April 25, 2020 Starting to get started.

A few weeks ago we offered free gardening plots for people to use for growing  food. So far we have three takers who have reserved about twelve percent of the land we have prepared. We are beginning to prepare more land for planting as part of our gardening plans, but there really can't be enough food planted in the next two months. If you want to get growing, just get in touch. We have land, organic compost by the truckload, water, and you we can even help out with a bit of seed. All you need to do is plant your seeds, then keep the weeds down while your food gets ready to eat. And if you want to work for free, we have work for you to do. We have food to plant, maintain, and pick to feed the increasing need people will almost certainly run into this year.

Click for a better view.

This week we had some rain so only a few days of building happened. On Monday we had a quick inspection with a quick approval since all the Inspector had to look at was the four corners of the house. Tuesday and Thursday were the only two dry days, so we built external wall sections until we ran out of lumber. We didn't raise them into their places because we need to keep everything covered with plastic to keep the rain out. We'll buy more lumber early next week and as soon as it is dry we will raise the walls up.

Since we had rain we took some time out to do some farming. Monday, following the inspection, we laid out the "Peaches and Herbs garden plot inside of the Kitchen Garden area. A friend gave us our first peach tree in the early Fall of last year and we planted it in one of the garden areas we had laid out when clearing the home site.

Each garden, within a larger garden, is to be designed with a few constant features. The first is a seating area, at least one feature tree and, in the Kitchen Garden, a mixture of food and flowers. The Peaches and Herbs Garden seating area has a great view of the Strawberry Patch and sits next to where the potting gazebo will be built.

Ann wanted to begin moving some of the plants we have been propagating in the Flower Garden on the West side. Our plan always was to pot  annual plants, and plants requiring control, so that they can be shifted around as needed. So we potted nineteen Hostas we divided last year and put them into holes dug especially for potted plants. The Hostas now ring the peach tree and interior path of the new garden and a radial layout of various basil and mint will surround the seating area. We will grow all of our herbs in this garden for use, but we will also use herbs in other gardens for effect.

Wednesday it rained, so I rented a small trailer and went out to Fischer's Mill too pick up our tractor Rosie. She had blown a hose and needed regular servicing so I took her out there last week. It sure is nice having our tractor back at the Farm. I began tending to the excess growth we have growing everywhere as soon as she was off the trailer. Ann took the day to bake bread and desserts for the week.

Since we ran out of lumber, Friday was devoted to working the Strawberry Patch. We had weeded it out pretty well two weeks ago so Ann, Beth, and Jackson got it all cleared out and tended by lunch. Today the Patch is awash with flowers and small berries. It looks good for strawberries this year.

Our produce stand will be up and running soon.

While the crew did the berry patch I spent the morning burning off weeds in the Kitchen Garden area and also in the place where the Produce Stand will eventually go. The East side Kitchen Garden area is pretty well tended right now, but the rest of the Farm is running wild with weeds. Aside from running the tiller over everything, we are also burning off the sprouts where we can't reach with the tiller. I spent about four hours burning, but barely made a dent in the project.

Friday afternoon I rejoined building the new Carrot row. I had dug most of the bed out a few weeks ago but Rosie the tractor blew a hydraulic line and so the project went on the back burner. I will make all new soil for the thirty foot Carrot row with about fifty percent vermiculite, twenty percent native soil, twenty percent of compost, and the rest in Coco Coir with peat moss. The whole thing will be encased in chicken wire to keep the critters out.

The weekend is for rest whenever we work a hard five days and, since we had rain today, there was little guilt in laying around. But we look forward to continuing to build on Monday and hope the weather continues to improve so that we can have the house framed up and the roof trusses installed by the end of May. About the time we should be harvesting strawberries.

