May 28 Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

As we get into this farming thing, we are trying to reuse and recycle anything we can.  We want to end up with a top notch process and product but want to be frugal to accomplish that.  So - we found a source of free topsoil - but - it is full of tree roots.  There is a mulch company fairly close to us that has a large pile of soil, but it is full of tree roots so they can't sell it.  We can have as much as we want - but - we either use it full of the roots - or - I have been screening out the roots using a 1/2 inch hardware cloth (screen) and we get this really fine topsoil.  Charley was really excited when he came home and saw what I had produced.

 

This is how much I got done today!

Wilma and I are going out to Iowa tomorrow to spend a couple days with Mom, so the project will have to be continued when I return.  Bob will be working alone for a few days.  When I return, I expect the top board to be put on and I'll keep going.  I'll mix the soil with equal amount of peat.

May 27, 2013 - Memorial Day

We had a great workday on the farm.  Claude and Sallie, Jackie's parents came out and helped.  Claude was clearing the grass from the small garden fence.

Sallie was re-potting vegetable plants

Bob continued to work on the goat sheds

 

And I mowed.



 

The first raised bed is looking good.  The near end and down the left side is herbs.

On each of the back posts is a cucumber plant.  I plan to put a trellis at that end for them to grow on.  In the back left corner is swiss chard. The rows on the right are radishes and I have a second planting of radishes in the open black area. 

 

I'm hoping to get the bed you see on the right ready to plant today and build another bed on the left side.  The clay soil that the herbs are planted in is what our natural soil is.

 

Charley, Jackie and J were helping a friend in her yard.  When they got home, Charley grilled us a wonderful Memorial Day dinner with ribs, pork chops, baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

Sunday was a big day for J.  He got a puppy.  A Great White Pyrenees which he named Cutie Pie.  She seems to be a very sweet-tempered dog.

It was a beautiful day, but boy were we exhausted last night and still are this morning.  We have big plans for today, but we'll have to see how much we can actually accomplish.

Another beautiful day in the Bluegrass.

Saturday, May 25

Saturday is the Farmers' Market in Wilmore.  We only have some vegetable plants and eggs to sell, but it is great to be meeting new people.  I have difficulty remembering names, though.

We then worked at the farm for the rest of the day.

Bob is building a run-in shed for Mr. T.  He was trying to use some of the wood from the tobacco barn, but found it to be just to hard to work with.  So, on to Plan B.  He hopes to finish tomorrow.

Charley, Jackie and I worked in the big garden.  Planted squash, tomatoes, green peppers, watermelon and eggplant.  I can't wait for things to grow and produce.  We are having a problem with spotted cucumber beetles on the squash plants.  I hope Neem oil takes care of the problem.

We also got a load of mulch which Charley, Jackie and Bob put around the potatoes.  We need to work as much organic matter as we can into the clay soil. 

We were beat when we quit at 7:30.

Another day in the Bluegrass.

May 24

We had a great day today.  It was sunny but only in the mid-sixties.  I was mowing with my sweatshirt on.  I've talked a lot about us mowing so here is what that looks like for each of us.

Charley asked us to build a run-in shed for his male goat so we went to the small barn to look through the wood we had brought from Wheaton.  I think we should be able to build it from salvaged wood.  That's why we kept as much as we could fit in the trailer.

We had supper with the kids and then worked in the garden.  Charley transplanted another 110 cucumber plants.

May 23

We reached 2 new milestones today.

My sewing machine finally saw the light of day.  I didn't get a chance to use it but I at least was able to plug it in and the light came on.  It's been a lot of months since I was able to relax with my machine.  I could probably even use the mattress that is stored behind the table for a design wall!

And J had supper at our apartment for the first time.  Spaghetti and salad.
It's pretty boring here because we don't have Legos, but he is learning how to use a mouse on our computer.  That's going backwards for kids who have grown up with the touch screens on the smart phones.

The crew didn't come work on the machine shed, so that was disappointing, but Bob got a lot of mowing done this afternoon.  The weeds in the pastures are about to go to seed and he wants to get them cut before they seed.

Bob and I spent most of the morning working on our house plan.  We have had to cut back on some things, but I'm happy with what we've got.
J and I baked cookies.  Then I cleaned up and washed eggs.

