Category Archives: gardening

2024, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

TELL THEM WHAT THEY’VE WON, DON!

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

This blog was going to be all about the practice burn the fire department did at our old Haverhill Townhall. But then I looked at the weather forecast and my farming priorities changed. Talking snow in the 10 day and some cooler temps and I rearranged things. I’m still not sure if it’s snow to stay, but I decided I better get some outdoor things done and suddenly the blog turns into all this other stuff.

When I’m working in the machine shed, because we already have spotty cell phone service down in the valley, and then inside a metal building, I can’t get cell phone or Wi-Fi in there. 30 years ago it was a big deal when I ran a phone line out to the machine shed. I could call John Deere right from the shop while I was working on something and that was a big ass deal. It wasn’t long after we all had cell phones and the wall phone became irrelevant but still, I thought having a phone in the shop made me pretty hot stuff.  It’s along those lines that I need to have, well I feel like I need to have, well I WANT internet out there. It’s not like I’m installing a TV and turning it into a man cave, but texting is a major line of communication for us and I’m always looking up something or other, so it’s a need more than a want. Therefore I am installing a Wi-Fi bridge to send the Internet from the house wirelessly over to the machine shed. A cable from our basement modem through the garage  and to a device on the side of the garage, and another device at the peak of the machine shed and a cable that will plug into a router in there. It’s good that I have friends that know this stuff and could point me in the right direction, and it’s good to have YouTube to show you how to do it. The one on the garage is done and working and Wednesday morning I was mounting the one on the machine shed when I got a phone call that my second garage door would be installed the next day. Well crap, I thought that was coming next week and while I’m mostly ready for it, I wasn’t completely ready. So I spent two hours putting a couple supports in place and getting flashing installed where the tracks will be. I had to work an event Wednesday evening and then another hour Wednesday night to finish the door up before the gentlemen arrived Thursday morning and installed the door. 

Kelly said it best: “It’s like ‘Let’s Make a Deal!’ Do I want Door #1 or Door #2??” This is called vertical lift garage door. It all came about because I bought a used garage door and opener at an auction for this location. My thought is this will be a good place to park the lawnmowers or the gator or the small tractors while leaving the big door and opening for the big tractor. But then the loft hasn’t materialized and regular garage door tracks would be in the way, which led me to a vertical door. Which also means of course, the door that I bought cheap at auction doesn’t work.  Well heck, it’s only money. 

I’m heading out to chisel some more, want to try and get that done before the temps get too cold and I should be able to finish that before the weekend.

I’ve also had a contractor out to look at moving some dirt and fixing a waterway. A spot that’s always wet in the spring and the last several years the water runs down the edge of the field rather than staying in this grassy area. That area has overgrown with Willow trees and Box Elder and really, to fix it right, we need to tear out about 200 yards of trees. The contractor is hoping to get too that early December.

I think I have this weekend open, so I shall work on picking up hoses and taking off the outdoor faucet, and until they predict a snowfall amount, I’m not gonna worry about picking up the buckets and such for the chickens yet. I suppose I might have to move a water bucket inside if the temps stay cool. I did put the back on the chicken coop this week.

I’ve seen the three ducks flying overhead. I’m not sure where they’re hanging out, but I’m glad they’re still around.

Next week I need to start lighting another show. And it’s a Christmas show of all things. Knowing my love of Christmas music should make me a joy to live with. And then the second week of December I will have holiday concerts at the college. I should start stocking up on alcohol now.

NEXT week I’ll get to the burning of the townhall.

Sneak Peak Photo!

What game show do/did you enjoy watching?

2024, Family, gardening, Mysteries, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Leaf Me Be!

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My gardening juju goes away in September.  Gardening in May and June really gets me going but by fall, I’m so done.  I think it’s because the stuff that needs doing in the fall is just clean up – nothing is going to leaf out or flower or even green up due to my work and attention.  And I detest the leaf situation the most.

My house and yard are in the middle of a weird neighborhood vortex; for some reason, even though most of the neighbors have the same number of trees as I do, way more leaves end up in my yard than the others.  I’ve documented this over the years. So so many leaves.  I’m not rabid about cleaning up leaves; I understand about leaving some leaves and plants for pollinators.  However if I don’t clean up some of the leaves, then I end up with masses of wet and sometimes moldy mess in the spring. 

But I hate raking and bagging leaves.  I’ve always hated it.  In high school, I was part of a church group that did chores for seniors and even then, I told everybody I would do any odd job but raking.  Once YA was old enough I bought her a child-sized rake and I co-opted her into helping — some years I even paid her. 

