Happy Dog Farm

Last of the Kale, First of the Onions and Peppers

The first week of May, Robbie was kind enough to harvest the last of the 'Lacinato' or 'Black Tuscan' Kale, which is a new feature in our garden and one that we'll never again be without. Delicious, gorgeous, nutritious, etc.--and easy to grow. Here's Robbie's harvest face:

And my pickings, the week of May 7th:

Those bells are just barely big enough, but they're enough to use--and I wanted to clear them off the small plants to encourage the plants' own growth.

So, here's what it all became--the ideal. Dough from scratch, sauce from last year's grill-dried tomatoes, home grown garlic, onions, peppers, and chopped kale. Now, all we need is to produce our own goat cheese and olive oil!

Harvesting Clay

Shortly before we moved out to the country, Robbie and I took an informal, mixed-level ceramics class with the Craft Guild of Dallas. We worked under instructor James Olney, who brought us from knowning next-to-nothing to be at least basically proficient in wheel throwing and firing. It was a great experience, and we made a few souvenirs:

These are just two of the assorted bowls and things we produced. They're not complicated, but they bring great memories of a fun time (and make useful soap dishes). 

This past week in mid-May, we were relocating our jar fountain from the courtyard to the patio space by the pool, where it can be enjoyed more often. While digging the platform, we ran into thick veins of remarkably good-looking clay in the soil just over 1' deep. Having never harvested natural clay before, but having always been interested in doing it, I decided to take it on as an experiment.

First, I saved the purest and best hunks of clay from the shovel as I was digging. I collected these in a 5-gallon bucket,  and when I had about 10 lbs, covered them with water to sit. Then I started researching. Turns out, it's not terribly hard! The good folks at Practical Primitive have a very informative online tutorial about how to go about it, which was extremely helpful. 

Basically, after letting the raw clay hydrate in a bucket for a day or two, blend the lumps in your hands and breakup any pieces. I continued to let mine sit for another day or two, breaking it up and running the "mud" through my hands a few times a day when I passed by. 

After that, it's a process of letting the heavier particles settle and pouring off the clay. I also had a very fine-mesh window screen onhand, and poured the liquid clay back and forth through it, washing the screen and bucket between each pour, about 12 times. When it finally produced no sediment and was silky-looking, I poured it into an old pillowcase and hung it to slowly drip dry, which took about a week. The end result looked like this:

I left this to sit a day longer, as the middle part of the clay was still a bit 'soupy'--I also massaged the clay in the pillowcase to get the drier parts and wetter parts re-distributed for even drying. 

Here's a piece of the clay on the day it was officially ready:

Still shaped like the pillowcase it hung in, but beautifully pure and smooth. Next, I broke it into manageable pieces and began hydrating it with a little water to wedge out. 'Wedging' is kinda like kneading bread, but a slightly different motion. It conditions the wet clay and makes it smooth and uniform while working air bubbles out.

Now, it's time to make some small test pieces to see if/how much 'grog' conditioner we'll need to actually use. The clay itself is beautifully smooth, silky and and has a nice rich red color. We'll just be using it for craft purposes, but trialing wood firings and in-ground kiln firings will be loads of fun. 

Three Very Happy Dogs

Henry on the office sofa, keeping me company while I draft client landscape plans, Friday, May 3rd

Sugar enjoying a hug from Robbie during meadow play time, Saturday, May 4th.

Marvin up from a snooze on the sofa, Sunday, May 4th.

Busy April

It's been a chilly spring so far; we've twice dipped into the upper 30s and are due to hit 40 something mid-week, which is fairly unusual for late April. Robbie and I have both been extremely busy with our jobs, but we've carved out time to get some much-needed prep and planting done, including some new large containers, some wild additions to the pool border, and lots of vegetable work.

