Over wintering spinach

Using 1/2" dia. electrical conduit for hoops, set every 4', an under layer of remay and an over layer of heavy plastic, the spinach which was planted in mid-September is tuck away for the winter. Once the snow and cold weather settle in every thing will be frozen into place. The next time the spinach will be seen is in the spring, which will give the Gram's a very early crop of fresh spinach.

The beds here on Flying Pond Farm are 30" wide and 60' long. The spinach is planted 6 lines to one bed. Leaf lettuce on the other hand is 12 lines per bed, making the distance between lines 2 1/2". It looks like a luxurious carpet of lettuce stretched out before you.

Helping out with the morning chores, i assisted in milking Aster, the cow, feed the chickens and this years 3 piglets (I think they each weigh as much as i do.), and gave Charolette, the sow, the left over table scraps. (Laura made chedar cheese today, so tomorrow Charolette will get the left over whey; Charolette's favorite!)

After breakfast, we attempted to cut and split wood for the wood furnace but the belt was slipping on the splitter and the chainsaw was not doing so well either. The wood splitter is a Jeep engine set up to run a hydrolic wood splitter. It is so funny to see a car ignition starting a splitter. What a great idea! We moved on to removing old remay and unsticking sand bags to prepare the spinach for their winterized covers. The spinach is delicious this time of year. It is extra sweet.

As always, time seems to all too quickly disappear, especially as you get farther north. Dawn is at about 6:30 and sunset is at 4:30. Day light is precious.

Flying Pond Farm

97,255 odometer

The air is crisp and dry. As I turn onto Castle Island road, I find the first signs of snow. It looks like there was an inch or so a while back that was plowed off the roads. In the pale blue, southern sky hangs a waning moon. Pulling into Flying Pond Farm, I meet Laura, Harold and Josh. After taking my things up stairs, I am given a tour of the farm. There are 2 green houses and one hoop house, about a hundred chickens, three cows, four pigs and two cats. Some things are similar to the farm where I work but there are some new and interesting things. First, the obvious, its colder (snow already) and the days are considerably shorter. Sandy is the first impression I get just by looking at the soil, very unlike the clay back in PA. There are two heated greenhouses. They are heated by air circulation and by pipes buried about 1 foot deep in the ground. The heat source is a wood burning furnace located about 20 feet from the nearest greenhouse. The furnace takes 48" logs and can keep the two greenhouse above freezing this time of year with just one loading each evening. When it gets colder, it will have to be done twice during the night. Stepping into the houses, it is about 60 degrees. The beds of leaf lettuce and mustard greens look lush. I help to weed the lettuce, mostly chickweed. Always a greenhouse favorite.

First stop, Lowell, Mass

Got out the door on time. Ran into my first heavy traffic about 5 miles down the road and got to see a squirrel run over. (I was so tempeted to stop and bring it along for dinner, but i didn't think my mom would be too excited about that. Maybe, next time!) It was a great day for travel, overast and cool. Stopped a long the Merrit Parkway in New York to refuel and ran into Jim, who use to attend a yoga class with me about 10 years ago in Doylestown, PA. What a surprise! Made the rest of the drive listening to a crazy book CD.

Last preparations before the Cross Country Trip

All the suddened, i have become very industrious. As the departure day quickly approaches, i become more excited and my body goes automacially into trip prep mode. Things that had been ignored all summer are quickly dealt with. A suitcase on the floor put away, a chair moved to the other room, a long dead plant ushered to the compost bin, changing the oil in my truck all by myself (with a little help from Dale), dried herbs are stipped and placed in spice jars. Today, i have done more cleaning than in the whole year i have been here in my apartment. Yesterday, the final WWOOFing farm, Casa Rosa Farm in California, let me know that i was welcome to stay on their farm for two weeks. I will be working on 3 very different types of farms, visiting 3 family members, stopping by one homestead, tracking, attending the EcoFarm conference and hopefully getting in some camping in a long the way.

Tomorrow is the last day of work for this season at Blooming Glen Farm, PA. This afternoon i went to the farm to finish a few last minute items before i leave for the winter. Retucked in a few raised beds in hopes of wintering over some of the more delicate herbs and dug up dahlias to see if i can get them to, also, over winter.

Picked a few leaves of red russian kale for dinner. It was so sweet compared to earlier in the year. Yum. I am going to miss the farm and the folks that live and work there.