The Living Green Farm Journal

Sunday, May 29th

A Big Ball of Mess

5137_FarmBurnPile-SM (113k image)

Like most small-holdings, we have a burn pile: a place to throw branch trimmings, cardboard, scrap lumber, and fence posts. Periodically we'll check with the DEQ to see if it is OK to burn that day, and then light off the pile during cool and cloudy weather (never in summer, of course). This spring Lou undertook to clear some old fencing out of the pasture; this was a good and noble endeavor, since old fencing will tangle up in the rotary cutter or pop the teeth off the sickle bar mower. He apparently brought it up to the burn pile with the tractor. It had a bunch of old fenceposts tangled up in it, and I think his hope was that they would burn off, leaving only the fencing behind. However, it turns out that when you have too much air space in the burn pile, as you do when the pile consists of 50% metal fencing and 50% scrap wood, the pile doesn't really get a good burn going.
Kurt on 05.29.11 @ 09:53 PM PST [more...]

Sunday, May 1st

Nemesis!

5135_FarmHemlockTapRoot (134k image)

It's been a wet spring again. I saw an article in the Oregonian that claimed that supposedly this was the third wettest April on record (in that regard it probably compares favorably to last year, when it rained so much that my drainage trenches filled up to the brim - two feet deep). The combination of wet ground and late season has made for some lush weed growth in some areas of the farm. I set out to plant some perennials earlier last month, and noticed that poison hemlock was bunching up around my previously planted grapes. I looked at them - and something snapped. Self, I said to myself, this year I'm taking a stand on the poison hemlock. Curious, I knelt down and grabbed one of the hemlock plants and pulled it. To my surprise, it came out easily, with a fairly complete tap root! Well, well, well. I got to work.
Kurt on 05.01.11 @ 09:05 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, April 19th

Stuff Breaks

5125_SickleReparPunchingOldRivet (42k image)

It's frustrating, but stuff breaks. It seems like the last couple of farm trips have been one step forward, two steps back... two weeks back I was mowing the south yard with the sickle bar mower; I could see the metal water pipe coming up clearly, and I had good clearance, until one of the mower wheels dropped down in a mini-gully. This sent the cutting bar just far enough over to catch the pipe, and it popped a rivet on one of the teeth. I straggled through the rest of the mowing, but I was disgusted with myself. My time was limited that day, and so rather than deal with it there and then I dragged the mower attachment home to work on one evening.
Kurt on 04.19.11 @ 10:01 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, April 12th

New Arrivals

5056_FarmBabyGoatReduced (45k image)

I'm catching up on old news again... when I was down at the farm at the end of March Lou told me the story of the new baby goats. Molasses (the momma) was pregnant, and expected to give birth any day. On Saturday night, however, his daughter couldn't find her come dusk. So, she just rounded up the rest of the herd, and penned them in the cow shed in the usual way.
Kurt on 04.12.11 @ 03:17 PM PST [more...]

Thursday, November 25th

The End of the Ditch

4881_FarmTiredDirtyKurt.JPG (45k image)

Once the pasture was reseeded, it was back to digging. The rest of the family was headed south two weeks ago for a long weekend with family at Disneyland(!), and I figured that this was as good a time as any to take a run at finishing the drainage project. So I loaded up the truck with sleeping bag and mattress, and headed down to the farm.
Kurt on 11.25.10 @ 01:50 PM PST [more...]

Pasture Renovation

4856_FarmReseededPasture (45k image)

I seem to have careened from one farm project to the next these past six months... first the drainage (unfinished as of the time this photo was taken)... moving the bees... then a hard push to get the pasture re-seeded before frost. The photo above shows the end result: pasture grass mix sprouting. What is missing photographically is the spot weeding, spraying, tilling, seeding, and harrowing that preceded the sprouting. Sometimes I just get a little caught up in the doing, and not much in the photographing. Sorry, loyal readers! It feels good, however, to be consciously taking on the weed problems in the pasture.
Kurt on 11.25.10 @ 01:25 PM PST [link]

Rise and Fall of the Bees

4801_KurtHarvestingHoney (38k image)

In the unflattering photo above you can see that I'm actually realizing a long-held dream: harvesting honey from our own beehive! I'm cutting the wax top off of a frame of honey with a special knife that has an offset handle.
Kurt on 11.25.10 @ 07:49 AM PST [more...]

Wednesday, November 24th

August: Harvest and Friends

4776_FarmVisit (67k image)

August saw the beginning of the harvest season... our neighbors came down for a day during blackberry season, and everyone get a bit berry-stained while picking! It was, as always, a good season for blackberries.
Kurt on 11.24.10 @ 10:17 PM PST [more...]

July: More of the Same

P1127_FarmKurtShovelsGravel (71k image)

Summertime, and the livin' is easy... well, not really, not when there are still two more trenches to grade and fill with rock. July found me working my way through the fourth trench. Somehow this wasn't fun anymore...
Kurt on 11.24.10 @ 09:33 PM PST [more...]

