Vacation over. For now.

The new Grape arbors are done!

After milling enough of the 2x4's for the tops I leveled the upright posts an installed the 2x4's on them.  I used some truss plates that were leftover from the previous owner.  I had to go to Home Depot to get another 20 to finished the last row.  I think they look super!

There are a few that are out of line, but for the most part they are fairly straight and square.  Good enough for grape vines anyway!

Note that they are not level but slope own a bit in addition they are stepped down the slope of the hill.

The new grape vines took a little damage from falling 2x4's - but for the most part they are ok!  With regard to the leaf rust issue, I think that either the sulfur dusting worked or simply the weather is not favorable for the fungus to grow.

The concord grapes look the best of all.  This is there 2nd year

These are the Marquis grapes - they re-sprouted from the ground, they were hit so bad with that damn leaf rust!  I hope they survive the winter.  I will have to use lots of mulch to help them stave of the cold.

High tensile wire

Once the 2x4 tops were placed and secured I was then able to install the high tensile wire for the grapes to grow onto.  I didn't want to install that wire without having the tops installed because then tensioning the wire would have severely displaced the posts!  I had to bug more high-tensile wire at TSC.  It ran about $100 for 4000ft.  This was ok, but I only needed a bit less than 500ft, so I have a bit left over!  I made a wooden enclosure for the high tensile wire as I was afraid that it would spring out of hand and get tangled after I removed the holding clips.  The whole roll of wire and the oak wood enclosure is freaking heavy!  I put the roll on the back of the UTV and unwound it in place. The wire behaved well when handled this way.

 

I tied on some surveyors tape to make the high-tensile wire a bit more visible.  This should help me when mowing and maybe even chase away some deer.

Sweet potatoes are blooming!

Even though its super dry, the sweet potatoes in the big garden are blooming.  I got some pictures of this one bloom before it finished.  There were more but they dropped off before I got around to photos.  The sweet potatoes in the paw-paw patch are looking very lack-luster.  They are not thriving and I doubt I will get much (if anything) off of them.  Its too bad since the paw-paw patch ones are the ones I bought and for which I know the pedigree!

Brussel Sprouts are looking good!

If the weather doesn't do anything too weird we should get a decent brussel crop harvest!

I have several nice brussel sprout plants!  There are some red ones at the far left that you can't really see - I don't know if they will produce many this year.  I just want to try them - never had a red sprout before!

They were this size in like November last year!  These should get to a good size way before that!

Tomatoes looking rough - but still producing

The plants aren't monsters but they still are getting some tomatoes on.  I have been getting enough for about 10 pints (5 quarts) for the past several weekends now.

Oh, just a side note, since you see the potato row there all dug up:  I got enough potatoes to cover the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket!  I think will need to use all of the saveable potatoes as seed potatoes for next year.

Kale and peppers

I have been harvesting the Kale pretty regular now for the past several weekends.  I got enough to make a big stir fry (although really a bit tough for that) and some braised kale (see below) and I also gave quite a bit to a friend at work.  Looks like it will be producing for quite a while yet.  I have so much lft over in the freezer from last year I haven't been freezing any (freezer is full of elderberries!).

The bell peppers at the farm.  They are actually doing ok!  Picked a couple this weekend.  One was even red!

Castor Beans

 Most have blossoms and seed pods on now!  They are so pretty.  I think I have 3 or 4 different varieties here!  I will have to save some seed.  No ead moles that I have found, but I did find a dead rat right next to a castor bean plant!  So who knows, the beans might be doing their job!

Red-stem variety

Silverish stem variety

Green stem variety

Some kind of fungus on one crab apple tree

This white fungus like stuff is on one of my crab-apples trees.  It doesn't look good.  I am going to o some investigation to see if I can get rid of this!  The dormant oil treatment early in the year didn't seem to knock this out.

It's kind of feathery and dusty/  

Tomatoes processed

I didn't get a picture of the harvest but here are some pictures after processing this weekends harvest into more pasta sauce.  This is pure tomato this time, no apples or pears! LOL

Farm cooking- potatoes and braised kale for dinner

I sorted the potatoes that I dug at the farm and took the ones that weren't going to keep.  I boiled them for dinner.  The kale I brought back got braised with sweet italian sausage, our own onions and our own garlic (I also added about a cup of broccoli that I had harvested as well)!  I used purchased chicken stock for the braising liquid.  Was very good and was dinner for 2 nights.

Pears

I harvested all the pears I could find this weekend.  I had to, the birds had all but 2 of the remaining pears pecked to pieces!  I peeled some of the damaged ones that were salvageable and Katherine and I ate a bunch - they were so good!  I also made an asian pear slaw using some asian sesame bottled dressing.  The slaw wasn't so great.  It ha nice texture but the pear taste was overwhelmed by the dressing.

Pumpkins and spaghetti squash

I harvested some more pumpkins and spaghetti squash this weekend.   I really don't need either, but there it is.  I may try to make some pies or custard with some.  I certainly will take some to work to give away!  Maybe try a squash casserole like recipe?   

A few more Eggplants 

I picked 3 eggplant this weekend.  I picked them a bit small, since Katherine mentioned that the one variety needs to be picked small to keep from developing hard seeds.  There are more to come!

Oh, and Turkeys!

I almost forgot, I was doing my final property survey before packing to come home, an while driving around the big field, in the woods, I saw two turkeys - both female, hens, (I think), running quietly along trying not to be seen.  Its the first time I have seen turkeys here since the spring (I think).

Cherry trees and grape vines

Prelude to planting...

