lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.

the rain finally went away and things have dried out enough
that i can get back to the drainage project. it is much easier
to redig than dig the first time. what took me about ten days
to reach before i've already passed in one day.

the challenge this time around is that there is standing
water in a part of the trench and that makes for slippery
and sticky clay digging, pretty much have to scrape the
shovel clean with a trowel i keep handy for the task every
few shovels full. i'd hoped i had the slope set right for
drainage just by eyeballing it the first time around and
was just about to run the level string and check it when we
had the heavy rains that put the pause on. after the heavy
rain with much of it slumped i wasn't up to digging again
until i recovered from illness and the weather dried out
enough. i had plenty of other things to keep me busy...

a few more days and i should be back to where i was and
perhaps can get the tubes down and it partially filled back in
so that if more rains do come again it won't be such a mess.

that is the joy of doing things in stages by hand. we don't
have an easy way to get any equipment back there and by far, in
terms of health for my back, the exercise of digging is much
better for me. especially when i can take breaks and watch the
dragon flies or have fun observing a crayfish try to get the
burrow emptied of debris that i've knocked in... amazing
creatures that live so far down in the clay, they follow the
water table as it goes up and down and when they surface in the
winter/spring months the raccoons try to catch them out...

before heading out to dig yesterday i was able to pick
another round of dry beans from the plants that have finished
up pods lately. those will be drying further inside (as i've
found out the chipmunks and mice will raid the box tops once
i stack them in the garage. after picking dry beans i enjoyed
some nice cherry tomatoes from the vine. they are still going
strong with no hard frosts (the golden variety we have planted)
but in contrast the sweet 100s gave up weeks ago.

i'm still finding plenty of new varieties/crosses in the
dry bean shelling. very interesting this year compared to all
of the previous seasons.

the few gardens i managed to get taken care of for the fall
are up and sprouted and look nice with some green cover. i'm
so not used to grasses, it looks strange, crying out for a
haircut.

that's about it for news on the gardens, in recent readings
i've continued the Biosphere 2 theme and have enjoyed the
various perspectives from the different authors. i have been
reading them in order of publication date the most recent
was _Dreaming the Biosphe the Theatre of All Possibilities_
by Rebecca Reider.

oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


songbird

In article ,
songbird wrote:

lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.

the rain finally went away and things have dried out enough
that i can get back to the drainage project. it is much easier
to redig than dig the first time. what took me about ten days
to reach before i've already passed in one day.

the challenge this time around is that there is standing
water in a part of the trench and that makes for slippery
and sticky clay digging, pretty much have to scrape the
shovel clean with a trowel i keep handy for the task every
few shovels full. i'd hoped i had the slope set right for
drainage just by eyeballing it the first time around and
was just about to run the level string and check it when we
had the heavy rains that put the pause on. after the heavy
rain with much of it slumped i wasn't up to digging again
until i recovered from illness and the weather dried out
enough. i had plenty of other things to keep me busy...

a few more days and i should be back to where i was and
perhaps can get the tubes down and it partially filled back in
so that if more rains do come again it won't be such a mess.

that is the joy of doing things in stages by hand. we don't
have an easy way to get any equipment back there and by far, in
terms of health for my back, the exercise of digging is much
better for me. especially when i can take breaks and watch the
dragon flies or have fun observing a crayfish try to get the
burrow emptied of debris that i've knocked in... amazing
creatures that live so far down in the clay, they follow the
water table as it goes up and down and when they surface in the
winter/spring months the raccoons try to catch them out...

before heading out to dig yesterday i was able to pick
another round of dry beans from the plants that have finished
up pods lately. those will be drying further inside (as i've
found out the chipmunks and mice will raid the box tops once
i stack them in the garage. after picking dry beans i enjoyed
some nice cherry tomatoes from the vine. they are still going
strong with no hard frosts (the golden variety we have planted)
but in contrast the sweet 100s gave up weeks ago.

i'm still finding plenty of new varieties/crosses in the
dry bean shelling. very interesting this year compared to all
of the previous seasons.

