[Previous entry: "Hay Corn May"] [Next entry: "Darn lucky!"]

05/30/2007: "Late May and the Growin's Good"

It's unstoppable growth at the farm right now. We're fairly overwhelmed with all of the many things that need to be done, and the grass keeps on growing.

Nate's experimenting with a variety of wheat that does not "lodge", or fall over under its own weight. It's also interesting that this wheat grows (over) six feet tall and doesn't lodge. It's defying the laws of agricultural physics, and producing a lot of valubale straw at the same time. We won't be eating this year's harvest; instead we'd like to increase our seed quantity for next year.


In a few of the previous posts, I've put up pictures of the wheat and oat plot that Nate sowed last fall. Nate scythed swaths of it to feed Aura during our wet winter and spring. Now it's time to harvest. The oats were just starting to flower and the weather gave us a haymaking window. So Nate got out his scythe and went to work. He swathed all of the oats and left it for two days in the field. Today the the outside temperature reached 90 degrees F (32 C). In the cool of the evening, Nate raked the oats into wind rows for a few more days of drying. We're allowing the wheat to go to seed in hopes of making "Living Green Bread" (and pancakes!)


From the hay we put up last week and the oats Nate is finishing, we should have enough dry matter to feed Aura and her calf throughout next winter.

Speaking of Aura, she's falling down on the job. All day long she sits in her field, chewing her cud and occassionally nibbling on the grass that continues to race upwards around her. She's been in this paddock for a week and the grass seems taller now than when we put her in there!! And still no calf, which surprises us quite a bit. I've never seen such a fat cow, not that you can see her in all of that grass.



The corn has grown to over 6 inches tall and is just about ready to be thinned. They're big enough and well rooted enough to be fairly quail proof. We're planning on planting a block of sweet corn in the upper beds this weekend. MMMMMMmmmmm... corn.


Nate planted potatoes a few weeks back. He purchased the potato "seeds" in March and has had them sitting on the dining room window sill for months in an effort to help them pre-sprout from the eyes. Well, they finally went in the ground and then suddenly burst into life. They form three rows of varying lengths in the garden, totalling 175 row feet. We enjoyed the potatoes we grew in the dry garden last year. They were grown without irrigation and produced a decent sized crop. We're going to see how they do this year with some irrigation.


So Nate has his hands full, and I've been very busy with my new job and a bout of allergies. But I do help out in one very important way: I eat the sugar snap peas. It's a difficult task, but I do it, nearly every evening. I trudge down the hill in my slippers and sit down in the shade of the six foot tall wheat and make sure every ripe sugar snap pea finds its way into my mouth. The toil.


My roses have also started blooming. Last year we moved into the farm house long after pruning season was over. So this winter I really hacked on the plants. They've responded with lush green growth that so far is mildew and rot free, and large heads of bright flowers. I'm told they smell great, but it'll be another week or so before I find that out myself. I had a mentor several years ago that had a lush garden full of roses that bloomed all summer. Her secret was to abuse the heck out of them. She would send me home with dozens of roses that she thought needed to be pruned back in order to encourage the growth of new buds. I'm trying to take my cue from her and prune prune prune, all the while enjoying fresh bouquets of roses.


Nate and I finally crossed a line and took four days off, completely away from the farm. We went fishing with my family over the Memorial Day weekend at Odell Lake. Odell is located near the crest of the Cascade Mountains. Diamond Peak looks over the lake from the south and miles of wilderness stretch all around. It's a beautiful place and the fishing was pretty good.


But we were so thankful to return to the farm at the end of the trip. We practically skipped down to see Aura. She was gazing off into the sunset. We softly called her name. She turned, looked at us briefly, then went back to chewing her cud. But we were still very happy to be back.