Out of sorts

I am very out of sorts this evening. Work went well, it was a typically slow Monday night despite the snow. But I came home ready to paint on the hex signs in process and was unable to find one of the colors I needed.

I thought I had it --a light green that I had taken to the Mall to paint during the filming of the interview. I know I had it then, in the basket but Gods alone know where it is now. The color I thought was right to touch up that sign was way too dark. And the looking for it sent me off along a path of great frustration.

I moved much of my painting and spiritual stuff out of the back "craft" room so I could still work while we had a roomie and, well, there is just not enough room in this trailer -- nor native organization at the end of market season -- to make this work easily and well... especially not with the publicity and orders generated by it. There is painting stuff, garden stuff, and just plain living stuff EVERYWHERE.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am neither a clean nor a neat freak.. but the current chaos is beyond coping with and made more so because I have no idea how or when it will come back into order again.

I am NOT moving back into the back room until we have replace the flooring, and possibly some of the floor as well. Dog pee.. from Coffee before she was completely house broken and Tonka of late, mean replacing the flooring is necessary. I want a hard surface.. wood most likely. And that costs money and takes time both of which are in short supply at present.

Of course, in a more perfect world, we would have got the "ready for winter" chores done.. the chicken tractors would be built and one for the ducks, the tractors would be ready to plow snow and the new snow wheels and tires would be on the car. And little stuff, like the seasonal clothing shuffle, would be complete. The garden stuff would have been moved to the garage and would be in order, ready to come back in with the start of indoor planting season next year. But much of that garden stuff -- still in fall chaos -- is in the house. My winter coats are still in the garage, and out of season hats are still in the house.

And I have this lump of crud in my throat that can't swallow, won't hack up and makes me feel like I cannot properly swallow at all. Hopefully this tea I am drinking will help that.

And tomorrow when I pick up the colors I need to complete the indoor hex I am working on (colors I did NOT have) I will pick up another bottle of the missing color and give thanks that these paints are inexpensive. I'll mail off one order and when I get home I'll cut blanks for the next two and somehow find places to work on them in the living room, despite the dog hair.

And I know that eventually things will get into order -- and a better order than they were in.

getting on with it

For the past few months we have had a roommate -- an internet friend who had been planning for some time to move to Maine. Her time in PA came to an end with the rental of her home there, as she hoped to stave off foreclosure (I do not think it worked) and though she had made a recon trip here to look for property and work, nothing had quite fallen into place when she needed to move.

So we offered her space, if needed and agreed to let her horses graze on our back land, if she supplied the needed fencing and temporary housing, if necessary. I had high hopes, since she had a job offer before she arrived and had seen several properties of interest on her recon mission, that she would be settled soon. She initially decided to take her goats and chickens and stay with another friend but that fell through quickly and soon she and all the critters were here.

She got two part time jobs, but other monies that she was counting on failed to materialize and she didn't have her truck (another long story) so she ended up rather behind the curve and for various reasons seemed unable to get ahead of it quickly enough. The horses refused to behave -- repeatedly breaking or escaping from the electric fence which we supplied (she sent only a bit of wire and 6 posts!) and she was just to scattered with work, looking for a place, not having a vehicle (she used our car for a month or more) to get housing up for any of the critters. Eventually animal control and the state become involved and the animals were taken. At that point she became very withdrawn.

Now, some weeks later, she has moved on to live with other friends from her work, The truck that she bought here -- when we got to the point that our farm truck needed to be taken off the road for the winter and we needed to reclain our car) seems to have issues and these friends apparently have the time, money and willingness to cart her back and forth to her jobs and to her cabin up north. She plans to live primitively in a one room cabin with no amenities. Were I 20 years younger, and without dependents (4 legged, as she has, 2 legged as I had) I can imagine doing something similar... but not with an unreliable gas hog of a truck and a job many miles away. I wish her luck and God Speed...

But we are now beginning to get our lives back on track again. Her chaotic energy was very disruptive and her need for "help" (which often sounded and looked more like :"do this for me" ) put some serious kinks in our stated plans to get ready for winter. The garden did not get totally plowed, our yard is full of pallets, gathered for both our projects and for her use while here, to make temporary housing for critters. The blades and snowblower for the little tractors have not been worked on, the chicken tractors are seriously behind schedule (maybe ONE will be done soon) and on top of it all , here we are in the Holiday season with gifts to make for the grandkids and many orders for hex signs coming in thanks to the publicity from the White House tree story... and the season, of course.

But we will carry on and thrive.

The winter lettuce in the kitchen garden is growing under lights , the stuff for making the kids presents is at hand and time will be found.

