Rescue in the high tunnel

One of the projects on my priority list is to get the large high tunnel plastic installed within the next couple of weeks so I can get the transplants planted for the winter crops.  I’ve been going down the sides with longer screws into the wiggle wire channel so it won’t pull off like it did last time when the screws from the factory WERE TOO SHORT!  That still bugs me, I’m sorry.

Anyway, I was tooling along the side of the tunnel which has plastic mesh netting to keep rabbits and deer out when the sides are up, and I came upon a snake hung in the plastic netting.  Now this isn’t the first one that I’ve found hung in the netting, and sad to say, they are usually dead by the time I see them.  I figured this one was dead too.

I touched it and it raised its head and looked at me and did the tongue thing that snakes do.  Ahhhhh!  Ohhhhh!

I was glad it was alive but that meant that I had to cut it loose.  So, I made a trip to the shop to get scissors and came back to cut it loose.  There was enough of its head and body loose that it could strike at me and boy was it striking.  I could not grab it behind the head so I had to go get my garbage-picker-upper-grabber-thingee and wrap a plastic bag around one side of it to make it snug enough to secure the business end of the snake whilst I freed the body from its plastic snare.

After about 10 minutes or so it was free.  I moved it away from the high tunnel, and it moved a few feet away from me and stopped for a moment, raised its head and looked at me and did the tongue thing again.  Maybe that’s snake for “thanks”!  Maybe not.

Never know what’s gonna happen around here from day to day!  I do need to change out the netting to chicken wire though–don’t wanna keep catching snakes in there.

Timing is everything

After enjoying awesome fall weather with bright sunshine and mild temperatures, that darned “Polar Vortex” is in the news again.  Gee, I never had heard of that term until last year–where has it been all my life?

Today’s temp was supposed to get up to 51 and the most it’s been so far is 35 and it’s time for dark now…..I can handle cold weather, but the plants in the high tunnel are protected for a reason.  This summer a few of the screws holding the plastic down on one side of the tunnel started pulling out of the wood.  No matter how hard I tugged and pulled, the plastic had shrunk and there was no getting the track back down onto the wood where I could screw the screws back in.

Night before last we had wind, lots of wind.  Yesterday morning I awoke to this:

The wind had grabbed hold of that side of the tunnel and ripped all the screws out, tore the plastic loose from both ends, and stabbed the plastic over 4 metal fence posts in the garden.

The screws are self tapping so they can cut through the metal, then into the wood.    I remember asking about these screws when I started using them and was told they would be fine…..hmmmmm.  I contacted the manufacturer today and shared my experience and they informed me that 1-1/2 years ago they switched to 1-1/2 inch wood screws in addition to the self tapping screws.  Yay for everyone who bought one after that!

Guess I’ll have to drag out the row covers until the new plastic arrives and it’s warm enough to put it on the frame.

Brrrrrr! Cold Chicken Toes

That’s the only suitable title I could come up with for this post.  Sunday was fairly warm for January–in the upper 40’s actually–then the wind blew and blew and the bottom fell out of the thermometer.  Monday and Tuesday night were both 8 degrees below zero and the high yesterday didn’t get over 6—SIX!  That’s not much.

Then, then…..the power went out about 3:15 yesterday.  I had a gut feeling about it so I put a pot of chili on the woodstove….

 

Oh, and the reason it looks so light in there is because of the camera flash.  It was really dark, but I had candles lit in my awesome scavenged wrought iron chandelier that couldn’t be used electrically anymore……

 

It is hanging over the table in the “wining room” (the room where all of my wine is in various stages of fermentation) formerly known as the dining room.   It’s actually part of the “great room” so the candles worked great.  Who actually uses a dining room that much anyway….

After staring at the fire, chunking wood, reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” with my tiny flashlight, and eating a bowl of pretty darn good chili,  the power came on–just about 5 hours after it went off.  I’ve lived off the grid before and really, I like a little electricity.  I don’t use my clothes dryer, don’t have tv, I heat with wood, am stingy with hot water…..but I do like electric lights…oh, and the computer 🙂

Today I had to get outside.  The temp had gotten up to 30 so it was time for an excursion to the high tunnels to see how the veggies had held up to the brutal temps.  Lettuce, chard, spinach and kale all did well.  The broccoli raab and arugula succumbed to the bitter cold–BUT they were sort of on their way out anyway so it’s not a big deal.

