Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Earth Dance, Week #7

Willee's in Canada, and I didn't have anybody to watch Alex, so I took him to doggy daycare at Cascade, so I could go to the farm.  I dropped him at 7 and made it out there before 8.  Passed Norm on the highway, as he took Adriana to school.

As I drove in, I saw Bushra working in the field next to the driveway.  She taught me all about drip tape.  This photo shows her connecting the pieces that go out to the crops to the piece that connects them to the hose.

These pieces have small holes in them, and the water very slowly drips out onto the plants.

Flea beetles have been a big problem lately.  They have been eating holes in the leaves of many plants, espcially the kohlrabi.  Bushra found a recipe online for a natural insecticide that uses garlic.  So, next, she went to mix up a batch of that while Matt, Mark and I hoe-ed in the first garden next to the front yard.  While we were hoe-ing, I thought Mark was listening to music, and I asked him what he was listening to, and he said a book on tape, Walden.  How pertinent!

Mark and Matt try to figure out how to fix the sprayer, so Bushra can use it to apply her natural insectide.

Norm asked me to make up several jugs of a sticky substance that attracts bugs and then traps them.  Starting with a milk jug, you add 1 banana peel, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of apple cidar vinegar and then fill the jug halfway up with water.

When I finished making that up, I helped Bushra dig thistles in the yard.

We took our lunch break, and of course, I had to check on the chicks!

Before I went back to join the others, I noticed a big patch of thistles up by the chicken coop that I decided needing digging up.

Mark and Bushra helped me haul the bug trap jugs up to the apple trees.  There were some wire hooks on the tree fencing, where we hung the jugs.

On our walk back down to the gardens, we walked past the area where the guys had put in the new fence posts.  They're solid and beautiful!

It was time to move the drip tapes, so Bushra and I did that together.  We detached the individual pieces from the header piece, and with each of us at opposite ends of the garden, we lifted each drip tape over to its new row, until they were all in place.  Then, we reattached the header piece and turned on the hose.  The photo above shows the new location of the drip tape, and in the upper right hand corner, you can see where it used to be (the wet areas).

Bushra then went to make up another batch of natural insecticide, and Norm gave me the job of thinning seedlings in the greenhouse and what was on the hay wagon, tomatoes and peppers.  It was hot in the greenhouse, but sitting right in front of these fans made it quite enjoyable. 

Some of these tomatoes had not been thinned before, so it took a couple hours.

Next, I joined Matt, Mark and Bushra in the field, hoe-ing onions.

Here's Bushra up in the loft, getting row covers.

Matt and Bushra put a row cover on a crop.

The row covers let light and water through, but not the bugs!

We were supposed to be hoe-ing the onions, but we hand weeded instead, because the onions looked just like the grass that was growing around them.  Can you pick out the onion in amongst the grass?

Matt was able to fix the sprayer, and Bushra loaded it up with her special recipe and sprayed the kohlrabis.  I'm looking forward to hearing if it repelled those flea beetles.

Matt was able to use the hoe after a little hand weeding.

End of the day!  Earlier, Norm had showed me where he had some excess lettuce and spinach and told me to take some home with me today.  Isn't that spinch gorgeous?  I picked Alex up at Cascade, and when we got home, I made myself a gorgeous salad out of this spinach, some lettuce, an avocado, some sunflower seeds and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was so good!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Earth Dance, Week #6

Wednesday
May 19, 2010

We started out planting herbs.  Mark and I planted the thyme, and then Mark went with Norm to tear down a fence and put new posts in.

Bushra planting sage.

Got to meet Matt who started on Monday, May 17th.  He is a philosophy major at La Crosse and is from Rochester (Elton Hills).  He went to Lourdes High School.  He wants to do his Master's degree in organic farming, and he definitely wants to farm organically some day.  His Dad and brother are both engineers at IBM.  Matt volunteered at Earth Dance for one week last year, and Norm liked him and hired him on for this whole season as an intern.  He's a happy, funny guy.  As soon as he met me, he gave me the name, "Wednesday Special!"  I got quite a kick out of that.

Norm, telling Matt and Mark that the old sage patch needs to be weeded.

Bushra and Matt planting marjoram.  Love the new hat, Bushra!

Bushra taking rosemary plants out of their pots to be planted.

Thyme seedlings.

Marjoram seedlings.

Rosemary seedlings.

Sage seedling.

After planting all the herbs, Mark rejoined us, and we weeded the old sage patch.  The picture above is looking back at the morning's work.

Mark putting everything away before lunch.

At lunchtime, I checked out the chicks!

I also peeked in the greenhouse...there's lots left to plant!

Here are the tomatoes I planted from seeds on my first day (April 14th).

After lunch, both the guys went with Norm to continue the fence post job.  Bushra and I mulched the herbs that we had planted this morning.  It was starting to get hot, and I lent Bushra a spare long-sleeved shirt, because she felt like she was getting too much sun.

Next, Bushra and I weeded in the strawberry patch.  It was hard to move too fast, because it was in the 80s by now.

Norm took a break from working with the guys and came and picked Bushra and I up in his pickup, along with Adriana, and he took us up to see the Shiitake mushrooms.  He had just picked a basket of asparagus, and we were eating it raw...it was very tender and tasty!

He had just been up to see the mushrooms before he came to get us and had picked this basketful.

Up behind the horse arena, just inside the edge of the woods is where he grows his Shiitakes.  Holes have been drilled in these logs, where the spores are placed and covered with wax.  It then takes a few years for these mushrooms to grow.

Close-up of Shiitakes.

Norm drove us back down to the house, and Bushra and I finished weeding our rows of strawberries.  Next, we went up to the rhubarb patch to weed.  On our way, I got to see where they had planted the rainbow chard (above).  They're so tiny now.

Riley showed up after school and started weed whipping the raspberries.  Bushra told me she had tightened up the strings for the raspberries since the last time I was here.

We could hardly see the rhubarb plants when we started weeding, and this is what it looked like after we cleared the weeds around each plant.

Bushra strikes a pose.
: )

It's 5:00...our work day is done.  Stopped and petted the horses on our way down.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Earth Dance, Week #5


Wednesday
May 12, 2010

Chilly, rainy day.
Mark and Bushra and I weed the thyme field.

Bushra pulling apart the thyme seedlings
to plant amongst the older plants.

Mark and Bushra mulching between
the thyme plants with straw
to discourage weed growth.

The chicks got moved to a new place
in the chicken house,
 but a different room from the adult hens.

They're getting bigger every week!

The chicks are just inside that white door
on the chicken house.  Lots more room
than that old stock tank they started out in.

Hundreds of seedlings waiting to be planted,
but there's been too much rain,
and it won't be letting up until the weekend.
Mark and Bushra had time off this week because of the rain,
but they will have to work on Saturday this week.

The honey spinner.

Mark uncapping the honey cells in a frame
with an electric hot knife.

Three frames go in the spinner at a time.

Norm showing us
how to spin the honey.

Mark checking to make sure the honey
has all been spun out of each frame.

If some honey remains, a torch can be used
to warm the honey to help extract it.

After the honey is spun out of the frames,
it is let out the bottom of the spinner
and run through 2 separate strainers.

Mark takes a turn with Bushra,
spinning the honey.

Must be close to the end of they day,
cause here's Riley to try his hand at spinning honey!