Posts Tagged ‘farm’

Five Steps for Surviving Summer Projects

Posted on May 31st, 2011 by Tonia 3 Comments

It’s the tail-end of May! Spring is just flying by! For all practical purposes, it’s summer already! We have a few old apple and plum trees around the property, and this week when the sun came out after several days of thunderstorms, they all started blooming at once. Their decedent scent is hanging in the damp, foggy air. It’s heavenly and intoxicating.

Mike and I have been toiling hard to clear an area for the 11 trees we brought home from the Winter Greenhouse. There was an overgrown area next to our garage that gets good sun, and we decided it was the perfect spot. It has been a really hard project, and, as you can see, it’s not finished yet. I’m so tired of raking and shoveling and hauling brush, but the vision of a pretty grassy knoll full of beautiful little blossoming trees propels me forward.

There are many other visions and projects for the homestead on the horizon, waiting their turn. Everywhere we look around here, there seems to be something to fix, improve or make.

The hard truth is that there are simply not enough summer months to accomplish all the ideas we have in our heads. We’ll probably have the place exactly as we want it by the time we’re ready to croak. This is a pretty frustrating realization, especially after spending the whole winter cooped up inside together, dreaming about all the “fun” improvements we were going to make around the place come summer. Turns out that stuff is much easier to imagine than to do, and there is a lot of sweat, sore muscles and blisters in between.

It was nice to get away for the weekend and to be out in the woods with friends and family. We laughed a lot, we told stories, we played highly-competitive-bocce, we ate remarkably good food, we snuggled cozily in sleeping bags and read, we hiked, we tickled the babies and tried to keep them from eating dirt, we roasted marshmallows, we stared unblinking into the hot fire for hours. Our priorities got a reset. Our arms got a rest. Our minds got distracted.

And when we got home, we looked around at the apple blossoms, the vivid green grass, the perennials, the gardens, and we walked into our cozy house and felt a wave of love for the place. We’re excited to get back to work with new perspective and refreshed attitudes.

No big deal. We’re not afraid of hard work! We’re like the hardest workers we know {bahaha}! We’re new at this homesteading thing and we need to grant ourselves a little patience and not let the To-Do List call all the shots. One thing at a time, with breaks in between. We won’t get everything done this summer. But we will get a lot done. We will enjoy the work because we love our home and feel immensely thankful for it, and all our efforts makes it feel even more like home because our fingerprints are all over it.

Survive Summer Projects in Five Easy Steps:

1. Listen to NPR on the radio while working {the time passes more quickly and you get smarter.}

2. Take rests in the hammock, preferably with a cold glass of lemonade nearby.

3. Allow yourself to buy a cute new tank-top that will show off your new arm muscles {this one’s for me. Mike’s not really into tank-tops.}

4. Recognize when a break is needed from all-things-homestead and go do something completely unrelated…likeĀ  canoeing, dancing, or playing music together.

5. Remember to stop and smell the apple blossoms.



Also this week: A black bear visited our backyard, the salad greens we planted outside started to peak up through the dirt, the Poppies look like they’re ready to bloom any day now, the town’s Farmer’s Market started up for the summer, and the wild leek season came and went in our neck of the woods {we made delicious potato and egg scrambles with them.}

Planting, Planting, Planting

Posted on May 20th, 2011 by Tonia No Comments

It has been a very exciting day here today. We seeded some of our hardier varieties of greens, as well as potatoes and corn into the ground!

It felt great to plant right into the *real ground* after dealing with the tomatoes and basil for weeks now, which needed to be planted, transplanted, and transplanted again into bigger and bigger planters, and carefully monitored so they have enough water and sunlight. As much as we love tomatoes and basil, there’s something extra cool about a plant that can grow successfully from a seed, out in the elements, all alone, with minimal maintenance.

Those right there are tiny baby fruit trees, which we grafted onto tiny baby rootstocks. But that’s a whole ‘nother post, coming soon.

Mike got to try out a really neat tool that my parents gave us…we call it The Corn Planter, because we’re not really sure what it’s really called. They brought it home from Paraguay with them after their time in the Peace Corps. As the name suggests, it works great for planting corn!

…And Mike is starting a new fashion trend: Bean boots with socks and shorts. It’s really catching on.

Bob {one half of the cool couple renting our cottage} planted several rows of potatoes and onions. Mmmmm…I’m already salivating just thinking about the delicious feasts we’ll be having this summer, if all goes well!

Oh yeah, remember yesterday’s post? This beautiful broadfork is the finished product. It saves your back when tilling up the ground, and speeds up the process about 3x. Yay!

Also today: The trees are just beginning to bud out, the hummingbirds have arrived at the feeder on the back-porch, we got our first sunburn, and the co-op started stocking the first peaches of the season.

Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 22nd, 2011 by Tonia 2 Comments

What better way to celebrate our beautiful Earth than by getting out and working it? Yesterday and today we tilled up a patch of dirt that is going to be our garden. It’s very exciting!


It’s very exciting! Did I say that already? We’re just so excited to have a garden. The folks renting our cottage helped, and together we were able to prepare a very healthy-sized area.

There is going to be a lot of food coming out of this dark brown rectangle soon. Check out that soil! We are really happy with the quality, especially considering it has never been planted in before. And after we work some compost into it, it will be even better.

…Charlie much enjoyed all the roots we were digging up and tossing aside.

The smell of dirt, the wiggle of worms, the knock-knock-knock of woodpeckers in the trees, the scritchy-scratch of the chickens as they investigate the newly turned soil for bugs…these are the sights and sounds that we’re enjoying on Earth Day 2o11. I am so grateful to Mother Earth for providing us with everything we need to live happy, healthy, fulfilled lives.