Now at the ripe old age of 29 she has decided that dealing with leaves is something important to her.  She adores our electric lawn mower and she’s been out several times now, mowing, mulching and bagging.  After a session over the weekend, she informed me that she will probably do at least one more pass in the backyard and once more out front. I haven’t asked her even once to do any of this and she hasn’t even hinted at any money crossing her palm.  It’s just amazing.

And don’t worry, believe me when I say all this activity does not denude our yard of leaves.  Plenty left for the pollinators!

Do you have anything you like to do in fall (or NOT like to do) to get ready for winter?

2024, Family, gardening, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Leaving The Leaves

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Monday afternoon I saw our neighbor across the street mowing his perfectly manicured lawn and removing every single leaf that had landed on the grass. When he was finished, there wasn’t a single leaf on the lawn. He loaded the leaves into the back of his pickup and hauled them to the city bins. He can’t tolerate anything that takes away from the green.

Most of our front yard is a vegetable garden, so we don’t rake there or in the back yard. I swept the leaves that landed on the front stoep and sidewalk into the garden so we could go out in our socks and not get them full of dried leaves. During the night we had a very strong wind, and in the morning there were as many if not more leaves on the stoep and sidewalk. Neighbor’s lawn looked like it did on Monday afternoon before he had mowed. It was covered with leaves! He was out there again on Tuesday repeating what he did on Monday. There are still lots of leaves on the trees around his property and the neighborhood. He’s going to have a busy time until the leaves are all fallen.

I suppose our neighbor thinks our yard is a mess because we leave the leaves in the flower beds and garden, we leave the perennials uncut to promote pollinator hatching, and only cut back the peonies, daylilies, and irises. Sometimes our next door neighbor comes over and rakes in the flower beds on the north side of our property because she feels guilty that our flower beds are full of the leaves from her ash trees. We tell her that the leaves will decompose and insulate the garden, but she can’t let leaves lie, either.

Rakers in your neighborhood? Did you jump in leaf piles as a kid? How do you prepare your lawn or garden for winter?

2024, Food, gardening, Uncategorized, Weather

Freeze Warning

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The temperature was predicted to get down to possibly 29 last night. We were in a Freeze Warning, the third in the past week. I didn’t cover the garden during the the last two warnings, but I decided I didn’t want to risk it last night. Covering the garden with blankets has never really worked well for us, given how windy it can get here. It also leaves you with tons of laundry to do.

I spent late Wednesday afternoon bringing in all the produce that still had the potential to ripen. There are tomatoes and eggplants in boxes in the garage. For some reason, you aren’t supposed to can tomatoes that have been through a hard freeze.

The Swiss chard is in buckets keeping hydrated until I can clean it, wilt the leaves, and freeze them.

Husband wants to make more pepper jelly from the red serranos, and will freeze the green ones.

The carrots will be better after a freeze, and our cold hardy spinach is good down to the low 20’s. Those can all stay in for a while.

The end of the garden is bittersweet but also a relief. Now comes all the work of taking up hoses, taking down bunny fences, removing spent raspberry canes, and trimming things up for winter. November through February are our least busy months, even with the holidays, as there isn’t any gardening to do except dream of next year.

What are your busiest and least busiest months? What would you use to cover your garden from frost? What are your fall yard tasks?

2024, Family, Food, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Eating it Up!

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“We need to go grocery shopping.”  “We need groceries.” ” We have to go shopping.”  These are very frequent litanies at our house.  YA occasionally cooks (and she’s fine at it) but she prefers quicker meals.  This means she doesn’t recognize foodstuffs that aren’t already “meals”.  She can open the cabinet, see a can of black beans, a can of corn and a can of Rotel tomatoes sitting next to each other and not see a meal.

In my reality, we hardly have room in the fridge, in the freezer or the cabinets for more food.  But if I say, I can make ________ from the cans in the cabinet or frozen items, she is often not interested.  So we go round and round and neither of us ever “wins”. 

She left for London last Thursday and I decided that I would spend her 12 days out of town eatting only what is in the house.  With the exception of milk, I am not going to purchase any food.  Unfortunately it’s not much of a stretch goal.

However after a few days, I realize that I’m running up against a “quirk” of mine.  My mom was born in 1932 and so her formative years were depression years and she came out of them with a “waste not, want not” attitude.  When I was growing up, we had what she lovingly called “goulash” at least once a week – any leftovers saved up and then lumped together when there was enough for a pot-ful.  I don’t remember any of them being ghastly and will admit that as an adult, I have more than once combined leftovers.

