Joy Farm Journal

Crabapple Gold

2011-11-03T09:14:00.000-05:00

This morning the crabapple tree outside the sunroom windows caught my attention. Maybe it was the birds fluttering in it. Maybe it is the colors: shades of gold, rust and yellow. It's name is 'Golden Raindrops' and once the leaves actually fall, the reason for the name will be obvious. Tiny little apples drip from twigs until they are eaten by the cedar waxwings that arrive in a flock. Somehow they sense when the time is just right.

The weather site tells me today's high temperature will be 50 degrees. I will spend some more time cleaning up the garden, cutting back perennials, maybe getting some tulip bulbs in the ground. And, the birds are letting me know that the feeders are empty and need to be filled!

Later, I'll make some potato-leek soup, using Eden's recipe. Last time I made it, I couldn't stop eating that wonderful soup. Eden's recipe is really quite simple and easy to make. It's hard to believe that something that easy can taste so good. With a healthy, colorful salad and some crusty bread, this potato-leek soup is an excellent supper for a November evening.

2011-10-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spent over two hours cleaning up in the yard and garden - with many more hours to go. I am very behind and can only hope to get as much as possible done before the snow flies. Again, my determination to do better next year is high. Now if I can only maintain this level of determination throughout 2012!

Two days ago I cut up cabbage, salted it and added some brine. With any luck it will turn into sauerkraut over the next 4-6 weeks. Last time I made it, two years ago, it was the best sauerkraut I ever tasted - which isn't very humble of me, but it's true. This year all the cabbage came right from our garden.

This afternoon, I'll make cabbage and potato soup out of the remainder of the cabbage. And later, potato-leek soup is on the agenda! I absolutely LOVE potato soup of any kind.

Sometime soon I need to reflect on this past gardening season and how it went, as well as make some plans and resolutions for better gardening next year. It's amazing to me that our garden was as productive as it was, and that I did as much cooking and canning as I did, given my general level of preoccupation with other things. Maybe I'll post some pictures of canning and results of using what was canned this year. Actually, I'm quite proud of that, and really love seeing the jars of good stuff sitting on the shelves that dear Jim put up for me.

These Days

2011-05-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday, Gus, the giant Golden Retriever, had a second knee operation - this time on his left knee. The operation is called a TPLO, which is supposed to stabilize the knee joint and fix the absence of the canine cruciate ligament. He had had surgery on the right leg back in 2008, and afterwards had infections for a few months. His right leg is now quite arthritic, and poor Gus has two hurting knees at this point. We are hopeful that once he recovers from this most recent surgery, plus takes some supplements for the arthritis, he can have a good quality of life once again.

These first several days are spent tending to Gus, giving him his pills at scheduled times, and taking care of ordinary tasks of life. Gus clearly has pain, and it is hard to watch him struggle to stand and walk. Yet, once he is outside, he clearly relishes sniffing the air, looking out over his domain, and enjoying the good drinking water in his outside dish. He is both brave and mindful of what he can do and not do, as well as alert for opportunities for little joys, such as a treat, a belly rub, or a good roll in the grass. What a good teacher he is!

January 2011

2011-01-22T16:19:00.000-06:00

Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel. ~ Aldo Leopold
Quote from a comment on the Climate Progress blog.

I haven't been posting on this blog for a long time. Now, it seems important that I chronicle what is happening in this little corner of west central Wisconsin. Joy Farm seems increasingly more precious as the world situation becomes more imperiled. Snowshoeing across two feet of snow into fields that grow soy beans, alfalfa and corn for a neighboring farmer, I see evidence of deer and sometime coyotes. The tracks of birds and critters crisscross the fields of snow, while beneath the brush, there are little snow caves where rabbits make their winter homes.

This winter we have a new location for our bird feeders and can easily watch the birds from our sunroom. We have a multitude of chickadees, juncos, at least three types of woodpeckers, blue jays and a pair of cardinals. We have even seen a redwing blackbird visiting the feeders, something we've not seen before. The presence of these winged creatures brings joy!

We saw one of these at the feeders this morning. They are so beautiful.

And, it is this beauty that motivates us to stay at Joy Farm, to plan for its well-being and the well-being of all the critters who live here. It is this beauty that sends me in search of ways to counter the global warming that has already occurred, and to work to stop putting more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. So, we will plant more trees, tend the ones we have on this land, welcome the birds, and grow our gardens without using poisons and artificial fertilizers. We, too, wish to be creative, and to cooperate with the forces of Creation.

Trying to Get Garden Planted

2010-06-04T23:47:00.000-05:00

After a few days of no gardening, sitting at work, tonight I got into the main vegetable garden area. I decided to make a circle garden within the almost square fence. Last year my friend Sondra planted her garden in a circle, and it was amazing how that changed the energy. This year, I intend to copy her good idea. Just laying out the beginnings of the circle using an old broken hose, I could feel the flow of energy had changed in the garden area.

