PROGRESS.
Today was an unbelievably beautiful and warm January day. With plans of preparing our garden spot, we packed up early and headed to the farm, crew in tow, to make some actual progress. Although it is not a great time for planting seeds, it's a perfectly good time to get your land ready for those seeds. Inspired by people like Masanobu Fukuoka and Bill Mollison, we are trying to employ more "no-till" methods of farming. Most of these ideas involve laying down some sort of mulch and letting the soil till itself underneath. Today that meant basically laying down cardboard...then walking away. The cardboard, when it becomes wet, begins to rot. This decomposes all the debris and plant matter underneath it, while also attracting beneficial microorganisms and especially worms. Over time, it creates a layer of rich, loose topsoil. By letting it over-winter, you have a bed ready just in time for spring––no tractors, machines or tilling and thus no real "impact" on the soil. By helping preserve soil structure and moisture, this is an extremely kind and sustainable style of farming!The first step was fencing off the garden area. Although we don't yet have to worry about critters eating our little plants, we do have a couple of horses who might trot right through our hard work. So we (by we, I mean Jesse) put up some strategic barbed wire, making sure to add bright flags so the horses don't get caught by surprise.
Then, we got to work on the garden. My mom and dad were there to assist, and the help was much appreciated as we cut weeds, moved rocks, and tried to relocate loads of manure in a wheelbarrow with no wheel!
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| Clearing the weeds. |
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| Digging around, checking the soil. |
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| Taking a break to talk with AUNT ELIN! We love you! |
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| The fruits of our dumpster-diving labor. |
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| An unexpected, mystery guest joins the crew. He seems overly enthusiastic. |
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| Hard working mom, hauling cardboard. |
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| So helpful. |
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| We HAVE been looking for an antique tub.... |
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| Moving poo. |
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| Yay! Horse manure! |
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| Oh man, I want to keep this dog. |
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| After laying down the cardboard, we poured water on it, to speed up the decomposition. Then we placed rocks on it to secure it. Then we spread the manure, as an additional compost for the soil. |
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| The final product! We gathered all the weeds we had cleared and added them as a final mulch on top.................................................................................................................
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It feels truly amazing to have done some real work today. Although this was just a start (we need about five times this amount of cardboarded area), it is something! Some actual work to show for all of our stressing and planning! Our interim stay in the city has been a dramatic shift from last years daily physical labor and outdoor life. It was so good to be back on a farm. I am happy today, once again having some aches in my bones, some dirt under my nails, some progress made.
- Hannah.
2012 - THE YEAR WE BECOME FARMERS.
Yesterday, we had to leave our lovely little honeymoon farm. It was so hard to say goodbye to that wonderful place! But although we don't exactly have to get "back to the grind" like most people, Jesse and I DO have a lot of work to do in 2012. In some ways, we were putting off all of the serious planning, decision making, and other grown-up-type things until after the wedding and the holidays...so here we are!First order of business: SEEDS! It is officially seed catalog season! We came back yesterday to a pile of catalogs and went straight to work. After a few hours of perusing, we managed to order our garden for this year! It was a little bit surreal. Actually, a LOT of bit surreal! Sitting down and choosing the specific varieties of vegetables we will be growing made me realize that we are really doing this! We are going to grow these things, not just dream about it. They are in the mail, coming our way! I love looking at the long, organized list of seeds, thinking about the when and where and how for each different veggie, imagining Jesse and I sitting down eating these foods, in our own house. It is becoming real. Even though we haven't actually accomplished anything yet, I feel some small sense of satisfaction in this first, small step. I'm feeling pretty good about this year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope you have as much excitement and hope for the year as we do.
- Hannah.
HOUSE HUNTERS.
Being basically perfect outside today made for a good excuse for Hannah and I to visit the farm. We're currently looking for a spot to build our house, and although we had ideas of where we wanted it, we also wanted to examine all options before proceeding. It turns out the house that currently lives on the property is not going be available until well after the growing season so we figured why not go ahead and build our own dream home while we wait? It's something we wanted to do eventually anyway, but since we're eager to get on the land and get farming, we might as well take care of the things that could get pushed to the wayside once the train gets moving. You'll be happy to know that we did some searching and we've found our plot. Baring any other snags, we are planning to actually build this thing over the winter. So stay-tuned for some guaranteed hilarity and entertainment as we construct our dream home before the plants come screaming out of the ground. Fingers crossed!- Jesse.
