Farm Journal

#Planting #Hugelkultur #Meadow Garden #Fermentation #Animals

Monday, September 20, 2021

We’ve officially transitioned the garden to fall, pulling out the remaining corn stalks and squash and beans. The tomatoes are finally producing a bunch, and the peppers keep going as well. Planning …

#Mushrooms #Meadow Garden #Animals

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

We harvested the corn a couple weeks ago. The yield was terrible, as birds ate about 85% of it on the stalks, but the Riverspirit Rainbow we did harvest was beautiful, a wild mix of deep burgundy and…

#Fermentation #Dogs #Meadow Garden #Clearing Brush

Monday, August 23, 2021

This week was surprisingly cool and I focused on clearing, suiting up and busting out the old weedwhacker to bull through a lot of snowberry and poison oak. Still crossing my fingers that I’m immune …

#Mushrooms #Planting #Foraging #Meadow Garden

Monday, August 16, 2021

Cory and Jess moved onto the property last week and got their van all set up to live out of. It’s been nice having them around to help out. We had the craziest lightning storm I’ve ever witnessed in …

#Wild Plants #Dogs #Meadow Garden #Planting #Travel

Monday, July 26, 2021

I woke up this morning to discover it rained a whole quarter inch last night, on top of a tenth of an inch yesterday. The smell of the rain saturated ground (petrichor, if you will) is absolutely glo…

#Wild Plants #Brewing #Meadow Garden

Monday, July 19, 2021

While the eternal struggle against squirrels and rabbits continues, the harvest has begun to trickle in. Somehow we’ve ended up with far too many squash plants again, and the wave is beginning to gro…

#Meadow Garden #Wild Plants #Clearing Brush

Monday, July 12, 2021

The projects continue, and it’s still damn hot. The Garden All the squash I planted outside the garden except one has been eaten at this point, even with cages around them. I’ve also discovered evide…

#Meadow Garden #Building #Wild Plants #Animals #Cob

Monday, June 28, 2021

It’s been a hot couple of weeks in the mountains. Most of the garden is enjoying the weather -- some of our corn is waist high, and the potatoes are flowering. I spent quite a bit of time trellising …

#Animals #Meadow Garden

Monday, June 14, 2021

It’s been a wild week in the animal kingdom, kicked off by the possum that drowned in my fish emulsion. The squirrels have continued to ratchet up their destruction, so we finally got the squirrelnat…

#Building #Planting #Animals #Meadow Garden #Carving

Monday, May 31, 2021

The ground squirrels have decided to claim this land as their own. Anywhere a squirrel could conceivably dig a hole, a squirrel has done so (especially in and around newly planted trees and berries).…

#Meadow Garden #Seed Starting #Reflections

Monday, May 17, 2021

Plants are in the ground in the meadow garden. We transplanted the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers last week, and planted a few rows of potatoes, corn, and beans. It’s exciting to finally se…

#Meadow Garden #Wild Plants #Planting

Monday, May 10, 2021

Last week we worked at breakneck speed to get the garden ready to plant this week. I continued adding to the fence and ran irrigation from the well house all the way down the hill. I ended up using 3…

#Meadow Garden #Fermentation #Wild Plants

Monday, May 3, 2021

I slow cooked a goat loin and a couple legs for tacos this weekend to ring in my 30th, which turned out great. Cracked open one of the elderberry prickly pear blends for the party too, which turned o…

#Meadow Garden #Fermentation

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Monday it drizzled all day, but again significantly less than I was hoping for, about a quarter inch total. Doesn’t look like we’ll get any more good rain for the year. With the dismal weather I took…

#Meadow Garden #Wild Plants #Building

Friday, April 23, 2021

It teased at raining yesterday, as a layer of mist settled on Wednesday and didn’t let up until this morning. Unfortunately we only got around a tenth of an inch. I’ve continued plugging away at the …

#Wild Plants #Meadow Garden #Building

Monday, April 19, 2021

I’m tired and beat up, but progress on the meadow garden continues. My friend David came up on Friday and we built the pergola slash entryway to the garden. It turned out well -- in an ideal world we…

#Meadow Garden #Carving #Compost

Friday, April 16, 2021

I’ve been plugging away on the meadow garden, and finally finished tilling yesterday. I’m glad I decided to use the rototiller -- it saved me quite a bit of time over using a shovel or mattock. The p…

#Building #Meadow Garden

Monday, April 12, 2021

I worked like a dog this weekend and loved it. Friday Tom from Lumbercycle came up and we loaded up his trailer with manzanita scraps from our thinning for him to take to the macaw exhibit at the zoo…

#Meadow Garden #Grafting

Friday, April 9, 2021

Work on the meadow garden has commenced. I cut 23 black locust fence posts around 10 feet long and started prepping the area yesterday. It felt good to practice my felling technique on straight trees…