May 31, Weekend Wrap-up

It was an interesting weekend! It was great to spend lots of time with my honey, but I was able to do that because of unfortunate vehicle troubles. J came down for a visit on Saturday a.m. We went exploring a little, and even did a drive-by of a property for sale in Mondovi, WI. Hadn't been able to connect with the realtor, so all we could do was look at it from the road. The property seemed OK, but who knows about the house?!? It always seems to be one or the other: the property is great, but the buildings stink, or vice versa.

Sunday was a bit frustrating, because J was having trouble with the motorcycle. He wanted to get it fixed and head back home to his commitments there, but, it wasn't to be. Finally, we went to Winona to pick up some things for the repair job and some other shopping I had to do. Dropped in on A&K and had a great break from the aggravations of broken-down vehicles.

We thought we had the problem fixed, and J took off this a.m., but didn't get far. He ended up taking "Dora" the Explorer home. We'll have to find parts for the Gold Wing, and then decide if it's better to bring the parts down here to the bike, or bring the bike up to the cities to get fixed. Sheesh. What a mess.

We did have lots of time to talk about the things I'm doing here, and things we might do in the future, so I feel like it was good overall.

May 28

Pizza Night last night was a record-breaker! 105 pizzas! This was by far her busiest May pizza night. Even last year, with live music she sold about 75 on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. The kitchen was a frantic place. We ran out of just about everything, and from about 7:30 on, there was one person practically dedicated to prepping more ingredients. We did a new pizza, Spinach-Alfredo that seemed to be a hit. (She's served it before, so maybe it wasn't really NEW to everyone, but this was the first time this year.) We called it a night about 10:30.

Today (after a later start) we finished the clean up from last night, did some weeding, and harvested asparagus. In conjunction with a trip into Fountain City, we checked out Seven Hawks Vineyard. I loved their Frontenac Reserve '08 and the Edelweiss '07. All their wines are made from grapes created at the U of M, especially for growing in colder climates. (J & I have Frontenac Gris grapevines in the backyard!)

Looking forward to: Grilling burgers for dinner (with some Frontenac Reserve '08!), maybe seeing my honey tomorrow, and a long weekend.

May 26

This horrible creature (shown here in the last moments of his pathetic little life) is a Colorado Potato Beetle. It is in the process of destroying one of the few remaining leaves on this poor eggplant. As we watered today, we found over 20 of them on two flats. These flats are in the hoop house--far from where the potatoes were last year. How they made their way there, I have no idea.



They are natives of Colorado  where they fed on buffalo bur, which was "of no economic importance". When potatoes were introduced to the area, they quickly spread from potato patch to potato patch, making its way to the East Coast by 1874. It can now be found in almost all areas of the North America. They have few natural predators, and even those aren't able to control them as fast as they can reproduce. They overwinter 12"-16" below ground, and emerge in the spring to dine on pototo plants and breed.

She grew potatoes last year, and had a big problem with them. They devoured most of her plants, giving her almost no harvest. Her father, who lives a few miles away, hasn't had a problem with them, so he's growing the potatoes for the CSA members this year on his land.

In the abscence of potato plants, they will eat eggplant, tomato, cabbage, and some other crops. They have developed a resistance to most commercial pesticides, and there are virtually no effective organic methods, other than squashing the little buggers. (Oh, and they have a little shell on them. They're not even easy to crush.)

There are, of course, lots of theories and anecdotal remedies and repellants, but for every idea you read that worked for one person, there's someone else that has tried it without success. The methods range from seeming a little impractical (a plastic-lined trench around the field to be protected) to the totally bizzarre (puree the adult beetles and spray on the crops...eeew). We are still looking for ideas, especially now that they have discovered the eggplant.

May 25

Another hot and steamy day. Sheesh.

We got started early (6:00 a.m.) to take advantage of the coolness (ha!) of the morning. I was still sweating in shorts and a tank top by 7:00 (maybe even 6:30 the humidity is so bad).

We're still trying to get eggplants transplanted into the ground in the hoop house, but there is one difficulty after another. Now a belt on the tiller needs to be replaced.

We did more weeding (onions, kohlrabi, bok choy, cabbages upon cabbages, carrots, and more I can't remember) and seeding (Indian corn, pumpkins--large, medium and small, gourds, and more I can't remember).

Called it a day about 1:30 and had lunch, a shower and a nap.

The CSA's start next week! People will start to reap the rewards of all this work!

May 24

Wow. Hot day today. It reached 90º this afternoon, and the humidity is awful. Luckily, when I am done with this post I can escape to my nice cool 56º room.

Alert to the squeamish, some vet services were provided today. Feel free to skip down 4 paragraphs.

The vet came out today. No one is sick, but there were some, ah, maintenance things to get caught up on. The year-old calves were still, um... "intact" and that was taken care of today. It's much easier when they are younger. The baby calves we just got a few weeks ago have been taken care of simply by H's dad a week ago or so. There's a special rubber band-like device that is put on them and restricts blood flow until the offending organ shrivels up. At that point, they hardly even notice it. But, with the bigger guys, the task just never made it to the top of the to do list last year. It's similar to dogs, they can get much more aggressive and even territorial with all that testosterone pumping through them.

