Good to be back

It has been a long time since we have posted here. Daddy has been busy doing National Guard stuff (Boo!) and Mommy has been busy holding down the fort (Yay!). But we’re back with a quick fire post to get us up to date.

What is Winne so excited about?

Moo’s! Not just any moo’s. These are shortbread belties.

Grapevines are loaded with blossoms this year. When we planted them almost 8 years ago we underestimated how wild they would get. They didn’t really take off until we mulched the bases and now they just take over everything. The new grapevines at the farm are also mulched and growing like it’s their job. Which, of course, it is.

The kids ate every last honeyberry on the bush while Daddy was away, but not to worry. One of the advantages of having so many different types of fruit planted…

Something is coming into season every couple of weeks all summer long. Here we see the black currants starting to turn black.

About five minutes later the kids discovered them and commenced picking. We convinced them to bring in a quart or two so we can dry them for mincemeat later on this winter.

And the Lord God set His bow in the sky.

Taking this picture with the wide angle lens is super weird. It makes it look like the barn is tilted.

In addition to the black currants, the blue berries at the farm are in. This is incredible, last year they produced nothing, but this year they are small but loaded. The mulching and having the water tub for the geese near them all last year certainly helped, as did the irrigation last year. Maybe this year we will get enough off them to justify keeping them in the ground.

Probably not. About five minutes later I saw this…

And this…

And then not one ripe blueberry remained.

Did I mention the red currants?

Winnie’s new favorite spot on the farm.

Let’s just say her diapers have been a bit seedy lately.

We draw the line at the raspberries. The kids can go to town on the currants, the blueberries, the josta berries and the honey berries, the gooseberries, and even the goumi berries when they start coming in a week or so.

But keep your grubby little paws of Mommy’s raspberries. She has plans for those.

And the Ellie ate of the fruit and gave some also to the Seppi who was with her, and he did eat.

Not all of the berries have gone into the bottomless pit of the childrens’ stomachs. We have a quart or so drying right now and, God willing, will dry more than a few quarts before the summer is up. Currants are the best for drying.

Another major job is mowing and mulching. The orchard and the area around the garden have gotten over grown lately, so Uncle spent the day yesterday knocking them down with a weed whacker. Meanwhile, Daddy moved a few dozen loads of mulch.

With a little help from our friends.

The mulch retains water around the roots of the trees and keeps the soil cool and moist throughout the summer. This black currant bush is a good example of the general process. First the weeds are cut or crushed down, and then a couple of layers of paper are laid on the ground.

Then Daddy loads up a wheelbarrow full of wood chips and dumps it around the bush so that it covers the paper.

Return to the wood chips pile, and repeat.

By the end of the day, all the new orchard plants that we planted this year had been mulched. They take priority because they have the smallest and least mature root systems, and so will be most susceptible to the heat and drought when it strikes. Next we have to work on mulching the blackberries and raspberries, although first we need to get them pruned. Right now they are a mix of last year’s fruiting canes, this year’s fruiting canes, and this year’s non-fruiting first year canes.

The garden is a bit of a mixed bag right now. The buckwheat is doing magnificently (it was a last minute,”I’m running out of bandwidth and just need something to hold the soil” crop. The sunflowers are an abject failure. Potato plants are coming up beautifully (don’t know if there are any taters under them). We have peas that are about one foot tall, but with decent looking pods already forming. The beans appear to have stalled out at about 4″ tall. The corn is patchy. The cucurbits are a disgrace and the tomatoes almost may as well not even be there. Some of the failures identified are poor quality potting soil (doesn’t hold moisture, seedlings dry out and die); cool, damp temps (soil is only just barely to 70 degrees); most importantly, the gardener isn’t casting his shadow on the garden often enough.

Unfortunately, between infrastructure building, home schooling, work, National Guard, and still trying to have time to spend with each other and the kids, that’s just how it’s going to be this year.

Yes. There is a chicken getting showered with layer feed. No. I don’t know why. We did have a talk about the cost of feed and appropriate ways of feeding it to chickens, but some things will forever remain a mystery.

That’s all for now, folks. Likely we will be busy on the farm at least part of tomorrow, and may not remember to take pictures or share them. You’ll just have to use your imaginations.