Spring Has Sprung

Goodness- it's been over  a week since my last post!  Well, the reason for that is that I don't have a lot of progress to report.  I wanted to get one of the planter boxes filled with soil so that I could transplant some seedlings, and it took me four days to fill it.   This is not to say it took me thirty-two hours- but I could handle about one third of the box a day, and then one day just did not cooperate weather-wise.   But at least, now I know how long it takes to move forty-two cubic feet of soil.

Well, that's not entirely fair.  I was mixing decomposing bark from the back of the yard (remember I mentioned that where there isn't lawn, there's plastic and bark, and I aim to remove all that plastic).  This was hampered by the arborvitae roots that are all throughout the bark, and the weeds which are growing on top of it.  So I weeded and then I hoed an area and picked roots out of it, and then shoveled it into the wheelbarrow, which I then wheeled over to the old planter box that I'm moving.  I shoveled some of the soil from the old box, which is no more at this point, into the wheelbarrow, which I then wheeled over to the box I was filling.   Then I turned everything in the wheelbarrow over and over with a spading fork until it was mixed well, and then I shoveled it into the new box.  This would move about three cubic feet a load.  I was plum. worn. out. by the time I called it quits at the end of the first day.

I know it doesn't look like much now, but it will this summer.  Even though I am anxious to get some of my seedlings from the garage moved to it, it occurred to me in time before I started that I can't until I get a copper barrier up for the slugs.  Slugs are a serious nuisance here in Oregon, and the only thing I've found that works with certainty is a copper barrier.  Last year's garden had a length of copper roof flashing all around the edges of the box, and it worked like a charm- no more missing plants the next morning.  This year, I ordered 400 feet of knit copper mesh to go around the edges, and it seemed a real bargain, considering how long it should last.   It should be here the 24th of the month, and I'll transplant lettuces, onions, and kales as soon as it's installed.

The day after I filled the first box, I built another.  The next (and last) shipment of plants I'm expecting are twenty-five Jersey Knight asparagus crowns.  So now I have four out of five boxes built.

In other news, the lumber for the pergola was delivered, and I purchased the paint for it Friday.  It's still drying in the garage, and probably tomorrow, as it's supposed to rain, I'll get started on painting it. 

Then yesterday I had my first dandelion salad.  I had been weeding and ran across a good-sized dandelion that hadn't flowered yet, so I popped the thing out of the ground whole.  It took a little washing though- it was pretty dirty, but I chopped it up with a tiny bit of French tarragon and a chive, and then dressed it very simply with olive oil, wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.  It was pretty good!  I'll be more careful with dandelions going forward, and be on the look out for them next winter when they start sprouting.  They are supposed to be tenderest and best before they bloom.

And last, but not least, here is my favorite boy dog enjoying some deck time.

Happy first day of spring!

Steps In The Right Direction

The other day when I got the currant and four almond trees into the ground, the big reason that I got so little done was that I decided to prune the photinia in the back corner.  I wanted to let more light hit the Dublin Bay rose, which will get sun in summer when the sun is high overhead, but is still in the shade right now.  Its buddy Courageous is taking off already because it's getting a steady diet of sunlight.  I also wanted to get the pruning done before I planted the almonds because I didn't want the falling limbs hitting young trees.

The photinia are currently the only thing in the yard creating shade, and even though they are pretty crappy (they're supposed to be a shrub not a tree), I'm loathe to remove them because they are the only shade.  It occurred to me that the only way to make them useful for this little homestead of ours is to plant the chickens and possibly rabbits underneath them.

Pruning the photinia opened up the space underneath them nicely!





You can see that there will be plenty of room for a hen yard.
 
I'm still not decided on whether or not to raise rabbits for meat.  They are supposed to be the quintessential livestock for raising meat in the city because they breed like you-know-what, and they are quiet.  Actually, they are not quiet- a rabbit will scream when it's terrified, so you have to make sure that nothing scares them.  It would be easier if we could go vegetarian, but Steve can't handle most of those foods that make up the correct amino acid replacement for meat, i.e., grains and legumes, so I have to feed him meat.  The plan is to eventually be getting most, if not all, of our food out of the yard, so I have to come up with something for a meat source, and rabbits would probably be the most sensible choice.  I'm just not sure that it's in the cards yet. At any rate- I have a nice shady spot to put them if we do decide to do rabbits. They need shade.