Maine to Represent PA on White House Tree!

My work was selected recently to represent the state of Pennsylvania on the White House Christmas tree. This Double Creator's star hex sign binds the blessing of prosperity.

Many other designs are available on my web site, www.dutchhexsign.com

The turning of the seasons

I know it is not a "recognized" holiday, not a quarter or cross quarter point... but the turn has made itself known here in the past few days and the garden bounty is pouring out, and I have a few moments today to spare so I am cooking a wonderful meal, using mostly stuff grown here and processed here, augmented by deer meat -- a gift from a new friend -- and a few boughten ingredients... and lifting one of the "last of the season" bottles of Sam Adams Summer Ale in toast.

That brewery has wonderful seasonal beers, and while their Octoberfest brew began arriving on shelves late last month, and while I know Octoberfest is actually celebrated in September, I will reserve that brew to toast the equinox in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the summer brew and the bounty of the late summer garden, are on tap today.

My second planting of beans started coming on strong last week, and yesterday I picked a shy bushel from HALF of the plants -- put by in the freezer for the winter -- with the remainder waiting for market on Thursday. My tomato crop has been poor (overrun with weeds and lack of water) but I processed a large bowl of the fruit into sauce for a coworker, augmenting it with my meager harvest, overripe fruit left from my partners offerings at market and the shared offerings of another coworker, so as to be able to split the sauce. I have a bag of early apples -- a "late summer" fuiit that says "fall" to me -- and some are in the salad tonight. A "mess" of green beans and zucchini lasagne (the veggie fills in for the pasta in an otherwise fairly traditional recipe with meat) round out the menu.

I guess this is why my spiritual practice is largely solitary... my celebrations, rituals, workings are prompted more by "when Spirit moves me" than by clock or calendar. This makes total sense to me, since the very genesis of my current path was the promptings of the world around me when I lived very close to nature and beyond the power lines. There were no books at all, no meetings with others, no human teacher ... until much later, after my practice had taken root.

I feel propelled to get the garden put to bed and the outside work done by the end of October. I feel the call to work inside (both inside myself and inside the house) that will follow. And, simultaneously, my mind springs ahead to the return of the growing season with the watermelon seeds drying on my counter, and thoughts of how the gardens will be laid out and planted next year. And so it continues.

But tonight, I give thanks... to the Powers That Be and to the Land upon which I stand for their nurturing and guidance.

So be it!

A few moments of reflection

I have a few moments, between an after-town-errands client meeting and supper (which is cooking in the oven) to reflect in this space.

So here are a few random thoughts:

I am glad to have had a week of "one market Thursdays" but we are trying to get into a relatively new market that needs veggie vendors. The only hangup at this point is their requirement for insurance, which we do not carry and have not yet been able to obtain. The underwriters are still contemplating... The vendor who encouraged us to apply has agreed with my suggestion that we might sign a waiver... but what the business owner, who hosts the market, will say is anyone's guess. Perhaps we will find out this week, but I am not planning to attend this week, but rather to visit a greenhouse that I found on my way to the once-a-year market that I attended last Saturday. they have a good selection of herbs and I still need some plants to fill in the gaps.

The gardens are struggling. My partner has discovered that her strength apparently lies in starting plants and tha she had neither the heart nor land to plant a true market garden. She will continue to share her excess, but market produce will not be her focus. I knew that water would be my ongoing issue in dry years (like this one) as well as the damnable runner grass. My tomato crop is pretty much nil, the peppers got too hot at the outset and are now not setting fruit, the cabbages (which do lousy at market anyway) are getting eaten and the beans lag... It is a learning year (my mantra...)

I need to rework the shopping cart on my hex web site, but am at least most of the way along to moving a new client from Homestead (and her own work on the website) to our servers and my services. Several hex signs have been ordered despite the broken shopping cart.

Despite my comfort level with my solitary work spiritually, I am actually looking forward to being able to attend a few new and full moon fires that are being held by one of the therapists with the wellness center where I get my massage... only a few miles from here. Who knows what will come of it, but I will be a positive thing I am sure.

Now supper calls, and for once I am going to eat BEFORE DARK and hopefully head to bed --and needed sleep -- as darkness descends. Sleep has been har

Behind the Curve

I have not been blogging in far too long – not because nothing has been happening, nor because I have nothing to say – but rather because I am once again sliding down the back side of that elusive curve, drowning in things that MUST be done, and getting “more behind” each day.

To this year’s credit, though, I must grant it that the process is somewhat slower this year than last. Despite more on the plate, in the form of two days market in Brewer for starter, the addition of the tractor tiller and K’s mechanical help in the garden is helping to slow the incoming tide of weeds. And despite the excessive heat and my having lost a couple of days last week to heat exhaustion, I have yet to feel the first stirrings of the “Big D” that plagued me during southern summers.