BUT, this waste not/want not that she passed to me has morphed over the years into a strong desire to “finish” things.  When I eat the last slice of bread or heat up the last helping of a dish, it makes me feel good, almost lofty.  This can unfortunately lead me to finishing things when I don’t really need to.  No need to eat three slices of bread because there are only three slices left in the bag… that kind of thing. 

While YA is gone, I’m having to balance my desire to finish things with my desire to eat only stuff that is in the house.  So far so good.   Chips/cheese/salsa.  Made a panzanella with a baguette and shaved parmesan I found in the fridge (and tomatoes and basil from the garden).  11 jars of tomato sauce for the freezer.  Ate the last English muffin from Breadsmith.  Got through the pesto pasta with tomatoes that I made right before she left.  Discovered chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers – smores.  A couple of smoothies so far using lots of frozen fruit.  I harvested the rosemary and it smelled to good that instead of freezing it all, I made a focaccia.

This is all a lot of fun so far.  We’ll see how the next week goes!

How do you feel about leftovers?

2024, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Technology, Uncategorized

False Fall

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben. 

First false fall, I believe that’s what we’re in. 
I’ve seen a few soybeans turning color, the leaves are starting to drop, and it sure is getting dark sooner. The temperature has been very nice the last week. I don’t know if the barn swallows have all moved on, or if it’s just because I’m at work and I don’t see them so much. I did notice a couple flying around the other day.  

The deer are really doing a number on the soybeans. It’s surprising how many leaves and beans a herd of deer can eat overnight. Most of my beans are over my knees, but that one field I rent, the beans are barely to my knees there, and the top of the entire field has been nibbled by the deer. It’s a lot of dollars they’re eating.   

I spent a few hours in the tractor Thursday night going over the oat ground a second time. The second time, I worked the field perpendicular to the way I worked it the first time. All an effort to work it up better. And I used the boating app to find my way again.  

I’m hoping to have started planting winter rye by the time you read this. I use it as a cover crop to keep some roots in the ground over winter, and to hopefully provide a little extra nitrogen come spring. 
Daughter and Bailey joined me in the tractor as my tractor buddies for a while. That gave us some nice time to talk about her day and I shared random tidbits about the crescent moon.  

 I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I have the entire audio recording of the movie All That Jazz in my music library. I hadn’t listened to it for a while and I had it on the tractor that night. I can recite it line for line and every time I hear it I pick up something different. It’s loosely based on the life of actor, dancer, choreographer, director Bob Fosse. He wasn’t a real nice man, but he was a very talented man. In the tractor, and later, wearing earbuds, I could hear subtle background noises I hadn’t detected before. It makes me appreciate him more as a director for the details he added.  

Sometimes while driving down I35 or Highway 52, I wonder how many of my fields a highway like that would take up.  It makes me a little sad, to think about how quickly a bulldozer can change the landscape and erase any memories of a farmstead that may have lasted years and raised generations. It should still be called progress that it doesn’t take as many small farms to produce the food we need, but the lost memories still make me sad.  

* * * * * * *
 
I feel fortunate that I’ve made some pretty good business connections over the years and I’m lucky that one businessman has let me borrow his scissor lift for a few days. Kelly and I used it to paint the front of the theater last Saturday.  

A year ago we did this with an extension ladder on a day it was about 90°F And the whole thing was just hot and miserable. This second time around we were much more prepared and it was almost fun. My nephew let me borrow his paint sprayer and we knew how to tape off things a little better (or at all)  and it went pretty well.  I’m also using the lift to swap some lighting in the theater. The Rep Theater was fortunate to receive large grant to purchase a new Lighting Console and some LED lighting. I’ve been having a good time getting that set up, and when I got the lights to turn color the first time I let out a big “YEAH BABY!”.  

At one point I knocked over a riser section and wedged it under part of the scissor lift. I swear, there are days I should not be left alone.  

At home I am rarely left alone thanks to my white shadow. 

Unless she’s on a walk with daughter, she’s not far from me, hoping I’ll be doing something interesting soon.  

DO YOU SWEAT THE DETAILS? I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY’RE NOT IMPORTANT.  

2024, Food, gardening, Mysteries

Tomato Time!

