gardening, self-sufficiency, homesteading, food preserves diary
Blog documenting progress in transforming new property (50 acres - mostly wooded) into garden-farmette . Trying to become more self-sufficient and more self-aware.
I got to farm a bit late. I immediately got to work mowing the front - all the grass is tall because we skipped last weekend. I didn't even get the front mowed before the rains came. I decided to go out to the shop to try out my new keyway milling cutter.
I grabbed an old piece of junk steel - probably some hot rolled stuff - and turned it relatively true (I really just turned off the rust and pitting)
Then I just placed the rod in the milling vise - did a slip-shod eyeball alignment and started cutting!
It actually cut very nicely. The measure width is 0.191" I should check them width for fit before I do the arbor.
I will "dial in" the actual arbor to make sure everything is good. I still haven't confirmed that the tool will fit into where it needs to be for the arbor keyway.
Since it was raining so much this weekend I couldn't get out to do much on the farm, so I went ahead and dialed in my abor on the milling machine. I had to really mess with the setup to get things aligned - but I finally got it good enough!
My duplicate arbor
the original arbor
Both new and old - side by side. Very close match! I couldn't mill into the flange as far, but I did a fit test into the spindle and mine fits perfectly!
Not bad for my first "woodruff' keyway cut!
The fact that the edge of the cut looks square indicates that I was aligned with the center of the shaft.
Garden planting
I worked all day on the paw-paw patch. I first mowed around the patch to make putting the new fence up easier. It fought me - but I got the fence in and the sweet potatoes and tomatoes transplanted. There is still plenty of space in the patch yet. I only had 37 sweet potatoes - 13 had died because they were shipped so early and hanging out under lights since then. I started planting them about a foot apart, but expanded them out to maybe 2 feet by the end of planting. Its just 2 rows of sweetpotato. I had 18 tomatoes to transplant - I just spaced them out to fit in one row.
Here is a new garden layout diagram:
Fence is up and the sweet taters are in
Paw paw patch still has room for something
Sweet potatoes are in - 37 of them out of the 50 I bought - the rest died :(
All of the tomatoes are in
It was raining so much that I barely had time to plant any corn. I did manage to get 3 rows of "old" seed in. This might work out OK - they suggest staggered planting so that you have fresh corn over a wide range of time.
The brassicas that i planted last time are looking good!
Elderberries
They are blooming!
Sugar and Frisco
We took the puppies out for walks. Katherine is scared to death they will get lost out there in the woods so I bought some fencing and will try to put it up next weekend.
Wednesday and Thursday Katherine had been talking about 2 dogs she had seen online that were adoptable. She really wanted to go see them, even though they were at a shelter near Philly. So Thursday afternoon we headed out (not great timing - Memorial day weekend, rush hour, hot, etc).
The trip back was not near as bad as the trip up. Still took some time though
Nice sunset. We didn't get home until about 9:30pm
This is a really nice shelter and the staff are wonderful!
We got there after about 3 hours and they let us have some time with the pups. they were bath very shy and poor Sugar was quite scared and timid. We got good vibes from both though and Katherine gave the green light. We bought some stuff for the dogs while we were there. Leashes, collars, cages. They gave us a bag of puppy food each and some old towels/blankets for the cages. It was a special for memorial day weekend; 2 for 1! So we got out for under $500 for everything! These pups are neutered, have their shots and even have a chips already installed. We even got a health information folder on each dog! We have a vet appointment this upcoming Wednesday to get a better idea about their health, just to be sure. Frisco's got some stitches from being fixed that don't look great (he keeps licking at them) and Sugar's ears look a bit red.
Sugar Getting comfy!
Aww, first night in new home. Passed out
Sugar getting some water
Playing dog games!
More dog games!
We have a little barrier at the top of the stairs to keep them from the downstairs and the foyer. Frisco looks so cute peeking up over the barrier!
Shih-Tzu's are known to be energetic and needing exercise. Frisco must have two dogs inside of him - he is pure energy!
Sugar, checking this plant out
Frisco, in a rare moment of not moving
Sugar, resting soundly after chewing on new toy
Air Conditioning, Raised beds and new plantings
I was planning on going to the farm this Memorial day weekend, but we thought it a better idea to stay home and let the dogs get used to us. Also we thought that driving them that far so soon would add to their disorientation.
In anycase, it was hot here and I was tired of the portable AC's inefficiencies. Those roll around units just don't bring them temperature under control like the window units do. So I got two new window units - one for my office and one for the living room. They installed fairly easily (heavy - but not like the old window units) and they are super efficient. They maintained house temp nice and cool during hot weekend (it got almost to 90F).
After taking care of some dog issues I was able to get some plants in the ground. The peppers and the one eggplant I had were transplanted into a raised bed. I had room left over in that bed so I planted some more eggplant seed. They seed was obviously not germinating well, so i just dumped the last of the packets into the soil. If too many come up I will just thin them. I did the same with some tomato seed in the "kale" bed. I had only used about 2/3'rds of the kale bed so I used the rest for tomatoes. Finally, I re-spaded the raised bed next to the woodpile and planted about half of it with cucumbers. I left the summer squash seed up at the farm. I will bring them back next time we go up and plant a few hill in the cucumber bed.
I had to put some fencing up around the beds because the dogs think its super fun to dig in them! I left the fencing off the potato patch, but I also found that the dogs will plow into them when playing, so I am starting to place some fencing around them as well.
The Kale and Collards are looking good.
Potatoes on left, about half of right bed is planted in cucs
peppers and eggplant on left, Kale and tomatoes in center, potatoes on the right.
I made some Kale crackers with some of the kale that I thinned from the bed.
I re-tried a recipe for Kale crackers that I had used a couple years ago. I think its the same recipe - or very similar anyway. Its basically 6 C Kale, 1 C almonds, 1/4C nutritional yeast and seasonings. Here is a link to the actual recipe (which I only vaguely followed): Kale Cracker Recipe They did turn out super yummy! I will make more this year, I am sure! These are nice nutritious and have no processed food ingredients. We are trying to eat better - removing as much processed foods from our diets as we can stand. I would still like to produce everything that we eat, but that's just not possible yet.
