Country Life « Woodcarving, Beekeeping, and Country Life

Garden Update – 02/20/2011

By John, on February 22nd, 2011%

Well, it’s time to kick-off the 2011 gardening season here in zone 7b. I’ve been putting a lot of work into changes in how we will garden and I hope to test a lot of new ideas and techniques this year. Basically, we are switching over to square foot gardening on some of our terraces and . . . → Read More: Garden Update – 02/20/2011

Tomato Plants For Sale (and peppers, too)!

By John, on January 17th, 2011%

We will be selling tomato and pepper plants again this year. We wanted to give everyone an early heads up on which varieties we will be seeding out so you can make your gardening decisions now. It won’t be long before we are planting lettuce!

All of the tomatoes and peppers we are growing this year are . . . → Read More: Tomato Plants For Sale (and peppers, too)!

Farming Update 04/18/10

By John, on April 18th, 2010%

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about our gardening. Thought I’d give a quick update. First, we all had salad for lunch today. The salad is up enough now to eat and the radishes are doing great. Here’s an example of our nice, fresh salad. Plus, our burgers came from a cow right down the . . . → Read More: Farming Update 04/18/10

Asparagus – Preparing the bed for winter

By John, on November 25th, 2009%

It’s the end of the first year for my asparagus bed and time to prepare it for winter. This first year I did not harvest any of the shoots and let them all grow into tall ferns. The first order of business is to let the asparagus grow until the frost starts knocking it back and . . . → Read More: Asparagus – Preparing the bed for winter

Farming Update – 05/10/09

By John, on May 11th, 2009%

It’s hard to believe how things change in a week. The asparagus is growing like crazy. Some stalks grew 8 inches in 7 days. Almost all of it has broken the ground by now. These stalks will keep growing and open up into some something like a fern. This first year we leave them alone and . . . → Read More: Farming Update – 05/10/09

Farming Update – 05/03/09

By John, on May 3rd, 2009%

Thought I’d supply a little farming update. Lot’s of good things going on this week.

First off, we have a new addition around here. Moses the cat. He is the family cat but Abi got to pick him out and name him. We hope he becomes a heroic mouser. That’s the role we hired him to fill.

I . . . → Read More: Farming Update – 05/03/09

Farming Update – 04/25/09

By John, on April 25th, 2009%

Here’s a little farming update for those of you keeping score at home. The first photo is of two fresh eggs. They were still warm when I picked them up.With only three chickens we get 2-3 eggs per day. Soon we’ll have 10-12 chickens and they should all be laying by September. An unfortunate accident involving . . . → Read More: Farming Update – 04/25/09

Creating An Orchard

By John, on February 26th, 2009%

We have been adding to our food production as time, space, and money allow. We have been interested in apple trees but had not pursued it. On the property there is an area that is almost 1/2 an acre of pine beetle destruction. Pine trees laying everywhere and in some pretty dangerous angles. I have never . . . → Read More: Creating An Orchard

Chickens – New Coup

By John, on January 4th, 2009%

My friend Michael had a chicken coup he built at a place he was renting. Since he had moved he wasn’t using it and he took it down and reconstructed it here at the house. It’s a great coup with four built in laying boxes, plenty of roosting space, and enough headroom . . . → Read More: Chickens – New Coup

New Shed

By John, on January 4th, 2009%

Have been very excited the past few months about building a new shed. I’ve been very blessed to have my dad help me out a lot with it and my friend Michael pitched in some free labor as well. Phase 1 has turned out very nice. Stall width is 12 feet and . . . → Read More: New Shed

Woodcarving, Beekeeping, and Country Life