I hope to have plants in the ground by dark on Sunday evening. In the meantime, the little starts are sitting patiently waiting to be put in their big garden. There is still raking and some soil turning to do before putting anything in the ground. It makes me wish that I had a crew available to do some of the work - but it's Jim and me. We'll get it done as soon as possible, since it's already pretty late.

Plants that need to be put in their new home: tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, broccoli, swiss chard, squash - several kinds of winter squash and 6 (!) zucchini. We also have some flowers (just a few) to plant into the herb/flower garden. After all that is done, it's weeding, mulching, weeding, weeding, mulching, and more weeding.

Back Again

2010-06-02T12:42:00.000-05:00

(picture from perdue.edu)

This past weekend involved a lot of garden activity. Jim and I laid paving blocks in our garden next to the house. In a couple of days, I'll post pictures. The blocks are in a cross-shape, dividing the garden into quarters. This is an herb and flower garden, mostly herbs, both culinary and medicinal, and edible flowers, with a few other flowers for color. So far, I've planted rhubarb, borage, leek, oregano, basil, anise, caraway, thyme, and two kinds of parsley.

I've moved some coneflower (echinacea) starts that were invading other areas into this one. I'll be interested in making some echinacea extract from the roots when the time is right. Other medicinals include a wild mullein, which has those wonderful fuzzy leaves. Eventually, I hope to have a strong collection of medicinal herbs and bushes around Joy Farm. There's lots to learn about growing them and then preparing them for use.

The culinary herbs are more familiar to me, and I'm pleased to have them so close. Some are even on the deck on the east side of our house. One intention is to use more fresh herbs and to dry some for winter use as the season progresses.

As all these lovely plants grow and as I use them, I'll make posts here. They will include both pictures and descriptions of what I've done and learned as the summer unfolds. Thanks be to sunshine, air, wind, and rain that bring forth green goodness.

Late Garden Harvest

2009-11-29T10:19:00.000-06:00

On Thanksgiving Day Jim and I harvested almost two pounds of brussels sprouts, a small bag of kale, and a good handful of parsley. It was so great to have fresh food from the garden! And, there are still two stalks of brussels sprouts to pick when I get home from my visit to Chicago and Hammond.

My next projects include purchasing or starting some herb plants. The rosemary I brought in from the garden has not survived, so I need to see if I can find a plant in a greenhouse and keep it alive. This year's basil was not very healthy, so did not get brought inside. That will need to be planted now, in hopes that within a few weeks we can have little basil plants flourishing. If the ground isn't frozen by the time I get home, I'll dig up the last parsley plant and try to keep it alive through the winter, but will also plant a couple of pots of parsley just in case. There's plenty of dried sage picked earlier in the fall. With any luck the sage plant will reawaken in the spring. The thyme I dug up is still alive, and hopefully, will remain healthy through the winter.

Seed catalogs have started to arrive, so the next months will be filled with dreaming and planning for the new season's gardens. In the meantime, as long as it doesn't snow, there are still leaves to rake, fallen branches to pick up and pile for burning, and bits of brush to clear away. It is satisfying and even soothing to do these tasks.

Saying Good-Bye to Farmers' Market

2009-10-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

This was the last Farmers' Market (FM) of the season. A cold, windy day with spits of rain and sleet didn't stop intrepid market farmers who cheerfully stood behind their tables of produce. I was pleased to find some mixed baby lettuce, spinach, onions, parsnips and leeks. A kind seller gifted me with some very tasty radishes, too. I can hardly wait until next April or May when the selling season starts again!

Tonight I made potato leek soup from Eden's recipe. I used the leeks from the FM, potatoes from our own garden, bay leaves from our own little bay tree in the living room, and some fresh thyme also from a pot in the living room. It tastes yummy, but tomorrow I may decide it needs a little more thyme. We'll see after it sits in the refrigerator overnight.

I hope to make some muffins tomorrow. Or some scones. Being home and having enough time to cook is such a gift!

The Last Bits

2009-10-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

Jim and I are enjoying a bit of rest in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It is cool, rainy and windy today, so hiking is not on the schedule. However,I'm cozy and comfortable sitting here at the Thimbleberry Inn. Our large windows overlook Lake Superior and we have views of some of the Apostle Islands. Lovely!

Before we left, I made a hearty tomato soup from the last of the garden tomatoes that I cooked up with some onions, garlic, and a nice hot red banana pepper. The addition of some oregano, marjoram, basil, salt, and black pepper spiced up this spur of the moment soup nicely. Friend Sondra served some of the leftovers to another friend, Pat, who pronounced it good. I'm glad it was eaten up, since I enjoyed making our very own version of the store-bought "hearty tomato soup" we sometimes get. It will be a while before there's more of this fresh home-made kind, another cycle of seasons to dance through. Yet, there are canned and frozen tomatoes to use through the winter for another version, perhaps with some frozen corn and green beans.

We also still have some kale left in the garden, as well as carrots to dig before the ground freezes. More soups! I can almost taste it now, lentil and kale soup, carrot soup, maybe even carrot cake!