the few gardens i managed to get taken care of for the fall
are up and sprouted and look nice with some green cover. i'm
so not used to grasses, it looks strange, crying out for a
haircut.

that's about it for news on the gardens, in recent readings
i've continued the Biosphere 2 theme and have enjoyed the
various perspectives from the different authors. i have been
reading them in order of publication date the most recent
was _Dreaming the Biosphe the Theatre of All Possibilities_
by Rebecca Reider.

oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


songbird

The garden was so-so this year. An early promise of heat fizzled out,
and the garden responded accordingly. I'm still picking tomatoes, and
cucumbers, but the peppers never really got the heat that they needed.

Work-wise, the grape harvest was the quickest I've ever experienced. We
in the lab stayed on a 5 day schedule with 1 to 2 hours of overtime/day,
but the cellar crew got hammered with no days off for 2 weeks, and
regularly running 12 hour+ days. Even the cellar master said he didn't
want to play anymore, but he immediately recanted, fearful, I'm sure,
that the statement may find its way to judgmental ears.

Ah, the joys of agriculture.
--
Palestinian Child Detained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSzH38jYcg

Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

songbird wrote:
lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.


After almost the warmest winter on record I am getting hot inland winds,
unseasonable high temperatures and no rain now for over three months. The
ground is so hard I cannot push in a pig-tailed picket.


that's about it for news on the gardens, in recent readings
i've continued the Biosphere 2 theme and have enjoyed the
various perspectives from the different authors. i have been
reading them in order of publication date the most recent
was _Dreaming the Biosphe the Theatre of All Possibilities_
by Rebecca Reider.


I've been reading the history of the valley where I live. I discovered
(among many things) that we had a gold rush in the late 1800s that
multiplied the population by a factor of 6 or more and was gone in a few
years. They built a whole township including eight pubs (there are only two
in town today) but there is nothing to be seen on the site now.


oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


With great regret I have to stop cutting the asparagus Not long now
for globe artichokes

I spend my days dragging round hoses and irrigating to try to get some kind
of spring growth on my orchard and gardens. At least the river is still
running and I can pump from it. The big subterranean sponge is just about
dry, another month of this and my horses will be very hungry. But by then I
could be complaining about the mud......

D

Billy wrote:
....
The garden was so-so this year. An early promise of heat fizzled out,
and the garden responded accordingly. I'm still picking tomatoes, and
cucumbers, but the peppers never really got the heat that they needed.

hmm, here it is currently running 8-15 degrees above
average in the forecast up until at least Tuesday night.
a few chances of rain. the earliest being Saturday
night, so i'll be out digging as much as i can the next
three days. just imagine me being covered in mud
(happily so ).

my effort to spread the standing water out so that it
would soak in looks to have just made the mess even
larger. i'll just head further down and scrape it out
another layer and see if i can get it to flow all the
way out. i guess that would be the price i pay for not
running a level string to begin with, but having a level
string in the way when digging isn't much fun.

peppers did ok here this year. a few red peppers
fermented on the plants and reminded me of tobasco
sauce. and i can still say that i consider yellow
peppers not worth the space as they had little flavor.
we had plenty for both stuffed green peppers and
for making salsa.


Work-wise, the grape harvest was the quickest I've ever experienced. We
in the lab stayed on a 5 day schedule with 1 to 2 hours of overtime/day,
but the cellar crew got hammered with no days off for 2 weeks, and
regularly running 12 hour+ days. Even the cellar master said he didn't
want to play anymore, but he immediately recanted, fearful, I'm sure,
that the statement may find its way to judgmental ears.

Ah, the joys of agriculture.