I got an email from FedEx last Tuesday saying that my Cherries and Grape Vines would be at the farm Wednesday!  I contacted FedEx and was able to delay the delivery until Friday (for $5).  Katherine and I got to the farm around 10:30am and FedEx showed up around 11:30am!

I had plenty to do before getting the trees and vines planted though.  The ground was very wet (it was raining on and off Friday) so doing anything with the soil was impossible.  I checked the grape arbor posts and decided that they needed another coat of copper naphthenate.  I got a good coat on them and let them to dry.

Later on my brother Tom called and wanted to know if they could come over Saturday morning to get a tour and then go grab some lunch.  We agreed.    I decided to put the last coat of polyurethane  on the canning shelves so that they would be dry.   I built a good fire in the fireplace to make sure everything dried out downstairs.

"Easter" with the family

Well, mom, my brother Tom and his wife Julie came over around 10ish Sat morning and I proceeded to walk them around the farm showing everything I was working on.  We finished the tour around noon and then Katherine, me and the rest of the family traveled into McConnellsburg for lunch.  Tom took some pictures during the farm tour - here are a few:

A great panorama shot looking out toward the valley from the top of my field.

Me on the left, Tom in the middle and Mom on the right.  Checking out the Pecan trees

Mom next to a Pecan tree - looks like she is checking out the White Walnut trees
The butternut trees are not in the picture, but off-frame to the left.

A view of the wood-house-it made it through the winter!
The box leaning up against the wood inside contains the cherry trees and grape vines

Walking up to the nut trees.  That is Mom in the white and me in the black.

Still on the trek to the nut trees.  Mom is watching her step.  I am ahead there on the left with Julie on the right (in blue)

Mom, Tom, and Me!

Planting the Cherry Trees

After Katherine and I  returned to the farm it had dried out enough that I could plant the cherry trees. First I marked where I wanted to place the trees in the front "cherry area".  I placed the Dwarf Star Sour Cherry trees (6 of them) between the old sour cherries and the house.  My logic was that since they are dwarf trees they would not obstruct my view to the other trees when they got larger.  Meh.  I placed the Montmorency cherry trees (again, 6 trees) to the right of the old sour cherry trees, as you look from the house to the road.  When I was done I placed the spiral "rabbit protectors" around them and then I went to laying out the grape arbor posts.  After that I called it a night.  Later in the weekend I put wood shavings around the cherry trees to help keep the grass and weeds down.  

The new ones don't have any wood chips by their base in this picture.  20 sour cherry trees!  4 sweet cherry on the far left.

The wine grapes

The next day we had to pop over to Mom's to get my post-hole digger and digging iron.  Tom has been working on the upkeep of Mom's fence and he needed a post hole digger.  Anyway, I picked up some old short steel posts that I hope to use for my expanded electric fence around my cherry trees and gardens.  Katherine picked up mom's old electric slicer.  Mom said I could have the old garden posts too - they are the large metal posts that I will certainly need soon when I add to my garden,

Once we got back to the farm, unpacked, and ate lunch it was about 1:30pm!   I got the auger ready and started drilling out the post holes.   I cleaned the holes up with the post-hole digger.  Fortunately, despite being in a rocky area, the posts went in nicely with only a little movement needed to get the deep holes I needed.  I brought the posts down from the barn using the front-loader.  I brought 3 posts at a time since the front-loader can't really hold a lot (more at once would have gotten in the way anyway).   I used a level to get the posts nice and straight and aligned.  It took a few hours, but I got all the posts in.  They look pretty good!  

While I was working on the posts, Jay Knepper dropped by to pay rent on the field.  We got to talking and I asked him about cutting down some of the trees on the other side of the sheep pasture fence - he said they were probably on my property anyway, but even if they were on his it was OK to cut them down.  Until those trees are down I am afraid to plant anything on the hill facing the sheep pasture.  They are BIG trees and would destroy anything in their fall zone.

Anyway, I got back to the grapes and got them all planted.  It was tricky though - that ground has a lot of stones in it.  It was hard to find dirt to cover the grape roots!  I made sure to use the rhizome inoculate and the goop that makes it all stick and hold water.  I also watered them all in.  They will need a lot of luck if the weather gets dry this year!    I planted Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel grapes.

I need to put the tops on the arbors and run the wire too, but that all can wait.  I just wanted the posts in there now because putting in posts after the rape vines are in would be a nightmare!

Between the posts, there are little dirty areas - those are where the grape vines are planted!  

This bank where I planted the grapes and hazelnuts is a drain-way for the mountain.  It doesn't drain through here so much as to be running with water (usually), but it always seems to have moisture without having any standing water.

Wood mulch

I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did put wood chips, plane shavings, and saw dust around all of my planted trees that weren't otherwise protected - the grapes, the apples, pears, peaches and plums.  I even started putting some around the paw-paws - but I ran out of time.  I will need to finish those off next week.  

Preparing for the next wave...

I have arranged to take off some time from work so that I can plant the next wave of trees and get the gardens started.  I pulled up a lot of the barbed wire fencing along the top of my pasture (to the right of the apples as you look from the road).  I also got the tractor in there and pulled most of the posts and brambles.  However, I still need to do a lot of prep work on that ground before I can plant trees there!  I still haven't decided whether to use tree protectors or not.  I am thing that I will put in 2 rows of locust.  Katherine suggests using the tree protectors only on the top row and hopefully that will provide some deer protection as well as a visual guide to whoever mows that field!

Oh - and seedlings are coming along!

We left the seedlings here to fend for themselves this weekend.  They survived!  In fact, some of the pepper plants are finally emerging!

They are reaching for the window light (I didn't leave a light on for them).  Tomatoes, brasicas, and eggplants in there.

You can't see them - but there are some pepper plants coming up in there!