Speaking of getting all our food out of the backyard, we are nowhere near that yet. I'm still building planter boxes and picking up after the previous homeowner, as well as planting the things that take a few years to start bearing, like trees and asparagus.   But I do hope to get food out of the yard year-round in the future, which means we'll be eating by the seasons for sure.  I expect that we'll still need to go to the store for things like oil, and hemp milk, and Steve's coffee, and toilet paper and baking soda, and all that.  Lately, we have taken to walking the mile and a half to the store instead of getting into the car, which is part of the whole simplify, simplify, simplify strategy.  We've been to the library on foot a few times, which is the same walk as the library and store (and post office, for that matter) are right next to each other.

But the walk to do the shopping is a new step in the right direction.

Vintage Shaving vs. Modern Shaving

Some years ago, and I'm not really sure when or why, it dawned on me what an ecological disaster modern shaving is.  By combining metal and plastic together in the disposable razor and shaving cream can, we render neither of them recyclable, so into the landfill they go by the billions. I read recently that the EPA estimates that over two billion disposable razors wind up in landfills a year.  Two billion! That's just the disposable razors! I couldn't find anything about how many razor cartridges or shaving cream cans wind up there.   I remember buying cartridge-type razor blades at Costco, because they were so much cheaper than at the grocery store.  The big downside to that was that even though they were far less expensive in terms of out-of-pocket cost to me, they were entombed in a huge plastic coffin that made sure I could see what I was getting for my incredible bargain, but no where on this abomination did I see the friendly recycle triangle.  They were ecologically really expensive.  So I rebelled.

I did some research and made the argument to Steve that in the long run, we would save ourselves a ton of money AND do the environment a huge favor if we changed to old fashioned safety razors and if he started plying a shaving brush, to which he agreed.  Please don't confuse an old-fashioned safety razor with an old-fashioned straight razor. 

This is a straight razor

They are not the same thing.   I would not go near a straight razor, much less take one to my underarms or limbs, or let Steve shave his precious Adam's apple with one.  Some people like a straight razor, and they are out there if you want to buy one.  I saw one recently that was $696, but it was a hand-made custom job. If you have that kind of money and time- help yourself to it.

I don't think that most people give a second thought to the paraphernalia with which they shave, but I sure wish that they would.  Our razors are made out of metal, yes, that had to be mined, but they should easily last us the rest of our lives.  Or at least until we decide not to bother anymore.  I used to buy Merkur blades from an online tobacco shop in Nashville.  The Merkur blades came ten to a package and were housed in a little plastic holder that came on a cardboard-backed blister pack.  Since I was paying for shipping, I'd order ten packages at a time to last us the year, and with shipping, they came to about $.65 a blade.  When you compare that with a package of refill blades for a modern razor that will set you back at least five bucks, you begin to see what kind of savings can be had.  The other advantage to double edge blades is that they can be much more easily recycled at the landfill where they will cling to the huge electric magnets that they use for metals, and they won't have to be separated from their plastic shells, because they don't have them.

I still felt bad about what little plastic was involved, so I went hunting again.  This time I found an online seller that had a box of 250 individually wrapped Personna blades for around $55 dollars. 250! That would last a couple of years, at least. With the shipping, the Personna blades cost me $.24 a piece.  That's twenty-four cents a piece.  These were much less expensive and there was no plastic involved.  We could have spent more, and purchased the fancy Feather blades at twice the price, but I was looking to get some blades in here cheap.   The Feathers have the reputation for being the sharpest blade out there, and receive enthusiastic reviews, so one day I may treat Steve to some to see how he likes them.  I would caution anyone contemplating a change to double edge shaving, that because they are so sharp, all the reviewers recommend them to experienced double edge shavers only, and to try shaving with another kind of blade for a few months while you get used to double edge shaving.  As Steve put it when we first starting shaving with safety razors, "these blades are unforgiving."  It takes a little longer to shave, and it takes a little while to get used to that.

This is a safety razor

But we did get used to them, and I no more often nick myself with my safety razor than I did with the newer razors.  We do still have a modern cartridge razor, but we save that for traveling, because the TA doesn't get safety razors.  In 2002, when we went to Germany, we had a fairly new pack of Merkur blades confiscated at the airport, which necessitated finding and buying razor blades in Germany.  We couldn't find a match and wound up buying disposable razors, which of course, was an anathema to us.