I am going to characterize this as a “learning year,” in hopes that the next few will be “fine tuning years” as I put into practice what the land teaches me through these seasons.

With the mechanical tiller, we should be able to put the garden to bed properly this year, perhaps even with a cover crop. Having it ready to rock and roll when the ground first becomes tillable will hopefully allow me to get the earliest of the early crops and allow for smaller, succession plantings through the spring. This year, the first early plantings went in pretty close to on time, but because of mechanical difficulties with Tilly Milly we were not able to follow up.

Also, this year, the first planting of lettuces was WAY too large. Even though some customers at Brewer market wanted lettuces by the head (Bangor shoppers still prefer a mixture of leaves) we could have easily supplied the markets and ourselves with a much smaller initial planting.

Most of the indoor started lettuces are bolting now and must be pulled and composted. Also, many of the varieties I bought were included in the summer blend. Now that I know most of them by name, though, I think I will likely concentrate on planting that same blend, and including some seeds of the other varieties that I liked that were not in there, as a blend, next year. I need to remember to do smaller plantings, also, when starting seeds inside, and in the spring and summer for my succession planting. Making/using a blend will help keep the numbers under control I think.

Late summer should bring some clarity to the timing of planting for late crops of lettuce, spinach and the like, as well as my ability to lengthen the season with covers and a makeshift cold frame. I am going to try placing the old swing set frame in the garden, over some specially planted (more closely spaced) rows of spinach and the winter lettuce mix and will cover it with heavy plastic.

I need to figure how to get beets to come earlier, too. I am thinking about experimenting with over-wintering some b eets (the root would not be usable, most likely, but they might make some early greens, I am hoping) and will be trying to over-winter some leeks.

I need to plan to plant some old fashioned gr een chard, in addition to the bright lights blend; some of the older shoppers prefer the older varieties.

I also have had request for yellow beets, which normally I plant.

Need to put in more sugar snaps and more peas, with succession plantings as well. I am still not sure about whether I want to standardize on the Waverex “petit pois” or to plant them primarily for us and plant less expensive, larger peas for market. The petit pois are actually pretty easy to pick and easy to tell when they ar e ready to go, but very short vines. The regular garden peas I planted the last two years also have pretty short vines, which means bending. On the other hand, the Sugar Snaps need much taller support than the 2’ fence that I used this year.

I need to get the corn in earlier, ditto beans.

Shoppers, on account of the wide availability of shipped in food and the increasing popularity of greenhouse growing by both amateurs and larger small farms, do not have a sense of proper seasonality for produce . They call for corn as early as Memorial Day – and expect it by July 4. With th e onset of hot sum mer temperatures, it seems, folks are expecting to instantly see the “summer veggies” in quantity. To their credit, most of the farmers at market are meeting these requests at least in limited amounts. Our early struggles to get the ground prepared hurt us badly in this regard this year.

On the other hand, the early – and for that matter not-so-early – sales of plants went really well. There seems to be a need for individually potted vegetable plants. Everyone wants to grow a garden, and many folks do not want to waste the extra plants they do not have room for if they were to buy a 6-pack. I am wondering if this niche would also appreciate buying seed in smaller quantities as well.

This coming fall will see me doing some major division of the herb plants in the garden, so as to increase my production in some varieties and be able to offer well started, second and third year herb plants for sale next spring. The succession plantings of dill and basil are doing well, though the initial planting of basil – transplanted from the indoor starting shelves – has struggled for some weeks. We have begun offering common herb blends often found on grocers shelves as dried product, but in this case offered as a selection of fresh herbs – fines herbs and Italian blend for starters. And yes, at least one of these blends includes fresh, locally grown bay leaves! I need to acquire and begin wo rkin g with more little bay laurel trees, as well as more rosemary (a slow growing herb) and lavender.

I also plan to move the berry bushes from their original location – random holes dug into the “lawn” in the general area of the west garden – to actual rows in the tilled area which K has been working. If they are planted at proper spacing, he will be able to continue to work between the rows, as he has been in the later plantings of the east (vegetable) plot. More berries are on the wish list. The strawberries seem to be surviving despite having been neglected after planting. I had a chance to scythe down m uch of the weed cover and hope to complete that job this week, as well as taking the time to rake the weed stalks out of the berry patch and mark – with bits of paint on the ground – the location of the berry plants in hopes that K can first mow the stubble, and then do some tilling between the rows. It will be close, as the strawberries were planted before we got an accurate measurement of the row spacing needed for the big tiller, so the paint should give him a easier time in spotting the plants that must be kept.

