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08/18/2007: "Firewood, et al"
A few weeks back, I was at work in a hazel (filbert) orchard. Remember that earlier posting, "An Improbable Method of Reproduction"? Western Oregon is prime country from growing these shrubs, which we train up as trees. The nuts are collected and sold at a great price for the low labor put into them. And the orchards are stunning. They remind me of fairy tales, when someone gets lost in the deep dark woods. The canopy formed in these orchards allows nearly no light to penetrate, and the ground is intentionally swept bare. Part of my summer job involved going to these orchards weekly and checking moth traps. It was my favorite part of the job. Anyways, I was in an orchard one day and noticed a huge berm of cut hazelwood. It was stacked 6-8 ft tall, 15-20 feet wide, and ran 50 feet from a creekside to the roadway. And it had blackberries growing over it. I contacted the orchard owner, whom invited us to "clean it up". A new hazel blight has reached the valley and is requiring growers to extensively prune their orchards, and often replace whole orchards with varieties that are resistant. So these rounds were culled trees and branches, which means they often had a diameter of 8-10", which is ideal for the woodstove. We were caring for the neighbor's horse at the time, and they had given us use of their truck in return. We made four trips out to the hazel orchard and retrieved probably close to 5 cords of wood. Not all of it is dry, and not all of it is very dense. But it's a huge step towards procuring our winter fuel needs. 
In other news, Nate cut the wheat. It was dry and ready. After consulting with many different people about the trace of mold on some of the seed heads, and seeing how the kernels don't have much mold at all once they're threshed, we decided it would be worth threshing. Nate's been working diligently at this task, threshing small amounts by hand. He says it's a heck of a task, and is looking for more information on ways to make this feasible. 
The squash is wall to wall vines and fruit. It's difficult to walk through without tripping over a fruit or almost breaking a vine. The squash have even invaded the beans and tomato trellis and are working towards the basil!
The beans are completely out of hand. There are only so many that I can eat! I gathered up as much as I could carry without a basket, and trudged up to the house. Dumping the majority on the counter, I found several stuck to my sweater. At least they're fun decoration. 
And the pig doesn't like green beans. He's in a bit of limbo right now as Nate tries to figure out the correct way to balance his fats, carbs, and proteins in his food supply, and how the farm can produce meat that is of fine quality. We're also noticing that he's lonely enough to make good friends with Nate. He oinks and squeals when Nate goes anywhere near him. That is worrying to Nate, who wants to keep the pig at an emotional distance. 
The cow and calf are very well. Kurt bought more temporary fencing materials and Nate's now able to set up a highly mobile grazing system. I'm going to try and have him do a post on what that's all about, but for now we'll just say it makes it easy to move the cow and keep the grass lush. It will also allow us to separate her from Rainbow pretty easily, which is the only way for us to get milk right now. They're in a paddock today that includes a large clump of blackberries. They've been tasting the sweet, juicey fruits and seem to be enjoying them.
Nate and I took the weekend and went to the beach. Rebecca took care of the farm so we could have some down time. I finished my summer employment at 3:00pm Friday and was on the beach by 6pm! Here's a photo of the area we camped in on Saturday:
It was lovely. And Monday morning I started law school. I've had a week of moving speeches, stern and grave advice, scary lectures about the workload, and gourmet icecream with new friends. It's gong to be a very interesting three years for me. I've been told to estimate my work load to be 60-65 hrs per week, (70-80 hrs if I want to be the top of my class). That means that my contributions to the farm are going to be put on hold until next spring. The second and third years are said to be easier than the first, but we'll see. I've had to come to grips with not having the time to complete projects, and some days not having the time to even walk and say hello to the farm.
This is a picture of me with my Criminal Law book. It's 1120+ pages, most of which I'll read. I have four others of the same sort. Woohooo. But just like with the farm, you have to start where you are, at the beginning.