The other thing that shaving with a brush and safety razor does for you is change the shaving chore into something of a ritual.  If you round out the experience with nicer soaps or fancier shaving creams, and believe me, they can be had, then taking care of this daily routine becomes a lot more pleasurable, and much less a pain, particularly when you allow yourself the time to do it correctly.  And if you shop around, there are some really beautiful razors and razor sets out there that would make a really fine gift for someone, or a swell present for yourself.  The various shaving creams and soaps to be had are very nice as well, particularly those from Europe.  I'm not sure that I'd recommend buying shaving cream one tube at a time from somewhere in Europe- that would carry a heavy carbon price. But if they were purchased in bulk, or at the very least, as a gift, they could make the transition to using a safety razor very pleasant indeed.

A few shaving tips I can offer that I've picked up over the years is that guys should shave after their shower, to allow their beards to soften up a bit.  Girls should shave no sooner than four minutes in, and no later than eight minutes in, for the closest shave.  After four minutes, hair is soft enough to shave well, and after eight minutes the skin is so swollen with water that stubble is more apparent after the skin dries.  The other tip for both sexes is to draw the razor slowly across the skin for the closest shave and to minimize irritation.  Razor burns and cuts happen more often if shaving is rushed.

So I hope I've made my case: modern shaving carries a heavy price, both in terms of the embodied carbon it entails and longevity in the landfill, as well as it costs a lot more to your household budget.  Vintage shaving with a safety razor is much easier on the landfills and your wallet, and can turn shaving into a pleasant experience to which you actually look forward. 

A Busy Sunday

Today our contractor came by to give us the estimate for the pergola.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, and is within our means to get done.  The only catch is that we have to paint it ourselves, which I knew going in; Jef doesn't paint.  So next weekend he'll drop off the lumber so that we can paint it while he's doing a job on the coast for a couple of weeks.  I sure hope the weather cooperates, because the lumber needs to be ready to start when he is.

Speaking of weather- I managed to get the blueberry bed completely dug and the blueberries are in! 

You can't imagine (unless, of course, you've done this) how incredibly hard digging up clay, crumbling it up, mixing it with peat moss and then filling back in the bed is.  Even dumping the wheelbarrow full of this soil mixture was hell- at one point I was so tired that I lost control of the wheelbarrow and the front end of it went into the hole before I was able to dump it.  I had to get Steve to come out and pull it back out of the hole.  And after starting the next foot or so of new clay, which I dug up and loaded into the wheelbarrow, I'd tell myself really, Paula, don't over do it- this is the last one for today, and then I'd dump the mixed load and then tell myself, well okay- just one more. Until finally, I'd gotten it all done.  The forecast was for showers, but the weather for the most part kept clouding over and then breaking sunshine.   When I'd finally finished the bed, the sky was definitely threatening rain, as was the wind.  Throwing the blueberries all into the bed with some bone meal and organic fertilizer and then watering in took maybe five minutes, thanks to the wonderfully friable soil I'd just created.

Part of the impetus for working quickly was the fact that I had a deadline- we were planning a trip to the library and it closes at five on Sunday afternoons.  I'd just finished up with the blueberries at four.  Pulling out of the driveway about ten minutes later, the rain started. Talk about your deadlines.

When we got home from the library, I told Steve I just wanted to veg the rest of the day- I'd worked hard today.  "And yesterday," he reminded me.  "What kind of vegging did you want to do?" he asked me.  Just sit on the couch with a cup of tea and read a book, which suited him fine.  I just borrowed the bible of all chicken-raising books, the one that every other seems to reference: Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow.  It's also the new edition of this book- this one is from 2010.  Interestingly, there is a sticker on the back of the book that indicates that it's a fourteen-day loan, in a system that usually allows three weeks for book loans.  I guess they were anticipating it being in demand.  I did have to wait for it, though, so...

The other thing that we got done this weekend is that we installed the raspberry supports, and Steve painted them.  I still need to put in the diagonal braces on the end supports, but I can do that tomorrow.  It's supposed to be sunny all day, which is a good thing- I have four almond trees, one currant, five boysenberries, and fifteen raspberries to plant tomorrow, and I'll have had them a week by then, so they have to get done.  I'm not worried about the raspberries- that bed is pretty much done- but I haven't even started digging holes for the almonds, much less the trench for the boysenberries.  And the ground will be wet tomorrow.

And then when I'm done with that, I need to get the bed together for the asparagus that are shipping in April, which doesn't seem so far away anymore.

The Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Me

Before I start digging a garden, I try to have a plan worked out so that I don't have to move anything.

This is the first plan.   It was pretty ambitious, and it included potato barrels and a large space for raising grain.   Then we started the new diet, which doesn't include potatoes or grain.  So back to the drawing board.

This is the interim plan, although you can see at the top that I labeled it 'final'.   Hah!  It was close, but from looking at the yard where the raspberries were going to go, I decided that I didn't like it, and also that I wanted to put the almonds in there.  Then when the raspberries showed up, I decided I'd better look up how much room they need, and it turned out that the new place for the raspberries wasn't going to be big enough, and the spot against the fence where I'd planned the asparagus would be better for them. The spot where I'd planned the raspberries would be good for the asparagus though.  So- back to the drawing board again.

 

The drawing board, and yes, that's a gin martini.

This time, I think I got it.

The only thing is, after all this, I think I'm going to have to move four of the apples away from their partners.   Good thing I left space for that.

Pulling Up Sod And Digging Clay

I was asked the question what is worse: pulling up sod or digging clay soil?

If I'd been asked that back when I lived in Florida, I would have sworn pulling up sod, because the St. Augustine grass there is amazingly tenacious, I have dug up my share of it. I've also put down my share of it.

This is the lawn that we put down in our garden in Florida.  The shrubbery and Italian cypress are young, and the patio hadn't been grouted yet, but this is the only picture I have of the lawn we put in.  It's actually the drain field for the septic system; otherwise, it would have been the perfect place for a pool, but I'm not the hang-around-the-pool type anyway. But I digress.

If I'd been asked the question on the day we put the apple trees in the ground, I would have said, digging up clay soil. It was truly soggy, and it clung mightily and heavily to my muck boots.  The sod was hell to get up that day as well, because it was so. freaking. heavy.

I am actually in a feverish rush- it's a toss up between desperately wanting to get my bare root stuff in the ground this weekend (it arrived here last Monday) and desperately wanting to get the blueberry bed dug up before this coming Monday.  The soil is finally at a point where I can easily crumble it for mixing with the peat moss for the blueberry bed- if I miss my window tomorrow and don't get it done, Monday's rain will turn it back into a slippery, slimy, sticky mess.  I hate my clay soil, which is interspersed periodically with straight clay.  I hope that come this summer, when it's holding water pretty well, that I'll be thankful for it.

For all my work, though, I feel like I'm getting stronger (I'm certainly smelling stronger) and I've lost a couple of pounds (yay!). Tomorrow I hope to get the rest of the blueberry bed dug, and the blueberries in, and then be able to get the raspberries into the ground as well.  Today Steve and I got the supports into the ground- Steve will paint them for me tomorrow.  And you know, I haven't even mentioned the boysenberries that are also waiting; there is a bundle of five of them, but I am not as concerned with them as I am the raspberries, which I absolutely love, and the blueberries, which will be hiding my bees for me next year (hence the horseshoe-shaped bed- the bee hive will go in the middle of that). I chose the blueberries because they are deciduous- when the bees need what little sun we get in the winter to warm them, the blueberries won't be in the way. And because I have a mix of early, mid-season, and late ripening berries, there should be something in bloom in that bed for them for most of the spring and summer. I've lots of bee fodder planned for all over the yard, but most of it won't get planted until later, which is why I won't start my hive until next spring.

Okay- one last picture of my old garden, back when I was gardening for pleasure, and not for food.  This is the view from the kitchen, in the late afternoon. I am really glad that I hung on to my old pictures- they remind me that I do good work.

Plus, it just makes me happy.  And the answer is digging clay is worse.  The sod is only so many inches thick- the clay, whether it's true or not, just seems to go on forever, especially when it's wet.

In the Berry, Berry Month of March

For the last two days I have been working on preparing a bed for the raspberries.  

Today involved cutting a hole in the sod for the blueberries, on the theory that I could use some of the soil from the blueberry bed to help fill in the raspberry bed.  

The blueberry bed needs to have some of its soil removed so that I have room for turning some peat moss into it for the sake of making it more acidic.  I am plumb worn out from hucking soil.

Tomorrow I hope to get the stakes and wires in early in the day so that I can get the raspberries planted.  Since it's after ten in the evening, I guess I'd better turn in so I can have a fresh start in the morning. 

G'night.

