Oregano

Is there such a thing as wild oregano?

This stuff looks like oregano, tastes like oregano, smells like oregano, quacks like ... you know.

It's expanding as a ground cover on the north side of the house, opposite from everything else on the south side, which is why I ask the question.

Think it's a duck? I mean oregano?

It's Uncanny

All day while I'm at work, I gaze from my overly air-conditioned space out the window at sunny, warm niceness outside. I plan what I'm going to do when I get home. Yesterday I was going to take a hammer to the truck and .... fix it. I wanted to use the truck today, so I could buy raised bed materials and take a shot at building the raised beds this weekend.

Then I get to the gas station 7 miles from my house and watch the dark clouds gathering while I put gas in the car. As I get to within 3 miles from home, the sky lets loose, thunder, rain, all the wet noisy stuff that guarantees I'll get soaked and dirty as Maggie jumps on me glad that I'm home while we're both standing in the rain.

This is probably the 5th time this has happened this summer. It rained until it got too dark to do anything anyway, then cleared up for a beautiful after-sunset glow.

On the good side, parts of this area got tennis-ball-sized hail. I'm very glad not to have gotten that. And the plants were looking for some water. So it's not all bad - and the raised beds didn't need to be built this weekend anyway. My new plans involve hopping back onto that chainsaw and getting some more wood cut and split. Also removing the old raised-bed wood, so when Barry the excavator comes back to brush hog and smooth, he can do the area where the old raised beds were. If I do this right, I won't leave the homestead all weekend, except once, to get pizza from the local fire department's monthly fundraiser. Have a good weekend everyone!

Trucks

I had a bit of diverting summer fun last night - monster trucks at the local speedway! It was noisy, fried dough with sugar kind of entertainment with lots of banged up bouncy trucks in various stages of upside-down. And kids.

On another truck note, my real truck that I drive sometimes didn't start yesterday morning. As in no sounds when I turned the key. I didn't have time to mess with it, but thinking that it was the battery, I bought a new one. (Even if it wasn't the battery, having an extra one around isn't such a bad thing.) My neighbor happened to be walking by with his dog and helped me replace the battery and .... interesting things happened when he contacted the new battery with the cables. The truck started! This is interesting because the keys were sitting on the seat - ie, it started without keys! This is pretty funky in my book.

I called the shop today to make an appt to get the truck towed in, but according to the shop owner it's not necessary. I quote, "Take a hammer and go under the right side to find the starter. Hit it with the hammer - not too hard. That should unstick the starter and you should be fine." How homestead-y!

Stick Figures in Peril

On a lighter note:

For the geeks out there, here is the link to a flickr page which collects pictures of stick figures in peril. You know, the pictures showing graphically what could happen to you if you aren't careful by using a stick figure.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stickfiguresinperil/pool/

Last Summer, Part 3 - Montana

When we left our intrepid explorer last, I was in Montana's Bitterroot Valley wandering, looking for what my life was going to look like. Hoping it was going to be outside work, making the world a better place, but dreading that somehow I'd end up behind a desk in an air-conditioned corporate cubicle world.

I'd spent two weeks working on an organic farm in Grants Pass, Oregon, moseyed through the California redwoods and back up through Sand Point, Idaho. All the way I was working the WWOOF-USA book and the USDA's ATTRA internships web pages (http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/ ), looking at options as diverse as working on a horse farm in MT to helping construct buildings in Utah. Some people never answered my inquiries, some were full and some not taking interns any more.

Finally I found it, and when I read the description on the ATTRA website, I felt something shift inside me.

Website: http://www.terravita.ag

General Description: We use a large herd of goats to contract graze weeds and brush in the Greater Yellowstone Area of MT and WY. We also raise meat goats with this herd. We use border collie dogs and mesh electric fence to guide the herd. We believe in managing to optimize the health of the land, animals, environment, and community (humans).

I contacted them and we agreed to a one-week trial period starting the next day in Red Lodge, Montana. I spent the night in Missoula, and met them the next day. Now, that country, immediately east and north of Yellowstone Park is just about the most beautiful place in America. (Not the world though. The most beautiful place in the world, in my opinion, is Wadi Rum, Jordan.)

Terra Vita has two herds of 650 goats each, and during the week I spent with them I learned how they use goats to manage land. It's a hard sell in this part of the country though, and very, very hard work. I flamed out, falling face first in mud, trying to roll up the portable fence on a steep, muddy hill; struggling to drag a 40-lb battery to charge a new pen every few hours. Goats prefer weeds to grass, so you move the goats right after they've finished the weeds and before they start eating grass. For the site in this picture, it means build a new 2-acre pen and move the goats every few hours. I couldn't hack it.

