The Living Green Farm Journal

"Sweet fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight"

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Monday, April 30th

A Pleasant Surprise



FixingTheSickleMower (48k image)

I had picked up some native plants from Scholls Valley Native Nursery when my friend Len, the manager, gave me a quickie tour of their operation last week. I brought them down to the farm Sunday, along with the much-needed parts from Joel at Earth Tools in Kentucky necessary to repair the sickle bar mower. The mower works well enough much of the time, but the property is littered with hazards to mowing: bits of fencing lurk in the grass, especially near the perimeters of the pasture. Each time the mower finds one of these little jewels it pops off a triangular tooth, and Nate has to disassemble and replace rivets. Although Nate and I spent the better part of the afternoon drilling and banging rivets on the mower, there were a few pleasant surprises on this trip.
Kurt on 04.30.07 @ 10:19 PM PST [more...]

Monday, April 23rd

Of Raspberries, Bees, and Hoo Haas



It's been an action packed couple of days...
chaninhole (278k image)
Now you might ask what my leg is doing in a three foot deep hole, and I'll tell you: It's filling in for a post! Over the weekend I put the trellising up for the raspberries, we attended the Organic Growers Club Annual Hoo Haa, and took care of our delightful bees.
Channa on 04.23.07 @ 09:43 PM PST [more...]

Wednesday, April 18th

The Bee Story Continues...



Houston, we are go for bees.
thumbsupforbees2 (225k image)
Channa on 04.18.07 @ 10:22 PM PST [more...]

Monday, April 16th

Box o' Bees



tailgatebees (246k image)
The bees came in a box. They weren't unduly upset until later.
Nate on 04.16.07 @ 09:42 PM PST [more...]

Wednesday, April 11th

The New Garden Plot


I'm a little under the weather the last few days, but I wanted to give you all a quick update. Nate has tilled the garden for next year, and my-oh-my it's nice. Here's the first pass, through the center of the plot.
firstpass (268k image)
Here's the finished product.
finishedgardenplot (247k image)
Nate says the plot is just under 4/10th of an acre. It will grow an abundance of crops, especially corn and squash. The old plot will grow some potatoes and kale, in addition to the wheat and oats, then be returned to pasture in the fall.
Channa on 04.11.07 @ 11:01 AM PST [more...]

Friday, April 6th

Sun Splattered Splitting



The last two days have been absolutely sun soaked. The highs have been in the mid 70s with bright blue skies and a gentle breeze. It's been perfect. So we're soaking up every second of it.

Thursday we decided to wrangle up the oak limb that had fallen on the neighbor's property. He gave us the limb, but we needed to buck it, split it, and cart it out. Nate got his chainsaw out a while back and bucked it into rounds. After sitting a few weeks, the wood was still wet, but the ground was dry enough for us to safely move it. Wet oak is apparently a lot easier to split than dry oak, but it's still gosh darn difficult! Here I am trying to learn to split wood. About 20 minutes into it I finally figured it out and started crashing through chunks. It's very satisfying!
chansplittingwood2 (281k image)
There's more....
Channa on 04.06.07 @ 02:49 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, April 3rd

Sweet Onions and Blackberry Mayhem



Our local feed store, Denson's, finally received their shipment of Walla Walla sweet onion starts. Nate carefully prepared a bed in anticipation, tilling, weeding weekly, and then finally adding a layer of fine, homemade compost and complete organic fertilizer. We soaked the starts in water to revive them a bit, then planted them in the bed. The rows run across the bed every 18 inches and the starts are spaced 4 inches apart in the rows. Fantastic. I can taste the onion rings now.
wallawallas (267k image)
And the next day we found that Aura wanted to take a peek at what we had been working on. She sauntered on through the bed, leaving delicate little Aura hoofprints in the nice fluffy soil. Groan. She seems to have take care to miss most of the starts themselves, and we had plenty left over to replant any she seemed to have trampled. So we've finally implemented Rule #1 of gardening: Have a good fence. There is now temporary electric fencing up between the garden and the cow.
Channa on 04.03.07 @ 11:47 AM PST [more...]