Next spring we'll start another round of gardening. I will be glad to experiment, grow more of our own culinary and medicinal herbs, plant vegetables again, and more different kinds of them, including the sweet potatoes recommended by the DOL (daughter of love). I can't wait to see if we can grow them this far north.

We were only able to carry out a small number of our plans we made early this year. Still to happen are the hoop house - perhaps a scaled-back version, and the root cellar. I'm also thinking about looking for a second freezer next year. As I write this, so many projects spring to mind! So much easier in concept than in implementation!

Killing Frost

2009-09-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

When I got up around a quarter of seven this morning, first thing I did after letting the dog out, was to run to the computer to check the temperature. Last night there were "patchy frost" warnings, yet this morning it looked fairly white out there. To my dismay, the temperature just a couple of miles from here was only 26 degrees. The history for that site showed that the temperature had been steadily falling all night.

So, the gardening season has officially ended - at least for the vegetable garden. Yesterday I picked everything I could, tomatoes, peppers, cut some swiss chard, found a couple of handfuls of green beans, a last yellow squash and a last zucchini. Actually, there are some winter squash to bring in, potatoes to dig, brussels sprouts to pick, so it's not quite done. Then there is the clean up to do. So, enough work yet, but, for the most part, this garden season is over.

A strange year it was, too. Slow starting, very chilly and dry for parts of the summer, then very wet and still not as warm as usual, followed by more than 30 days of no rain. We had some warm days then, but few of the 90+ degree days that have typified summers in this part of Wisconsin. It's amazing the garden did as well as it did, given the weather, and the people's neglect.

Well, another year is coming, another garden season will begin in March when I plant more little seeds and begin the cycle again.

Garden Bounty

2009-08-25T14:49:00.003-05:00

The last month has flown by. In August we've finally had an adequate amount of rain, which has led to an explosion of good veggies. Two weeks ago I froze 7 quart bags of broccoli and 3 quart containers of swiss chard. Last Friday, friend Sondra and I picked green beans between rain showers, cleaned and snapped them and froze 6 quarts. Four of the quarts of green beans were a new way (for me) of freezing vegetables. Sondra learned about freezing vegetables in a brine from a woman who had been raised in a Mennonite family. She gave me the recipe for the brine.

The recipe is: 5 cups of water, 1/4 cup of pickling salt,3/4 cup of sugar. I used a little less sugar - only 1/2 cup. I blended these together briefly in my blender and added the brine to the freezer bags after filling them with snapped beans

It takes a lot of brine to fill the quart freezer bags. It will be fun to do a taste test this winter - brined or no brine.

Out in the garden the tomatoes are still green, but there are so many of them! Once they ripen it will be canning, canning, freezing, canning. The corn is "as high as an elephant's eye" and it looks as if there will be lots of ears of it. In addition, I already picked one great cauliflower, the first one ever in my gardening career, and there were several a little too small to pick. I should be able to harvest the rest tomorrow morning before going off to work. Most of that will get frozen also.

With any luck, there will be another picking of green beans before the end of the season, too. I want to make some dilled green beans, which are wonderful! There is still swiss chard, probably enough for another quart or two to freeze and more to eat soon. The zucchini are producing and the yellow summer squash are also. Looking forward to stir fries, making ratatouille, and zucchini soup. I've already picked some eggplant, and will be freezing more for winter eggplant parmesan. We've had some green, banana, and jalapeno peppers and more are on the way. Brussels sprouts are beginning to sprout, and potatoes are busily growing under the soil, as are the carrots. What a great bountiful blessing it is to have all these wonderful vegetables to consume now, or can, freeze or store for the winter. Ah! Harvest!!

Broccoli Harvest

2009-07-31T15:59:00.000-05:00

After being gone four days and another of being sick, yesterday I walked out to the garden to see what had happened in my absence. There was an abundance of broccoli! Today I cut the nice large heads and brought them into the house. The broccoli was so tender I almost cried. No broccoli from the store was ever as tender as this. After washing it thoroughly, I cut it up into pieces for freezing, put in in boiling water for a little over a minute, pulled it out and dunked it in cold water. What a gorgeous green color it was! All told, I froze five quarts of broccoli, put about one and a half in the refrigerator for eating in the next day or two, and celebrated the bounty. Plus, last night I cooked swiss chard for dinner tonight and pulled some lovely turnips for later in the week. I love this time of year!

Lettuce

2009-07-06T15:09:00.000-05:00

I just harvested some more Romaine lettuce from the smaller garden. This lettuce was from volunteer plants from some of last year's Romaine lettuce that was left to go to seed. That grew up this year and, voila! We have more Romaine. Good for salads and green smoothies!

