Sprouts and Weeds

It is June, which is the appropriate time for little sprouts to appear. 

Our Littlest Little Friend on his Birthday.

Our Littlest Friend is now our Second Littlest Friend. His little brother has entered the scene a little early but ready to roll.

Our Second Littlest Friend has been helping Buck in the garden by picking strawberries, his little dog too.

With all the hub bub there has been precious little time to weed so I am using my favorite time saving method for weed control and soil improvement. My Patented Plop Method.

 On Halloween of each year we end up with a dozen bails of damp and dirty straw from our families Haunted House. I let it sit out all winter which makes all the seeds in it sprout and rot.

The next Spring I peel off the "leaves" and toss them onto the weed covered garden. The weeds die in a couple of weeks from lack of light.

The whole thing rots into the ground and feeds the worms and improves the soil while effectively stopping anymore weeds from growing.When I plant I just push the mulch slightly to the side and put the seeds in the beautiful fluffy soil. This also protect the seeds from getting dried out at that critical moment. All it takes to kill a seed at the sprouting stage is one hour on a hot afternoon when the top inch of the soil dries out. Especially carrots.

Phoebe's Plop Method

 1) Mow the weeds if you can. If you can't, smash them down on top of each other. This makes them shade each other and impairs their ability to photosynthesis and survive.

2) Lay the wet, heavy flakes of straw tightly on top of the weeds. Try not to leave any gaps where sun can get in. Trim off leaves of the weeds if they are sticking out from the mulch.

This looks like a lot of straw, but it is only 2 bales, for all of this coverage.

3) Stomp on the mulch to make sure all the weeds are in contact with the ground so the worms can get busy and the weeds are thoroughly demoralized.

 4) A few weeks later you can pull the few survivors easily from the fluffy new soil.

5) Toss the weeds onto the grass and then mow it when you get around to it. It disappears and turns into grass fertilizer.

 Voila! Now you have more time for fun!

What We've Been Up TO

Sorry for the lag in posts this summer. We have all been so busy it's been difficult to even gather our thoughts let alone write them down!

I have been working on a post about ponds but it has taken on a life of it's own.

In the meantime I have been collecting photos along the way so I decided to just give you a pictorial overview of some of our activities this summer and catch up on the writing when I get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by and we'll talk soon.

One of my top bar hives had a mouse.

 The Meat Chicks are well on their way.

Our daughter in law had a show.

Buck plays host at the Art Shack

The old barn is getting a face lift, 2 inches a month.

And the underside is full of Carpenter Ants.

It's Red Haven peach season at our neighbors.

 

 Buck fermented amazing pickles from the cucumbers he grew.

 Our littlest friend has coming for visits. Busy, busy.

My and Jake's coffee roasting has been taking on a much more serious flavor. We have been cupping wholesale lots of green coffee beans to prepare for large orders.

 Amazing sunsets are pretty regular this summer. All the smoke in the air.

Wild life has been staring in the window at us.

 I found some really promising fasteners at Harbor Freight.

 Buck is really good at keeping us fed.

A blessed moment for June, that puppy finally slept!

Lumberjackin'

We had a tree that was felled a few years ago. We thought we might like it as a landscape feature, but decided it was not going to work out.

First we cleared away the berries and brambles. I had rented a saw with a 28 inch bar to get through the thick end.  

I also had help. My son joined me with our newest farm-mate, Hank, a college friend of his who has come up to the NW to try a new direction. It was the first time for both of them being lumberjacks.

The tree had to come down because it was rotted inside. The first 10' or so was hollow. The edges were good, but the center was gone.

Pretty soon we got into full, solid rounds.

 

The boys spelled me with the saw. It takes a long time to get through wood this diameter and I wore out after a couple of hours.

 

It was their first time using a saw, but it seemed like a good time to learn. A saw like that handles like a Cadillac at 70 on a straight road. More training will be necessary before they are ready to use a smaller saw in the woods, but they did great.

A problem came as we got a little ways up the trunk. The further we went, the deeper the log was sunk in the dirt. We figured there was a lot of whiplash as it fell, causing the top to slam harder in the ground, sinking it deeper.

The worst thing for a saw chain is hitting dirt. I am not sure why it can chew through solid wood easily but goes dull at the slightest contact with soil. (If you know, fill me in.)

With a 28 inch bar and the wood 6" deep in the dirt, I was having a hard time making a clean cut without ruining the chain. I had a backup chain, but a lot of wood to get through and a long ride to the rental shop if it went dull.

After conferring with Phoebe and the boys we decided on a strategy. We grabbed a 4X4 for leverage, and some timbers to pry against. An adz was used to clear out the dirt from one side. 

I cut several rounds 3/4 through, stopping before I got near the dirt. Then we carefully dug one out and made a full cut.

 

We wedged the beam in and pried.

It took a fair amount of levering but we were able to roll the log a quarter turn and finish the cut safely above the dirt. It was an old school approach, and really satisfying to have such simple thing work so well.

The boys used a splitting maul and wedge to beak the rounds into manageable chunks. We will finish the splitting this fall, once the weather cools a bit and it is nice and dry.

 

It was really gratifying to do the work, made even more so by spending time working with the boys. It has been far too long since Jake was at home, and we are enjoying getting to know Hank.

Homestead Memories

Hi, folks! It's June here.

I'm up here at the homestead for Mother's Day, keeping mom company and generally being a little angel of sunshine. (Or at least, not a pillar of sullenness like usual.)

It's always interesting coming back up here. I know it's the family farm, where grandpa and then my mom grew up, but it's also where I grew up. When I was a kid, I'd come up here and stay with my grandparents for days or even weeks at a time. I'd revert to some Mowgli-esque

Coffee Time

Buck, June, Jake and I have, over the years, forged a tradition of "coffee time". It has become a family ritual to sit down, regardless of what we are wrapped up in or where we are and make time to come together and have a moment of pure togetherness. This has even extended to times when we are in different places, states or countries, whether we Skype each other to have coffee in cyberspace together or text a simple "Happy Coffee Time!" on our cell phones.

When we are together, Coffee Time only lasts about 30 minutes, at the end of which

A knit Pickin' Weekend

Mr. B with little turtle

Hi, bloggy folks! This is June here, the daughter of the bunch. We've been having a fun weekend here, and I offered to step in for blogging duties this week.

Something you should know about me is that I'm the most domestic person in the family. I tend to approach everything with a sort of single-minded intensity, and that especially applies to cooking and crafting. My grandmother was the same; she taught me to knit when I was three years old, though I admit that I didn't pursue it really seriously until I got into my teens. When I did, however, I.... got a little excessive.

Lace work with MooMoo the Cow, lifelong companion.

Yeah.

Now, this farm-wife streak has, so far, eluded my mom