Ma always says "Feast or phantom." when she really means
"Feast or famine." i guess if you are in famine then
phantom may not be far behind.

at least he didn't decant.

and survival isn't overrated... on to another year.
cheers,


songbird

On 10/9/2013 11:19 AM, songbird wrote:
lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.

the rain finally went away and things have dried out enough
that i can get back to the drainage project. it is much easier
to redig than dig the first time. what took me about ten days
to reach before i've already passed in one day.

the challenge this time around is that there is standing
water in a part of the trench and that makes for slippery
and sticky clay digging, pretty much have to scrape the
shovel clean with a trowel i keep handy for the task every
few shovels full. i'd hoped i had the slope set right for
drainage just by eyeballing it the first time around and
was just about to run the level string and check it when we
had the heavy rains that put the pause on. after the heavy
rain with much of it slumped i wasn't up to digging again
until i recovered from illness and the weather dried out
enough. i had plenty of other things to keep me busy...

a few more days and i should be back to where i was and
perhaps can get the tubes down and it partially filled back in
so that if more rains do come again it won't be such a mess.

that is the joy of doing things in stages by hand. we don't
have an easy way to get any equipment back there and by far, in
terms of health for my back, the exercise of digging is much
better for me. especially when i can take breaks and watch the
dragon flies or have fun observing a crayfish try to get the
burrow emptied of debris that i've knocked in... amazing
creatures that live so far down in the clay, they follow the
water table as it goes up and down and when they surface in the
winter/spring months the raccoons try to catch them out...

before heading out to dig yesterday i was able to pick
another round of dry beans from the plants that have finished
up pods lately. those will be drying further inside (as i've
found out the chipmunks and mice will raid the box tops once
i stack them in the garage. after picking dry beans i enjoyed
some nice cherry tomatoes from the vine. they are still going
strong with no hard frosts (the golden variety we have planted)
but in contrast the sweet 100s gave up weeks ago.

i'm still finding plenty of new varieties/crosses in the
dry bean shelling. very interesting this year compared to all
of the previous seasons.

the few gardens i managed to get taken care of for the fall
are up and sprouted and look nice with some green cover. i'm
so not used to grasses, it looks strange, crying out for a
haircut.

that's about it for news on the gardens, in recent readings
i've continued the Biosphere 2 theme and have enjoyed the
various perspectives from the different authors. i have been
reading them in order of publication date the most recent
was _Dreaming the Biosphe the Theatre of All Possibilities_
by Rebecca Reider.

oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


songbird


Harvested a lot of chestnuts. So many that I left most for the deer.

Harvested a deer but not one of the ones eating my chestnuts. Looking
forward to fried back straps and chestnut soup.

Tomatoes scant due to very wet summer. Very good for the other farmers
though.

Wonder if the rain hurt the stinkbug invasion. They seem scant this
year. I had quit growing peppers because of them. Maybe next year.

David Hare-Scott wrote:
songbird wrote:

lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.


After almost the warmest winter on record I am getting hot inland winds,
unseasonable high temperatures and no rain now for over three months. The
ground is so hard I cannot push in a pig-tailed picket.

i sure hope you'll get some decent rains soon.


that's about it for news on the gardens, in recent readings
i've continued the Biosphere 2 theme and have enjoyed the
various perspectives from the different authors. i have been
reading them in order of publication date the most recent
was _Dreaming the Biosphe the Theatre of All Possibilities_
by Rebecca Reider.


I've been reading the history of the valley where I live. I discovered
(among many things) that we had a gold rush in the late 1800s that
multiplied the population by a factor of 6 or more and was gone in a few
years. They built a whole township including eight pubs (there are only two
in town today) but there is nothing to be seen on the site now.

not that much of a deposit for them to continue if it
only went a few years... sedimentary?

around here the history is mostly natives, logging,
and coal mines (underground seams). not much sign of
any of that either on the surface. forests reclaim
land fairly quickly around here.


oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


With great regret I have to stop cutting the asparagus Not long now
for globe artichokes

with it being so dry did you manage much of an
asparagus harvest?


