The Living Green Farm Journal

Tuesday, October 31st

Comments and this website

You may have noticed that we have not turned on comments for this web log. Greymatter, the open source software that we use for the web log, does support comments, but it doesn't have very sophisticated comment management. So, for simplicity I've turned off comments by default. However, I know that some folks probably would like to comment on things such as the beautiful images that Channa took on the frosty morning recently. So, I will try to add a link to the end of each posting; if you click on it, you should be able to send us an email, which I'll add to the posting. Just be sure to sign it exactly as you want to see it appear - all I'm going to do is copy the body of the email and paste it into the posting. It probably won't be really pretty, nor will I be really fast about turning them around, but at least now the folks who might really, really want to comment (note to my relatives: you know who you are) will have an opportunity to do so.

The link is below the fold...
Kurt on 10.31.06 @ 09:10 PM PST [more...]

Monday, October 30th

Frosty Farm Morning

frozenduckpond (217k image)

The weather report warned us this was approaching, but it was still a very pleasant surprise to wake up to a frosty white world. It had frosted about two weeks ago down in the lower pastures and we harvested the winter squash the next day. Today the frost set all of the perennials and bulbs in the upper pastures to rest for the winter. Tonight the weather is calling for temperatures around 23 degrees. We’ll give the ducks extra bedding, snuggle into our own blankets and pull the cats in close.

Here are a few pictures to illustrate the beauty of the frosty morning.
Channa on 10.30.06 @ 05:45 PM PST [more...]

Friday, October 27th

A Brew Break

Let's take a break from the quest for the woodstove, partially so we can see how the next portion of the adventure plays out! To give you a hint, it has something to do with the ceiling/upstairs floor being too overbuilt for the chimney.

So to relax I thought I might share a little bit about brewing. No, not witch’s brew! Making home brewed beer, wine and cider is one of our favorite crafts at Living Green Farm.

natecapping (240k image)

Channa on 10.27.06 @ 11:55 AM PST [more...]

Wednesday, October 25th

The Quest for the Woodstove: Part Two

I can't believe we got it in the house!!!
grouppicture (225k image)
Channa on 10.25.06 @ 08:03 AM PST [more...]

Tuesday, October 24th

The Quest for the Woodstove: Part One

Kurt, Nate, and I have all had a common dream of having a wood cook stove. A toasty warm stove, throwing off heat while being broad enough to cook on, large enough to hold a turkey, strong enough to last forever, and practical enough to be independent of electricity. Kurt bought the beautiful thing and it’s been sitting in the garage for over a month now.

Why the wait, you ask? We needed to tile and reinforce the floor. So we had to get jacks to lift the floor supports, and set them in place. We had to not only pick out tile, a major task in and of itself, but also coordinate a time for Kurt to be here to show me how to do it. After much back and forth communication, color matching over the internet, and visit from Tahnya at the Tile Store, we figured it out. So Friday I went and picked up the tile, only to find out they didn’t have it in stock. So, I rummaged through random slate slabs and put together a beautiful assortment of squares, though I found out later it wasn’t quite what Kurt had in mind, and would cause problems down the road… But anyways, I picked it out and Kurt came down for a visit.
Channa on 10.24.06 @ 10:10 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, October 17th

Exploring the Swale

You've see the garden pictures, the barn, and the green fields. But what lies behind the pasture?
mistymorningfield1 (223k image)

Channa on 10.17.06 @ 10:22 PM PST [more...]

Wednesday, October 11th

Salmon Fishing With Ed!

Ed and Denise live in the large farmhouse next to us. They are great neighbors to have, helping us settle into life at the Living Green Farm, teaching us to use a chainsaw, heckling us good naturedly when we do silly things, and being a little silly themselves.

This week Ed invited Nate to go salmon fishing with him. I'm not sure Ed knew what he was getting in to! Nate is an obsessive fisherman. Sometime we wonder if he missed his true calling as a fishing guide. But Ed and his friend Landon took it good naturedly when Nate caught his limit and no one else had caught one. However, Ed claimed "big fish" bragging rights for the day with a beautiful fish he picked up as they were trolling back to the boat ramp. Nate came home with these two beauties:
Natesfirstsalmon (260k image)
Nate also came home with a bag of guts, which Ed will probably cheerfully tease him about for a long time. Nate also proudly presented me with a big bag of fish livers, thinking I might want to eat them. We're planning on using all of the entrails for fertilizer though. Maybe Ed will be the recipient of a pumpkin grown with the guts of his salmon!
Channa on 10.11.06 @ 08:18 PM PST [more...]

Current projects, mid-October 2006

Here's what is in process at the moment as we leave the fall harvest season and head into winter.
Kurt on 10.11.06 @ 03:22 PM PST [more...]

Saturday, October 7th

God Bless the Chainsaw!

The chainsaw is one of those tools that we are lucky to have. It is a technology that earns its keep through its high efficiency rate. Using hand saws, it would have taken us a week to do what we did today, and we would be tremendously sore!

pilesofwood (234k image)

These piles of wood will be our main source of heat this winter and next, with more to come!
Channa on 10.07.06 @ 08:39 PM PST [more...]

Tuesday, October 3rd

The Bugs are Back in Town

A few days back, while pressing apples for cider, Nate and I noticed a large number of bugs suddenly appear near the back porch. I was worried that it was a colony of wasps finally fed up with our human shenanigans. Nate, being a much less cautious naturalist than I, managed to snag one for closer inspection. Maybe you’ve seen them.
boxelder (213k image)

The boxelder beetle, Leptocoris trivittatus. These critters are actually “true” bugs and not beetles at all. They are not harmful in any way, but there sure seem to be a lot of them! They sun themselves on the side of the house and try to get into the warm areas. They do no damage to the house, but since I found one in my bathrobe I don’t think too kindly of them.

It turns out the return of these bugs is an autumnal and vernal ritual. Now most autumn rituals for Nate and I involve a harvest of food in the form of squash, salmon and mushrooms. Who knows, maybe boxelder beetles are high in iron.

Channa on 10.03.06 @ 09:58 PM PST [more...]

Sunday, October 1st

Our First Dryland Garden

Nate and I moved into the Living Green Farmhouse in April of this year. One of our very first goals was to start up a garden. Not just any garden, a 1/3 acre non-irrigated experimental garden. We wanted to test out different varieties of our favorite food plants, to see which ones could grow without standard irrigation in our dry summers.

earlygardenupperview (159k image)
Channa on 10.01.06 @ 03:56 PM PST [more...]

A walk through the orchard, part 2

This continues our review of the orchard, this time focusing on the middle rank of trees from east to west.
Kurt on 10.01.06 @ 07:14 AM PST [more...]

October 2006
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