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All in the Ground

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So it is the end of the three day Memorial Day weekend, and I have barely sat down since Friday. In fact, the frenzy began last week when the long awaited (ordered in January) pollinator garden from Prairie Moon Nurseries arrived. Long have we wanted to put in a garden of native flowers and plants. Finally pulled the trigger last winter. The thing is, I had not prepared the bed where we wanted to put these between the apple trees. The wind was howling. It was cold. It was threatening rain. I spent a LOT of time ripping up creeping Charlie and dandelions. Wednesday, the plants went in. In the same cold wind.  The good news is that the weather changed Saturday. I was able to deal with a project that has sat there taunting me for a long time.  The situation was this: the patio outside my office window was covered with piles of wood chips from splitting wood all winter long. While this stuff makes excellent mulch (see above - no weird colors or dyes, just plain, natural wood) the...
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Sunburn and Firewood

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I hate the spring. Not all of it, of course. But the bit I really hate is the wind and the cold happening when the sun is shining so brightly and things are greening up.  For instance, last Saturday I ran a half marathon in Eau Claire (a lovely time, and a nice town, decent performance - for me - of 2:09:33). I used sunscreen. I saw a lot of people who didn't turning pink. It was 50's at the start, and it warmed into the '60's. Perfect event weather, in my opinion.  After the race and after a nap, we went for a walk around town and in a park. The wind had picked up to gale force, so it was impossible to read a book outside.  We endured mornings in the '30's this past week. Jackets. And the never ending firewood. It's necessary to have a fire every night. Still. In theory, this changes next week. I will believe it when I see it. I do love it every year when the crab apple tree outside of our bedroom window blossoms. But something is off this year. Usually, it...
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Spring is Sprunging

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Slowly, and in fits and starts, the weather is turning. We're still getting snow showers and threats of inches of the stuff, but at the same time, the grass in sunny places is starting to green up. Daffodils are popping up, as are tulips. Time to get some maintenance accomplished and some things in the ground. Today, I put arugula, spinach, and carrots in the ground. Next weekend, or the weekend after, the snow peas will need to go in. Hence I did some maintenance on the trellis (which was somewhat the worse for wear after last year.  Is there anything that you can't  fix with zip ties and chicken wire?  Another outdoor task was to clean up a lot of the tarps that were sort of strewn around the patio after a winter of covering wood, which has now been burned.  Eggplant, two kinds of peppers, and tomatoes are humming along nicely in the greenhouse.  State of the world is terrible, as expected. The geniuses in D.C. decided that masked fascist white supremacist goo...
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Historic Blizzard, 60's, and New Greenhouse Technique

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 This is an image of the Little Snowblower that Could. It began snowing last night about 5:00. We awoke with more than a foot of snow on the ground this morning when we woke, and another several inches on the way. It's still snowing right now (3:00 on Sunday afternoon). It does not show any signs of letting up. This image is currently in the lower left-hand corner of my computer screen: We will probably have to take the wee electric snowblower out again later on. 2" it can handle easily. It really is a lifesaver - or, perhaps more to the point, a back saver. Got it for about $100 six years ago when we moved in. Worth every penny.  Significantly, it doesn't have a small gasoline engine. I hate those things. Is it the pollution? Or is it the fact that stupid small engines are always broken. And then you bring them to some rough-boy, at great expense, who will look at it thoughtfully and talk about stale fuel in the tank, or the carburetor, or the plugs, or whatever it is tha...
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Planning for Summer '26

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The painstaking and surprisingly lengthy process of planning what to plant this summer has begun.  This year we will once again be taking into account the lessons of previous years, mostly in an attempt to stop wasting space and growing future compost. Specifically, this will entail planting just one or two zucchini plants (not 6), a banana pepper plant or two (not half a bed), fewer purple pole beans, and no lousy kale. We never seem to eat it. Crop rotation is going to take the form of "don't plant the same thing in the same place two years in a row." It might be a little bit lazy, but it should get the job done. I'm going to try to get our salad greens out of the direct sun. We've had two years of mediocre harvests, and I think it was because they got scorched in the hot beds down the hill. This year, up by the house where they will get a little bit of shade. We'll be revamping the patio area, which will entail moving a raised bed there and cleaning up the ...
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Martin Luther King Day at Steepmeadow

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It's Martin Luther King Day at Steepmeadow. Most of the outdoor work right now consists of processing wood for the wood stove. It is consuming a great deal, and we're just holding the house at 65 degrees. It's classic January. There was a sale at Seed Savers Exchange , so I purchased most of what we will need for the summer's garden. We have pumpkin, bean, and pepper seeds that we saved from last year. So not terribly expensive this year.  We are in the depths of winter, and plagued by ICE. The federal government has invaded Minnesota with their masked Gestapo kidnapping our neighbors off of the streets.  To paraphrase Henry Rollins on misogyny (also true and exacerbated at the moment), I hate white supremacy, and I see it everywhere.  Normally I try to stick to gardening on this platform, but the whole point of self-sufficiency is to be prepared for emergencies. We are in one now. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. The MN National Guard is on standby to be dep...
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Bitter

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(Kiki's Christmas Drawing) Some might say that it is a little chilly outside. This is actually a heatwave compared to Friday and Saturday. We had minus 13 overnight last night. I can confirm that cars with electricity and bitter cold don't mix very well.  We've burned through the last of last year's wood. Four bags a day this weekend (usually three are sufficient.) Got to keep the home fire burning.  Kiki made chili and curried pumpkin from the summer's vegetables and froze it away for easy good weekday meals. It was a good year. Satisfying to still be eating from the garden. Fingers cold. Brain frozen.   
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