When I went to the empire of the Happy Hens yesterday to water and feed, I saw blood in the snow around the water and feed pans.  Oh no!  Not blood…..not now!  I looked at chicken toes until I found the problem.  One of the hens had broken a toenail into the quick and it was bleeding pretty profusely.    I gathered her up under my arm and headed to the house to the first aid kit.   I told her to not tell the others that she had actually been in “the house”.  I grabbed some gauze and peroxide but couldn’t find any adhesive tape, so here we go to the shop.  She behaved fairly well and didn’t try to attack me or anything.   I was able to clip off the damaged part, pour peroxide over it a couple of times, then bandage it with a gauze pad and——electrical tape.  Maybe it will stay on long enough to heal a little.  Even  a small problem seems amplified in bitterly cold weather.

This morning when I went to water and feed and collect the frozen eggs I saw no blood and I didn’t see a bandage on any chicken toes, so maybe all is well.   Their feet do look awfully cold in this weather though.

A lot of the country is experiencing this brutal cold front called, what, “Ion” or something like that?  Stay warm and pore over the seed catalogs…..spring will be here before we know it!

 

Twas the week before Christmas

And all around the farm, the creatures were stirring….

 

 

 

Really looking for something to harm……did you think I was going through that whole poem?  Really……..

Today was one of those wintertime treats!  Sunny….mid 40’s at some point during the day.  It’s funny how 50, cloudy and breezy is intolerable but 33 and sunny calm is great!

One of the projects on my “to do” list for the winter is to mulch around the blackberries and blueberries and I got started on that yesterday……

 

I know, I know, the black leaf holders are kind of ugly, but they do keep the leaves from blowing around until they are put in their place.  I’m using layers of newspaper around the bushes then lots of leaves to keep the weeds down.  I do have lots of leaves….

 

I LOVE my leaves!

 

Each season, John, Dear (that would be my tractor) and I spread a thick layer of leaves over every inch of garden space, in the chicken pens, and wherever I want new garden ground.  I did get the orchard completely mulched last week as well—yay!

 

One thing I’m experimenting with this year is planting seedlings in the high tunnel throughout the winter season.  Most of the crops in high tunnels are planted in late September/early October but in the hurry of getting another high tunnel built this year and all the other chores I have around the farm, the big high tunnel wasn’t completely planted before cold weather set in.  I’m experimenting to see if everything doesn’t need to be planted at the same time.  So far I’ve planted endive, yellow and scarlet mustard, braising mix, assorted varieties of lettuce, sorrel, and kale.  The first test plot was planted about 3 weeks ago and I’ve harvested a few greens from them.  Today I planted another 5 flats of seedlings and we’ll see how they do.   True, things do grow slower this time of year, but they do still grow!  I say hopefully next year I’ll have time to get everything in earlier 🙂

Okay, now scroll back up to the first pictures.  The kittens follow me into the high tunnels and catch and eat grasshoppers!  I don’t know how to reward a cat, but I make a big deal when they catch one.

(2nd pic) Hattie the Catahoula dug in that bed for hours–then she came up with a mouse!  I was so proud–that’s one I won’t have to deal with 🙂  Notice one of the Happy Hens had made her way up to the bed…..see next pic….

The chickens were in their pen and I was in the back garden spreading leaves.  This garden is really close to their pen, and they were following me up and down the fence.  I got to thinking–hmmm what is there to keep them in the pen?  Just a fence–no gardens to scratch up and destroy, so I let them loose.  They had a ball!  I think I’ll let them out again tomorrow…it’s supposed to be pretty here again (yay).

Until next time…..

Preparing for Winter

The weather prognosticators are calling for really cold weather tomorrow night–first really “hard freeze” of the year, although my thermometer read 24 degrees last night.  So that means removing the irrigation pump from the pond and subsequently draining the lines that feed all the different garden areas and the drip irrigation spiderweb that is in place in the gardens.  Done!

Next is to install all the wire hoops over the beds in the high tunnels to protect the winter crops inside the high tunnels.   The second layer of protection inside the tunnels really makes a difference..

This is a shot inside the larger high tunnel which is 20×96.  This tunnel has lettuce, kale, braising mix, spinach, broccoli raab, endive, mustard, radiccio, and a few other greens. The newer tunnel is 12×80 and is protecting spinach, swiss chard, arugula and broccoli raab.  Oh, and both tunnels have a row of strawberries on each of the outer walls.  Strawberries outside in this area (on this farm, anyway) are “iffy” during late frosts and freezes in the spring so I’m trying them inside each tunnel.  So far I’ve been able to eat strawberries with my yogurt about 3 days a week.  We’ll see how they do on a production scale next spring.

