many years. Right now, we're enjoying the farmer layer.