The Chicken Book I'll Buy

Okay- I've decided that chickens are in our future, particularly because as I keep talking about chickens, Steve is becoming more and more receptive to the idea.  Neither of us are kidding ourselves that we're going to save money on eggs this way.  And today, on our walk, we discovered another backyard with chickens in it.

I've borrowed a few books from the library, and my favorite is The Joy of Keeping Chickens- The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry For Fun Or Profit, by Jennifer Megyesi.  Copyrighted in 2009, the information is timely and relevant, and it's obvious that even though she raises meat chickens, she cares very deeply about their welfare.  I also really enjoyed the prose with which she opened every chapter.  The real kicker for me with this book, however, is that after reading it, I feel confident enough to try my hand at raising chickens. 

The plan is still to wait until next year to do it- that and bees have to wait a year, because I'm still getting my garden and orchard together and I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.  I'm so behind as it is.  But chickens are definitely in the future, I'm sure of it.

Good Things In Small Packages

Since the weather turned bad again, I've been very anxious about the lack of progress that I'm making with the garden.  Yesterday I couldn't stand it anymore, and direct sowed a few things into the one planter box I have that has soil in it- it's the first  that we made from re-using lumber from Randy's old planter.  It's currently holding a couple of artichoke crowns, Red Russian kale, and the garlic I planted last fall, so I added Lacinto kale to the kale beds, and I added carrots (Nantes) and turnips (Yellow Globe, and Purple Top White Globe) to one artichoke bed, and arugula and mesclun mix to the other artichoke bed.  I feel only marginally better.

I hadn't saved any seed out of the twelve pounds of tomatillos I got off of only two plants last year, but Mother Nature saw fit to save some for me. I'd seen these little nets in the old bed, but couldn't imagine what they were and assumed they must have been blown in by the wind from one of the neighbor's yards.  Until I found a perfectly intact, tomatillo-shaped cage holding a batch of seeds.  Since the husk had not burst, I don't know if the seeds are even viable, but I'm willing to find out.  But isn't that neat?

Another Farm Store

This morning started off as rainy and windy as predicted, but also cleared a little in the morning, and I was able to get out and plant the two roses that came yesterday.  I was a little more careful with these than the fruit trees, about which I am still nervous. I don't think I'll breathe a sigh of relief about those trees until they survive until mid-summer.  For the roses I dug huge holes, dumped in almost a foot of river rock at the bottom of the hole, and then put in the amended soil mixture I'm using which is lots of compost mixed with native clay.  Some of the clay I can't use because it's not clay soil, it's clay.   The roses were not bare root, as I expected, but were tiny little first year roses on their own roots. So we'll see.  If I can keep Steve and his string trimmer away from them, they may actually have a chance.

The other event of the day was after driving into the city of Portland for my haircut, I stopped at Naomi's Organic Farm Supply on the way home.  I didn't have my camera with me, which in one sense was a shame, but in another sense, didn't matter, because they aren't set up the same way the other outfit I just reviewed is, so there wasn't as much to photograph.  Naomi's has a much smaller retail space, which was largely filled with small bags of various organic soil amendments, and books- boy, did they have books.  They also had chicks off in one corner, several of which appeared to be pasting up.  Through a door off to one side, I could see a large space where the fifty-pound sacks of various things were kept.  Out front they had a fenced yard with a haphazard stack of concrete blocks and the de rigueur straw all over the place, and three hens happily scratching about in the light rain. Behind them was the hen house. Or so I thought it was the hen house until I saw the goats.  And then the concrete blocks made sense.  The goats were not coming out in the rain for love or money.  Maybe for something wonderful to eat, but I don't know what that is to goats and I sure didn't have any on me.

The folks there were very friendly and helpful, and in that small space it was really crowded with customers and the help- there were at least four employees that I could see.  But the weather was really nasty- at one point I wanted to leave but the heavens had opened up, and I am not too crazy about driving in really heavy rain ever since hydroplaning off the freeway in a downpour in Florida in '92.

I think Naomi's deserves a second look, however, and I'll probably be back- I probably missed a lot.  I can at least call and compare the price of bone meal and rock phosphate, and Naomi's isn't quite the drive into town that the other place is.  I'm beginning to understand what a farm store needs to look like and have on hand, however.  And I know just the place in my town where one could go, but I couldn't compete with Coastal Farm and Ranch, which is too close.  But it's fun to think about it.