I spend my days dragging round hoses and irrigating to try to get some kind
of spring growth on my orchard and gardens. At least the river is still
running and I can pump from it. The big subterranean sponge is just about
dry, another month of this and my horses will be very hungry. But by then I
could be complaining about the mud......

good luck with the rains, i sure hope you'll get some
before too long.


songbird

songbird wrote:

I've been reading the history of the valley where I live. I
discovered (among many things) that we had a gold rush in the late
1800s that multiplied the population by a factor of 6 or more and
was gone in a few years. They built a whole township including
eight pubs (there are only two in town today) but there is nothing
to be seen on the site now.

not that much of a deposit for them to continue if it
only went a few years... sedimentary?


Some alluvial and some in seams, apparently the deposit was quite rich but
very localised and when it ran out the miners all headed off to the next big
strike elsewhere.

around here the history is mostly natives, logging,
and coal mines (underground seams). not much sign of
any of that either on the surface. forests reclaim
land fairly quickly around here.


oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


With great regret I have to stop cutting the asparagus Not
long now for globe artichokes

with it being so dry did you manage much of an
asparagus harvest?


Due to watering it was OK but not great. The fronds are all blowing over in
the wind now...

D

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

lovely weather lately, sunshine, mid 60s-70s most of the
time.

Same here. Just enough rain a few days ago to keep all but the
hardiest of gardeners, among whose number I am not, indoors. The highs
you're having are within the range of the overnight lows here, with
highs in high 80s. Typical autumn weather for this part of the country.
Every year about this time, I get antsy to start planting and fearful
that days won't cool enough for "cool season" crops until it's too late
for reasonable expectation of a decent harvest before we get freezing
temps in January or February. However, my diary sez that "English"
peas, carrots, lettuce didn't go in until the last week of October last
year, and onions seeds in early November, so I guess I'll have to cool
my jets and wait for Mother to do Her thing.

i've got tons of fresh pea pods out there, wish i had either
energy or time to harvest them.


whatchu been upto?

With regret, killed a native pine tree. Summer squash blooming
nicely with the cukes not far behind. The tomatoes that carried over
through the summer are not showing me much; they're dangerously close to
becoming compost. Unless I hit a deal on some "sets", I'll probably
just do without fall tomatoes. Most years, fall tomatoes are productive
at least through November and, in 2011, they made it 'til early January,
2012. Everything else pretty much is over and done with, although, I
swear the cowpeas ("zipper cream") must overhear my threats to end their
days and set another little flush of blossoms when they realize their
peril. Started mowing, piecemeal, the "lawn" for what I hope is the
last time this year.

you folks aren't big on tomatoes anyways...

we've had a few plantings like that too. cucumber vine would
wax and wane and produce just enough to keep it where it was.


Repotting a few jalapeño peppers and some tender herbs that I want
to bring inside during chilly weather but a fair portion of the
gardening day is spent deadheading invasive wildflowers (prior to mowing
that damnable grass), fiddling with dripline and preparing raised beds
to receive bodacious quantities of well composted, drug-free and
grain-free horse dung, a lucky find.

yay for good horse poo! it smells so much better
than chicken or pig and is almost as good as fresh cow
pats for aroma. growing up next to a dairy farm makes
me roll the window down when i drive by a well run
dairy (when most others will be rolling the windows up).
smells like home...


"Preparing" this year means
double-digging about half of the beds in order to remove native tree
roots; the balance will get their normal "shake up" with shovel and
spading fork.

deadheading to prevent the spread of the seeds?
which wildflower?


I don't envy you your never-ending drainage project. I'd much
rather be cutting and cussing tree roots in my garden beds than trying
to excavate clay any day.

it is getting there. 100ft today is all cleared out and
ready for tomorrow morning's final check of the slope before
i put down the two drain tubes. muddy work all week, the
high water table, springs, kept me dancing to avoid getting
stuck. some times it was easier to just use the trowel to
move mud instead of scraping it off the shovel and my shoes
every few minutes.

good clean mud fun. and i got to see more crayfish
including one with eggs today and froggies trying to get
ready to hibernate for the winter.

the next higher 50ft section will have to wait until next
year as it is more important to get the lower part situated
and the berm built up before we have winter/spring chances
of flooding.


songbird

David Hare-Scott wrote:
songbird wrote:

I've been reading the history of the valley where I live. I
discovered (among many things) that we had a gold rush in the late
1800s that multiplied the population by a factor of 6 or more and
was gone in a few years. They built a whole township including
eight pubs (there are only two in town today) but there is nothing
to be seen on the site now.

not that much of a deposit for them to continue if it
only went a few years... sedimentary?


Some alluvial and some in seams, apparently the deposit was quite rich but
very localised and when it ran out the miners all headed off to the next big
strike elsewhere.

leaving behind the bakers, barbers, bankers, bars
and a few larger bellies...


around here the history is mostly natives, logging,
and coal mines (underground seams). not much sign of
any of that either on the surface. forests reclaim
land fairly quickly around here.


oh, yes, we've finished the canning for the season. plenty
of tomatoes stocked up again and some apple sauce and pickled
beets.

whatchu been upto?


With great regret I have to stop cutting the asparagus Not
long now for globe artichokes

with it being so dry did you manage much of an
asparagus harvest?

Due to watering it was OK but not great. The fronds are all blowing over in
the wind now...

i'm not sure how easily it spreads by seeds but so far
i've not been able to get "wild" asparagus to take when
i've harvested seeds and then scattered them, but then
we don't have much prime space for them to grow. purely
whimsical and hoping to increase their population.


songbird

Frank wrote:
....
Harvested a lot of chestnuts. So many that I left most for the deer.

Harvested a deer but not one of the ones eating my chestnuts. Looking
forward to fried back straps and chestnut soup.

do you use the leftovers as garden fertilizer?


Tomatoes scant due to very wet summer. Very good for the other farmers
though.

ours ripened slowly, but came in well at the end.
a few plants are still out there finishing up the
last of their crop, some new flowers.


Wonder if the rain hurt the stinkbug invasion. They seem scant this
year. I had quit growing peppers because of them. Maybe next year.

not seen that sort of damage here as of yet. this
summer we did have some red peppers ferment on the
plant, but the cause was likely some cooler and wetter
spells. our harvest was enough but not the usual
three or four rounds, but more like two to three
rounds.


songbird

On 10/12/2013 1:16 AM, songbird wrote:
Frank wrote:
...
Harvested a lot of chestnuts. So many that I left most for the deer.

Harvested a deer but not one of the ones eating my chestnuts. Looking
forward to fried back straps and chestnut soup.

do you use the leftovers as garden fertilizer?



ours ripened slowly, but came in well at the end.
a few plants are still out there finishing up the
last of their crop, some new flowers.



not seen that sort of damage here as of yet. this
summer we did have some red peppers ferment on the
plant, but the cause was likely some cooler and wetter
spells. our harvest was enough but not the usual
three or four rounds, but more like two to three
rounds.


songbird


Chestnut husks are tossed in bushes. They can still prick your fingers
even a year later. Real PITA. My back yard is semi wild in that
neighbors either leave in wild state or infrequently cut grass and never
fertilize or kill weeds so I don't have to pick them all up. Shells go
in the trash.

Deer leave plenty of fertilizer and can leave back yard looking like a
stock yard. You have to clean your shoes when coming in the house and
chestnuts need to be washed off.

Stink bugs started in PA and have been moving out. A couple of years
ago my peppers were smaller and mottled due to their being pierced by
the stinkbugs. Number of stinkbugs appears to be way down and I wonder
if natural predators have moved in. There was talk of using a small
wasp on them.

With great regret I have to stop cutting the asparagus Not
long now for globe artichokes

with it being so dry did you manage much of an
asparagus harvest?

Due to watering it was OK but not great. The fronds are all blowing
over in the wind now...

i'm not sure how easily it spreads by seeds but so far
i've not been able to get "wild" asparagus to take when
i've harvested seeds and then scattered them, but then
we don't have much prime space for them to grow. purely
whimsical and hoping to increase their population.



Birds spread the seeds here. Anywhere there is a shrub that the little
fruit/seed eating birds hide in there will be asparagus seedlings
underneath.

