April 4, 2019 Watching time go by . . .

If you look at the column to the right of this text, you will find an archive of posts from previous years gone by. Some of it is worth reading, most of it is simply recognition of some point in time. When I started writing this journal the idea was to somehow capture the Farm as it evolved into whatever it will eventually become. I have never been much of a journal keeper, but the scope of this project looked like it deserved to be chronicled with a bit more care than had the rest of our lives.  By looking back I hope to keep track of where we are.

April will be a busy month this year, so much to do, so much in process, so many little items checked off of our never ending list.

• Last April, on this date, the fruit trees were flowering and I was building the Greenhouse. 
• The April before that we were clearing space and cleaning up the trash. 
• The April prior to this, our first days here, we cleared the first path onto the property.

Many of those flowering tress are now gone because they needed cut down to allow for other plans. While this is bit tough on the trees, homesteading is a tough business.

The Greenhouse has also had a tough year. The Winter snows collapsed the roof (now re-built), rusty irrigation water stained the clear film to a nice shade of red, there are now many holes in the plastic, and the thing isn't completely square anymore. But the space still works as it should, one year after building it, and the temporary space will certainly last the few more seasons.

Early in the week the Greenhouse got its end walls rebuilt and some salvaged screen doors installed. The doors open the space up for a bit of Spring cooling, but keep the wind and animals out. We also built supports for the tomato trellis hooks we bought using re-purposed aluminum extension ladders. The ladder supports are very light weight, quite a bit stiffer than pipe or cable, and run end to end inside of the Greenhouse at about seven feet off of the ground. The trellis hooks will eventually hang down from these ladders and allow the tomatoes to climb for the entire season with full support for the vines.

Thursday I spent the morning tilling beds inside of the Greenhouse. One row of open soil is for Spring lettuces, carrots, and radishes, the other row for the hanging tomatoes in Summer. The carrots and radishes we tried last year did so poorly that we decided to try them indoors this Summer. Carrots and radishes like to be planted directly into the soil and don't like being transplanted. We have Spring Dikon and French Breakfast Radishes in half barrel planters right now, along with another half barrel full of Spring carrots, but they are not growing very quickly right now. The lettuces will all move outdoors once the weather gets a bit hotter, but we want some salad early and the plants are nearly ready for planting today. While I was in the Greenhouse tilling beds  Ann weeded out the Flower Garden.

The flower garden didn't exist last year in April, so it seems we are making progress. The bulbs we put in during the Fall are doing very well. Our Tulips are up and ready to bloom. Daffodils are in full flower. The Crocus flowers are all spent. Ann tells me that the hostas and peonies are already coming up. So things are definitely moving in the flower garden which, for the time being, is for propagating plants.

It is likely that we won't sell many fresh cut flowers this year. Perhaps we will sell some potted flowers, but we are mostly growing plants to use in the Themed Garden plan. We will need a great number of every sort of plant to complete the work of making this a garden spot worth walking through. Many of these plants will come from sources we have yet to find, but part of our plan is to forage for native species in the coastal forests of northwest Oregon. Collecting Ferns, Trillium, and Shamrocks will be our focus this year and the  this year's collections will go into the Flower Garden to grow until we can begin planting the Themed Gardens.

The weekend looks very rainy. This is bad for getting things done, but the potatoes, onions, garlic, and Strawberries, will all get a good soaking to start the Spring off right. The rainy weather puts our foraging and planting plans on hold, but there is still much to do.

Last year, in April, we moved into our tiny home, having already cleared the property quite a bit, and tilled the raw Market Garden space. Two years ago we made the decision to build the tiny home and were beginning to buy parts. Three years ago we began clearing a very distressed  property. Four years back we were working to finance buying a Farm, a property we hadn't seen yet.