April 17, 2020 Wasting Away in Coronaville

We decided last week to offer people free garden land to plant and so far we have two takers who will use about eight percent of what we have ready to work right now. Feel free to adopt a garden plot and grow whatever you wish. We have tools, time, water, and space. You can grow food to eat or to give away. Get a tan (right up to your sleeves) and have some fun outdoors.

This year we doubled our garden size and are using the new spaces for large volume crops. These are often called "truck" crops. Corn, potatoes, pumpkin, watermelon, and strawberry, all of the roadside stand food.  All the new space is either planted already, or soon will be. And all of our excess production in these new fields will go to St.Vincent dePaul Food Bank this year. The COVID19 thing is weighing heavily on everybody right now.

We spent our time last week primarily building the first two exterior walls of the new Farmhouse. The engineer who did some of our planning drew a robust design which requires us to sheathe both the inside and outside of the end walls to add greater wind and earthquake resistance. But in order for the building inspector to do his work, and us to do insulation, plumbing, and electrical work, we have to frame the end walls and have them inspected prior to building the other walls. This is slightly out of the ordinary. Usually all of the framing is done and then only inspected once.

The design of the house also adds some complexity, since half of the house has an eight foot ceiling height and half is fourteen feet tall. The eight foot walls are fairly simple and easy to stand up once built. Eventually there will be an attic built over this section and walls on top of that. The fourteen foot ceiling height and the somewhat complex window layout makes building and raising the fourteen foot walls very heavy work. We divided the walls into manageable sizes so they could be raised and connected once standing up. The outcome of the walls is very nice and we can't wait to get the rest of the walls up.

We sent out trusty tractor Rosie to the shop last Saturday for a complete service. The spunky little Massey-Ferguson tractor has had a tough life so far but she cleared the land, dug the holes, and tilled the ground for planting. It is surprising how we got so accustomed to using the tractor for so much. We even use it to carry heavy supplies and clean the chicken coop. It will be nice to get her back this week so we can continue to prepare for the growing season.

The dogs added a bit of fun this week when it seemed all of our females went into heat at the same time. Poor male, Clarke Bar, had to be quarantined to keep from having more unexpected puppies. He is a wreck. Puppies are a generally good idea, but not while building a house and planting crops. We'll let some of them get together a bit later on.

The weather all week was great. Sunny, dry, with a light breeze. A very good Spring pattern. Saturday we had some rain to make the crops as happy as we both are.

April 5, 2020 The Horizon of New Beginnings

Last week was tough for a lot of people. COVID19 is running free throughout much of the country. New York, Louisiana, New Jersey, and many other states are mired in endless debates about what to do. It seems the time for action is a year or so back.

We feel very bad that there seems little to do to help out. So we all wait. Hoping the next shoe doesn't fall, hoping it doesn't fall on us , our friends, or our families.

I spent some time yesterday talking with my mother (she's 80 something). She is living in the desert outside of Los Angeles in a nice little elder apartment near a hospital. Her tone was is up-beat and always has been The local area where she is seems to have none of the virus outbreak, so things look good for her at this point. But we all worry about the near future. I think her upbeat message is worth sharing (even if a bit passively). There will be a bright future following this trouble. But the troubles are still ahead of us.

The economic outcomes of having nearly everyone deemed "non-essential" at home and out of work worries us. Almost a third of the economy is not currently working toward our common goal of living a luxurious life. It seems to me that once the virus shakes out, and people go back to work, there is no way things will return to normal any time soon. So what will become the new normal"?

I can't speculate on this at all. (And I am not at all accustomed to not being able to speculate.) But sitting still isn't the right thing to do, if you can do something. So here's what we plan to do about the needs we might be able to fill for ourselves and others.

Last week I spent some time writing three articles about growing food in times of possibly emergent food shortages. I didn't include this thought, but it was my motivation. My concerns are not that people will suddenly become food less, though some pole may. My concerns are not that people will become house-less, though some of that will happen too. My concern is that people will suddenly become friend-less and live in a world where it is every person for themselves.  My lesser concern is that the supply chains which distribute goods will be slow before to returning to normal.

