Repairs August 9, 2010

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I have nothing more to show for our wrestling with mechanical things than this solitary photo. Both of our mowers were broken for a while. It took a while, but Michael fixed this one.





It had been sitting there long enough to kill the grass underneath, I heard it start up, and ran to get a photo, but he was already off taking care of other business.

Now if we could just get the other one fixed!

~Faith

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A Tidy Harvest.

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We are using a combination of herbicides since our weed whacker doesn't work. This year is our first year trying out a 1-Year length chemical. We only spray this under fences where we know we are not going to want anything to grow for a long time. It can't be used under trees, or it can get into the root systems.

Here is the garden fence. We sprayed here about 4 to 6 weeks ago. We ended up moving the fence a little after we sprayed. So far the horses are keeping this part chewed, so I'm not going to worry about it.





I did a little spraying around the house with short term spray, Round-Up, to keep stray weeds from taking over, as well as along the side of the property so the electric fence doesn't short out over there.

Here the berry rows look much neater having been sprayed a couple of weeks ago. You have to be so careful not to get any leaves on your plants. I've actually gotten really good at this and can spray even in the wind and right up close to the plants. So far, so good...





The vineyard never got sprayed for weeds, so we'll try to get to that this coming week.





Michael is taking care of push mowing where ever the riding mower could not be taken. We should get a good crop of those bush cherries and bush plums this year. The frost did not get either grouping.





The hardy kiwi are looking good. I hope another mockingbird builds a nest in there again this year. We so enjoyed watching the babies.





I will really enjoy it if we ever get a crop. But wait, what's this....?





Could we be getting flowers for the first time? I hope so, and I hope that means enjoying some fruit from them this year!





Many suckers need to be cut off from the grapes before we can spray for weeds. Also, with the black rot, you want as dry an area near the vines as possible, so the closer to dirt we can make it below the vines, the better our chances of getting a grape harvest.





This vine is always laden with clusters. It's a European grape, and highly susceptible to black rot. Tasty, but after this year, I am probably going to thin out the grapes in each row to about half. This one may go.





The Doyle Thornless blackberries are getting ready to blossom out.





Getting ready to harvest some Red Sails lettuce. I believe the deep red color is likely due to the abundance of sunshine, as I have another bed in the shade, and it is almost all green.





I decide to take the outer leaves rather than cut the whole plant.





And this is what came from one. About two dollar's worth of organic lettuce. I ended up filling the basket to overflowing.





We can't eat it all, so I just take the biggest for now.









I planted Arugula to go with the lettuce...
Now what? LOL I'm thinking it is probably too far gone.





On my way up to pick strawberries, I get to enjoy the variety of herb blooms.

Chamomile.





Cilantro.





Sage.





Here's that marker stone I was mentioning before. I like them, but there were only four available. I would like to make some for all the herbs, and maybe even vegetables.





The chives are about to go to seed now. I need to build alternate year beds so I can have a cutting bed, and a bed to enjoy the blossoms.





This rhubarb's crown ended up being covered by the time heavy rains came. Once I cleared earth away from it, it got a lot happier and sent up some leaves to match it's sister plant.





The strawberry bed. I believe the sparse section is the one grouping of June bearers we planted.





They produce quite a few berries, but look awful. And, of course, I've forgotten which type we put in. Most of what we picked came from here.





The ever bearers are much healthier looking, and getting ready to gear up for production.





About 4 dollar's worth of berries, but half of them are gone. I told Michael to just eat his fruit while we picked. I like the really ripe ones. He likes the ones that are not quite, in my opinion, ripe. So we've got quite a mix here.





Washing the lettuce and hoping it will dry well enough before we have to leave for office cleaning.





Then a fun evening of barn prep!

~Faith

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Mowing and Cultivating, the Ultimate Perpetuality.

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Armed with my hat...





And my iPod loaded with Bible teachings...





I left Michael sitting comfortably in the shade with a cool drink and his last lesson of the book in math.





And I headed for the mower.





