Month: February 2019

I have a lot of stories to tell. Some of them hang out on my homesteading blog, some on my travel and hiking blog. All the stories that do not fit into those two categories are going to end up here.

I also have a lot of opinions I would like to share. Sometimes I think I have it all figured out, then I realize that I never will. Still, I think that writing them down helps me , even if no one else reads them.

I usually have too many irons in the fire. It can be hard to stick to one thing. Now, I won’t have to. Readers who are more single minded can now stick to their one thing. I will continue to move here and there and back again, depending on what makes me happy that day. I never was any good at keeping to one track and I don’t see why anyone should have to. Life is too short to limit ourselves according to other peoples whims.

I went to the Speak Story fundraiser last night at the Community Club in Shepherdstown, and something Jim May, the guest story teller, said resonated with me. I cannot remember what words he used exactly , but the gist of it was, that although many writers feel compelled to force themselves to sit down and write, even when it is frustratingly unproductive for them, that he just could not make himself do it. When he gets stuck the best thing for him is to get up and do something else he enjoys. Go for a walk, or work in the garden, or watch the birds, something to totally take his mind off the writing task. Then he gets relaxed enough that the ideas can make their way in and inspiration fills him back up. I was the one in the audience who could not help but clap and say, YES!

I hate being put in boxes. All kinds of boxes. Even cardboard ones . There are stories in me about that. When I cannot settle down to write, there are plenty of other things I can do. I have many ongoing projects to choose from. Some of them make it to a list, others get done and then I put them on the list just so I can cross them off. Sometimes I have to stew on an idea for a good long while before come up with a workable solution. When I finally figure it out though, I get right on it.

For instance, I have been trying to come up with some way to make a raised bed for our strawberry patch. We hate crawling around at ground level to weed and pick them. Growing our own food makes us both happy though, so we persist. It is really nice to have all we need in the freezer.

Originally, I planted the strawberries under the young blueberry plants. That worked for awhile, but then as they grew matted together,it became really difficult to pick them without stepping on the plants.

Then I decided to try growing them in straw bales. That raised them up nicely but the straw rotted over the summer and the straw sunk back down so I had to rescue them. It was a good idea for annuals like tomatoes, but not for long lived plantings.

So next, I moved them to a couple of hilled up beds in the veggie garden. I mounded the soil up about a foot high and 2 feet wide, which made it a little easier to reach them. Then I made wire arches and used remay cloth to protect them them from the birds and frosts. This was working pretty well until some stray cherry tomato seedlings moved in after harvest practically smothered the poor strawberry plants. The plants that survived took a hit with the 0.5F degree temps we had a couple of weeks ago. With all the rain we had this fall (68 inches this year!) I did not get them mulched for winter and the poor things froze to death.

Every year I try an come up with a raised bed system that does not cost too much and I keep failing. Then yesterday I was looking out the kitchen window and saw the old metal, round bale-surround sitting out in the woods. I do not use round bales anymore since I am down to one horse and she cannot be exposed to any moldy hay. The outer edges of round bales can go bad from sitting out in the weather. Small square bales kept in the barn are safer and there is less waste.

I looked at the surround and thought, I could use that as a raised bed frame. We went out and rolled it into the yard and measured it. It is 8 feet across and can be filled 30 inches deep. Seems like a pretty good solution. We will need 14 cubic yards of good soil to fill it, which is my next project. We have it sitting on the back lawn in a spot with plenty of sun, where I will pass by it on the way to the barn twice a day. We cannot see it from the porch, which is good, since it is not the prettiest thing in the world. I might paint the outside green instead of the galvanized grey color.

Since it might be a little hard to reach the center, I am working on ideas for that now. Maybe fill the center with a sculpture like a homemade clay garden gnome? Maybe sink the old water conditioner cylinder in the middle and use it as a water reservoir? Make a fountain? A pole to hold a bird house? Maybe not that since birds love berries and it will need bird netting.

In the meantime I need to find a good source of weed free topsoil, get it delivered, and then get someone with a loader on their tractor to dump it in for me. I cannot get a big truck back there and mine would take about 28 trips. Or I could rent a bobcat. That would be fun. That opens up other possibilities for even more projects, like that path through the front woods or the underground greenhouse I want to build. Way too many ideas now.

See what I mean?