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For a couple of years, my tomatoes have struggled and I haven’t had the massive numbers coming off the plants as I’ve had in the past. The same issue (inconsistent watering) came up over and over again when I discussed it with experts and searched on the internet.  But I know my bales and I know myself and my habits and I just couldn’t accept this was the issue.  I did find just a couple of sites that talked about calcium deficiency due to the high nitrogen that is needed in getting the bales conditioned at the beginning of the season.

Ignoring the experts, I changed back to the ammonium sulfate conditioner that I used to use, added some organic calcium-rich Tomato-tone supplement and I really ramped up the egg shells added around the base of each plant.  I’m happy to say that my intuition was correct… with these changes I am now rolling in tomatoes, especially my little cherries. 

That means it’s time to start coming up with tomato recipes. 

I made my favorite pasta/onion/cherry tomato skillet dish.  So so easy and yummy.   Salsa is up next; I have a few hot peppers left to add.   I bought a baguette yesterday for a panzanella salad; I certainly have enough basil for this too. (Made several jars of pesto last week.)  I’m thinking about a nice tomato and corn salad as well.

There will most likely be plenty of tomatoes left after that so I will probably freeze some and maybe make a couple of jars of tomato sauce.  Too many tomatoes is a nice problem to have after the last couple of years!

Can you think of a time that intuition has served you well?

2024, animals, gardening, Nature, pets, Uncategorized

Herb

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Today’s post comes to us from Krista.

A couple of years ago, sometime in October, I decided it was time to bring my rosemary plant in. I was just kind of quickly grabbing plants – some would go down to the garage and a couple would stay in the house. I grabbed the rosemary plant and was stunned at what I saw. A fat, little tree frog snuggled up next to the stem of the rosemary plant!  

It was cold! I was surprised to see him there, hunkered down next to the plant in the soil. He was about the color of the soil, very well camouflaged. He was already in a state of torpor.  I knew a bit about the overwintering habits of tree frogs. I knew he needed to be in a wooded area, down beneath the thick leaf litter, maybe under a partially rotten log. I knew he needed to find that shelter himself and that he wouldn’t have time anymore, especially since he was already sleeping.  

I considered my rosemary plant. I knew life would be just fine for me if I didn’t keep it. I knew his life depended on it. But how could I use it to make him a safe place for the winter?  

I took the pot outside near my driveway. In the corner of the front wall of the house and the front steps there’s a terracotta sunny face and some prairie agates. This corner is sheltered and when the sun is out, it’s warm enough to melt ice even if the air temp is in the 20s. The corner also has an abundance of oak leaves.  

I pulled all the leaves and debris out of the corner, set the rosemary plant in the corner, and gently buried it with leaves. Then I placed another empty terracotta pot upside down over the top of all the leaves. The frog was still in the rosemary plant when I buried him, sleeping soundly. I placed the terracotta sun face in front of it to hold it all in place. He had air to breathe through the loose leaves, even though he would be breathing very infrequently. He was covered and had plenty of shelter. He would freeze almost completely in the winter and thaw out again in the spring.  

I asked my friend TeeJay if he thought the frog would make it. I also wanted to name it. TeeJay suggested “Herb” since it clearly loved the rosemary plant. He said he had no idea if it would make it or not, but the shelter I’d made might work. 

I thought about Herb all winter. I wondered if the shelter would protect him. It got awfully cold and we had a lot of snow. Sometime in April I took the shelter apart and looked in my dead rosemary plant. Herb was gone. He’d gotten out on his own.  

Disclaimer: I don’t know how to sex frogs. I have no idea if Herb is female or male. And the frog I saw sunning himself for several hours on my deck rail today may or may not be Herb. It might be one of Herb’s kids! There are lots of tree frogs here. I hear them calling a lot. I haven’t seen one since Herb left though. It was very nice to see Herb today! I know how silly it is but I thought maybe he was going to get too hot so I set him in my herb and flower garden. He can choose which plant he wants. For now, he’ll be catching lots of mosquitoes and flies. He’ll be getting fat for winter. I’m happy to have him here.  

Any unusual pets? Pet names?

2024, Farming Update, gardening, Technology, Weather

Survey Says

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Man, it just keeps raining. Thursday afternoon, we were headed to my sister’s house a few miles away, and it rained so hard we could barely see to drive. We had gotten .2″ of rain in the morning, came home to see we gained another 1.6″ which came hard and fast. I could see where it overflowed some culverts, and backed up behind others. We had some washouts on a couple township roads, and I was out Friday putting warning signs up to alert drivers until we can get them graded on Monday. And I said it was wet LAST week. This latest rain came with some wind too and the oats are a little ruffled. Once it starts to turn color and the stalks are dying and turning yellow, it becomes more brittle, and the oats are more likely to shell out. It may rebound a little bit at this point. About a month to go yet before the oats are ready to harvest.