Harvested beets, and canned them shortly thereafter:

And these beautiful golden beets, which will become part of the must-haves list each year:

We've enjoyed the first few wildflowers that have appeared as of today, including Indian Paintbrush, our ubiquitous Fleabane daisies, and this tiny patch of Bluebonnets that popped up in the pool wildscape border:

It's a booming year for the bearded Irises so far, and loads that we'd never noticed before are popping out here and there, including this beautiful plum purple one bordering the creek:

I was very happy to see that our Graptopetalum and 'Silver Falls' Dichondra were both hardy and are poking back out from under the 'Whale's Tongue' Agave ovatifolia they're skirting in these pipe pots:

In the last ten days, we've seeded Cucumbers (A&C Pickling, True Lemon, and Edmonson) Beans (Kentucky Wonder, Provider, and Scarlet Runner) Corn (Reid's Yellow Dent and Golden Bantam Improved), Cantaloup (Pride of Wisconsin and Charentais) Pumpkins (Musquee de Provence, Rouge vif D'Etamps, and Cornfield) and planted loads of peppers, eggplant and even some last minute tomatoes. 

The Laciniato or 'Black Tuscan' Kale is peaking now, and I'll get a picture to add, as it's beautiful and rich. The chard is past peak, but still beautiful, and will be coming out soon as we need the real estate now. 

Sugar has been a great supervisor:

Soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the cool breeze. 

Mid-March 2013

A few quick highlights going on outside: first off, the 'Ozark Premier' Plums are nearly through flowering and are going into full leaf explosion:

'Orient' Pears are in full swing now:

An

And the 'Tilton' Apricot is just beginning:

The Apples and Peaches are snoozing still.

Tomatoes going in the ground! Our own seed-grown tomatoes including old favorites 'Paul Robeson' and 'Beams Yellow Pear' as well as heirloom but new-to-us varieties 'Crnkovic Yugoslavian', 'Dester', 'Federle', 'Money Maker', and 'Hillbilly Potato Leaf'. My first planting, March 8th, froze--in spite of protection. Three rounds have gone in, adding slowly during the week for a total of 32 plants (a few less than last year).

The fresh compost has certainly done a favor to the veg plot soils--if only I had another 50 cubic yards ready on-hand. 

Grapes are at swollen bud phase, and ready to pop--and corn, squash, peppers, eggplant, and more will be going in over the next two weeks.

 

Happy Cat Farm, Too

Bob the kitty finds empty spots in herb planters an excellent napping place:

March Vegetables

Besides the bolting Arugula that we've left just for the bees, we have loads of Swiss Chard at peak:

As well as two lettuces at peak; 'Tall Crisp' which is true to its name and kinda Romaine-like:

And 'Susan's Red Bibb' which is really beautiful and very tender and mild:

Poor photo, but hey. These were all direct-seeded in October and have provided tender, small greens here and there, but are peaking now. We're eating them as quickly as we can to make room for tomatoes and peppers, going in shortly. 

The swiss chard has good body and texture, similar to kale, with an earthy, beet-like flavor. It looks pretty washed and chopped:

And even prettier in the sautee pan:

Hopefully, we won't get tired of it too quickly--there's plenty more, and some to share!

 

First Orchard Blooms!

March 5th, and the first blossoms to open in the orchard are from 'Ozark Premier' Plums:

The pear trees are right behind!

Feed The Bees!

There's just not much for the honeybees to enjoy right now in the way of flowers--the fruit trees haven't yet fully broken bud, and it's slim pickings out there. During our work weekend, I did notice that this bolted Arugula was a popular hotspot:

Every year, I plant Arugula from seed thinking we'll eat it...and we do, just not the bushels and bushels of it that thrive. It always bolts and goes into the compost pile, but this spring, I've discovered its value as an early-blooming source of honeybee food. I'm hoping to plant masses of it next year for this purpose alone.

We DID burn the meadow! Back in January, when the weather was perfect for it, and we were prepped and ready to go (we spoke to the local VFD before doing this!). I did prescribed prairie burns during my internship with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, and love the holistic benefit of natural fire ecology. That, and I love playing with fire! Here's a small patch freshly burned:

And what the full area looked like, about three weeks after burning:

You can see the small patch near the well barn that we didn't allow to burn--in order to be safely assured that the well barn wouldn't go, too. It shows what the area looked like before, and just how much burned.

It's already greened up and looks beautiful, barely two months later. While it was in the above stage, we seeded some wildflowers, but didn't till, so we'll see what makes it through. Right now, the earliest performer is 'Spring Beauty' or Claytonia virginica, an extremely common Texas wildflower and among the first to bloom in early spring: 

The honeybees are loving it! Let's hope the seeded wildflowers make a good showing and give them a feast this year.