Here is where I slept though, in my hammock. It was stunning. The nearest house was about 1/4 mile away on the next hill over. Notably, it wasn't quiet here at night. Noise carried from the next house, so I fell asleep listening to the neighbors and marveling that if you try to run away from noise, it follows you. I bet if I had internal silence, no noise would have bothered me.

Even though I had failed at interning here, something inside me had changed. I knew that this was the thing I wanted to do. The engineer in me says it meets all the criteria. It's outside work, helping the environment, away from the corporate cubicle grind. The pragmatist in me isn't so sure - can I survive doing this?

I spent the rest of the summer working that out and I'll take you there too. Later.

Wild Sarsparilla

Edit: Thanks Woodswalker! It's wild sarsparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)

Most days I come home from my sitting-all-day-at-a-computer job and take a walk around the yard to see what's new. Some days I do this briefly in the morning as well, but feet get wet then.

This afternoon I checked out the shady areas of the lower blueberry hill and found this mystery plant in the shade. Lots of them. The berries and the leaves come from the same root on different stems. The leaves are 5 leaflets on 3 leaves that all join in one place. I'm not finding it in Peterson's Trees and Shrubs which makes me out of luck.

On another note, I actually have knit-able yarn! This is 96 yards (3 oz) of 2-ply wool that I bought at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival this year. I have 8 oz of this fiber, which means I should have 250 yards of this when I finish it. Cool. It's a little tough to sit all day and then sit some more when I get home, so it may go slowly.

Today's Blueberries

Blueberries are beginning to ripen. The ones that are blue-ing are still reddish and very tart. Soon.

Sunday Rocks

Today I moved rocks.


Just kidding. I'll move rocks when it's cold and I need to do something to warm up. These have been here for quite a long time. Exhibit 1: the tree growing through this wall.

I hear rocks are the only reliable crop at some New England farms. Each year the earth sends up more and farmers have to pick them from the fields. Just like a real harvest.

What I really did today in honor of it being the first all-sunny weekend day this summer was:
- walk in the grass in my bare feet
- lay in the hammock and read
- look at the shapes in the clouds
- take a long nap in the hammock.

In other words - I did nothing today. I know I won't be able to sleep tonight and will be tired tomorrow, but I don't care. It appears that sunny weekend days are rare here, so I should enjoy them when they're here!

Yesterday was the warmest it's been all year on the mountain - 79 degrees.

I think looking for shapes in the clouds is a skill I lost when I grew up. I should practice this skill more often!

What is This?

Edit: Friend Linda and friends of my father say this is Foxglove, Digitalis Lutea or Grandiflora? (I accidentally deleted the email.) Good to know!

In my zeal to clean up the beds in front of the house, I destroyed a bunch of things that may or may not have been actual flowers instead of weeds.

One of them managed to survive and grow despite the destruction.

Does anyone know what it is?

Woodshed Roof

Last week's repairs to the woodshed roof only half-worked. We had a few heavy thunderstorms come through this week and here you can see it enthusiastically raining inside the woodshed, despite the new flashing I had put up outside.

I also found out (by standing in the shed during the storm and watching the water come in), that even though the repairs partially worked, they didn't keep the water out of the shed. Now rain falls off the roof onto the ground in front, and comes in through (actually under) the front door! Like it was invited or something. Before the repairs, the rain just came right in through the roof.

It ends up in the same place though - on the floor - frozen in the winter. Just waiting for me to slip and fall. Water gets into the cracks and then expands and bad things happen over time. Actually, only part of the floor is concrete. It's mostly dirt.

I guess I'll have to get back on the roof, add flashing and do some other stuff I haven't figured out yet. Also see if I can stop the water from coming in the front door. (Rescind the invitation - go home water!)

Observant folks might notice that in the first picture the leftmost 2 x 4 is unsupported. The support for the right-hand piece is resting on a piece of cut wood on the floor. This whole structure is falling down slowly (held up by that chain with the screwdriver in it). I basically want to spend the minimum effort to keep the wood semi-dry this winter, and make rebuilding this shed a project for the next year or so. Hopefully I can expand it a bit and park the ATV and lawn tractor in here too! Oh, the possibilities, if only it would stop raining!

Prokly

Looks like I didn't give the broccoli enough space, but in my defense, the plants were so small!

When I lived in Aqaba, Jordan for a few months in 2007 (yes, the country), the local grocery store had this stuff marked as Prokly.

In their defense, there is no equivalent in Arabic for the letter "P." They use the same sound that we use for "B." So "Parking Lot" comes out as "Barking Lot," and "Prokly" comes out as .... "Broccoli." I'm sorry I missed the opportunity to take a bicture of the sign in the grocery store when I had the chance.

I was chuckling this morning as I took this "Bicture."