On Saturday I opened the bee hive and on top of the frames of the top box I placed 2 layers of newspaper, cut a hole in the middle, then poured about 3-1/2 pounds of white sugar on the paper.  The sugar was then spritzed with water to “crust” over.  Several of my beekeeping buddies have said they are going to put a solid bottom board in over the winter because they are thinking that we will have a colder-than-normal winter–so, I decided to do the same.  I cut a piece of 1/4″ insulation and covered the bottom board just after I put the sugar on, then I went about my chores.

It was a beautiful Saturday, low 60’s and sunshine.  About 30 minutes after tending to the bees I noticed A LOT of bees around the entrance and a few of them on the front starting to “beard”–okay, maybe it was too warm to install the bottom board on Saturday.  I moved it back about halfway and a few minutes later all was back to normal.  It’s okay to deal with one or a few hives in this manner but you sure couldn’t do this with more than a few!  I’ve got a lot to learn about beekeeping 🙂

Wintertime around here also means doing indoor things and that includes soap making.  I LOVE patchouli scent and bought a couple of patchouli plants this past summer.  They are in pots in the house and doing well.  I’ve been collecting leaves from them to make an oil infusion and finally gathered enough to actually get it done.  I used sunflower oil as the base oil (it’s cheap and effective for this purpose).  I stuffed a pint jar full of dried patchouli leaves then filled it with sunflower oil.  Heat a pan of water to boiling, remove from the heat and set the jar of oil and leaves into the pot of water and let it cool.  Put a lid on the mixture and shake it up every time you walk by it for a few months.

 

This is my first time doing this, so I’ll report back as the experiment progresses.

Lastly, the chimney for the woodstove is in progress–YAY!  Hopefully it will be ready to use by Christmas–I’m excited!

 

I plan on stuccoing the block since it’s on the back of the house and not visible unless you walk all the way around to the back of the house.

Another winter project around here is winterizing the gardens.  The front bluff garden was in pretty good shape but there were 3 beds of overgrown lettuce, pepper plants, and a few ugly cabbages in addition to a few weeds.

I moved the electric poultry fence around this garden since it’s adjacent to the chicken pen anyway.  The girls went nuts!

 

Now that they’ve gotten that garden cleared out they’ll be moved to the pond garden next–I appreciate all the help I can get 🙂

 

Figs in the house!

Last year I planted a Brown Turkey fig tree in the back portion of the hoop house.  It died all the way to the ground during the really cold part of winter but sprung back up when the weather warmed up.

I’ve never had any experience with fig trees, and actually have never had much experience with figs at all–except for Fig Newtons–

A few weeks ago I was in the back of the high tunnel gathering tomatoes or something and noticed figs on the tree!

As of today they are still green and hard and actually probably won’t ripen before frost.  Sunday I stopped by a friend’s house to deliver eggs and they had GORGEOUS muscadine vines, loaded with hard green muscadines.  He said this year was the first year that frost might get the fruit before it ripens……..

Global weirding at its best!

 

Late winter on the farm

Although mud is still the most popular flooring in the great outdoors, spring is creeping through the cracks.  A couple of freezer burned hyacinths stand amidst the bones and skeletons of the front perennial garden, and the spring peepers have been screaming out their mating calls for the past several weeks.

Several sunny days have been enjoyed by the resident farm dogs, Angus the boxer and Hattie the Catahoula.  Angus cracks me up the way he sits with all his legs sticking out in front of him.  I’ve taken several pics of him in this position, but his “plumbing” shows too much.  I was able to catch him in the pose in the flower garden outside the greenhouse.  Hattie is snoozing in the background.  He can sleep sitting up very well!

 

The warm sunny afternoons beckon me to the woods for a late afternoon stroll.  It’s more fun to walk in the woods right now before the ticks, chiggers, poison ivy, and ssssssssnakes start terrorizing the woodlands.  I caught Hattie posing on a bluff just above one of the garden areas:

 

The small greenhouse is getting full of seedlings on their way to becoming transplants, then to garden plants, then onto some lucky person’s plate!