 

Week 1 at the Farm and Watch Where You Put Your Hands! Originally Posted 8.2.2011

We're on the path out of chaos now that we're completely moved in to "The Farm" and no longer subsisting from boxes and half-used rolls of packing tape. Movers were the best investment we've made, and we highly recommend Texas State Movers (www.texstate.com). George and his crew made the actual day quick and painless, and they're very accomodating in both price and changes to loads. Family and friends, no doubt pleased to be spared from the actual loading and unloading this time, rose to the occasion to help with the unpacking and setting up. Really, it was a textbook experience, and we're overwhelmed with gratitude to each of you who joined in.

The boxes, once they're stripped of any plastics/tape etc. and washed of inks, will be laid out and sod-stapled down to decompose over the winter and suppress weeds in the areas in which our spring gardens will be laid out. It's a simple recycling concept given to me during my talk a few weeks ago for the Blackland Prairie Master Naturalists--and with the quantity of recycled cardboard we have onhand, it's extremely useful!

Let's see...a few notes from our first week in the country and our many, and varied, discoveries:

First off, we inherited a farm kitty:

 
 We met him during the buying process, but assumed he would go with the sellers--evidently, he's a permanent fixture, and we're happy to have him join the family. Although the picture doesn't make it clear, he's a bobtail, so we, of course, have affectionately dubbed him "Bob". Robbie has taken up the effort to make friends with him, and Bob's happy to have regular meals served on the porch in the evenings. We're happy to have Bob on patrol for various critters, so everyone wins.

Next, WATCH WHERE YOU PUT YOUR HANDS! And where you step, and sit, and check your shoes too, for that matter: here's a picture of one of our (swiftly removed) houseguests, discovered on the second night:

 
(Photo from Charles & Clint from article at EarthSky.org, not one of our actual visitor)

It's a Striped Bark Scorpion, Centrurius vittatus, which is perhaps the most commonly seen scorpion species in Texas. Ours was discovered and removed from the house, but a couple of its friends have already been found in the pool...so take that advice above seriously. Yes, they can deliver a painful sting, but it's akin (by most reports) to a nasty wasp sting, and subsides quickly. They do serve an important biological role in controlling the populations of other critters, so we'll just have to agree to be neighbors. And we'll invest in improved weather stripping, too.

Here's another guest, luckily not (yet) found inside the house, but frequently outside:

 
(Photo from Jason Wilcox, McDavid, Florida, from Website www.wildflowers.jdcc.edu/Cow_Ant.html)

This striking lady goes by the names Cow Ant, Velvet Ant, Cow Killer, Velvet Wasp, etc.--she's actually a wingless wasp species, specifically, Dasymutilla occidentalis. These wasps are predators of ground hornets (of which we also have plenty) and are generally very shy unless stepped on or otherwise molested. If one were to make that mistake, however, they have a painful sting to offer in return--one that I hear is far worse than any scorpion...

So. Do pay attention to what and where you grab when you visit, and don't plan to go barefoot too often, either.

Moving announcements will be mailed this week, finally:

 
I found these great paper-airplane style cards at Peartree.com and ordered enough for the main part of our address book. Of course, I failed to correct the fact that I used Robbie's former sirname before the change to his family name of Macomber, and the return address on the envelopes may cause confusion (or those of you who receive them will see a cover-sticker)...just when you think you've perfected editing your own work.

It's always nice to know that although the to-do list might be longer than we ourselves are tall, we can always grab a cold beer and head for the pool. The gardens and meadows haven't even been touched (not in record heat, with today to top 108, I believe) but it's already been greatly appreciated. Here's Sugar getting some water kisses from Robbie during our first day:

 
 
The sailboat in the background is another project, and another story, for another day...

Lastly, week 1 was ended with a trip to Canton for First Monday Trade Days last Saturday, which turned out to be a fantastic experience. Various reviewers will tell you there's lots of tchotchky and yes, there is, but there are treasures to be found, as well, like the Duncan Phyfe dining table that now lives with us:

 

Recovering seats will be a tidy little project, but anything indoors this week is a good project, in my mind. Along with this find, we came home with some great coral pieces that will go into succulent creations, some incredible antique prints and photographs from a Taos, NM dealer, and a 1940s menu from the Hotel LaFonda there in Taos, our favorite getaway spot. In those days, according to the menu, a sirloin steak dinner was $1.75, and one could have dessert and coffee for an additional $0.20. Sounds good...very good.