Sunday on the Farm

 We've had such glorious weather! Cool, low humidity, breezy -- just absolutely perfect! After church Adam took his nice long nap, and I tootled in the greenhouse. On the way back across the pasture, I slowed and then stopped, wanting to absorb all the beauty of the pecan giants stretching into the sky.
I was pushing the wheelbarrow. Then Julia came along with dogs.

 

Remember volunteer tomatoes? They're everywhere. However ... one spot on the farm you'd never expect to find a volunteer tomato plant is the burn pile. Right? Yep ... there it is!

 

Yes, indeed. That's a tomato! How in the world?
Adam's tomato trellising is stupendous.

 Below is the second tomato bed. He just put up the posts with the cable strung along their tops.

 Here's a close-up of my tallest tomato, a beefsteak. Its cord is already well-wound around its stem. I think this method will work famously!

 And a couple of my beefsteak plants are already setting fruit.

 I have peas!! These are the Wando variety.

 

Around the little outbuilding Adam has been clearing the brush and weed trees. One tree had already fallen over, so he cut it off, leaving part of the leaning stump. It's right next to a pretty-shaped dwarf apple of some sort.

apple on the left, other tree on the right.

 Anyway, the stump sprouted green branches. I looked at it today and realized it's a willow tree!

 We're quite fond of willows. The friend who recently gave me two chickens also gave Adam a willow twig to put into some good soil, hoping for a new tree. The twig did take, and we have a tiny willow tree back in the greenhouse, which is lovely.

Adam plans to put it into a nice damp part of the pasture, as willows like soggy feet. But now we have a huge supply of green, supple willow branches! I'd love to learn to make willow baskets. Adam has plans for the willow too, I think involving wattle and daub construction. And we are now so much further on the way to that itty-bitty dream :) Ain't life grand? I'm looking at a ragged, fallen tree one afternoon, and tada!! I discover a gem I'd been wanting.
Oh - one more thing. Today Adam put up shade cloth on one end of the front porch for the summer.

 He ordered it online. From the outside, it's quite dark and gives more privacy while still allowing air circulation, but at a fraction of the cost of screen.

 But from the inside it's not dark at all.

Isn't that interesting? We're very pleased with it. We've saved the plastic sheeting and Adam will put it back up next winter. The wiggle-wire and channel remains on the house, and both the plastic and the shade cloth are attached using it. It's a great system. The only drawback is his having to fight off the rose bushes while he climbed the ladder, poor fellow! I heard him muttering, 

"I hate rose bushes!"

Life on the Funny Farm

 Apple trees are blooming!

 For several hours this morning I monitored the third "play date" for all my chickens, trying to integrate the new white pullet into the flock.

 So far, so good. The first time, they did chase and harass her a bit, especially my two Ameracaunas (a roo and a hen). They must be a meaner breed. Honestly I think Punkin is just plain neurotic.
Here's Little Snow, as I call her:

 So sweet, so docile. During the play date yesterday, Bernie was letting her know he was Boss! She skeedaddled into the coop and hit behind a nesting box.

 Poor thing! So stressy. Today they are more laid back, not fighting ... but their behavior is quite bizarre! Everybody except Snow was inside the coop -- even with the orchard available! -- and they were squawking and putting up a fussin'! Finally I went in there to find out what the matter was. All three hens were standing there, looking at The Favorite Nesting Spot. Every little flock has a favorite spot to lay an egg. And who was in the favorite spot? And who was clogging up the works and making the hens mad? Bernie! That's who! Sitting there on a couple of their eggs, no doubt, pretending to be a girl, haha! I think he was just escaping the stress of trying to wrangle all those females and their hormones.

 Adam trimmed another 1/3 out of the big pear tree. He took all the straight water sprouts and started making a pretty wattle fence for the peas in the garden. I adore the rustic, peasant look of a wattle fence.
Meanwhile in the greenhouse, things are progressing. Here's my work area:

 Today I began transferring tomato seedlings from their first cells into small pots. Such an exciting time!

 I did 19 plants.
Adam has not felt well the last few days. He's very, very achy and sore, probably from arthritis. He hurts all over. I reminded him of his ache-mantra: "Motion is Lotion." He came out and turned ... or "fluffed," as he says ... his compost, with help from three pups. He loves the company of dogs.

I also have hostas up, and sedum and ferns and cilantro and masses of oregano. The Scuppernong grapevines have begun to leaf out too.
In the veggie patch we have these things up: potatoes, spinach, lots of peas, lettuces, radishes, and Swiss chard. Asparagus continues to do well. That's it from the farm!