People can't buy what the stores don't have to sell. People can't make things to sell which are wholly dependent on other people making things. And if we can't make these things then substitutes must be found. Hopefully our substitutes are as good, as cheap to buy, or that my fears are not fulfilled. There is always hope.

Some see the possibility that things which we don't need, and ought not to have, might be off the shelves for a while. And some things we do, which bad for us all, might go away for a while. Loosing ten pounds of undesirable weight is good. Having cancer is not, even if it brings the desired weight loss.

In my conversation with my Mother yesterday, the thought came out that we might all become better people following this crisis. Though the cost might be quite high., this is not a time for despair. People are hopeful.

The next few months will likely not be terrible, just very undesirable. People will die who might have otherwise been saved. So we spent the past few weeks preparing for the eventuality just in case. (Last Wills and the like.) And, like so many others, we did what we could do.

Life will go one, despite the setbacks. Things will return to normal, no matter what we might lose in the process. The key is to get through a crisis that will look better in the rear view mirror than it does in the distance. The key is to keep going and let the journey happen. And keep busy while we wait.

The biggest immediate problem we will all face is: daily boredom and depressing news.

We can help with that:

• If you need something to do, we have much which needs done.
• Some of it is hard work in a time when the gym is out of the question.
• You can get sweaty, dirty, and happy like us.
• Or you can do easy work, just to have something to do.
• If you want to help out, we have things you can do to help out.
• You can grow food for people who may have a hard time buying it.
• Or you can eat the food you grow, and be healthy like us.
• If you simply need a place to be which is not where you are, you can be here.
• We have space outside, a creeks to watch, some chairs to sit in.
• You can be at peace, there is no news to watch here.

Creekside Farm is a nice place to be, despite the dirt, the mud, things which might seem less than desirable. There are things you can do here which include, as they always have, a measure of social distance and you are welcome to come here, if only to sit in the sun and read a book, pet some dogs, cluck at some chickens, dig in the dirt, etc; . . . You are welcome to come, and be here.

Help Wanted: Click Here to Grow Some Food!

This post is about our offering space in our gardens to people so that they can grow their own food. Share this with anyone you know in western Washington County. Most are welcome.

We heard yesterday that this virus problem we are having will likely re-surge in the Fall. So the next few weeks will show us the extent of the damage this virus will do in the Spring, but we can see nothing of the Fall. The cheap labor we all rely on to grow our food, and get it into the stores, will be in very short supply this year. The shortages we have seen in the past few weeks will only get worse, much worse for those who depend on our excesses of production being donated to the food banks..

We are all in this together and this is a call to action. 

If you have some open dirt, you ought to grow something to eat. Even if you don't need it yourself, others will. This year will be very bad for everyone, much worse for those who are now dependent on food banks.

 If you have no place to grow food we have space for you to use on our tiny Farm. We have tools (big and small) to loan and can help as needed. We'll let you pick as much dirt as you can reasonably take care of.

Creekside Farm, all the dirt under our feet, is available for planting. For free. 

We have dirt, soil amendments, and fencing, We will try to find you whatever seed you need, or you can provide whatever you can bring. We will water your patch in the Summer for you, or you can bring your own watering can. You can eat what you grow, or give it all away. All for free.

And if you don't want to commit to taking on a whole patch, we will have food in the ground that will need a few hours of cultivation, a few hours of picking and cleaning. Whatever time you have, we'll find work for you.

We all need to get growing. People will be going hungry and money won't be the only problem. Anyone willing to put in some time, willing to get dirty, willing to risk a happily sore back, can do something about it.

Message us on Facebook and we'll talk about it. The link is at the top of this page. 

Creekside Farm won't have food to donate in the Spring, but we will in the Summer and Fall. And it will be needed. We donated as much as we could last year, this year we don't care if we make a dime on any of it.