Thorns, Prickers, and Spines

2009-07-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday began the great thorn removal drive. I started to cut down and root up all the runners from the rose bush preparatory to taking the rose bush itself out. Some of those underground runners were at least a half-inch thick and very difficult to pull up. I was stuck and scratched by many thorns, while sweat was soaking the bandanna around my forehead and my bib overalls. Still, there are more runners to cut off and roots to pull up before we take out the rose bush itself. What a job! Jim has suggested we find a less invasive rose to replace it, and I think we'll do that.

I also started to trim away the barberry bushes, which are in pretty bad shape to begin with; mostly bare branches with long spines on them. We could trim them down to a less lethal height, but Jim says he doesn't want them at all. So, I'll cut them back severely in the next few days and in the spring remove them completely. Since the crown vetch is using the bushes as a scaffolding, cutting off the higher branches will also mean we get rid of some of the crown vetch. As I pull it off, I can trace it to its roots and dig them out too. Lots more exposure to thorns! They pile up fairly quickly.

We'll soon have to put the tractor with its bucket into service again. It's really easy to load the bucket with the thorny branches and then dump them directly on the brush pile for burning after the next rain. It will be good to have all those prickly things gone. I worry about the dog stepping on the thorns and getting them stuck in his feet.

I wonder why I agreed to have barberry bushes when the garden was put in; even as a child I didn't like them. There were barberry bushes around the school playground - what kind of person puts bushes like that where children play?

And More Weeds

2009-07-04T18:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a day devoted to weeding and planting the remaining vegetable plants. There are now a total of 10 brussels sprouts plants, 12 red cabbages - 6 early and 6 late, 6 kohlrabi plants, several more peppers of various kinds and 4 okra plants. Some of these are right in front of the sunroom in a space formerly devoted to flowers. Now we have two kinds of cherry tomatoes, two late red cabbage, the okra and some brussels sprouts there. I wonder what this little plot will look like in about a month!

The far garden is looking good, although it could use some rain. Looks like I'll have to water it early in the morning. In a few minutes I'll take out a 5-gallon pail and handwater the plants most in need. I was hoping for rain today, as there was a chance for thunderstorms, but they passed overhead without stopping. Now it has cleared up and the fireworks watchers will be happy this evening.

Tomorrow will be a day for weeding in the flower bed right in front of the house. It has been infested with crown vetch, a very invasive, vining kind of plant that spreads underground very quickly. Its flowers look something like a giant clover blossom; they are pink and pretty, but I am starting to hate them. They choke out the plants I want. I also will be removing a rose bush that has become a kind of monster, sending runners throughout the flower garden. We'll have to dig out all the runners, cut off the rose bush and dig out its roots. Quite a job! Jim has also enthusiastically agreed to saw off four barberry shrubs that have nasty thorns neither of us like. We'll dig out their roots too. Part of the issue is that some evergreen shrubs planted about five years ago have grown to be much larger than expected, leaving no space to walk or work in the garden without getting speared by the thorns. We like the evergreens so they will stay. We will find another shrub to plant instead of the four - one with a similar purple-tinged leaf and a good size for that spot. I'm curious about what this garden will look like when we have the weeds and pesky shrubs out of there.

Unfortunately, there just isn't enough time or energy to do everything we would like to do. Yet, I am determined to get these gardens into shape by the end of the summer, and to divide the oh-so-large perennials in the early autumn. See, I'm already thinking of next year's gardens and how wonderful they will be after all the care that goes into this year's gardens. Hope springs....

Weeding

2009-06-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

Today was a day for weeding the vegetable garden. There is a great cultivator tool that was given to us for a wedding present 21 years ago by friends of mine in Madison. I used it today on the soft soil, very soft soil made so by a good rain yesterday morning. The weeds got pulled up and left in the sun to dry out. I can now see the swiss chard, which is about 2 inches high and looking good. There are a gazillion little carrot seedlings - which will have to be thinned in a few days. The green beans are looking good - about 4 inches tall at this point. The cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants are flourishing. Corn seedlings are now about four or five inches tall, and will get cultivated in a couple of days; that area of the garden was too wet for working today. We are expecting more rain tomorrow as well.

With any luck, I can be up and in the garden in the morning before the rain starts. The nearer vegetable garden needs weeding badly. Another chance to use that great cultivator tool. I really wish I could find another source for those tools. They were the best!

Time to Catch Up!

2009-06-24T20:06:00.000-05:00

Despite having no posts since March, and despite a cold and dry spring, and despite being very busy about other things, and having just been gone for a week, there is a garden! Jim and I got back from a visit to Washington and Oregon that started on last Wednesday and ended today. It was a family reunion kind of thing, and Jim met several 3rd or 4th cousins he didn't even know existed until a year or so ago. We had fun meeting them at Lewisville County Park not too far from Battle Ground, Washington. It was a two-day train trip there and another one back. What an amazing expanse of country we covered. Much beauty, some pathetic sights of run-down ranches and towns progressing to ghostly status. I noticed the gardens when we arrived at the place along the Columbia Gorge where rainfall supports them. Gorgeous market gardens, vineyards and orchards line the Washington side of the Gorge - which is the side the Amtrak trains travel.