June: Feral Bees, Bad Dogs, & Weeds

P0745_FarmSouthYardTrenches (54k image)

Well, I offer my apologies for dropping off the blogosphere for nearly half a year. I blame it on a combination of factors: new camera, too busy doing work to document work, and most of all, being sick of this one big project. The drainage project.
Kurt on 11.24.10 @ 08:59 PM PST [more...]

Thursday, June 3rd

Monsoon Season

P0591_FarmKurtDigging (40k image)

It's been a wet spring... a very wet spring. The Oregonian newspaper published an article in early June that revealed that we got something like 4.8" of rain in May... almost double what we received in February! This has really slowed down work on my drainage project. You just can't grade trenches when they're full of water. The picture above is from one of the few times I was able to work on it in late May. Sadly, immediately after this day, we resumed Monsoon season: cool, unseasonably wet weather.
Kurt on 06.03.10 @ 08:13 AM PST [more...]

Monday, May 10th

Hard Labor

P0581_FarmTrenchUngraded (66k image)

Well, as I feared, I started on the drainage project a little too early this year. It's going to bite me in the a... uh, well, in a place where no one likes to be bitten, I think. The image above shows the problem; the incessant rain that we've had in April has eroded the trenches quite a bit. During a rainy period the trenches fill up with water, and dirt sloughs off the walls and deposits in the bottom, reducing the depth of the trench.
Kurt on 05.10.10 @ 01:01 PM PST [more...]

Wednesday, April 21st

Apple Blossom Time

P0442_FarmBeeAppleBlossom (67k image)

It's blossom time in the orchard! I almost missed it; some of the trees have already blossomed and dropped. Some are just starting. And some are still not quite ready. The bees are out and doing their work; there is a hum audible as one walks through the orchard.
Kurt on 04.21.10 @ 08:09 AM PST [more...]

Sunday, March 28th

Keep On Diggin'

P0241_FarmKurtBackhoeBucket (79k image)
Click for larger image (opens new window)

I went back down this weekend to work on trenching again... it was a sunny day sandwiched between two weeks of drizzle. The ground was a bit wet still, but I figured it was my only chance in view to push the drainage project forward. The main downside was the need to stop periodically and pry the mud out of the backhoe bucket, as shown above. I learned to stop short of curling the bucket fully so as not to compress the dirt in the bucket; you only have to overshoot it once to pack the bucket so tightly that it is a real bear to get out.
Kurt on 03.28.10 @ 09:37 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, March 23rd

One With The Machine

P0199_FarmKurtBackhoe (33k image)
Click on photo above to view movie (warning large 6430k Quicktime movie file)

Richard Heinberg, in his book "The Party's Over," refers to humans as going beyond mere tool-making. He says we equip ourselves with prosthetic devices that allow us to accomplish much more than what our bodies alone are capable of. The example he gives is that of an airline pilot; a pilot apparently once said to him that he "straps on a 747 and goes to work." And thus the 747, in effect a prosthetic device or super-tool, allows him to fly thousands of miles while in effect carrying hundreds of passengers.

This past weekend I strapped on the back hoe down at the farm and went to work digging trenches.
Kurt on 03.23.10 @ 10:50 PM PST [more...]

Monday, March 15th

The $80 Experiment

14677_FarmTrenching (82k image)

This has been a warm winter, and not as wet as some other years. Nonetheless, the south yard still ends up with pools of water... right where I planted a couple of rows of raspberries a couple of years ago. Needless to say, the raspberries have not done that well. In the city a raspberry patch is a fierce competitor: they leap fences into neighbor's yards, they sprout out of adjacent garden beds where they're not wanted, and they generally grow into a thick tangle of canes; I expected similar behavior out in the south yard, but the yearly winter drowning, the relentless pressure of the grass, and the dry summers have kept the farm canes looking like a set of spindly stalks.

What has been needed, and for some time, is better drainage in the south yard. With better drainage, the south yard could host all kinds of fruit and nuts: hazelnuts, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, etc. Thinking that this might be the year to develop the south yard, I ordered all those and more from my favorite nursery, Burnt Ridge Nursery.
Kurt on 03.15.10 @ 08:10 AM PST [more...]

Thursday, February 25th

Baby Goats!

14668_FarmBabyGoat (51k image)

We recently went through a birthing cycle at the farm: three of the goat does gave birth to a total of six baby goats! One of the cute fellas is shown above.
Kurt on 02.25.10 @ 01:10 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, January 26th

Winter projects

4597_FarmCabinetOrganized (36k image)

My already irregular posting schedule has suffered lately, as farm trips have been relatively infrequent and I've been rebuilding my computer. Plus, Lou and I did a whole project in which none of the photos I took turned out! This relates back to last summer when my daughter borrowed the camera while eating sticky cotton candy, but that's a story for another day.

The only interesting photo I have to show is from a recent trip where I ran out of things to do... unbelievable, eh? Well, I didn't actually run out of things to do, but rather ran out of things that I could do in the time available. So I was reduced to organizing the shop a bit. Quite successful, I think. I found out that we were woefully under-stocked in 1/2" PVC fittings, which is a problem because a lot of the water supply is comprised of 1/2" PVC pipe.
Kurt on 01.26.10 @ 03:24 PM PST [more...]

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