Another day in the Bluegrass.

PS

These are the pictures of the tree that fell across the lane where C works.
It completely blocked the driveway, so no one could leave.  J had to go pick C up.
The tree service was able to get it cleared the same night, though.

Wednesday, May 22

We had a very strong wind storm come through yesterday.  We didn't have any damage, but the winds surely were strong.  John and I went out on the porch for a few minutes.  The temperature felt like it had dropped 20 degrees and the winds were too strong for us to stay out.

Today we did some work in the big garden.  The soil is clay and with the rain yesterday, my shoes reminded me of a children's story.  I wish I could remember the name of it.  My shoes picked up so much clay/mud, that each foot felt like it weighed 10 pounds.  The story I'm trying to remember is some baby chicks who got oatmeal in their food bowl and then it stuck to their feet.  Anyone remember?

Bob got the oil changed in the tractor and then we mowed down the driveway and by the front gate.  We had sprinkles, but not actual rain.

The big news is that the builder came to begin building the machine shed.
The fence that is behind the workers is our line fence and the barn is the neighbor's dairy barn.  I'm standing on the front porch of the house.

We are getting settled into a routine which is comforting.  We are very thankful that we were already familiar with the area.  That has made the transition much easier.

Thanks for reading.

Thursday, May 16

Closing Day - Hooray!!!


J wanted a picnic on the grass - so we did.  Tuna sandwiches and crackers.

Other than, more mowing, and weed whipping and working in the garden and washing eggs...

We're loving it!!!

May 14, 2013

Today was planting day.  Charley hired some workers to help mulch and plant.  In the smaller garden, they mulched.

In the big garden, they planted potatoes and onions.

Then Charley and I planted tomatoes, eggplant, and summer squash.

They also had time to work on these roses.

Mother's Day

We had a great day today.  We attended the Wilmore Free Methodist Church.  They had a special musical presentation of hymns and hymn writers.  They had a huge choir that was ages (probably) 10 and up.  It's amazing the music program they have.

Then we did some more on our apartment - got curtains hung - and then went with Charley, Jackie and J, and Jackie's parents, Claude & Sallie to a restaurant called Copper River.

J was having fun with Grandpa's hat and sunglasses.  He was a really cool dude.

Then we all came back to our apartment where I had made the lemon pudding cake.  We had a wonderful visit.

First days - fn

Well.  We’ve arrived in Kentucky.

It was hard to leave the College and our home of over 36 years.

But, we love it here.  We have a nice little apartment – with emphasis on “little.”  We thought we had already downsized, but we have to get rid of even more things.  It’s good for us, but again hard.

Wilma had come up to Wheaton to help us pack up our final things.  We couldn’t have gotten it all in without her.  This is inside the trailer with miscellaneous stuff packed on the bottom.  Then our mattress and box springs and then she crawled in to the space on the top to stuff more stuff in.

She went to her home with her van still packed with our things and came to our apartment on Monday to help us get unpacked.

 

Amy came on Tuesday to also help with getting settled but we didn’t take pictures that day.

We have had time to go out to the farm.  There has been a lot of rain and everything is growing robustly.

I got some seeds planted in the greenhouse and they are up already.

Thursday was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and a breeze was blowing.  Bob sharpened the mower blades on both the mowers and then I mowed most of the day.  Bob was bush hogging.  (For you city folks, the bush hog is a 6 foot, mulching mower that is pulled behind the tractor.)  There was this narrow strip of storm that went right over top of us, but didn't rain this particular time.

 

Charley is doing rotational grazing.  This means that he has many small pastures and the 16 cattle are only kept in each one for a few days, then moved on to the next.  This gives that particular patch of grass time to recover before it is eaten down to the ground.

The baby pigs have been getting out.  Bob thinks he has the problem solved and they show up in the yard again.  Thankfully they are a heritage breed of pig that grazes and doesn’t root.  They are guinea hogs.

Today it has been raining.  Bob found a barber  - a young man in his mid-thirties who has just opened his own business.  We are glad to support a local business man.

Because it has been raining, we stayed at home today and have been going through more boxes and throwing out more stuff.  Time to leave to see the builder.  Exciting times!