Building Earth

07/08/2019

July update time!
Row 1: basil and marigolds surrounding the tomatoes, garlic in the back. Golden cherry tomatoes have set lots of fruit and has lots of flowers. Brandywines starting to set flowers. Garlic tops starting to die back and should be ready to harvest by the end of the month.
Row 2: front to back carrots, green beans, arugula and cucumbers, sunflowers. Beans starting to flower. Arugula just bolted this weekend, and we'll leave a couple plants for seed saving and row cover under the cukes. Cucumbers have been trelised and have put up lots of male flowers, but haven't spotted any ladies yet. Sunflowers growing huge amounts every day.
Row 3: front to back kale and nasturtium, more beans, asparagus and calendula. We're pick enough kale each week for multiple large kale salads. Calendula is starting to flower.
Row 4: front to back parsley, tomato, peppers, potatoes. Parsley finally sprouted. Habenero had lots of flowers, but no fruit yet. Jalapeno has lots of peppers already. Potato bugs have hit, bur with this amount add potatoes they are pretty easy to go through and pick off bugs and eggs each day, so they aren't doing too much damage. @ Black River Falls, Wisconsin

06/01/2019

June 1st garden update: our beds are all planted. Garlic is going strong. First batch of radishes are starting to fatten up. Kale is growing and needs to be thinned one last time. Tomatoes are caged and wrapped in chicken wire in hopes that the birds won't snip the stems (birds are the worst!) Were waiting on tons of stuff to sprout. It's the time of spring when I'm anxious for everything to get started and also feel constantly behind at the same time. But it's also the time of year when I get to spend early mornings watering the garden and checking in on everything which is my favorite of all.
Swipe to see where we started from last October.

05/20/2019

Rain, wind, and cold temperatures kept us from checking on the bees this past weekend, so we did our weekly check tonight. The ladies have been busy building more comb and we found some capped honey. The queen has been busy laying and we found plenty of brood. No queen sighting, but plenty of evidence that she's hard at work growing her house. After being moved into the hive boxes two weeks ago, they've filed about five frames with comb and are currently working on building out two more. We're still feeding them. But they've got plenty of pollen and nectar sources right now with the hive located right underneath a fully blooming pear tree.

04/07/2019

We welcomed these 6 🐥 ladies onto the farmstead on Saturday. Officials names to come once we can tell them apart, but one is Donut, one is Werewolf, and one is Scratcher, as named by our 5 year old.

04/07/2019

Last fall's work makes way for this year's spring success. Garlic coming up strong, and hoop house for kale and calendula sprouts. So happy we used last October eagerness for starting the garden to dig these beds and get them all prepped for spring planting!

03/17/2019

Syrupping time!

03/16/2019

Finally trying our hand at tapping maple trees and making maple syrup. We just tapped one tree this year, but we have lots more for future years. So far it's drip drip dripping!

12/12/2018

Find beauty in every season that comes your way.

10/11/2018

Our new farm property includes about 60 acres of wooded land as well. The front wood, nearest the house, is filled with youngish maples and is positively glowing right now. E and I went exploring yesterday in this golden wonderland and I had to share this feeble glimpse of its beauty.

09/11/2017

Ready to broil for charred salsa. Each year I pretty much can't make enough of this stuff. I'm up to 13 pints for this year's batch, and all have about a sixth of a bushel of tomatoes to work through. Time to get more jars!

06/02/2017

Let us remember, in the wake of 45 pulling out of the Paris Agreement, that ultimately, it is on us to act. Make the choices in your everyday life that use less fossil fuels, more sustainable materials and manufacturing practices, and conserve the beautiful Earth we have. Make the choice to support…

04/14/2017

After more than a year away, two posts in as many weeks. It's almost like I'm trying to get back in the habit.

Something that has crossed my mind more than once in the last 5 months has been moving to California, where they seem to take environmental protections at least a little bit seriously. Realistically, this wouldn’t even be possible for another 3 or 4 years, but the thought has floated through my head...