As we rolled and rocked along, I missed the garden we had only just finished planting the weekend before we left. Wondered how it would be doing, would anything be up when we got home? What would the weather be? Would it rain? All those little seeds and plants committed to the soil and rain and wind and sun - would they have the right combination of these ingredients needed to germinate and start growing?

The answer was clear today. Almost everything has sprouted or taken hold. The weather has been warm and rainy and humid, so everything in the garden, including millions of weeds, has been growing well. The seeds we planted a week ago or less have sprouted, carrots, corn, green beans, snow peas, swiss chard, turnips, and some lettuce. The lettuce planted a few weeks ago in the cold frames is now ready to harvest, and more than ready from the plants set out even earlier. We have lots of potato plants that had barely sprouted at all a week ago, but are turning into real-sized plants now. The radishes are growing, the onion sets starting to look healthy and spikey. Some of the Bella peppers (Italian hot peppers) must have been cut off by cutworms, but there are still three plants left. The purchased transplants - jalepeno and ancho peppers look wonderful and we also have two different kinds of cabbages planted. I started seeds for an early red cabbage and purchased some white cabbage starts. Some of the tomatoes I started have already produced blossoms! This is an amazing time of year.

Now the weeding begins, early morning tomorrow and for as many days as I can manage. The flower beds are a total mess, but they go on the schedule too, and I'll just do what is possible. Anyone who wants to volunteer to weed will benefit in the long run! I'm off to figure out a weeding schedule now. Pictures soon.

A Change in the Weather

2009-03-24T08:04:00.000-05:00

Ashes and Shadow

From last week's sunny and warm days, we have turned to windy, cloudy, rainy days, not so warm. On last Saturday we burned the small brush pile. The heat from that little fire was so intense that my face looked sunburned through that evening. I had been bending over the fire, raking coals back into the center to burn up completely. Jim and I sat in our funny old chairs watching the fire and discussing hoop houses and garden houses. I managed to clean up some of the fenced garden, too. We decided that we will plow up some additional growing space next to the fenced garden and expand the fenced-in portion, as well as some open growing space for such things as tomatoes and squash that do not need fencing, but lots of room.

The seedlings are getting bigger. Many of the tomatoes have more than two sets of leaves now. Some of the dill is actually starting to look like dill. The lettuce, kale and cabbage are looking spindly. Peppers and parsley are still really small, but seem sturdy. It's really fun to watch them.

One Flat Planted

2009-03-11T08:06:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, I finally was able to plant seeds in a flat of peat pots. Within a few days I hope to have a crop of little seedlings. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of tiny plants: four seasons lettuce; three different kinds of basil - sweet, lemon, lime; Better Boy tomatoes; hot bella pepper (mixed colors); Italian parsley; and, two kinds of dill. In another week or so, I'll plant more seeds.

Now, I know that seed ordering was on the agenda a while ago. But, I was attracted to all the colorful seed packets in my favorite store, Farm and Fleet, and just started buying them. So, seed ordering will only include seeds that are not easy to find around here. And, I had best do that in the next few days! Time is marching on.

Speaking of which, Jim has promised to get to work on the cold frames. We have decided to check over the old windows from the major remodel of a few years ago. We'll be looking for windows that will hold together well enough to be a cold frame lid. Jim has the idea of adding plastic on top of the glass to be a double layer of insulation. We'll experiment.

Dirt and Sun

2009-02-27T08:54:00.000-06:00

I am excited! This is the weekend for planting the season's first seeds. Although we had at least six inches of snow yesterday and last night and it is only four degrees out there now, the sun is strong this morning, and daylight hours are from 7 a.m. until almost 6 p.m. I will buy potting soil today. Tomorrow I'll plant lettuce and mesclun mix in flats. They will sit in the sun room's south windows. With sufficient and faithful watering they will grow into strong plants.

Jim and I need to get busy on constructing the cold frames to move onto the ground by the time most of the snow melts. The ground underneath them will then thaw rather quickly from the sun's heat as it is intensified by the glass tops of the frames. By the time the lettuces are big enough, the cold frames should be ready. If they are not, we'll have a lot of pots of lettuce everywhere! I'm thinking we may need to put up some glass shelves across the sun room's windows to create more seed-growing space.

Marking Time

2009-02-15T22:40:00.001-06:00

This past week nothing on our spring plans got done. We have been overwhelmed by a wave of busy-ness, some of which is our day job stuff and some of which is elective, volunteer-type work. The upshot of all of it is that there is getting to be a backlog of tasks, the brush pile, ordering seeds, garden planting design, and starting seeds indoors. We still have time to do the necessary things, but will need to get back to them soon. This week is very busy and we probably can't do too much. Next week should be better.

In the meantime, the days continue to get longer. More often now, Gus the Dog wants to sleep outside in the sun, and even hunts for bigger patches of snow in which to stretch out and rest. Some mornings I can hear birds. The sky is increasingly beautiful at sunrise and sunset.