Warming it up.





I notice that clover is beginning to make a dent in the soil at the front of the house. That's great! The legumes will pull nitrogen into the soil from the air, and also add Mycorrhizae to the root area, making it much more hospitable for other plants to move in later.





A small detour to put on the steering wheel knob we bought. It turned out to make a real difference in not only comfort for turning, but also wear and tear on the steering shaft.









Before...









And after about 3 hours...









We spent an hour cultivating the gardens. I was chagrined to see how hard the soil had become after only 48 hours since a heavy rain. This is why we cultivate so often, but it hit home once again how poorly conditioned our soil is. We decided on a plan. We are going to ask the neighbor who often helps us if we can have some of his oldest, most rotten, big round bales that are no longer good for feed. If we can get about four of them, we could mulch all the garden beds.

At this point, I am willing to put up with the weeds that might come with them. We are in a constant battle with cultivating anyhow, so a few more seeds are not going to make a difference.





Not my pic, but isn't the horse stuck in the hay bales cute?
Giving credit where credit is due...

~Faith

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Nothing much. April 28, 2010

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I don't know what all we did this day, as I apparently took few photos, but here are some random shots.

Action shot of Michael mowing while listening to iPod recordings of Wretched Radio.





We got a new thermometer and rain gauge. I hope this one lasts, they always seem to get broken somehow. But I love that this one came with it's own stake.





Come here, Girls! They are fattening up quickly on the grass. Amazing how fast they can put on weight.









Beautiful!

~Faith

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Hiccup Starts...

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Seems getting a project done always includes hiccup beginnings, and getting the electric fence put in was no exception.

As we went out to pound in the three grounding rods, we realized that the fenceline needed to be moved. It had been curving down around the pool area...





It went up again nearer the house, so the horses would have a little more pasture area...





and then went back up again down by the greenhouse frame.





We had been planning on extending the garden area sideways, toward the fruit crop direction, but instead we decided to extend it upward toward the house and move the fence so it would be straight and parallel (as close as you can get in with lopsided everything) to the house area.

We used a hose to mark the straight line we would follow. I took this photo when we were done along this area.





If you remember this amazing contraption my dad built for us last year, we fell in love with it all over again. It made getting the posts out a breeze! This one is dug out because we started that before Michael remembered how to drop the winch down further.





You just park it over a fence post, hang the winch from the ring at the top and wrap a chain around the post.





If you are on a hill, use a board. Some of the hills were so steep, we actually place the frame uphill from the post, right next to it, instead of directly over the top. Start winching...





...and the post comes right out!





We also moved some of the posts to create an interior fenceline inside the original fence. That's where we planted the blueberries. Since the compost bins are down there and we'd like to plant fruit trees along there as well, we are closing it off from the horses.





We dismantled the garden fence so we can redo that. The horses had trampled it down beyond repair, so it will be new and improved with this new electric system.

We also began mowing. Guess who ran over the electric wires we had laid down from the old system? Yeah, me. I was near them, Michael yelled something to me, and I began trying to look and hear him instead of where I was going. I wonder if he was telling me to watch out for the wires...

Here he is untangling the mess.





We don't have a working weed whacker, so we have to rely on sprays along edges of buildings and fences. Usually we have to do it so often that it gets away from us. We decided to invest in this stuff, which is very costly, but we are only going to use it on the most problematic areas, and hope that the one application will last for the whole growing season. The regular Round-Up will have to do for the easier stuff.





These little sprayers are sure uncomfortable on your back. You have to bend down a long way for long periods. So that's what I did while Michael fixed the mower blades.





We both soaked up as much sunshine as we could. I'm sure our Vitamin D levels are horribly low. I've been having a tough time dealing with the dreary weather all winter, so I was so happy to finally be out enjoying a sunny day of 75 degrees in a short skirt and spaghetti strap top. I even got a little sunburned. But we sure feel a lot better!

Today has another list. It's spring break so we are using it to full advantage!

~Faith

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