Last Summer, Part 2 - Idaho

As this summer progresses I want to post some memories of last summer, since it was so interesting, at least to me...

In May 2008 I left a job in Europe and came back to the US. I stayed with my mother in western Oregon and spent several months figuring out what my life was going to look like. I knew that I didn't want to give my entire life to a corporation any more and that I wanted to be outside, know the rhythms of the sun, etc, etc, etc. All the good stuff.

In June I spent 2 weeks in Grants Pass, Oregon working on an organic farm (see previous post). Then I toured the California Redwoods and saw Arcata, CA before going back north to decide what next. I was looking for a conventional job while really trying to be open to unexpected opportunities. (I fully recognized, and still do, that even though I don't want a conventional life, it's all I've ever done - which is a heavy inertia pulling me back to the only life I know.) So this time last year I headed north and east to Sandpoint Idaho. There is an alternative energy company called Back Woods Solar that I wanted to check out, and a family that I could WWOOF with for a bit.

I only stayed in Sandpoint for a few days. I traded some Industrial Engineering work for food and a place to sleep and had a great time spending time with the family, delightful, interesting people. The picture above is where I slept in Sandpoint. It's a creation of a local artist and gives you a feeling of how neat a place Sandpoint is.

Then I opened up the WWOOF book again, looking in Montana and as far east as Utah for what was going to happen next. I made phone calls, left messages, sent emails to various people and expanded my thinking from just WWOOFing, to interning or even more.

This next picture is in western Montana's Bitterroot valley as I headed east.

In a few days I'll post about what happened next.

Raised Beds

I'm planning to build raised beds later this summer or fall, fill them with soily manury goodness and let them percolate over the winter so they're ready for next spring and the rest of our lives.

So now I'm in the planning stages, how big, how deep, how to make the corners, what wood to use, etc, etc. My soil is rocky, and yukky (yukky meaning no topsoil), so I was thinking of making the beds high enough that they don't need to use my dirt. In fact, I was going to cover a few rocks with these babies.

First question - how high do the beds need to be? Do they have to be 18 inches, or is 12 inches good enough?

I was going to use treated 2 x 6s, either 2 or 3 high. I'm aware of the debate over using treated wood, but that just doesn't bother me. I am spending way too much time thinking about the corners though. There are a few places selling corner hardware with integral stakes and other fancy stuff, but the $$ adds up quickly. Should I just use angle brackets from Home Depot, or some other home-brewed system? (One person writes in gardenweb that she used stakes for the sides and no corners at all, for drainage.) Oh, the confusion....

Last question: So far I've planned 3 beds of 4 x 12. I feel like I should have some 4 x 4 beds for asparagus and strawberries too. Does that make sense? It's only me that I'm planning for here. If I get lucky maybe there'll be a Mr Right someday, but I don't want to kill myself with these beds.

PS - cold frames are a planned future addition to at least one of these beds. I suppose that should be part of the initial planning too.

Vacation's Over

I took most of the last two weeks off of work while my mother was visiting. Despite it raining 25 of the last 30 days or so, we still got quite a bit accomplished. My mother organized my shed, helped me donate things to the local Habitat Re-Store, made my kitchen spotless, and planted many many things. All while helping me focus on getting important house winterizing things done and carrying a lot of wood to the woodshed. I feel caught up, for the moment. It was nice to have someone else around.

But now she's gone back to her house and I'm back to work. Sigh.

Here's what I picked the other day. New plants learned - birdsfoot trefoil and yarrow! (at least I think..)

Ground Covered with Flowers

I went to visit the upper blueberry hill to see how the blueberries are doing, and was surprised to see the ground covered with flowers.

I think these are Dewberries, either swamp or northern. Likely swamp dewberries. Wikipedia says they're not tasty, but a dull blue dye can be made from the berries. I think I may try that when the berries ripen. Lord knows I have plenty of white fiber just waiting for dye experiments.

Here's another shot of the dewberries.

The blueberries are still small and very green. Elderberry blossoms are just opening up. It looks to be several weeks before these ripen, minimum.

On another note: there is only one cucumber plant left, of six planted in the bed next to the house. After the first two went, my mother put cages of chicken wire around the remaining four. Then another two went, and my mother put plastic plant pots with the bottom cut out around the two left, over the chicken wire. Then yesterday mid-day something took one more. Now there's only one man standing and I fear it's a goner. The predator isn't taking the leaves, just snipping them off. I think it's trying to drag the leaves through the holes in the chicken wire. It's gotta be something small, maybe a mouse?

I hope it doesn't go for the cantaloupe or honeydew melon plants. I only have one of each!

Spinning Success

I did get to the knitting guild on Friday afternoon. (Did I mention how amazed I am that this group is only a 10-minute drive away? There is *nothing* around here within 10 minutes.)