Update on Mold and Basement Leak

2009-02-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, Jim and I fixed the drainage and downspout so that leaks into the basement have stopped for now. During the week Jim sprayed with mold with the "natural" mold killer, and then a day or so later, scrubbed the whole area. I wasn't here to see at the time, but he must have looked quite wild wearing a mask, latex gloves, eye protection... Next, he will spray on the safeguard solution and we will keep watch to see that no more mold grows there. We are still undecided about the drywall. I think the section needs to come out; Jim thinks it does not. We will see. For right now there is no urgency.

In the meantime, a piece of rain gutter came off on the other side of the house. This one is a kind of downspout that connects one higher section to a lower one. Looking at it more carefully this morning, I realized that the original attachment made from level to level was done quite shoddily by workmen we obviously did not supervise well.

I am concerned we will end up with another leak into the other side, the old basement. We do not need more mold to grow in our house! We are obviously going to have to deal with the whole gutter situation, sooner rather than later.

My hope is that very soon I can start reporting on growing things indoors other than mold. This weekend I plan to move a couple of things around so that I can begin to set up for starting some seeds indoors. That's the kind of growing I love!

YUCK! Growing Mold!

2009-01-30T18:47:00.000-06:00

Intrepid exploration of the basement storage area revealed a most disgusting patch of mold on the floor and on a 2-3 foot square of sheet rock (the back of the wall of Jim's office). Apparently we had a leak somewhere. From a leaking hose left running all day, from water pouring down a downspout that wasn't connected to the drainpipe? Now we have this gross mold to take care of and we also need to find exactly where the water entered.

Fortunately, the floor drain is just a couple of feet from the worst of the problem and if there was a lot of water, most of it would have gone into that drain. Thankfully. Our situation could have been worse. We will have to soak the floor and the 2x4's of one corner with bleach, or tea tree oil or something to kill the mold on them. We will need to cut out the ruined sheet rock and then get someone to repair the wall, and replace the mop board.

In the meantime, we have ordered and just received tea tree essential oil, as well as essential oil of thyme, both of which are supposed to have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal properties. We ordered and are awaiting a couple of gallons of an 'all-natural' mold killer to wash the walls and then to coat the concrete. We are leaving a light on in the area, and that seems to be having a beneficial effect. I am taking a homeopathic preparation for mold allergies, as I am highly allergic to mold, and we have installed a new air purifier in our bedroom. This is all a lot of work and is interfering with contemplating seed catalogs.

I am pulling out some of the books stored in that area, getting rid of other books on my shelves upstairs so I have some place to put them, and generally hoping to bring about much greater order. Why does de-cluttering result in so much (temporary, I hope) clutter?!!

Oh Those Greens!!

2009-01-22T11:33:00.000-06:00

picture from www.seedsofchange.com

Lovely DOL sent me an email last night in which she mentioned "There was one grower at last year's farmer's market who sold hanging baskets of micro salad greens and they were beautiful. You just keep snipping them all season long -- it's like the gift that keeps on giving." How inspiring! So, as well as designing greens gardens in the to-be-built cold frames and in the main gardens, I will now plan to make hanging basket plantings. How exciting!

Earlier, she had sent another email: "here are some fun herb ideas that come to mind: micro herbs and micro greens: micro arugula, bush (globe) basil, lemon verbena (makes fabulous tea!), micro mizuna."

"You could grow organic flowers: violets, violas, etc. and they're wonderful in summer salads( I have no idea how difficult it is to grow edible flowers). Lemon grass, bay , a million types of thyme; lemon thyme as it works oh-so-well with zucchini. Dill, chive, oregano."

"Sprouts are also great and so good for you. We had a steady diet of sunflower sprouts and snow pea shoots this past summer. One purveyor at the market had micro red beet greens and micro broccoli greens. So tasty."

It should be noted that DOL, our favorite personal chef, regularly goes to a gigantic organic farmers' market in Chicago, that is a favorite of chefs. They have to get there really early to buy up all those wonderful organic greens.

A friend grows sprouts - primarily sunflower and buckwheat - all winter long. She is fortunate to have large south-facing windows and space beneath them to set out trays of sprouts in different stages of growth. Each fall she brings in buckets of soil to use in old dining trays bought at a rummage sale. She feasts on sprouts all year long.

Dad is 85!

2009-01-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

My amazing and hardy father turns 85 on January 17th! Here he is pictured in a photo taken by sister Kay this summer. (Thanks, Kay, for letting me use it.)

When I think of Dad, I think of gardens. I remember having to weed the garden when I was a teenager, and how much I resented it. Dad was working very long hours then, as it was his busy time of year. When he worked at the dairy plant it would not be unusual for him to put in 14 and 16 hour days. He left early in the morning and did not get back until dark or later. Weeding was not something he could do much then. He had to count on teens who had "better" things to do. We were young and very ignorant at that stage of life. Now we like gardening. How things change as we age. (Ignorance may still remain, however.)