The corn is nearly as high as an elephant’s eye, to quote Oscar Hammerstein.

The soybeans are looking good, but that one low spot has been wet long enough, and a couple acres are turning yellow. There is water standing in a lot of fields now. It’s just plain wet enough, for now.

I finally finished that fence. Glad to have it done.

Building that brought back a lot of memories. One of the things I bought in preparation of making this fence, was 3 pairs of leather gloves. Good cowhide leather gloves. Deer skin is too soft for working with barb wire. As are plain cotton and canvas gloves. I bought extra pairs in smaller sizes for my helpers. (Photo credit to Kelly)

To attach the wire to the steel ‘T’ post, I use wire clips.

They used to be included with each 5-pack of posts. Now they cost extra, of course, and are not nearly so well made. I found it curious, the previous batch wasn’t made as well as the batch before them, either. I can see the companies cutting costs with each manifestation!

The clip should hook on the fence like the previous photo, then I use my pliers to bend the end around the wire.

The new ones are lighter wire, and they don’t snap on like the old ones. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

Course, we didn’t always have the clips. In that case, we would cut a piece of wire about 20″ long, separate the strands of wire, (barb wire is two strands twisted together: one with barbs, and one without) wrap one end on the wire, go twice around the post and over the fence wire, and attach to the wire again on the other side of the post. Doing that on a post this week, I heard my dad’s voice teaching me how to do it. The old fence ends up in a heap and will go to scrap metal.

A new roll of barb wire is 1320′ long. I used two full rolls and was about 150′ short. Good thing I had an old roll left in the shed. I think it was from Kelly’s Dad. I had to use that to make the gate, and to finish one narrow end of the fence.

1320′ is 80 rods. 80 rods is a quarter mile. One rod is 16.5 feet. Dad used the term ‘rods’ when describing the size of fields, but I don’t think anyone uses the term anymore, maybe not even surveyors.

When I was measuring fields for the ASCS office, I had an actual metal wire that was 66′ long- a “chain”. And a rod is a 1/4 of a chain. And I had a belt pack with 10 metal hooks in which to pass the wire through as I walked a field. I only used it a few times because it would snag and slip out of the loops and it was a huge pain in the tuckus. Mostly we used a measuring wheel that counted in chains. The wheel itself was maybe 2 1/2′ feet in diameter, so I don’t know how it figured out the distance, but it was the official tool for measuring fields.

Curiously, most township roads have a 66′ right of way. Thirty Three feet from the center of the road including the ditch. 33′ is two rods. Coincidence??

The ducks are doing well and enjoying their new pen.

Wild black raspberries are turning ripe. Yummy on vanilla ice cream. 

Any unusual units of measurement you use?

2024, animals, Fantasy, gardening, History, Kids, Seasons, Uncategorized

Viking Daze

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After all the days of rain, YA and I couldn’t wait to get out into the yard and get dirty.  I decided that it had been too long since I cleaned up the edges of the yard and boulevard along our front sidewalk.  This is a two-part job.  First I run my edger along where I think the sidewalk should be ending.  Second I sit on the sidewalk and pull up the bits that are overgrown. 

So there I was sitting on the sidewalk when a neighbor from up the street, along with her son, stopped to chat.  Since they had their dog, who is on the small size, I stayed on the sidewalk to pet the dog while we talked.  Blake (son) and I talked about llama day, which had happened at the library the week before.  Blake had been to the farm where the llamas come from and knew one of the llamas that was at the library. 

We also talked about school finally being over for the summer and I asked him if he had any plans.  He’s 10 so his short “just camps” answer didn’t surprise me; I followed up with “what kind of camps this year”.   He mentioned a science camp and a viking camp.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know all the kinds of camps there are, but a viking camp seemed different.  I asked if it was a football camp or some kind of history camp.  He laughed and said “BIKING”.  If I’d had any liquid, I probably would have snorted it up on the spot.

When I was a kid you just hung around the neighborhood for the summer and bothered your mother.  Maybe if you knew someone who knew someone you might end up at a vacation bible study camp for a few days.  If kids were doing organized anything, I never knew about it.  So even though Blake will be biking for one of his camps this summer, I love the thought of viking camp.  Not even remotely sure what we would do at viking camp, but I’m positive I would love the outfits!

How did you spend your summers as a kid?  Any camp you WISH you could have gone to?