Blueberry and cranberry bushes need soil amendment to support acidity, asparagus needs side dressing with compost or manure and the strawberries need mulch. I am hoping to begin hauling straw and manure this month, as the farm truck goes into the shop tomorrow for inspection (and likely work… hopefully wit hin my meager budget. Meager is good compared to the empty purse of last year!)

The flower and herb beds are terribly riddled with runner grass, and I am considering various ways to deal with this. At this point, I am considering moving the majority of the perennial herbs – when I divide them – to rows in the west garden and using weed control fabric in this area as well as putting it down in the herb circle once that area is clear.

I will likely use the fabric as well for the garlic that I plant this fall, and if it were less expensive, I would put it in between the strawberries as well.

We have yet to get the chicken and duck tractors made, but they are still on the project list. Currently they are running being the construction of a ramp at the back door for our elder Saint Bernard, Brandi, who is having increasing problems climbing the stairs. I am thankful to my collaborator, Anne, who continues to keep and care for our fowl.

This extreme heat, though, is delaying lots of projects. K cannot work in it and, after last week, I know that even taking proper precautions, I should not either. We remain hopeful that the temperature and humidity will abate.

Garden, continued...

It's hard to find a beginning place to write about something as ongoing -- with both successes and frustrations -- as the garden this year. I shall just jump in and try, I guess...

Tilly Milly, my umpteen-hand walk-behind tiller is taking an extended vacation at the shop getting her motor worked on. That setback put me behind in both tilling and planting even as we acquired the tiller attachment for the Wheel Horse lawn tractor -- which was, of course, missing parts. Parts which attach it to the tractor which were left on the previous owner's tractor when he gave it to his son (and understandably so, I would say, after our replacement parts arrived and I ended up helping K get it all installed on the tractor. Suffice to say, the process involved lots of barked knuckles, those words and installation manual instructions and illustrations that did NOT match what we saw in front of us.They never do, do they?

Anyway, Big Bertha, with K at the helm, has been doing a bang-up job in the last week or so and the second quadrant of the vegg garden is ready and being planted. All the cabbage and kin that are currently on site, are in their rows, though there are flats of 3 cabbage varieties at Abundant Acres with their greenhouse offerings, and at the Brewer Farmers Market the past couple of weeks. Likely after the coming Memorial Weekend market, any remainders will join their counterparts in rows here.

K says that Bertha does a great job as long as he is patient. Initially, he had expectations that she could produce as much till as quickly as the BIG tractor/tiller combo that we contracted to break soil when we got the place. Well, she can't, of course.. but even where the grasses and weeds did not get burnt back this spring, she is giving a good till as long as he takes it slow and gives the garden multiple passes.

I suspect that the early plantings -- including the strawberries -- are not in rows spaced widely enough to allow K and Bertha to work between the rows of plants. However, as long as the plants are small -- or things that do not grow tall, like the berries -- we are planning to experiment with removing a couple of tines and driving to put the planted row under the tractor, between the wheels...

I suspect we are going to get a lot of practice swapping implements, though. The mowing deck and the tiller can not coexist on the machine. The deck needed work (that was the story of the spring, I guess... ) and just came back from having some cracks welded. Hopefully K will be able to get it up and running and get the "hay" mowed down a bit. though the 3rd and 4th quadrants need a bit more tilling and will likely get plants this week (crossing fingers for time and weather).

We need to find some way to efficiently gather the mowings, too... The blades on the mower are "mulching" blades, which means they cut and re-cut the grass which makes it hard to pick up in one of those pull-behind sweepers (even if we had one) and the mower will not side-discharge so we cannot use a bagger. So meanwhile, all this good green manure is left to lay.

With the potatoes and onions yet to be planted, the coldframe lettuces needing transplanting and succession plantings looming... with the grasses at knee-height, and growing, not having been mowed even once... I have this constant feeling of being "behind". But I know that in the larger scheme of things I am ahead... ahead by not only one but TWO tillers -- ahead by a tiller that not only allows K to help but has drawn him out of his virtual electronic world and sucked him -- big time -- into the world of small tractors, farm implements and even to the plants themselves. And, as Martha would say, that is a VERY good thing.

Also, new this year, is our foray into a much longer market season, at the Brewer Farmers Market in Brewer, Maine. This market is open Tues - Sat from early May until the end of October. Thus far, our Stone Soup Collaborative has been there only on Saturdays, but as our amount of produce increases, look for us there on Thursdays, as well! I hope to have an initial offering of ear