Many years later, after he had retired, Dad expanded his gardens and did most of the weeding by himself. At one point he had not only his own enlarged garden, but he also had another garden of about the same size at the neighbor's house. In later years he planted flowers and more flowers - something he had not done much of in the early days. Then and later, there were aisles of rhubarb, great tasting tomatoes, cucumbers for pickles and eating, potatoes some years, lots of green and wax beans, squash, attempts at watermelons and muskmelons, and occasional experimental growing of vegetables that had not been part of the repertoire before.

Most years he would can and freeze food as well. In fact, he had two freezers in the basement, full to the top. He and stepmother Ginna were well-stocked. They used to hunt and fish too, but haven't done much of that these last few years. They still forage for nuts, though, and Dad spends hours in the winter cracking hickory nuts and digging out the nutmeats.

Dad has almost always had chickens that he keeps for eggs and meat. When we were kids he would bring home baby chicks and keep them under warm lights in the basement until they got big enough, were feathered out and could manage outside in the chicken coop. I liked the chicks, but hated it when time came for them to be slaughtered. Nevertheless, eating those chickens instead of store-bought chicken was always a big treat.

It's hard for me to believe that Dad has had two heart bypass surgeries. They were quite a long time ago now. During the years he has taken good care of himself by watching his diet, keeping active (especially with the gardens) and doing what he could for his neighbors and community. He served on the village board for years and years. He has been an elder in his church. He and Ginna have volunteered in the local history museum.

I admire my Dad for his ability to focus on the important things in life - gardens, critters, family, helping others, his faith, his quiet steadiness in maintaining an extraordinary, ordinary life. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Cold Frames

2009-01-14T11:05:00.000-06:00

The picture is from a website called costumes.org. This is an example of what a cold frame looks like.

This morning Jim and I had another discussion about a hoop house and cold frames. After a lengthy consideration of what the sequence should be, we decided to first establish two cold frames on the western side of the property, oriented to the south and east. They will be 4' by 8' with a double lid of 4' by 4' for each of the side by side lid panels. The transparent material in each 4' by 4' lid will be some kind of hard plastic, lighter and more durable than glass would be. (We'll save the old storm windows we have been storing for a number of years for some other kind of construction - perhaps for an outdoor screened/glassed in sitting area.)

We can prepare all the pieces of the cold frames this winter. In early spring we will smooth out bumps and lumps in the soil, essentially make it level, assemble the cold frames on the site, and then line the bottoms with a thick layer of newspaper. The newspaper will block weeds from the sod underneath and kill off the quack grass roots. Purchased black dirt will go on top of the newspaper. We will mound more dirt around each cold frame to insulate the soil. We hope we can actually plant the cold frames by mid- to late-April.

Sometime later we will build the hoop house, perhaps in early May before the planting season becomes frantically busy. We have decided to scale back our original idea and construct a smaller hoop house of 14' by 10', which will contain to 4' by 8' beds. These will hold plants that can benefit from a longer growing season, especially towards the end of the season in September and into October, as late as November if we are lucky. Because of the timing, we will not be able to plant in the hoop house in early April this year, but by next year that will be a real possibility. The excitement builds, in spite of predicted high temperatures of below zero again today.

COLD!!

2009-01-13T13:35:00.000-06:00

After getting another three or so inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening, the temperature plunged into the below zero range. As I came into the office around 1 p.m. the thermometer on my car said it was -4 degrees, just what had been predicted. Much too cold to work outside right now.

So, the next few days will be a good time for catching up on paperwork for my jobs, preparing for a presentation to a group on Thursday evening and dreaming of spring. Part of the dreaming process will involve poring over some seed catalogs. DOL sent some good suggestions for micro-greens and herbs to consider. I'll write about those in another post soon. In the meantime, Antarctic Artist (AA) son leaves for said continent if he can get out of Chicago tomorrow. At least there's a greenhouse there!

Check out AA's South Pole blog at www.johnj.com/

Here's The Silo Foundation

2009-01-11T22:44:00.003-06:00

Picture 1. This is the view of the silo foundation looking south. To the lower left of the picture you can see a gap - which is a good place for a door going into the silo. The inside diameter is about 12 feet, and it appears to be at least 6 or 7 feet deep. The walls will have to be patched a little. Obviously, the box elder trees will need to be cut out of there soon.

Picture 2. A close-up of the interior.

Sunday This 'n' That

2009-01-11T21:51:00.000-06:00

When I left for Sunday morning class and service, it was snow misting and not really full light yet. By the time I left church there were some bands of blue separated by pale gray clouds. I went grocery shopping and on the drive home noticed that the early bit of snow had freshened the landscape. Trees stood out gloriously against the now-pure white.

Once I got home to Joy Farm, the day turned cloudy and raw, seemingly preparing to snow more. But Jim and I managed to get out, measure the garden areas, and do some more work on the brush pile. We now have another smaller brush pile to burn. We are burning these smaller piles to the left of the fenced-in garden, hoping the ashes will fertilize the soil there. The soil in that area has just been growing grass and weeds for a long time, and we hope to have it produce some kind of food this summer. Or, maybe we will put a fire ring there and create a medicine wheel herbal garden around it. There's still lots of time to make that decision. I have a wonderful book on medicine gardens, so that idea appeals to me a lot.

