to till or not to till ... that is the question

It started with a bunch of boxes from our local market... I removed the tape and we all hauled them up to the new garden site. This year has us moving garden beds up up to where the chicken shed is being built and where the drainage isn't a problem. Last year we used a rototiller and tilled four new beds -- three in front of the house and one up here on the hill. It was back-breaking and majorly time consuming. Afterward, we started reading about the benefits of no-till agriculture and we thought maybe maybe we could make new beds this way. No-till means that you don't use a rototiller to chop up the soil - at all - so you don't lose the beneficials in the soil and you end up with all the nitrogen and nutrients from the sod as it breaks down ... just to put it simply.


We started in late March or April when the snow melted. I found it best to overlap the pieces of cardboard as I lay them out. Not only to prevent grass growing through, but also to keep the cardboard in place as I worked.

Even with the overlapping, I needed to need to secure it with rocks. It was a windy day and I learned this the hard way.




In the end we had two beds -- side by side ... you can sort of picture what it will be like...then all that was left was to haul over some dirt. Amazingly enough the sod we pulled out of those four beds last year had composted and we found ourselves with an enormous pile of wormy beautiful dirt! Just what we needed...thanks momma earth.



Greg hauled up many wheelbarrows of the broken down sod until we had about 6 inches on top of the cardboard and I made out some beds!


I put in three sisters (corn beans & squash), carrots, golden beets, salad mix, napa cabbage, green onions, and brussel sprouts, fertilized with some fish emulsion and ... poof!

Below is the "finished" bed ... I do still have to get up there and put some more cardboard or paper down and mulch again between the rows with hay since the grass has grown through a bit, but it's pretty darn sweet and the work was less than starting a bed the traditional way.

It's doing so much better than it's sister bed, although that bed went in later. I am so curious to see this little experiment and how it grows. I will let you know :)


in joy!
Em

up up up with roofing

It was a beautiful day for working... After all that rain, we were grateful to see the sun. Greg made a few calls, made a decision and went to the store for four 16 foot long by 3 foot wide metal strips of roofing, which he strapped to the roof rack of the Subaru and hauled home! That car is magic.

All I did was help carry them up from the car (an adventure in itself which I am sorry to say was not documented). Luna got to help a little later and enjoyed unscrewing braces and suggesting ideas for the ideal ladder position, so it really was a family affair. Barn roof raised -- or I guess more like chicken-shed shelter from the storm born...

something from the stars

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


exerpted Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

happy fathers day :)

It was a day for dads and I honored the ones I had around me which turned out to be mine and the one who my little one calls by that name. Funny that when we finally went to pick little one up, we heard that she had flocked to her Bampy all day ... seeking out where he was quietly sitting to just BE for a minute or ten ... happy fathers day ... all we were missing was our Florida father, but two out of three ain't bad.

Our dad had plans to build all day, so I made him a good breakfast -- local toast, and an omlette of our eggs, spinach, thyme, chives and some Feta Cheese from Neighborly Farms, an organic dairy in Randolph, VT about an hour north. It's amazing to be able to be eating so local again ... happy fathers day.

So then Greg went out to work on what we're calling the chicken shed. It's going to be a chicken coop/greenhouse/garden storage shed. He's been learning to build on this project - teaching himself and doing lots of planning and math ... there was much time when it was colder where much of his spare time was spent reading his copy of Building Small Barns, Sheds and Shelters by Monte Burch, and then when the April/May issue of Mother Earth News came with an article on easy DIY shed plans that included a how-to on leveling using cement blocks (see previous post), he was ready to go.



I can't remember when I stumbled onto the image of the Chicken Coop/Greenhouse in Bill Mollison's Permaculture book, but it was sometime in the still too cold to work outside /whole planning stage. The basic principle is one long room with big windows on the south side & a chicken wire wall separating the chickens from the greenhouse side. In this way, the chickens help heat the green house and chickens and plants enjoy a symbiotic relationship, with each breathing what the other breathes out. Permaculture is all about using symbiotic relationships in your farming practices.

Greg was even trying to figure out how to tilt the windows until he realized it would be too complicated. We will work out the water collection on the back sometime this summer with a rain barrel and a gutter. That will make it so we don't have to haul their water up the hill and we'll be using less water, and the symbiotic love abounds...

this is the side view of the Permaculture chicken shed...

Ok and now for our pictures...

First came the leveling ... then came the floor.
Then came the front and back wall, with room for a sweetly scored door thanks to our neighborly neighbor.

Then came the rafters, one by one
and of course, the metal rafter supports...

This is where I will work in my green house when work is done...I guess it's a happy mothers day too ;) happy life more like.



Then came the purlins -- roofing support that attach to the rafters.

Since it's Father's day I will not get too into the fact that at one point this day, he put the drill down on the cord and thought he was gonna score a new drill from the scene. I reminded him that he was studied electrical engineering for 3 years so, didn't he know how to fix wires? Boo, no new drill, but a fun start to next days work day. Dice and splice baby.

I can see the building forming into what it will be. All this framing and soon he'll be ready to put in a window or two. It's a day by day process ... we try to in-joy it all and that means taking it as it comes. The morning couldn't get started too quickly. There were ideas to consider -- to roll around in heads -- and there was a little girl who needed to get herself and her partner-in-crime daddy down to the river to pray, or at least to look at the wild iris blooming and try to catch a frog. I've said it before and I will say it again I hope. It's a sweet sweet life here and we intend to enjoy it.

last daze of Spring...

