Cultivating our own garden and such

We (mostly Sarah) have been seeing some beautiful birds on the hill this spring, to include Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Bluebirds, and Indigo Buntings. We looked up the Indigo and found that the male of the species is actually black, and it is the diffraction produced in the feathers that results in such rich shades of blue and purple. Neat. Sarah managed to nab this picture of one on our rotten log pile. (Sarah's note: It was the first time I have ever seen one, but Mick and his family talk a lot about them. I saw a blue brighter than a bluebird, and thought, that's gotta be it, amazing!)


Dad, you'll appreciate how different this looks now. I've cut some smaller trees down and cleared a few limbs, and then used the brush hog to sort of push back the forest.



What a help that thing has been. We put in 25 hybrid poplars this morning, and three chokecherry trees. With the kubota we just went down the line and filled the bucket with the rocks all that digging produced.

We started putting in our annual garden as well. This time last year our tomatoes were about 2 inches high, we're expecting more from them this year.



We did a raised bed with onions and garlic, and boy have the onions really taken off!



Along with the other trees we put in today, we had two Carmine Jewel Dwarf Cherries. They are cold hardy all the way up to zone 2b! Also, they are naturally dwarfing. Gurney's sells them for 30 bucks, but they had a special and sold 'em for seven. We bought two, and mulched them heavily.



All of that mulch has to come from somewhere, and we sure as heck aren't buying it! That rotten log pile that the Indigo Bunting was on, we've been chopping those up with shovels and using it as mulch.



And we've been using the mulch for just about everything we've planted so far. The next picture is taken from on top of the rotting log pile, and it shows the site of our future orchards, with a bunch of mounds and raised beds in between what we already have established.



And now for one of my favourite things, the vineyard. I ordered 11 grapes from Red Dog Vineyard and I'm reasonably happy. Their prices were very cheap, though the root systems on the Frontenac Grapes were very poorly developed. The other varietals were great, though. So I think I've lost one Frontenac and one Sabrevois (great root system, no idea what happened), so thus far I'm pretty happy. The new grapes look great, and with a distinctive look to the leaves that might mean I'm far more accustomed to older, more american grape hybrids.



I had three Elvira grape vines that I nurtured and kept away from freezing weather all spring (I got 'em from Tractor Supply and they had already leafed out), and I planted them...gosh, when was that horrible wind storm with all the snow? Well, right before that happened I planted them, and all the new green growth died. My reliance, concords, and niagaras had begun leaf flush as well, and they lost their primary buds also. Everything but one Elvira is budding out again, and I'm so excited about the poor Elviras that I've got to include some pictures:





Life is just amazing!

Update Post

About dang time to update! I don't know what we were at when we last posted, but right now we have all 20 asparagus plants up and growing (with a very fast-moving worm trying to cocoon in them), all but 4 of the 43 raspberry plants are up (see the picture above), all four rhubarbs are doing well, we have two apple trees in, four native plums, six bush cherries, four gooseberries, 6 shadberries, 4 peppers, 7 hills of corn, a row of scarlet runner beans, 9 or 10 tomatoes, some parsnips, cabbage, carrots, radishes, sugar and snow peas (which are finally flowering), beets, 4 hazelnut trees, 4 elderberries, 4 wild black cherries, one red maple, two forscythia, two wild apple trees, and 24 grape vines in. One Sabrevois, one Frontenac, one concord, and one Elvira may or may not survive, but all in all not bad considering that blistering wind storm and late frost. We got in two orders today, which include some things I've already mentioned. But what we have that hasn't gone in yet are 4 chokecherries, 25 hybrid poplars, and two Carmine Jewel Dwarf cherries. I'm really excited about the Carmine Jewel, they are cold-hardy to zone 2b, so they shouldn't sweat here, and they are naturally dwarfing. We also have a few things on the way yet, including 3 more grapes, and an early-bearing raspberry. Trouble is, Gurney's is having another sale. It hasn't rained in two weeks, and while they say it's supposed to rain tonight, I'm not sure.

My dad brought up the kubota with the brush hog, so I've gotten a lot of ground mowed. Also, been working with the chainsaw to trim some here, fell some there, and boy does the property look different. Hopefully Sarah will take some pictures tomorrow to throw up here. Dad, you would barely recognize where we put the trees in. Oh, I forgot to mention above the two white walnuts and two black walnut trees we put in.

Anyways, lots of progress and lots of work! We're enjoying it so much, and can't wait to see how things grow.

Help!

Sarah and I just finished some calculations, and we realized that once our current round of wines are finished, we'll need over four cases to bottle them all! So anyone who has bottles, or who will have bottles, please don't recycle them for we have desperate need!

Plans?

So the deployment has really changed things. I feel like I had a plan for the future before, now I've got to regroup and form a new one. Sadly, one that will probably put us in debt. Though, if one must have debt, it might better be a mortgage. Yup, that's the thought. If I DO go overseas in 2013, I want Sarah to have a place to stay where I won't worry about things breaking down on her. If I don't go overseas, well, then I want to live in a place where I won't worry about things breaking down. So we're looking at building within the next two years, getting a VA guaranteed loan possibly. Anyhow, we're looking at building a panelized home to save money and maximize quality, and this is the one we're most attracted to at the moment:
home link We would get rid of the gable over the front door, add a back door, make a bunch of changes to the floor plan, and get rid of the bump out thingy around the front door, and put in a front porch with a roof. So...any comments, suggestions? We haven't a clue what we're doing, so any and all input is appreciated.

But first, a smaller project, we want to buy a shed kit and put that together. This is the one we're looking at: shed link. Cedar, nice and big, and the hope is that someday I can transform it into a sugar shack, way down the road once the house and barn are built.

We made our first batch of dandelion wine the other day, the sticky sap and the yellow pollen gets all over your hands when you pick 'em



Boy does it look funny when you boil the flowers




We'll let you know how it turns out! We also started a tea wine experiment and a ginger wine. The tea sounded interesting and the ginger wine sounded very refreshing, and heavens it smelled good whilst it boiled. Sarah's mom visited yesterday and today, which was fun, and we slept in the living room. (Hooray for slumber parties in the sleeping bag!) Thursday evening there was a mother daughter dinner at church, so they took a picnic basket to bring their table settings and their dish to pass. When Sarah and I were getting ready for bed that night, we found that Gerard had found his own use for the basket.




He's desperately cute.