Picture post

Good Friday

This was an off Friday for Jess and I. Which was fortunate as I received through a friend of a friend an opportunity to go shoot sporting clays in a charity tournament. The tournament was a benefit for the Starkey Foundation. I had the privilege of filling out a spot on a team sponsored by Popp Communications. I had heard of the Starkey Foundation before but I wasn't aware that Starkey was also a company based in Minnesota. The event was held out at the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club. They even had dignitaries from the NRA there, but I was most impressed when Lou Farrigno walked into the room. I was a big fan of the Hulk TV show in the 70's. I had a great time shooting and the swag was amazing. All in all a lot better than a day at work.

Rick

More plants

Jess and I stopped to pick up a few new plants on the way home from work today. We picked up 3 kinds of basils, another dill weed and a pair of rosemary plants as well. I plan to keep them in the garage until this weekend as we are due for another round of rain storms.

Stay dry,
Rick

Recent plantings

We have gotten a lot of new crops started this week. We planted a row of sunflowers and they are already coming up. We also planted some amaranth as well. I hope to use that as chicken feed. I finished that bed off with a row of beans too. I also planted some envy edemame this afternoon. I spent an few hours removing more soil to produce more garden beds and also to start getting the wildness that is the garden under control.

Rick

Hail of a night

Some times I wonder who exactly I cheesed off.
I mentioned earlier in the weekend that last year we had a hail storm that seriously mangled the garden. Well it happened again last night. It wasn't as bad as last year as there wasn't as much wind pushing the hail but it still did some damage. I think that we may have lost the basil seedlings and also one of the tomato plants looks a little sickly today. The rest look damaged but I think they will survive.
Today I spent a few hours in the garden. I broke some more sod. I am hopeful that once I have removed most of the grass and weeds from the garden I will spend less time weeding and more time planting and harvesting.
I also started a new bed in the corner of the garden near the potatoes using the sheet composting method. I weed whiped the weeds down tho the dirt. Then I put down a thick layer of newspapers . I then put a 3 inch layer of composted chicken litter. I plan to finish it up with a few bags of dirt. I plan to put squash in that bed. Possible the delicata squash or zucchinis.

Better days,
Rick

Interesting wind turbine idea

I came a crossed this video last night.

The basic idea is that you use an array of inexpensive turbines that are linked by gearing to drive a single generator. It looks like something that is in the testing and refinement stage now, but I am really impressed with the idea. I would guess that the efficiency is not that high but since you could always just install more turbine units to increase your total area that is less of an issue. That is of course if you have the area. It also looks like they are a bit noisy. I think that is probably an alignment issue. I suggest to them they look at a dual opposing herringbone gear arrangement.It should take care of some of the rattling and much of the axial thrust. It is the the same gearing arrangement used in naval steam turbine ship reduction gears. Which is where I learned of it. If you are from MotorWind and want to use this design, please do so. If it works out I would love to help test the new design. Also you may want to consider removing the music from your homepage.

Rick

Planting continues

Things are moving along. We finally got some much needed rain the last few days. I figured dragging 200 feet of hose out to the garden and filling the rain barrel would do it. Got a few more plants in the ground this morning. Jess and I planted out some sad little seedlings I had been attempting to kill in the basement. We planted 3 kinds of basil (sweet, cinnamon and lemon). We also planted out some cilantro seedlings and some nasturtiums as well. We direct seeded some decorative amaranth, some giant sunflowers and some bush lake blue green beans. Yesterday I also re-seeded the beets that got destroyed by the mole that visited the garden. I hope I have discouraged it enough for it to move else where in the yard. So, much planting was done. We also weeded the swiss chard,the lettuces and the kale. I also spread organic fertilizer pellets over the lot. I guess that is enough for one morning. I will try and post some pictures of the garden tomorrow.

Rick

Hey all,

Sorry I have not written in a while. So much has been going on here at the farm.
The hops have gotten off to a tremendous start. They are already halfway up the pole barn. I have had to be quite aggressive with the pruning back the bines. The plants seem to show the same growth pattern as last year, with the Fuggles leading the way. I have to add more mulch to the bed and consider trimming back the maple more aggressively to increase the amount of sunlight they receive. I can see why these would make a great landscape plant. I have been on watch for the dreaded question mark caterpillars but have not seen any signs of their presence. Good thing considering the damage they caused last year. I also mulched the hop yard today.

In the orchard we seem to have few apple blossoms this year. I can't say if it is due to the cold weather we are having this spring or some other cause. I know that the soil in that part of the yard is quite terrible and there was the hail storm last spring as well. So I think a few more years of patience is in order. The raspberries are sending up shoots everywhere . I mulched them as well tonight.

In the garden we have been harvesting a bunch of asparagus every day. We have also had a third small picking of rhubarb, some of which is currently in the oven becoming a pie. I also mounded up the potatoes which are doing quite well. I planted the tomatoes and peppers last Friday and they have not died while waiting for the heat of summer to arrive.So all is well.

In the barnyard the chickens are well. Now I am just waiting on some rain to come and refresh the grass in ChickenGrad.

Later

Rick

Quick post

This is just a short post to let all know what is happening on the farm. I have been working on the garden lately. I have been attempting to increase the amount of room around the garden beds. I probably should have removed all the grass at the beginning but i am slowly reclaiming the garden from the grass and dandelions. I have so far planted 4 strawberry plants in the garden. I also planted a few new herb plants that we picked up last week.
I also removed a nest of tent caterpillars from one of the apple trees.

Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat