2016 – Page 2 – Peacock Orchard

Krater Digging 2016

Will be done by small hands, smaller shovels and tiny dump trucks!

I kid. I’ve begun Krater digging with the usual meth0d, front bucket of our Kubota tractor. This land is a bit more special though. It is what I call “dead” land. Land so over grazed and compacted that practically nothing will grow on it.

Lots of bare spots and tiny plants here. Most of our property is this way with few exceptions.

This is one of those exceptions. So lovely!

I removed the top soil with the bucket but I was completely unable to do any more than that. I have four Kraters mapped out with plans for a full 10 at the least.

As you can tell it’s a few inches deed at the moment. I piled the top soil in a communal pile in the middle for re-application later on.

As you can tell the clay here is thick and HARD. Rock hard.

This would have been a particularity good photo example of that except every time I tried to get a picture our new puppy would run in the way. So, enjoy the puppy pic!

I am sure the excavator will be able to dig this mess up. Unfortunately the battery is dead. It’s in the process of charging. Eventually I’ll be able to get out there and dig my required Kraters.

Corn Problems

What is up with corn around here? Could it drive me any more crazy. I’m not even sure why I would even want to plant it after this failure. Last year the corn suffered from pollination problems. This year I planted it close, and I do mean really close.

I can’t even see the ground through it so how on earth did it suffer from poor pollination this time?

It is gloriously tall and each stalk has two ears of corn on it. Some of it looks quite nice, others are awful.

I just don’t even….

Goings on

Life has been moving quickly around here. I’ve began digging mini-kraters for fall seed planting. It has not been going well as the ground is hard as a rock. I’ve began making the new kitchen island butcher block. It’s going poorly to say the least. Hopefully it turns out well!

The animals are all doing well. The babies are growing. Unfortunately at least half of the baby chickens are roosters and will be culled this fall. The ducklings and peachicks genders are still indiscernible.

Mama pea has been buys teaching her children how to break into the food and how best to tear up my garden for dust baths.

We got a new puppy. He is a great pyr/Anotilian shepherd. He is adorable and prefers to be outside. Can barely keep him in the house. He is learning to like the poultry, though he was initially terrified.

We named him Ramsey after our two favorite people, Dave and Gordon.

If he’s like his mom he’ll be a hyper guard. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.

Prince is losing his tail now that mating season is over. I’ve been collecting it from all over.

We rescued all the tadpoles we could from shrinking water puddles. They are non-existent puddles now but the tadpoles are doing well in their swimming pool.

Our oldest is starting school in a week and we have been busy preparing. Life, it is busy!

Rabbits and Permaculture

Permaculture is all about coming to peace with nature and it’s rhythms, at least to me it is. I haven’t had peace as far as the various pests we have are concerned. Rabbits are a big problem for me. They are for pretty much our entire region. The obsessive hunting of coyotes could have something to do with that. I’m not free of guilt there either. I’ve lost a lot of birds to coyotes and I wouldn’t think twice if someone was killing the ones in our area. Still, I do my best to close the gate to the barn and if anyone is left out..well good luck.

I’ve had trees eaten. Plants eaten. Everything has been eaten by rabbits around here. They are thick on the ground, protected somewhat by the presence of our LGD’s who are far too unintelligent and slow to ever catch one.

I couldn’t help but notice a few things this year though. I noticed rabbit digging in the kraters and the swales. I noticed seeds and other debris filling up these rabbit made holes. I also notices rabbit droppings thick on the ground, happily feeding my lacking sad little kraters.

Country Kitchen Update- Almost done!

The kitchen remodel has been fairly slow. Removing walls, rewiring and plumbing and repairing walls has been extremely time consuming. Above is what this particular wall of cabinets looked like before I finally figured out what to do to finish the top cabinets with. There was a large amount of blank space on both sides of the top cabinets before.

Now there is a beautiful coffee and wine rack on either side of the old cabinets. I made them out of 1×12 boards and sweat. I think they look fabulous!

The wall color pops on the inside of each new cabinet extension.

We always need wine storage so this is a great way of getting it!

We did the same counter top on both sides but kept the wood planking to the back splash only on this side.The toe kick hasn’t been touched yet as we are going to redo the floor first.

The top of these cabinets was made into a shelf used to display…well I haven’t worked that all out yet. It looks half way decent now at least.

That beautiful sign makes the kitchen sparkle.

Now to redo the island. That is going to be the biggest task so far!

Seed Collection on the Farm

Our plans for future orchard expansion now include pre-planting of Kraters far in advance of tree arrival. For this we need seeds, lots of seeds. Luckily I’ve been purchasing and tossing out seeds for ages. Collecting specimens for the new Kraters is a breeze. All you need is a bucket, some willing hands and guard dogs in case you should come upon…..well nothing, they’re useless.

So far collected specimens include: Sainfoin, sweet clover, alfalfa, asparagus, various grasses, bachelors button, vetch, various other clover varieties and odd plants I find along the way and simply throw into the bucket. Those plants include flowers, herbs and vegetable seeds. We’ll see what happens to grow from this cacophony of seeds. I’m hoping everything.

I’m feeling pretty good about this move. As I’ve said in a previous post, things aren’t working quite right as they are now. I think a big step is preparing the kraters ahead of planting. I have every hope it will make a big difference. Only time shall tell.