Corn Harvest

The corn forest!

The stalks grew up to 10 feet. But they only produced one cob per stalk, on average.

Some corn cobs didn't grow properly. They are quite beautiful

The husks have beautiful colors

A couple of ladybugs hanging out corn leaves

Greenhouse is finished!

The back door has been covered with fiberglass. I had to order new plastic and metal rods to finish the sides.

I want to build a real front door at some point. But for now, I am hanging some old plastic and using a wood plank to hold it in place when it is closed

I couldn't have finished it without help from my buddy, Mike!

Here are the kale seedlings we planted. I have several other vegetables I will be planting in the next few days.

Sweet Earth Farm

I visited my aunt's farm last month. She has a 5 acre plot on San Juan Island. Her and her family helped create the farmers market for the island; where they sell produce and eggs.

Some of their squash.

I think that is swish chard

Apple Orchard

Some of their chickens. Because of the expense of living on an island they sell a dozen organic eggs for $7!

The piglets! (my favorite) My aunt bought a breeding pair and they have 6 piglets. She is having second thoughts about actually slaughtering them. I personally found them to be adorable but could imagine them being just as delicious as they are cute.

Momma and Poppa

Greenhouse is halfway done

Here is the frame before we started to roll out the plastic.

We used our truck and a ladder to have one person pull the plastic at the middle, and one person on each side of the frame. We had a few friends come help us with this step. Otherwise, even a little wind could have gotten us into some serious trouble.

Here is what it looks like with the plastic on top. We still need to install the doors, and buy more plastic to cover the sides of the greenhouse.

Even without the sides or doors, we have a lot more covered area to work with. The front half of the greenhouse will function as a workshop for now.

Plants love things that smell like poop

Now that we are starting to see some tassels on our corn plants it is time to fertilize them, so we can harvest more corn cobs. Earlier, We did a few treatments of fish emulsion, which is high in Nitrogen, (which is great for encouraging vegetative, non-reproductive, growth). Now we are switching over to peanut husks, (you know the thin little shells around the peanut, inside the shell). Peanut husk is very high in Phosphorus and Potassium, which is great for encouraging reproductive growth.

We placed the peanut husk into a barrel and added water. We let it sit for a few days, so that the nutrients would seep into the water. Next, we dumped the mixture over a screen into a stock tank. This separated out the bigger pieces so we could pump the remainder directly onto the corn plants.

Here are our advanced tools: a shovel and a bucket.

We be Jammin

I have been making jam out of a local invasive plant; chokecherries. Chokecherries were brought here by the pioneers as a food source and the wood was used to make tool handles. Nowadays they are considered a pest because they grow aggressively and the cherries are too tart, and have huge seeds for their size (hence the name chokecherries). But after seeing all the canning supplies at the store I looked into making jam out of them. It turns out you can make jam by boiling the cherries and saving the "juice".

The jam made this way isn't very thick because there isn't any pulp, but it is much easier to make because it doesn't require me to pit the cherries. It has been raining the last few days which will plump up the blackberries that grow all over the area. Once it stops raining, I am going to make some blackberry jam and some chokecherry-blackberry jam.

Too much of a good thing

We had a really hot July; high 90s here, and 100+ in the city; and it has taught me a valuable lesson: even sun-loving plants can be overwhelmed by intense sunlight. Most of our vegetables were dying before they could be harvested. The tomatoes were bursting themselves because they were taking in so much water it would rupture the skin of the tomato fruit.

Within a few days, this basil plant went from looking green, and totally healthy, to what you see here. Part of this was due to inconsistent watering (we didn't get the timers up until mid July)

We covered our garden with shade-cloth. This allows some of the daylight to reach the plants, but will reflex back most of it.

These peppers were turning black and falling off the plant. But thanks to the shade cloth, they are now producing healthy, colorful vegetables.

Water, Water Everywhere

We just set up our irrigation. We have 5 lines set up to a timer system. The timer sends a current to a solenoid, which opens the valve. Here is a picture of three solenoids.

We have a variety of drip systems; soaker-hose, tee-tape, and emitters.For our corn we set up long lines of tee-tape. Tee-tape is a plastic tube that has tiny perforations, set at intervals, that slowly drips water along a path. The following picture shows where the tee-tape connects to the main drip line.

As you can see, Our corn is doing quite well.

And while we are talking about water, I just got a job delivering water bottles. It is tough work, especially in this heat, but I am getting into great shape and I like the company I am working for.

A Dog and Her Boy

I adopted a dog from the local humane society! I've had her for two weeks now and she is working out great. Her name is Jenna, she is mostly black lab, with some pointer or maybe retriever. She is very affectionate and loves swimming. I am hoping I can get her onto the kayak!

Not only is she a lot of fun to have around; but she will also help with the farm. She gives the deer a little incentive to give our crops some space. And she can also scare off nocturnal pests like raccoons, foxes, skunks and bears. I've also been told that you can buy little saddlebags for your dog, and they tend to behave better while wearing them on a hike, because they are given a sense of responsibility.

Country Corn Flakes

Our corn has been in the ground for about a month now. It is amazing how quickly corn grows.

The seed we used promised 80% germination but we probably got a little under 50%. This could have been because the seed was old. We can harvest the new seed and try again, and see if the germination rate goes up.

We have added several different kind of fertilizers, added drip lines, then covered the area with hay, (to reduce water loss and weed growth).

We had to build a fence to keep the deer out. Usually a fence this high wouldn't keep deer out because they can hop over it. But since there is so much else for them to eat (our older apple trees are not fenced), the fence has been working as a deterrent.

You see a lot of deer around here, and they will get quite close to you. Here are some pictures I took right from my bedroom window.

Spontaneous Combustion

After being here for only two weeks, I had quite an exciting surprise, a brush-fire! I had removed some weeds and tomato vines, from last year's crop, in order to make room for planting some oregano and sage plants. I placed all of this dead material on top of a pile of hay. The weather was in the high 90s all day and the combination of the temperature and the heat from the decomposition caused the brush-pile to spontaneously combust. I didn't actually see it ignite, I just looked out my window and saw a ton of black smoke. I ran out there and put it out with an extinguisher and a hose.



Here you can see what the garden area looked like right after the fire.

Here is one my poor oregano plants. I lost 5 of the 6 oreganos I planted, the sage looks like it is going to make it.

Nestled in the hills of the Applegate Valley lies a little farmhouse.

Welcome to my blog. I just moved up my dad's farmhouse and I wanted to create a blog, to not only allow me to keep track of my progress here, but share it with others. So, without further ado, here is what we currently working on

Here are some Santa Rosa Plums. We have a few small orchards where we are growing plums, prunes, walnuts, olives, pears, and apples.

We have a small vegetable and herb garden near the house. We are currently growing tomatoes, tomatillos, basil, poblano peppers, and bell peppers (pictured here).

Here you can see the new little corn sprouts we just put in. It is becoming increasingly harder to find Non-GMO corn so we decided to grow some heirloom corn. We can harvest the seeds, for future use, and eat the rest.