This is my pea trellis ... I knew they wanted some string so I made it what Greg calls a "Pea Catcher" it's like a dream catcher, well it's made like one. It's been this sort of a time here lately. Time to dream, time to play, time to create undisturbed.




Sometimes you get given a gift, not wrapped in paper but still given freely and received with love. The gift of time or the gift of traveling back in time and staying still. I am not making sense and I am sorry, but we have been spending the past few days working and loving and playing in our place here without our little fairy girl. Now, one more day, and I don't think that man of mine would be able to take it, but we certainly have been happy with what we've had. Thursday, Friday, and now Saturday and then tomorrow Sunday ... we will have had four days of sweet sweet play time with the two of us being able to work and play on our projects and neither caring what the other is doing but happily working alongside, stealing an occasional kiss or two ... it's been some sweet times here on our little farm I have to say. Now I sit, on my new-t0-me table (thank you mimi/bampy for wanting to upgrade) and type - keeping an eye out for those naughty chickens so that they just let our veggies grow for pete's sake. Chickens are inherently naughty but incredibly cute for those of you who don't know.

I haven't even mentioned the fireflies...

Not sure I can do them justice, but last night instead of a movie, we wandered outside to the most amazing firefly display we have ever seen. I will try to film it or something, but I am not sure I can capture it's beauty. The meadow was twinkling... it was spectacular. I was reminded of a similar gathering ten years ago when we called our friends together to come center energy and bless the land on which we were to marry. We had a fire and if I recall a display akin to last night.

Anyhoo, it's been a honeymoon of sorts. We even watched the moon rise over the hills. It didn't fail at all - came right up.


So, during the day, the projects have been many...

For instance, yesterday at Bibens, I decided to buy 5 pounds of potatoes. Here they are all cut and drying on the most amazing potato dryer ... our bench. It let the air get at the from all sides, which proved to be very good. Now they are even planted under straw in a newly weeded bed, but you'll have to be patient for those pictures.

I had to move the hops arbor ... it was not working quite exactly, but I didn't have to do any major work to get it moved -- I just uprooted one end of the arbor and swung it over to where I wanted it. I know nobody else will tell the difference, but now I have more space in front of the sage to breathe.
This is the path we took last night through the field -- the newest addition to our field network. It's a good think my guy likes to mow, because that stuff is getting too tall to get through easily and otherwise we wouldn't have our firefly observatory.

It's been amazing ... I will keep posting. Pictures of potatoes planted ... cucumber trellis in place ... it's coming. It'll all get done and at our pace we'll enjoy the whole process even when the little one comes back into play tomorrow night. We missed her and she loves to help. But for now, I am going to bring my honey a maple beer for being the best little chicken shed builder I know.

I know, you're curious. Trust me, it's the most beautiful building ever - or at least the most lovable.

to lilacs the iris and all things purple

One day the lilacs were there ... everywhere ... blooming large and lustrous fragrant. Then gone. We still have a white one right near the house so I think I will go get a bloom and bring it in just to savor it. Summer is like this - strawberries, blueberries, flowers, go, smell, be, savor, swim, love. I am trying to get all-things in or done or cleaned while also in-joying some of this beauty. Or at least learn to have moments like this. Carved purposely into my week, in which to reflect and bring myself all up to date with what we've been doing. It's a frenetic pace we've been keeping, and I am not quite sure most days. Thank you right now for birds, the color green, and nhpr's folk show.

That first picture is this funny branch arbor I put up last month. We moved the hops and now it's twining ... growing each day ... up and up and up.



Today Luna scooted and I walked down the road to gather some colt's foot. This is wonderfully medicinal for your lungs and it grows along our road down in the woods. We'll dry it for tea in bundles hanging from our ceiling beams. I also gathered and bound nettles. I have come to rely on this ritual of gathering and making our medicines as one of the ways I can savor a few moments in nature.


Spring is a good time of year to gather leaves and flowers. The energy is rushing up from the roots and feeding the leaves. Thank you Colts Foot. We love you. Time to harvest a round of chamomile too...



This time of year can be taxing on me ... it's tricky for me to remember I chose this and that I can really actually handle this crazy busy push of energy that is Spring to Summer when you're a farmer/wild-crafter/wild-woman/mother/musician/wife. I force myself to remember I am doing this all on purpose for a life of purpose. There is a time for it all ... when I do each thing in it's time. Like finding the time to start tiny miracles, watering them in soil too dusty and clay ridden to be deeply satisfying, and waiting ... waiting. Hoping for that little place in cracked earth - green shoots through - roots diving down in hope of life. I am grateful in that moment and earnestly learning to remember the gratitude in the space between satisfaction as well. I will amend the soil ... it will become mutually beneficial when we are eating off our land. It all starts with hope in a seed. It is perfect now and I weave my web between deep satisfaction and hard work and love.


I am not a very patient gardener -- it's so hard for me to find peace in something so unfinished as my gardens -- but I since I am always starting some new bed, it seems perhaps the earth has discovered a way of teaching me to be grateful with imperfection. It is important for me to reflect here. I look back for a moment and see -- the ground frozen and brown, even covered in snow. I remember that this is all fleeting and will be gone soon. My little prayer to myself over and over is to just be happy with the now that is now and sink in just for a minute in between projects. This is my prayer to myself for this week.

Now for that lilac...