[Previous entry: "Planting Maples"] [Next entry: "Sweet Onions and Blackberry Mayhem"]

03/23/2007: "The School's Out Meltdown"

Have you ever suddenly had a free day, a day to do whatever you might want to do, a beautiful spring day when there are birds chirping and flowers blooming and everything just busting out in growth...and you can't quite figure out what to do? That's me today. So I'm having a cup of tea and making a post to see if we can figure it out.



Perhaps it's that we've been working so hard on schoolwork that the momentum of MUST DO THIS is still with me. I want to do everything! And there's so much to do!! Where, oh where, am I to start?

Well, I did get the blueberries weeded. The cardboard and woodchip mulching we gave them over the break has started to rot down considerably. That means the more aggressive plants are able to step in and invade. So I took the hoe and made them reconsider a bit. But the blueberries are starting to bloom. Summer is just around the corner. Kurt planted a few more blueberries this past weekend, and I think we're planning on mulching them this weekend.

The orchard is looking mighty pretty right now with the plums blooming. But that doesn't hold a candle to how it will look in about two or three weeks when the cherries and the apples are blooming. One thing on my list of things to do is finish pruning the apple trees. We still have four on the edge of the property to trim back. We also have an apple tree between the greenhouse and the shop. But there are piles of concrete, wood, and random debris laying about, so it's going to be a challenge to get it into the cozy little garden I imagine. So that's a bit more than I can tackle today.

Nate woke up this morning and decided to continue mowing the pasture. The grass is growing much faster than Aura can eat it. And since we'd like to keep it nice and green for as long as possible, Nate has started mowing it. At some point, I'll get Nate to write up a nice article about rotational grazing and how to keep grass green and nutrient rich.


I've started letting my little cat, Winter, out into the yard. She's enjoying herself quite a bit, and seems reasonably well behaved. She hasn't gone anywhere near the road. She hasn't fought with the outdoor kitties, and she hasn't brought me a bird yet. So all in all it's a success.

But you can see the stick in the picture... That's a dead rose bush. The yard is starting to shape up, but there's still a long way to go. I need to yank out three or four dead or weak roses, and transplant a few more. I still have about 30 more to prune back, but it'll be a gentle pruning considering it's getting late in the year for that. I also have mulch to spread on all the roses, a garden plan to make, several dozen seed varieties to start in the greenhouse, beds to till, the dalia bed to weed, hop beds to prep, manure to spread, grass to mow, a eucalyptus tree to cut down, and a path to make in the yard. Aside from that, there are several very large clumps of blackberries that need to be dispatched in the pasture and along the fenceline before we can put the fence up. The greenhouse needs to be preped for seed starting, and the house could sure use a spring cleaning.

I think, though, that I'm going to gently finish pruning my roses, then have a celebratory milkshake with a friend. The maybe I'll work off the milkshake by tackling a blackberry patch.

Speaking of milk, we dried Queen Aura off a few days ago. Basically, we went cold turkey on her and stopped milking. She seems very full now, to the point of bursting. But according to wise cow handlers, the back pressure of the milk will cause her to stop making it. (A negative feedback loop of prolactin hormone, maybe?) Aura needs a two month break before her calf is born. And the earliest her calf could be born is mid May. So here we are, without milk. And boy, my tea just doesn't seem the same!

Lastly, Nate and I went down to the University of Oregon School of Law yesterday, and we loved it. The students were enthusiastic and happy, even near finals. The building was beautiful and high tech. I heard a lot of wonderful things about the opportunities there, and a completely different philosophy about the approach to legal education. Our tour guide was a first year student. She was dressed biz-cas, but with a carved bone necklace and flip flops. There were students with mohawks and students with suits. (But no mohawked suits). There was not a feeling of pretense, but of movers and shakers and a tanglible sense of being able to change the world. I felt right at home.

So off I go now, with a list of things to do, starting with pruning my roses. Farm updates should come a lot more frequently now, so stay tuned!