By coincidence I work with the wife of Joel Karsten, the father of straw bale gardening. When I first got interested in straw bale gardening, it was Karsten’s book that I turned to. I’ve even been to hear him talk.
He has a new book out now and this led to a conversation with his wife in the hallway at work about getting started with bale planning for this summer.
YA and I have discussed cutting down a bit – doing just tomatoes and basil. The bales are a lot of work and we live in such a farmer’s market-rich environment that fresh vegies are always right at hand. But I do love tending to the tomatoes and basil, so I won’t be able to give those up. We’re still considering chives but YA’s dog can’t stay away and I had to replant one of the chives plants several times last summer; that plant didn’t do too well.
I realize that I don’t really have to be making these decisions right now, but it feels a little like fantasy daydreaming while I wait for spring.
What keeps you going as the last weeks of winter play out?
If it’s sunny, I bundle up my mom and wheel her outside on the sunny side of her building. If it’s breezy we breathe in the fresh air and go right back in. But if it’s fairly still, we can walk around for a while as long as we stay in the sun. She is so elated to be outdoors that I realize I can be too, spring or not.
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We had 4 inches of snow last night. We had couple of warm, melting days last week. I keep going by thinking of our trip to Savannah in early April.
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Ooooh, just the thought keeps me going. Lucky you.
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The favorite line from six seasons of Downton Abbey is when the Dowager Countess asks, “What is a weekend?” She doesn’t work or know anyone who does, so she is puzzled by the concept of the work week. In that sense, as a retired person who rarely leaves the geezer hotel that is home now, I’m trying to remember what “winter” is. The view out my apartment windows features less white and more color than it recently did. I welcome that. Color is nice. 🙂
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Like “geezer hotel”. : )
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We also watch the birds as they return. Downy and Hairy woodpeckers are back, as are increasingly golden Goldfinches. We had Redpolls all winter.
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Yes, I’ve been hearing lots more birds, but some of them are the cardinals and chickadees that I would have thought wintered here. Am I just paying more attention because I know spring is almost here?
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As the weather gets warmer I go out on a daily basis to chip the accumulated ice and slushy snow from the sidewalks. The front walk that leads up to my house runs east and west, so the sunny north side of the sidewalk melts faster than the day south side. Last week I had an ice ridge running down the center of the sidewalk, with a narrow channel on one side that was clear and nearly dry. So every day I’d whack off a few more inches and expose a little more sidewalk. Then do the same on the sidewalk that runs east-west on the north side of the house. And on the driveway. The sidewalk in front of the house has been clear for a week or so, except for the very end where it meets the street. The snowplows leave a ridge there that is hard to break down in the cold, so it’s the last thing to melt away in the spring.
It’s kind of satisfying when you have a large ridge of ice and there’s water seeping underneath it, and you stand on a portion of it, and it breaks off the main ridge and sinks into the water beneath. Then you can get under it with a shovel and fling it into the street, where the solar gain finishes it off.
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Yes, and when the water is finally running beneath that ridge and you can it running, you are HEARING Spring.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
Just the thought of getting in the car and coming back home is keeping me going. The March allergens here are intense and uncomfortable 🤧causing me to sneeze relentlessly some days. Who knew?
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How many days left?
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Like Steve, it’s color that I crave. Last fall, I did my darnest to store up colors to last me the winter, ala Frederick in the picture book, but this time of year, the storage of color in my mind has been all used up and outside it is gray and the dirty snow melting in my neighborhood is just plain ugly because it’s black and dark gray, which is not the right color for snow, and the melting reveals all sorts of trash that has accumulated during the winter months. Bleh.
But yesterday, I dragged my sorry body out of bed early in the morning and headed over to Powderhorn Park to watch (and shoot) the sunrise. It was perfect. It started out blue-twilight with an orange band along the horizon, then gradually turned to pink, pillowy clouds above the orange band, then orange everywhere. It was quite lovely.
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How lovely!
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Wait, you already said “lovely.” :}
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Well, it was lovely.
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Hi–
Last fall, our neighbors put a couple small ‘Anti-trump’ signs out in a field near the highway. They lasted about a week before they were taken.
So neighbors put another up. It soon got covered by snow.
We’ve been enjoying it slowly revealing itself again. It fully came out last week.
At home, I’m thinking I better get my seed oats ordered soon. Corn and beans I order in the fall (pricing discounts), oats I do in the spring.
And thinking I need to finish some repairs on the grain drill. And get the seed wagon out, but I’m sure that’s still stuck in a snow bank at the moment…
I have one old John Deere 2 cylinder tractor, a 630 from 1959 that dad bought new and I use for pulling wagons or raking hay. Not the heavy duty fieldwork anymore, just light work. And the seat suspension has been broken since I was a kid. Last fall I decided to overhaul that. I pulled it off and watched some videos and talked with a guy here at the college who restores tractors.
It’s getting to the point I’m going to want a seat on that tractor soon… ordered parts, Forgot a few parts, got the old one all apart, took the seat home to braze some of the frame, ordered more parts… maybe a couple more days I’ll have the seat put back together!
It’s worse than a home remodeling project!
I’ll deliver straw and chicken poo again if people are interested.
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Count me in. 4 bales.
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Not this year, thanks.
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When I was in junior high my father completely overhauled a 1929 Farmall. Right down to paint and new Evans. He did it in late winter so it would be ready for spring. He did a wonderful job. I held the trouble light, always incorrectly, of course.
OT my daughter is at the chiropractor with their cat.
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NEW DECALS>
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My dad could overhaul the engines or fix anything mechanical. But he never ‘restored’ anything in the form of repainting or dressing it up. Not machinery anyway.
The guy here at the college who restores tractors, says mine is probably fairly valuable being ‘factory original’ vs. having a bad home paint job. I’m replacing the battery box while I’m doing the seat (because the seat sits on top of the battery box and the old one is fairly beat up. But now it will be the only green shiny thing about the tractor.
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I want chicken poo again. Cluck cluck🐓
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Psyching up for a new golf season. Golfers by nature are the epitome of the eternal optimist. We always believe that our next round will be our best round ever. Until it’s not. But then we buy a new club or get a lesson or read a golf magazine or get a swing tip from a friend and we believe all over again. Yes, I know, also the definition of insanity.
Chris in Owatonna
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Harbingers of spring is what I’m looking for. Everything from eranthis and crocuses revealed by the retreating snow mounds in my front yard, to kids walking home from school in shirtsleeves. I’ll not go into detail about what the retreating snow in the fenced-in back yard is revealing!
Goldfinches are already changing their winter drab plumage to canary yellow. Skunk cabbage is up; maple trees’ buds are swelling, and it won’t be long before daffodils and tulips perform their magic. Can blooming forsythia be far behind?
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I picked up a different piece of farm machinery a few weeks ago. It’s called a ‘Mulch Finisher’ and it’s what I pull across the field just prior to planting. Its job is to leave a smooth, firm, seedbed.
So that’s parked out here and I’m kinda excited to get that hooked up and try it. At least, hook it up and unfold it and admire it a little bit.
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Let us know once you’ve given it a try, Ben. 🙂
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