D

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

i've got tons of fresh pea pods out there, wish i had either
energy or time to harvest them.

Ma picked some today and we had them with
onions, garlic and shrimpies.


Ooooh; that must be nice. Can plant this month and have peas until
December or January. Planted again in February, they'll last 'til late
May, sometimes even into June. Man, a chair in the garden, an Anchor
Steam, fresh from the vine "Little Marvels" and Glenn Gould/JS Bach on
the box is April morning Nirvana.

we were sitting in the grass and popping the
larger pods open as we picked. i.e. we understand...
i had to plant more in the middle of summer
after the chipmunks suddenly discovered them and
cleaned out the patch i had growing. we got this
patch first (actually the lawnmower got most of
them as they were growing and flopping into the
grass). the chipmunks were working instead on the
edamame soybeans that were getting dry. i managed
to get the last of those soybeans picked yesterday
and the day before so now the little buggers are
going to have to work harder again to get a meal.

which reminds me i need to check the golden flax
plants tomorrow...


you folks aren't big on tomatoes anyways...

Yeah; DW eats more of them fresh than I. One or two tomato
sandwiches in a year's time about does it for me. We both think ketchup
is an abomination and as long as high quality tomatoes and tomato sauce
are available and affordable, there seems little point to trying to grow
and "can" either when my limited space can be better purposed, from our
POV. Truth is, I hope that my "canning" days are gone, never to return.

if you don't use several gallons every once in
a while. when Ma cooks it tends to involve quantities
larger than a quart or two. it wouldn't be a minor
expense.

plus there's a difference between your place and
ours as we can't grow winter crops without getting
into major expenses.


yay for good horse poo! it smells so much better
than chicken or pig and is almost as good as fresh cow
pats for aroma. growing up next to a dairy farm makes
me roll the window down when i drive by a well run
dairy (when most others will be rolling the windows up).
smells like home...

Well, it becomes a little less idyllic when one is lying on ones
belly in the stuff for hours in the glaring sun but we'll keep that
story to ourselves, won't we? Had to replace the clutch in That Damned
Truck shortly after that adventure. I suspect a causal relationship
between those events ;-)

horse power was invoved in more than one form.
or you ride horses not the clutch.


deadheading to prevent the spread of the seeds?
yep


which wildflower?

Elephant's foot (Elephantopus carolinianus) and Spanish needles
(Bidens pilosa) are the primary, and perennial, targets. Each is
nomadic but not particularly invasive, in native habitat. However, both
are prolific and, in open "ruderal" spaces, can quickly become
pestiferous; particularly so when taking into account that Spanish
needles are easily transported in fur and clothing. In deference to
insects, we maintain three "island" colonies of each. Each spring, I
reduce their number by digging older specimens as well as those that
don't appear to be thriving; Of course, autumn deadheading reduces
reseeding.

i'm not familiar with either plant or what insects
tend to visit them. when i get back on-line i'll see
if i can check 'em out...

i was very happy to regain a low spot that had been
covered with carpeting this past spring. that's a
few more square yards of green space returned to some
kind of planting. as it is downhill from the primary
weed seed generation grassy strip it's not easy to keep
clear and it is low so it needs plants that can withstand
being submerged from time to time. grasses, clovers and
the original planting i liked in there (moneywort or
creeping charlie i think it was called) is the mix that i
will try to encourage. the space is a really wild
challenge as it does get flooded from time to time (as
designed) but it also goes fairly dry in the middle of
the summer so we need plants that can survive such a
wide range of conditions. if i'm lucky i can get some
of the moss roses (the decorative kind ) to get
going in there too. we'll avoid the mint family, oregano
or thyme as we have so much of those in other gardens.

the large drainage project is humming along. we have
filled most of it back in and the small berm along the
field is now being relocated into filling the trench.
most of what was used to build up that small berm came
from me expanding the capacity of the trench so moving
it back to fill is just another round of the usual.
over the years Ma would pile debris on that small berm
and she was commenting on how nice the soil was and how
many worms were in there. next, building the new berm...


songbird