Living in the Wyoming countryside
Snow blows. At least around here. I was unsure about how the rest of the property would handle being kratered. The current kraters are on a slight slope between two swales. They have a nice line of bushes blocking the wind. They’ve been doing well. Will all the property do this well? I just wasn’t sure.
It’s snowed and the kraters filled up with snow just fine. What a relief!
I’m excited to see how the seeds sprout and things progress come spring.
For now, it’s all good.
Nebraska must love me. They have to with all the mulch I’ve put out to blow their way. I’m not quite sure why I still bother. I suppose it’s foolish hope.
There is a reason mulch is praised so highly in Permaculture. Natural mulching is the ideal. Having enough plants and trees that their own natural growth patterns create the detritus that cover the ground. Living the dream.
I’m not living the dream. I’m living the dead land, high wind, low precipitation life. As such I keep spreading mulch out around the property. Then I watch it blow away, to Nebraska. *sigh*
So drumroll please, I’ve mulched the cider orchard. I am about to share my magical mulching secrets.
First I put a collar around all of the trees again. I take them off in the spring because the trees are so small and the collar covers them completely.
Next I water the trees well. It hasn’t rained in months. The cider orchard trees were planted so I can water them, they are expensive.
Next I rip open the glorious bags of mulch. These bags come from my former boss’s residence. I happen to know they are completely organic so I feel no guilt in using the leaves and clippings from their lawn.
I piled the leaves high. I figure if they’re going to blow away best to give them a sufficient mass to move.
I give it a few weeks, or days, depending on wind speeds. I’m happy right now, though.
Our new island is a true thing of beauty. The kitchen is almost 100% done. All that is left is a new floor and putting base boards on all the cabinets. This is a big deal for me. I started this entire kitchen remodel so I could get a big, beautiful island the kids would be able to access better. Our old island was…gross.
Small and oddly angled it just wasn’t that functional. If I was rolling dough on it there was no way the kids could get up and help me out.
I used the IKEA Algot system and cut it up to make the perfect fruit and vegetable storage baskets in the island.
I was able to fit five large baskets perfectly into the island frame.
I find the baskets extremely useful!
I router-ed two of the 4×4 braces to fit the electrical wire inside the island frame. I also sneezed, can you tell?
Island framing has begun. Can you see the dirty outline of the old island? I was excited to add an additional outlet to this island.
A thing of beauty!
I decided I wanted the planked look on the island as well. There was a big debate about whether to stain or paint the island. I decided I wanted to paint.
The color was not what I intended but it works just fine.
I ordered 8′ maple boards. As the island is 8′ long I planned to glue cross pieces onto each side. It covers the rough edges and gives the counter top the over hang it needed.
I glued the maple planks together with Titebond III Ultimate. I also managed to glue some of the tarp in. I’m talented!
This is how I bypassed using a clamp to glue the edge pieces on.
Then the planing began. I planed for about a month.
Then it was time to sand. To help flatten the butcher block island I screwed it down before I began planing and sanding. As such I was not able to take it outside to sand. I got a little creative.
It worked. No one was more shocked than I. I barely had to clean dust off of the rest of the kitchen.
Then the sealing began. Well first you have to wash it, several times. Then I scrub with lemon and salt. Then clean again. Then oil, many times. Four regular coats of oil and one coat of oil that is mixed with beeswax.
Doesn’t the edge look great!
Now the kids, the dough, the machines and whatever else I want can fit on the island.
What a growing season this has been. Dry, windy, hot, miserable. On top of that we had major tractor problems. Still kind of do. I wasn’t able to put the finishing touches on the completed Kraters as the battery is dead on the excavator AGAIN. Uh oh, Husband hadn’t been told of that before this post. Sorry Babe. Battery is going to need replaced big time. Lots of love!
My goal was 12 kraters. I completed 4. I won’t be planting out a few hundred trees next year now. Instead I have modified my plans to begin our graft nursery. I was able to set that space up sufficiently, except the fence, which we simply need to put up real quick.
Back to the kraters. They seem all right. They have been dug, terraced, top soiled and planted. What else could a girl hope to do with all that has been going on. Enjoy a few action shots.
Look at these poor guard dogs. They wander over to check their charges and get mauled with cuddles. It’s a tough life for sure!
It appears I engage in child krater terracing labor. To be fair, the child really likes the labor.
Top soil was dumped on and needed moved around.
Throwing out our hand collected seeds.
Raking the seeds in.
Sometimes life is a series of unfortunate incidents. Somehow that seems to be our life more often than not. I often laugh such things off. Who else could these incredibly crazy things happen to all the time but us.
The excavator wouldn’t start and we concluded it was a dead battery. It took days to get the excavator back up and running. I was behind on my krater digging plans, but I had the will to catch up. Four kraters dug, 8 more to go. I could do this.
Then the front loader began making an awful sound and blowing colored smoke. I took some video and took it to the tractor dealership. There were several suggested possibilities and we began ticking through the list. The tractor is now not making that horrible klunking noise. Hopefully the problem was nothing more than water in the line. If it starts making the noise during our big test run tomorrow than we are looking at a new engine. An engine so expensive we could buy another car. Now I’m behind again.
The weather is changing, I am not going to catch up before my window closes. Plans are going to need to be modified. Disappointment fills me near to bursting. I will rally. Things will be ok. The trees will get planted as they always do.
Please let the tractor be ok!
A big factor to consider when doing dramatic earth works is what you are going to do with all of the dirt, wood, etc you create by doing it. If you are clearing trees to create a silvapasture, do you have a plan for those cleared? Hugukulture beds to create? When digging 35 acres worth of kraters around three feet deep that is a lot of dirt excavated out. What can you do with so much dirt?
That largely depends on the situation you are in and what kind of dirt you are excavating out. We have various types of earth being excavated from our kraters at the moment and three methods of dealing with them.
The black earth we excavate out is piled up and moved to the area where our natural swimming pond is being made as it is a great water holding clay. We appear to have more of this clay than I expected so perhaps we’ll be building a few more ponds in the future.
The gravel we excavate out is piled up and moved to our road and drive way which are in deplorable condition. I don’t know if we’ll ever dig up enough of this to fill our need.
Everything else is piled in one big pile and moved to our dam site. We have been building up the dam for awhile now but it has a long way to go before it will be sufficient to hold the amount of water we desire.
The top soil is scraped off before hand and piled up to be put back into the krater when excavation is complete.
I hope this look into our earth moving practices helps.