There were maybe 10 ladies there, 5 spinning and several knitting, embroidering, and other things I didn't notice. There was even another spinning wheel just like mine! The ladies came from all over, west towards Albany, east from Massachusetts, and even Vermont.

They were extremely helpful - instantly diagnosed that I had too much tension in both places where tension can be adjusted (on the wheel). Then one person stayed with me for maybe an hour, coaching me through long draw spinning and watching as I practiced. I think I got misty-eyed. It's such a revelation to be able to do this right after so many months of unsuccessfully struggling with it. I've been practicing too. Now it's easy, and something I can do every evening.

Then yesterday I "fixed" the woodshed roof with a band aid, paperclip, duct tape MacGyver type solution that will hopefully keep it from leaking until I can afford to get it rebuilt in a year or two. And this morning I cut more wood up the hill with the newly sharpened chainsaw chain. Like butter. Now I'm going to relax, since it's finally sunny after a month of rain. Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend all!

Attrition

Good fences make good cucumbers.

Setting the Twist

My first three attempts at handspun yarn hanging on the porch so the twist can set. The first two were made using a drop spindle and the last one (on the middle) was made on my spinning wheel, a used Ashford Traditional and plied with a drop spindle. Altogether it's a whopping 86 yards and pretty chunky and unevenly twisty. Hopefully my sister, an expert knitter, will be able to make something small and semi-ok with it.


They say that when you get a spinning wheel you should practice every day for 20 minutes - a thing I did not do. I got the wheel and learned how to use it in March, and then got sidetracked by outside work for a few months. When I came back to the wheel recently (to make my sister a birthday present), I find that I can't use it any more. I can't do the hand motions properly, the singles have no twist (which is bad), and I can't add on more roving. Stuck.


I'm inside more these days because the entire month of June has been below average temperature and above average rain - as in rain just about every day of the month! It hasn't cracked 80 up here on the mountain yet, and only been above 80 five times down in Albany (compared to 15 times last year by now). I suppose real homesteaders would just go out in the rain, a chore I'm happy to postpone until I get to be a real homesteader.


The tiny bit of good news is that there is a knitting guild about 10 minutes away from my house that meets on Fridays. I hear that these people are also great spinners and been assured that if I take my wheel over, they'll straighten me out tut suite. It's amazing to find such a group out here in this rural area. I have to be home for a delivery early this afternoon, but if I luck out, the delivery will come at the beginning of the 2-hour delivery window so I can book over to the knitting ladies and they can get me spinning again!

Wood is Hard Work - Chainsaw lessons

Last week I started cutting the trees that the excavator left me. (According to one of my homesteading books the term is "bucking.") This puny little pile is maybe 20 - 25 cuts, and boy is this cutting your own wood tough. The chainsaw is heavy, the wood is heavy, I have to get dressed up in protective gear to use the chainsaw, and then after 10-15 cuts it runs out of gas and chain oil and I have to bring it back to the house for a reload on fluids. Then, after cutting about half of this tiny pile the chainsaw started smoking and not cutting very well.

Now I'm new to this whole using a chainsaw business. I was pretty sure that something was wrong, but didn't know what it was. So I brought it back to the house, changed into "going to public places" clothes and took it to the local hardware store. This hardware store has saved my butt numerous times already, but it's not close. There and back takes about an hour.

That's where I learned that this is normal - chains need sharpening every so often, and they do it there for $5. Yay. When they get chains in stock again, I'll do like real country people do and buy a second chain. Lesson learned.

I suspect that most people that have well-paying jobs would just pay for wood that is already cut and split. This work is really hard! But I'm practicing for when I don't have a job or much money, and I think it's really good practice. Plus, and this is a big one - I think it will be REALLY satisfying next winter when I put wood on the fire that I've cut and split myself. This winter will be satisfying too. I bought the wood last December, but will have handled each piece 4 times by the time it gets on the fire.

All this wood stuff represents one of the most elemental parts of taking care of oneself, along with food and shelter. It feels good to be getting these skills.

Rocks in the Yard

I hadn't mowed this part of the yard for maybe 2-3 weeks, so it had gotten pretty tall. I remembered many of the rocks, but didn't remember many of them also, scraping the blades of the machine. It's a terrible sound. Then later as I was showing my mother the wild strawberries we noticed some new, strange metal parts laying on the ground.


I guess the right thing to do is look under the mower to see if there are some obvious parts missing. Of course that's not very easily done - this mower's too heavy to lift. I do have ramps, but need to prop them on something sturdy and drive up the ramps in order to see underneath. Sigh. Maybe I'll put flags or something near the rocks so I don't prematurely kill this mower or blades.