The near garden is roughly 20 feet by 24 feet - but it is an irregular shape, somewhat more like an oval than a square. The fenced-in far garden is roughly 18 feet by 33 feet; it is more of a square shape, but the square is a little lopsided. Too the right of the far garden there is an old asparagus patch, originally planted the first couple of years we were here. I'm looking forward to cleaning that up in the spring.

The next planning step is to create a graph of each garden. Then we will start figuring out exactly how much space we will have for planting and how much room each kind of vegetable we want to plant will take. This year I want to plant a lot of potatoes, cabbages, carrots and different kinds of squash, onions, and brussels sprouts for storage in the root cellar we will build. Just thinking about this is exciting and fun.

Tonight I made a good cabbage soup out of the one remaining cabbage from last year's garden. It was quite tasty. I only wish I had planted more cabbage. This year I will do a better job of harvesting and storing them. We also had some of our home-grown squash. I cooked it yesterday, and today warmed it in the oven. I topped it with brown sugar, cinnamon and butter, and let it heat in the oven long enough for that wonderful brown sugar/butter crust to form. Yum! We still have a good supply of squash sitting in the basement, so we can enjoy this treat several more times before the squash are all gone.

Brush Pile Cleanup

2009-01-10T10:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we worked for a couple of hours pulling apart a huge brush pile. At least we made a beginning. Woodstove material got put in the bucket of the tractor. We piled the twigs, small branches, old leaves, weed cullings and miscellaneous plant material into a smaller pile. After several tries and the use of many matches and a lot of newspaper, we managed to burn our little brush pile. Jim got us some chairs and we had fireside seating to watch the burning and the moon coming up. The only real difficulty we experienced was that Gus, the huge golden retriever, wanted to grab all the sticks he could and play keep-away. We successfully met the challenge of preventing him from grabbing burning sticks!

Schedule for Progress

2009-01-07T13:11:00.000-06:00

Jim and I sat down this morning and worked out the bare bones of a schedule for our outdoor work. In January and early February, the focus will be on pulling a first brush pile apart, setting aside good firewood logs, then burning the smaller branches and brush in manageable fires. Once that brush pile is done, we can begin to cut box elder trees away from the old silo site. It feels good to have a direction, and I hope we can get this brush pile done in the next ten days or so. (PS, Jim has taken pictures of the silo area. We'll post them soon.)

Jim is now out snow plowing staging areas for laying out logs and for a burn area. Yesterday, the chains for the tractor arrived so Jim should have no real difficulty maneuvering around the snowy sloping terrain.

In the meantime, I will start looking at seed catalogs as we begin actually planning our gardens. This will involve going out to measure the garden area near the house and the fenced-in garden area out back, so we can actually graph out those gardens. I will lay out the hoop house and cold frame planting scheme as soon as we have settled on their dimensions. Planning will involve consulting guides about how much to plant for summer eating and sharing, and as well as for preserving by canning, freezing and root cellar storage. Once we know about how much we want to produce, where exactly it will be planted, the sequence of planting and harvest dates, we can lay it all out on grid paper. What fun!

Beginning an Experiment

2009-01-05T11:03:00.000-06:00

My husband Jim and I have lived at Joy Farm for over 20 years now. Over that time, some improvements have been made, and some years we have had great gardens.

With the economy being what it is, and our ages being what they are (64 and 63), we have decided to make an experiment. We will work towards providing a much higher percentage of our food by gardening and preserving food here. That means we have plans to construct a small hoop house and a couple of cold frames to extend the growing season. We will also build a root cellar. The root cellar will go into an ancient silo foundation that will get cleaned out and patched up, and we will put a roof on it. Jim wants to build a gazebo on top of the whole thing. (It can also serve as a screened in place to dry herbs, etc.)

Another aspect of our experiment involves changing our eating patterns, cooking more at home - eating in. Years ago we began our relationship in the context of going out to eat, and eating in has always been something of a challenge for us. We are beginning to better plan our meals to waste far less, to promote our heath, and to save money. Fortunately cooking is something I enjoy and Jim appreciates. Our DOL, daughter of love (she and son John are partners), is a professional chef and provides wonderful tips to us. Watch here for information she passes on to us. Right now, I'm very interested in meals that can be frozen and used on those evenings I'm exhausted from my work and don't want to cook.

This journal is intended to track our thinking and our progress with this experiment. Since we are both more cerebral and sedentary types, with the common aches and pains of aging bodies, it will be an experiment in learning just how much we can do. Part of this journal will be about the objective progress we make, our plans for more changes, and so on. Another part will be about making the inner changes that will be necessary. Finally, I will keep updating what effects all this has on our health and general sense of well-being.