Cindy started elbowing me awake around 5 a.m. Then she began wallowing onto my side of the bed. Then she stood up in the bed (That was weird). I stuck out my hand behind me to check on her. At which point she began enthusiastically licking my hand. It was at this juncture that a new reality became apparent: our 85-pound dog, Max, had jumped up in the bed to join us.
After dragging him off, I swung my feet from under the covers and into my slippers, and headed downstairs to make coffee. Cup in hand, I settled into a chair on the porch to think about the day before me.
The previous afternoon I had tilled among the grapevines and hazelnuts, then broadcast a crop of buckwheat. The twin goals of providing nectar and pollen for the bees and green manure for the soil accomplished, all the seed needed now was a soaking rain to bring it to life.
By now, my second cup in hand, the sky had lightened enough for me to see the chicken run and my notebook. Spring has begun making its entrance in fits and starts. One warm and sunny week and the grass pushes up as if on steroids; the next, with winter’s return, it reverts to dormancy.
Beyond the chicken run is the old orchard of cider and eating apples, pears, cherries, and plums. In another week, we’ll begin raising out a hatch of Saxony ducks there for eggs to sell and as roasting birds. In preparation, we’ll first need to make it predator-proof with a strip of chicken wire around the base.
Around 8:30, The Kid arrived and was dispatched to clear the orchard’s edge. Ten minutes later he was back, rubbing his shoulder. While mowing, he had bumped against the electric fencing wire. At 9 joules, the current put him on the ground. I chuckled (which I don’t think he appreciated), then he and I headed off to revisit the crime scene. Locating where he made first contact, I pointed out the wire to avoid. Farms can be a dangerous place for the uninitiated and inattentive.
Cindy and I spent the second half of the morning inspecting the beehives for honey stores, new brood, and evidence of imminent swarming. All were in good shape, healthy and active, although none showed much evidence yet of early-season honey production. Late morning, the weather began to turn; it became cloudy and windy, and the bees started to get agitated. Intent on finishing our task, we didn’t notice The Kid … until he was standing directly in front of a hive entrance flailing his ball cap.
Come noon, the welt of the bee sting subsiding, we paid him and watched him ride off on his bicycle, handlebars bedecked with a large black rat snake he had accidentally killed in the woods. A gift for a family member, he said with an impish grin. A nasty shock, a bee sting, a dead snake — farm life sure does have its compensations (all depending on your vantage point, of course).
Much later, having finished another full and productive day, we enjoyed a satisfying meal and turned into bed. By mutual agreement, we shut the bedroom door, leaving Max to go find his own place of rest. Window open, we drifted off as a steady, soaking rain began to fall.
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Reading this weekend: Fruitful Labor: the ecology, economy, and practice of a family farm, Mike Madison. A new Chelsea Green title that launches their New Farmer Library series.
I just had a crop of slightly inattentive tiny relatives in the vegetable garden. Noone got hurt, not even when they and a comparatively enormous hammer disappeared into the woods to slaughter the last remaining squash.
(Who needs bird feeders – and expensive feed – for inattentive tiny songbirds? EVERY ONE of them went nuts.)
Winter squash?
Yes. Crappy but durable. The chickadees will have wolfed it all down by now.
Ah, magnificent bird feed!
Ravenous winter
A little chickadee goes nuts
betrayed by the squash
Orange blood
raised arm of a child
snickering jay
beak as wide as the seed
buried in the flesh
no more
Great news – 100% hive overwintering. Sweet!
And ducks on the pond. Baseball well underway now, so lots of opportunity for ‘ducks on the pond’ as my coach used to say. St Louis Cardinals currently standing at 8-7 as I type this, and waiting for the rain to subside in Cincinnati so they can battle the Reds.
Took an online peek at Mike Madison’s latest. Seems he gets along quite well with cucumbers. I have to confess a certain lack of skill with the little guys. Love pickles though and would be more than happy to trade fat tomatoes for some of his cukes if we ever found ourselves at the same farmer’s market.
Mike’s sister Deborah is quite the writer as well. She has lots of publications in the cooking genre. She’s also on the board at Seed Saver’s Exchange, and into the Slow Food movement. Interesting family.
I know the name Deborah Madison quite well from the cooking world. But, had not put the two together.
Interesting how the Cards inspire tri-state loyalty. Cindy and her family were Card fans as well.
So, winter not quite ready to leave you alone, eh?
I suppose not. Chance of snow late tomorrow into Tuesday morning. So long as we don’t get a foot of it… Does sound like Spring is going to make an entrance after that.
Planted the CRP cover before the last snow. And snow is actually supposed to be good for it – so there is that. Used a Horn Seeder (Urbana, IN) – as antiquated as my old AC tractor. But it was fun walking across the frosty earth. Felt closer to the land that way. May try some cover crop on the main field – seeding right before the beans come off. Will see how the season develops.
What cover crops would you use?
You should be an Ag. journalist. So the field will be in soybean this year and corn next. There is a cover crop expert a couple counties east who has a nice web presence:
https://www.walnutcreekseeds.com/Agricultural-Mixes.html
I attended a field day at his farm a couple years back. Wrote about that visit on GP. Could pull out that link if you’re interested. Anyway, the notion would be to try something seeded into standing soy a week or two before harvest so that it could get a start. I’m guessing I would walk this on just as I did the CRP field.
As for species – legume(s) like sunn hemp, winter pea, clover(s) and maybe a radish. Not decided for sure yet. Would like to put in strips so that I have some way to evaluate. Would not likely strip different mixes because it’s not a very large field – just compare cover vs none.
The field is about 45 minutes from your new bookstore – so if I do get it done and you’d like to see it we could arrange it.
On the sunn hemp angle, know that I might be able to get that planted for free (or get paid for the effort 🙂
The farm sits just across the Little Darby creek from an ODNR property where deer hunting is not allowed. Deer knowing this hang out there in impressive numbers. I get lots of traffic and have a neighbor who loves to hunt it (10 point buck last fall).
Anyway, sunn hemp is gaining some interest for food plots:
https://www.qdma.com/sunn-hemp-deer/
Bee habitat is also a possibility with this if it gets along far enough before a killing frost.