There's this time of early morning that's just lovely ... Everything seems to be waking up and coming alive. The dew is heavy and sparkling in the early sun. The gentle noises and nuisances make you stop and listen. And then an escapee pig comes grunting it's way up to your front porch and your morning truely begins... This used to be more common but we've managed to reduce the occurrences significantly. Usually we have a problem pig not a whole herd. Our pigs do fairly well behind electric fence but after 8 years of raising them we've learned that a couple solid panel pens are extremely useful. A few t-posts and cattle panels are sufficient for building a holding pen.
Anyway, apparently I'm a morning person but unfortunately I'm so tired it's hard to wake up. We work hard all day and I generally get to bed around midnight or later making it difficult to wake up at 5 am. I'm happy if I'm crawling out of bed around 6 am. Enough bemoaning life... lol.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Perceptions of Reality
When I was a little girl
... well, more like a hopeless romantic teenager, I fantasized of a pioneering life. So while my DH and I, with purple fingers, were busy collecting mulberries I recollected such fantasies and shared them. I ended the conversation with this: "I've lived my fantasy now. Can we move into reality?" We both laughed about it.
But what of reality and fantasies? Who's living in reality and who's in their fantasy? I lived the middle class life once already. It feels like a fleeting memory that dimly lingers in the back of my mind. It amazes me how easy I had it and just disregarded it all. Turning on a light switch didn't leave a myrid of worries about the power I'm taking from something else. I rarely have light in the house after dark. We have a strange LED lantern that has a solar cell on top that gives enough ambient light to get around. The hunk of plastic has lasted longer than most things I buy! 2 years now and it looks it! I have a solar cell leftover from building our solar panel I'd like to see if I can build a brighter one as a project with the boys...
... well, more like a hopeless romantic teenager, I fantasized of a pioneering life. So while my DH and I, with purple fingers, were busy collecting mulberries I recollected such fantasies and shared them. I ended the conversation with this: "I've lived my fantasy now. Can we move into reality?" We both laughed about it.
But what of reality and fantasies? Who's living in reality and who's in their fantasy? I lived the middle class life once already. It feels like a fleeting memory that dimly lingers in the back of my mind. It amazes me how easy I had it and just disregarded it all. Turning on a light switch didn't leave a myrid of worries about the power I'm taking from something else. I rarely have light in the house after dark. We have a strange LED lantern that has a solar cell on top that gives enough ambient light to get around. The hunk of plastic has lasted longer than most things I buy! 2 years now and it looks it! I have a solar cell leftover from building our solar panel I'd like to see if I can build a brighter one as a project with the boys...
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Irrigation
After a month with no rain, a spigot has been turned on!
We had started irrigating the garden before the rains. It was dry as a bone and tilling was out of the question as it was like concrete out there. Our soil contains a great deal of silt. It makes things a little difficult some times and rather slick. We've found tire chains to be extremely useful. The road into our property is unimproved. Little more than a rutted dirt track. It's not uncommon to be mudded or snowed in. Though with the chains we are able to get in and out if needed.
Anyway, back to irrigation! We, happily, have a pond. It didn't go dry in the awful drought last year so we're thinking it has some ground water feeding into it. So a friend gave us a sauna pump. I was humored too. It pumps something like 81 gallons per minute. It seems to be slower than that though. We used garden hoses last year and wasted a lot of gas last year until we gave up using it. This year, we bought 400' of 3/4" irrigation hose from Tractor Supply.
We found that pumping straight up to the height of the highest part of the garden then straight across was easier on the pump. Otherwise, we're looking at a new pump sooner rather than later. A well would be preferred before that so we can quit hauling water from town.
Aside from all that, I've started digging my potatoes from the mid-March planting. They're looking pretty good! Now we need to get our root cellar dug for aging cheese and storing food. It's in the works and going to have ground broke soon for it... I'm pretty excited!
We had started irrigating the garden before the rains. It was dry as a bone and tilling was out of the question as it was like concrete out there. Our soil contains a great deal of silt. It makes things a little difficult some times and rather slick. We've found tire chains to be extremely useful. The road into our property is unimproved. Little more than a rutted dirt track. It's not uncommon to be mudded or snowed in. Though with the chains we are able to get in and out if needed.
Anyway, back to irrigation! We, happily, have a pond. It didn't go dry in the awful drought last year so we're thinking it has some ground water feeding into it. So a friend gave us a sauna pump. I was humored too. It pumps something like 81 gallons per minute. It seems to be slower than that though. We used garden hoses last year and wasted a lot of gas last year until we gave up using it. This year, we bought 400' of 3/4" irrigation hose from Tractor Supply.
We found that pumping straight up to the height of the highest part of the garden then straight across was easier on the pump. Otherwise, we're looking at a new pump sooner rather than later. A well would be preferred before that so we can quit hauling water from town.
Aside from all that, I've started digging my potatoes from the mid-March planting. They're looking pretty good! Now we need to get our root cellar dug for aging cheese and storing food. It's in the works and going to have ground broke soon for it... I'm pretty excited!
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