It has arrived

I came home from market on Wednesday, and my lovely new chicken tractor was in the yard! What a great surprise. I called Thursday morning for the remaining balance that I owed, and was so happily surprised. Thank you, George! [Sidenote: my daughter calls Geroge the handyman Curious George and it took weeks for her to understand that he is not, in fact, a monkey.] I will add photos of this later.

I spoke with one of the co-op growers this morning, and he said that this weekend he will be planting turnips, spinach, lettuce, cilantro, radishes, and broccoli rabe outside. I went to his farm recently (Nu Way Farm in Fredonia, PA), and it's truly beautiful. It's fascinating and efficient. There are woodburning stoves throughout the greenhouses and utility building that create warm little alcoves for starting plants. David created a germinator with a kerosene lamp inside to generate heat. So simple, so direct, and very, very efficient. He raises flowers in one of the greenhouses to sell, and so keeps that part open to the public. I plan to take my family there this month just to see it.

early spring

Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Spring, I planted Coral Shell Peas and Gamma Spinach, both from Turtle Tree. It was lovely and warm for a few days, the soil was surprisingly dry a few inches down, and I was so excited to have started my 2010 garden. Two friends who have far more experience than I do also planted that weekend, so I am reassured about the wisdom of that decision. I was worrying that my strawberries would break dormancy and so yesterday, I took my daughter and 9 year old cousin to Silver Wheel Farm where my friend Lori gave me row cover, wickets, and landscaping staples so that I can plant the strawberries sooner and worry less. I am both thankful for and lucky to know Lori. :)

Needless to say, it snowed last night. I'm sure those bare root plants are just fine.

Back to the trip to Lori's farm: my cousin comes from a family where houseplants aren't allowed, as they could possibly harbor bugs. My aunt would pave the planet if she could get away with it, and they are low-carb crazy. I feel obligated, therefore, to take every available opportunity to expose my cousin to dirt and nature and healthy eating. She was amazed by the ducks and geese that wandered around the farm. She gasped when Lori opened the high tunnel door. She was so excited to see inside the hen house. When her mother came to pick her up, she immediately told her all about it.
Yes, my cousin and my daughter got wet. They got muddy. There was definitely more avian poo on those two kids than I care to think about, but they both had a good time, and learned new things. my aunt has decided to purchase a share in the CSA I manage, and they are trying to buy an existing construction home (five years ago, that never would have happened. It had to be brand new, full of scary chemicals and bereft of personality). I am not solely responsible for this change of heart, of course, but it makes me happy that it has happened, no matter what the reason.

high water

Can you believe this is my yard? And can you believe that the basement never, never floods? It's true. I don't have one memory of the basement here flooding, which is amazing. The creek is always high in the springtime. Last year, after the ice thawed and the creek rose, we discovered that one of our concrete planters had been washed away. It's probably miles down the creek, serving as a habitat for fish or something, or perhaps it's just smashed to pieces--who knows?

more seeds and temperature

It's time to order more stuff!

I have already ordered a boatload of seeds and bare root plants from Turtle Tree and yes, Burgess. The stuff I ordered from Burgess isn't organic, but it's things that you don't harvest the first year, like asparagus and hazelnuts, so I am only going to chastise myself so much for not paying an obscene amount of money to get every single thing from organic seed.

I started some Thelma Sanders (Saunders?) Sweet Potato Squash from seeds I saved, as well as lemongrass, basil, tomatoes, and lupines, and I'm hoping for the best. i had to google what "heeling in" bare root plants is. I had no idea. It's not complicated, but for some reason temperature seems to become a big issue in alot of my endeavors.

My last batch of beer was only in the correct temperature for 2 days during fermentation, then somebody turned the furnace down and we now have peach wheat "breakfast beer," which is my polite name for a very low-alcohol brew.

Years ago, my father had started a root cellar under the house, in addition to all the other weird crap he was working on under there, and never finished it. I put a thermometer down there and even though it was 17 degrees a few mornings ago, the strawberry bare root plants were enjoying a pleasant 41 degrees. What this indicates in practical terms is that our house is really, really badly insulated, but for now it's helpful.

So anyway, the point here is that I have a free shipping coupon from Johnny's, and I need to order some decent weeding tools. The Japanese hand tools that people rave about are for right-handed people, so I'm going to indulge in a stirrup hoe. I can absolutely use that! We're going to try out some wheat and those beautiful cauliflower, Veronica, those spiral lime green ones. I don't like cauliflower, but many people do, and it would look great in a veggie tray. There's other little things I'd like to order, stuff I don't need but that I'd like to have, like some more sprouting seeds and things like that.

And the other happy update: I settled on a chicken tractor. I'm using the plan from gardeneggs.com and having a friend build it for me. The price absolutely can't be beat. I modified the plan to include nesting boxes, since the original didn't include them, and I think it will be lovely. I can't wait!

deer

So today I look out the floor-to-ceiling window on the north side of the living room and there is a doe looking at me. Apparently, while I was at market on Wednesday, there were deer looking in the same window at my mother and daughter. There's nothing quite like a two year-old telling you about deer looking in the window. It immediately turned into "reindeer!"

Anyway, today there were five deer instead of the three that were hanging around on Wednesday. They are not at all shy, and are difficult to frighten away. They were chewing on the juniper shrubs in front of the house (the first photo was taken from out the front door, the second through the kitchen window), since there are no longer birdfeeders for them to pillage. I love to watch the three different kinds of woodpeckers, the cardinals, Carolina wrens, chickadees, and other little no-name, Pennsylvania Winter birds. My daughter and I would sit in front of the window and watch the birds and squirrels, sometimes even rabbits, for many minutes at a time (that's nearly eternity for a toddler). It was like Bird TV, it was great. I am actually really, really pissed off that the only thing I can do, without buying 12-foot shepherd's poles and hanging feeders by way of a ladder in two feet of snow, is to take the feeders down for the year. I understand that the deer are hungry. Fine. I understand that human development has taken deer habitat, and therefore food supply, away. Fine. I still don't want them in my yard.
I didn't need a fence in my garden last year. I had a fence that was 2 feet high around it, which was silly because it didn't really deter anything other than children (ok, maybe not that silly, then). Now this year, I have planned numerous unfenced beds with some berry-yielding plants in them. . . deer bait. Damn.
Last year I spread dehydrated coyote urine on the places that deer entered and left the yard, and it kept them away. I can only hope that this year, once the snow melts and food is available again, some wild critter pee will do the trick.

Riverview Dairy in the News

Here's a great little article and a photo of Sam Byler from Riverview Dairy, one of the members in the co-op I work for. Read it here

then & now

This is what the yard and garden looked like when I was a kid. That's me and my Dad, doing who-knows-what exactly. These days, the driveway is smaller and the shed and outhouse are no more. The garden that was beside the driveway (our current garden is smaller, fenced, and in another part of the yard) is a grassy lawn with a fire pit in the middle. This summer, that will change. I plan to till it into 3' rows and leave enough space in between for our chicken tractor to get through (I think we've settled on the Cluck Truck model. . . that's another story).


This wintry scene is the ol' homestead a few weeks ago. It's hard to visualize patches of sunflowers and buckwheat, peppers and turtle beans, when there's so much frozen everything around, but I know the grass is under there somewhere. Much of it has melted off today since it was nearly 40 degrees F today and I saw that the lilies are starting to poke through the soil. This thaw may put a damper on my planned first-time snowshoeing excursion this week, but overall it is, of course, a very good change indeed.