They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
It is that time of year again. Time to prep garden beds to receive seeds in the next few weeks. In fact we are quite behind this year because we have been down with the flu, and we will be gone on vacation in early March so we may not be able to catch up… Continue reading Garden Beds
With the last of the fine weather (by which I mean, brisk but clear and not raining) we finally tackled the blackberry patch. The kids really enjoy pruning, actually. There is something inherently fun about snipping branches off of living trees with pruners or loppers. It all started on Tuesday afternoon with Seppi and Daddy… Continue reading Blackberry Pruning
All the trees here are 2-3 year saplings, still building their basic structure. Pruning is important, but pretty straightforward. Oh, and taking out the wild cherry saplings. Those things are weeds. Too thick for Ellie Belle. She got about halfway through it but couldn't make it all the way through so Daddy had to finish… Continue reading Food hedge pruning
We finally got to the second major pruning task. It was on the list for Saturday, and then again Monday and Tuesday, but we just never got to it for one reason and another. By that I mean the kids. But here we are, pruning the mini-orchard at the house. These are trees and bushes… Continue reading More Pruning
With the weather turning cold for the next week or so, we are taking advantage of it to get our winter pruning done. We started with the orchard trees we planted in 2023. Last year we pruned them in February, But did not get around to summer pruning them, which, as it turned out, was… Continue reading Winter Pruning, day 1
About a year ago Daddy and Seppi and Winnie were out in the north pasture near the beehives. The small ones have grown a lot in the last year. They are become less small... More mighty. We have to revamp our tree protection system this year, for a couple of reasons. For one, I didn't… Continue reading Willow/Witch Hazel/Orchard update
Our quince are starting to get ripe. They smell vaguely like Juicy Fruit gum. According to our research you want to leave them on the tree until October or November, taking care not to let them get frosted. One of them had a big split down the middle of it, and the base was starting… Continue reading Quince Sauce
Last Thursday was a catch-up day on the farm. Daddy and the three youngers finished school quickly and got over to the farm to get some work done. Mommy and Evie stayed home to finish Evie's school and then went out to run some errands. Including dropping off a picnic lunch for the hungry farmers.… Continue reading Catching up
Apparently the sheep like fig leaves. My poor little survivor I was so pleased about! Might have known. Shouldn’t be an issue once they get establish and are pruned higher than sheep can reach, but they have to survive long enough to get there.
And that one, And that one, And that other one. We didn’t intend to let this quince tree fruit this year, as it is still quite young. After the blossoms started to wilt, I pinched them all off. Or thought I did. Apparently, I missed four of them. So it looks like we will be… Continue reading Well, I missed that one…
Little Farm in the Big City 