The heart of the farm flows out of the mountain bordering one side of the property.  This stream flows year round and is utilized to water the crops and happy hens that live on the farm.  A resident kingfisher enjoys the bounty of minnows in the small pond and the dogs like to play in the water on hot summer days.  Personally, I think it’s too darned cold to get in.

 

 

The high tunnel is still producing great fresh veggies for sale and personal consumption.  This winter the tunnel has produced swiss chard, lettuce, arugula, and one harvest of spinach.  For some reason the spinach just didn’t grow at all.  I believe the soil got too wet early in the season and just never dried out.  Next year the spinach will be elevated to new heights!

In the right hand side of the tunnel, the stubborn spinach was yanked out and snow peas planted in their place.  The row covers are handy when the weather outside is frigid, but they’ve only been utilized like two times this past pseudo-winter.  Early tomatoes, beets, carrots, more lettuce and spinach are going into the high tunnel over the next few weeks.

Whew, to be winter time and the “down season”, I seem to be awfully busy 🙂

Bad bugs gone “good”?

We’ve always heard the expression good guys gone bad, but bad guys gone good?

In the hoophouse, tomatoes were planted in late winter.  During the summer they produced and produced bunches of tasty tomatoes.  In the process, the tomato hornworms found them, even inside the plastic surround of the hoophouse.

There are parasitic wasps that like to feed upon these giant green monsters that devour tomato plants, and I haven’t really experienced them in the hoophouse yet, so I sort of panicked when I saw so many hornworms on the tomato plants, but then I noticed that most of them were decked out with little white globules on them.  “Parasitic wasps”!  They did venture into the tunnel!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many hornworms on tomato plants, BUT I’ve never seen so many parasitic wasp eggs either.  The hornworms that had eggs on them got to stay on the plants (it was hard to do, but I left them).  These are the “Bad guys gone good”.  I’m hoping the parasitic wasps will find a place to winter over in the warmth of the high tunnel.  The hornworms that didn’t have any eggs on them?  Well, even the chickens won’t eat them, so they must be bad.

By the way, birds fly freely in and out of the high tunnel too.  I sure hope they are working on the grasshopper population in there!  It’s a lively place 🙂

 

Late winter “blues”

Here in Tennessee this winter has become one of the nastiest and coldest that I remember and much of the winter has been spent working inside.   Several projects have been completed inside the house, namely flooring and stair railing.

Yesterday was a late winter “blues gift” of blue skies and a beautiful day where one could get outside and do a few cleanup chores.

Protecting the chickens’ domain are two huge sycamore trees.  Anyone who has had the opportunity of sharing the same piece of ground with a sycamore tree knows how messy they are.  I renamed them “Stick-a-more” trees because I picked up a pile of sticks that was about 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall in no time at all.  I burned them on top of a stump I’m trying to get rid of that is in an area where I want to plant basil this season. 

I spent a while in the high tunnel cleaning out crops that just didn’t enjoy being in there over the winter.  Broccoli didn’t appreciate the cold temperatures so I put them out of their misery and into the chicken pen.  There was also one last bed of spinach in one of the outside gardens that the chickens enjoyed immensely.  I folded endless numbers of frost blanket and stacked them to be ready for unexpected frosts and finished pulling all the wire hoops, posts, and stakes out of the gardens in preparation for that day when suddenly the ground is dry enough to till.  That day seems like an eternity away right now because if you step off the pathways you just might lose your shoe!

The greenhouse is also getting busy.  Seeds have been started on propagation mats for a mesclun mix, lettuce, lots of onions, swiss chard, kale, and arugula.  I’ve also started seeds for an early tomato to be planted in the high tunnel just to see how early one can get a tomato here in this area.

Yesterday’s case of the “wintertime blues” was much welcome–I hope everyone else within shot of it got to enjoy the day as much as I did.

Get to know your veggies – Arugula

Cooler temperatures and shorter days are here, meaning to eat seasonally we need to adapt to what’s growing locally.  The new high tunnel has a bumper crop of arugula, just waiting to spice up many salads this fall. 

Arugula has no fat or cholesterol, and it is also a good source of protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Zinc and Copper, and a very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin A (5% RDA), Vitamin C (2%), Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium (2%), Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Manganese.

A great recipe for Arugula calls for washed and dried arugula leaves, toss them with a Walnut Vinagarette, crumble goat cheese and walnuts on top, then throw on a few dried cranberries–it’s a very tasty salad. 

Arugula–even if you don’t like it, the word is fun to say!