The baby calves were "disbudded" today, too. As they get older and bigger, if their horns are allowed to grow, they can cause a lot of damage, to each other and to anyone trying to handle them (moving them from point A to point B for whatever reason). So, it is very common to use a Disbudding Iron to burn the "budding" horn so it won't grow.

I wanted to be brave and witness these events. When they started with the bigger boys, I had to leave for a while. But, there was really only a moment of "complaint" from them. Then, they were just pissed off because they were being confined. Four hundred pounds of pissed off cow (and these bigger ones still have their horns) can be bad. All was fine, though. I came back into the barn about 1/2 way through the first one, but I stayed where I couldn't actually see what they were doing! The babies seemed to not feel much either. They, too just didn't like being held. We also had some natural anesthetic for them that relaxed them quite a bit. Within a half hour the anesthetic had worn off, and they seemed just like they've always been.

Next on the list for today was weeding some more of the carrots. We limited it to one row today. After lunch, we planted some and weeded some, but called it an early day with the heat.

A shower and a nice dinner, and I'm feeling quite human again!

May 23

I thought I'd throw you off by posting on a weekend...see if you all are paying attention! Ha ha!

Friday was a nice, easy day for the "farm hands". We harvested some salad greens from the hoop house for the co-op, and for ourselves, and tore the rest out. It will be too hot in there for them very soon (this week?!?) and the heat-loving eggplant are ready to be planted in their place. No need to fret over the salad greens, though. There is plenty more. Some that is ready to be harvested, and some that was just seeded in another bed a few days ago.

After that, we visited a local woman that grows and sells herbs. Most of the herbs for CSA members have come from her in the past. This year, H got more plants from her and will be planting them here for the members that ordered herbs. (They are not normally included in the share boxes, but members can purchase them "a la carte" in addition to their regular box.)

Then, we were off to Danzinger Vineyards. Last fall, H gave them 100 pounds of raspberries in exchange for a case of wine this spring. What a deal, huh?!? We learned that most fruit wines these days are made from syrups, not real fruit. The wine they made was great. Not overly sweet like some can be. We got to sample their other varieties too, and learned about their vineyard/winery. This is the first season they are open to the public. Their opening day was only a few weeks ago, but they've already sold about 300 cases of wine. They have 18,000 cases available this year and have built the place with the hopes of eventually reaching 30,000 cases a year. After our field trip we delivered the greens we harvested to the co-op.

I didn't go home this weekend, but did a little exploring around the area. Checked out the town of Alma yesterday. There were several really nice gift shops/art galleries/antique stores to wander through. Made me wish I was a millionaire so I could buy it all.

J is on a bicycle ride this weekend, a circle tour of Lake Pepin. (Don't get me started on their use of the word "Lake".) Anyway, they started in Red Wing, MN, and crossed into Wisconsin, traveling on British 3-speed bikes--most people in some form of period costume--down WI 35 eventually crossing the river again at Nelson, WI, and into Wabasha, MN for dinner last night. I met up with him in Stockholm, WI at his lunch stop. We looked around there for a while and had awesome homemade pie at The Stockholm Pie Company. Today, they head back to Red Wing on the Minnesota side. Their goal: To make as many stops as possible along the route.

Also on my agenda yesterday was to find a "real" grocery store. Turns out, that's quite a task. The closest one seems to be in Winona. It's worth it, though, to have some ingredients on hand to cook with. I miss cooking!!! After my journey to find a produce department, I took in the atmosphere at a local (Alma) bar. A family friend lives in Alma, and tends bar there. I got to meet a few locals and hear some stories over a very cheap adult beverage.

Temperatures are slowly creeping up (although yesterday wasn't as hot as they were predicting), but the humidity is skyrocketing. It's overcast today, so that will keep it from becoming too uncomfortable. Hopefully, next week won't be too bad either. There's plenty of time for that yet!!!

May 19

I'm noticing more changes this week. The weather has been the most dramatic. Last week, I was in my winter jacket with wet, frozen fingers and toes most of the days. This week it's shorts and tank tops, a bit of sunburn, and purposely getting my hands wet in the well water because it is so cool. Isn't there something in between 40º and 80º??

Another change is in me. I've gone from the "newbie" on the farm, to the one answering Marty's questions. Even more amazing to me is that I actually know the answers to most things he asks! Why are we doing things this way or that? When will this happen? When do we do that? Etc. Very interesting to feel that shift. Makes me realize that, no matter how much I still have to learn myself, I've already learned a lot, and it's sticking! Woo hoo!

The latest change today was that there is once again peeping, chirping life in the barn room where the "meat" birds were. Yes, we got more! They arrived in today's mail, if you can believe it! We counted 118 as we took them out of their boxes. They are tiny, and look like they just popped out of an Easter basket. They started pecking around at the food we put out for them, and we held some of them to the waterer so they'd get the idea and tell their friends.

On the other meat birds, she said today that the ones she has left are pretty much spoken (and paid) for. The ones that were lost were going to be for her and her family, and to sell to others that inquire. She will now barely break even on the cost of raising them.

Today, besides welcoming the new peeps, we finished putting together the compost bin area for the composting toilets. Carbon/nitrogen, air, water and time. That's all you need!

We also put in about 300 tomato plants (in addition to the 300 or so we did yesterday), weeded some carrots and the herb garden, transplanted about 35-40 basil plants (that was about 1/2 what we have), and the usual miscellany that fills a day, whether you are on a farm, or in the city.