Fresh Air and Sunshine

Isn't that what we all need right now? Adam's still recovering from bronchitis/pneumonia/tracheitis, and now Julia and I are coming down with some ugly upper respiratory bug. Grr. But today was a glorious day outside! We enjoyed it fully.
Our Japanese magnolia (called a tulip tree by some) is ready to burst into bloom. I've seen two others in full bloom elsewhere in the county, but they're in full sun.

 Both my climbing roses look superb! I'm encouraged that they survived transplanting and the winter.

 

The one on the left is a very prickly rose moved from the orchard. On the right is my bought-from-the-nursery Lady Banks Rose.
Today Adam finally lit an interesting contraption -- an alcohol jet stove -- on the front porch. Here's a photo:

 Isn't that cool? It's moments like these when the Mad Scientist comes out in my husband. That's camp-stove fuel in the little Mason jar. The copper tube has a wick threaded through it. A tiny hole allowed the fire to eject and heat the top of the copper coil. And it does heat it!
He'll put that heater inside two of these clay flower pots, which will be suspended from the top beam of the hoop house. The pots will heat up and keep the hoop house warm on those cold March nights.

 

Don't you wish you had  Mad Scientist for a husband?
Yesterday Adam decided he'd had enough of sitting on the couch coughing so he trimmed a pear tree.

It felt good to be outside in the fresh air.
He'll keep the straight cuttings (the new growth) and try his hand at weaving a little wattle fence.

 Meanwhile, I pulled some of my plants off the front porch-cum-greenhouse for a good hosing down. The basil plants and lemon verbena both had aphids and sticky leaves. Hosing them down aggressively combats the aphids.

 The hoop house is steamy.

 Here's a shot of our automatic window-opener with its thermostatic control. It's working! It opened this far on its own, by about 10:00 AM.

 Our pitiful old easy-set pool is dying. The upper inflated ring punctured, so it barely holds water.

 We still have this 1000 gallon water tank lying around. Adam hopes to use the old plastic pool as a liner for it.

Today I dug random daffodils out of the lawn. I enjoy doing that. I'm gonna have the most amazing daffodil bed when I get them all together! And Adam put up some higher-and-stronger fencing around the chickens. I will be gone all next week to visit family, but hopefully the following week I'll start my tomato seedlings in the hoop house. That will be grand fun. If you don't hear from me, it's because there's nearly no internet access or cell phone coverage where I'm going. It should be a very restful week :)

Tree-Whacking in the Orchard

On the second day of my attack of flu, I needed fresh air, so I sat in the pasture as Adam began trimming the big fruit tree in the orchard. We think it's an apple tree, but we don't know about any of these fruit trees for sure.

He can only remove 1/3 of the tree's mass each year, so he chose some large branches he knew needed to go, cut them, and yanked them out of the tree with a rope, as you see. The tree was also filled with grapevine, so this tugging was quite vigorous. He was victorious in the end!

I was a bit nervous with him up on a ladder, but he did a good job. No broken anything ... except for the tree, of course.

He started a burn barrel and we put some smaller branches in there, but mostly it was for occasional warmth. It was a chilly morning.

The sky was brilliant blue.

So much of what's in the top of this tree (below) is grapevine. Today (Friday) Adam spent the morning climbing the tree and ripping the vine out. It looks much sparser now.

He also pruned this little fruit tree in the yard.

This is a late winter project we've been looking forward to, an indication that spring is coming. We think all these trees are either apples or pears. I can't wait to find out how delicious the fruit is.

December Blooming

We've had warm, wet weather. Farmer Adam says we've had 19" of rainfall MORE this fall/winter, than normal. And the past few days have given us temperatures in the low 70's. The winter garden, which has barely grown, has suffered, and the wheat and barley field is looking downright peaked, as my mother would say!
The warmth has confused some plants, like this apple tree:

Poor thing. What will it do in spring? I hope just bloom again.
I'm still making wreaths. I sold a medium-sized one at Saturday's farmers' market, and I made a new oval one Sunday afternoon. That's my favorite time to go outside and wrangle vines. It's quite peaceful. I love taking the chaotic disorder of a massive tangle of vines, and turning it into an orderly, contained wreath.

Each one is different.

 I'm looking for something to attach to a wreath, to decorate it, but I don't want plastic or garish. I'd love the itty-bitty pinecones, but we have none of those. Perhaps these gum tree balls?

 Adam has worked so hard on his pecans! After getting them back from the cracker fellow at the Nut House, Adam picked them all. This year's pecans are not great; they are not filled out, and are soft and chewy. He's dried them out some, and they're fine for cooking. He's vacuum sealed some bags, and we'll give them as gifts.

 He's still picking them up from the ground and we'll continue processing.

An oak tree near the house has turned the most lovely russet brown.

The weather is warm, blustery, changeable, and just fabulous to be out in. I picked up pecans today, lugged some logs around, inspected the winter garden and checked out the bees. Enjoy your December wherever you are!