Palo Duro Canyon

On my way to New Mexico, i stopped at Palo Duro Canyon for the night and some hiking. It is the second largest canyon in the US. We all know what the first is. It was absolutely magnificent. A wonderful couple took my picture for me at Lighthouse Rock.

A mystery photo of some tracks in the canyon. I will have to wait until i get home to figure them out.

Christmas

I was lucky enough to be hosted by Jana in Texas for the Christmas holiday. There was a full house and the cutest set of three year old twins to make the holiday special. The second annual gingerbread house building contest was held Christmas day. My entry is the one on the far right. The winner was the cheery house second from the right. It was a wonderful change of pace from giving gifts.

On my way to Palo Duro Canyon, the monumental event of my odometer turning over 100,000 miles occurred! Yes, i was driving 70mph and taking picture of my odometer.

Texas

What a great state! Every one says, Hello and Y'all.
Jana was good enough to receive me early at her mom's home. We had some good eats...... but, that can't be helped if you are with Jana. We got to get our hands dirty and planted some pansies. It is hard to believe we were outside planting flowers in the ground in late December!

Went camping up at Mineral Wells State Park. Plenty of trails to explore and a lake with several side ponds. Last night, I was treated to a lovely moon, a nearby coyote serenade, a barred owl song and a light breeze rattling the dried oak leaves. This morning, my wake-up alarm was a deer snorting at me, a male cardinal having it out with his reflection in my truck's side-view mirrors, and beautiful, low fly-by from a turkey vulture. Went hiking and bushwhacking. Black and turkey vultures abound, flying low enough you can hear their wings whispering through the air. Well, the Black vultures make more of a flappied-flap through the air. Ate some white oak acorns and some prickly pear fruit. Only had 3 spins in me after devouring the first one, but the next one, i improved my technique and didn't get any! Raccoons must be plentiful here, because there were about as many raccoon tracks as people. Coyote scats was a close second. Lovely day.

My cameras batteries were dead, so sorry no picture this time.

Orchard Bees

How to be sure that all that you plant is sufficently pollenated is always a consern. Here in the groves of trees the Ochard (Mason) bees are encougaed to collect pollen and lay their eggs. 1/4 to 5/16 inch holes are drilled in wood and hung on posts or trees. The small bees are solitary and can not drill their own holes. Without the medaling of humans, they would use hollow reeds. After enough pollen is collected and the eggs laid, a plug is applied to seal the end of the chamber. Then the next spring they will hatch to start the process again.

My favorite tree in the orchard is the Paw Paw. Its name is just fun to say and the flower buds are a wonderful brown, fuzzy knob. To top it off, the fruit is delicious, a kind of mango, banana cross. Paw Paw are well worth the wait to grow them.

Passive Solar Greenhouse

There was more stacking of wood today and much reading.

In the afternoon, we went on a tour of the greenhouse which i have never seen one constructed like this before. It is passive solar and furnace heated. The fiber glass and ridged plastic side is oriented and pitched to optimize the winter sun. The north side of the structure is insulated and lined with 55 gallon barrel drums, stacked 3 high, painted black and filled with water (Inside the barrels is a rust inhibitor, oil on top of the water to keep air out and the opening on the top of the barrel is sealed to keep more air from entering. This is all done to keep the barrels from rusting out.) In the winter, the black barrels of water gain heat and release it slowly. In the summer, because the sun is so high in the sky, the barrels are not exposed to the suns rays. Now, the water acts as a coolant during the hot summer months. Inside the greenhouse are fig trees, citrus and a black mulberry which are all planted directly into the soil. Cuttings are taken from these to start new trees.

Above is a large hardy kiwi vine (female). There are so many unsual shrubs and trees here. Today, i got to taste guomi berry juice which reminded me of cranberries and autumn olives. For dessert, we had frozen paw paw. Excellent! I have got to figure out how to grow these.

People

This morning is a tour of the orchard. There are many, many variety of trees. It is kind of a permaculture mecca. The tour is cut short by insistent rain. Inside, we crack pecans and make cookies. People are always stopping by to chat. There seems to always be a steady trickle of them. In the afternoon is stacking firewood. It seems to be an on going theme of winter WOOFing. In the evening, i am chauffeur for Hector. We go to a fundraiser for a wonderful and highly energetic lady who is working with at-risk youth in Nashville. She and the young adults that she works with are truly inspirational.

Hidden Springs Nursery, TN

The odometer reads 98,098 as i pulled out of the drive in PA. A day and a little more, i arrive at Hidden Springs Nursery in TN. Here too, the soil is sandy as in Maine but the bedrock is limestone and no glaciers made it this far south. The nursery is nestled down in a maze of valleys cut by small creeks over time. The woods are diverse, tall and young. Temperatures are unseasonably cold (in the 20'sF) and there was a 6" snowfall just before i arrived. Much has melted away by this evening but the forecast is calling for freezing rain tonight.

Farm Tour

Dawn will arrive soon as I step out the door. As i make my way down toward the chicken coups, I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye. It is Ciaos, one of the barn cats. We have become friendly as of late and she follows me out. Squatting down, I thoroughly rubber her all over. Just as i think that she has had her fill and is parting, she hopes up on to my back to settle in. As I begin to stand up, she hops down and I scoop her up. She is big ball of fluff cradled in my arms.

We visit the luminescent chicken coups, say, "Hi ", to Charlotte who is buried in her nest of hay and make our way back to the barn to visit the cows. As we near the cat bowl, she squirms to be let go. Affection only goes so far, food at this point in time is more important. Today, I leave to return to PA. I can't think of any better way to start the day, than to do chores and then depart. The cows are warm and musky, the chicks have grown from little puffballs to scraggly adolescents in the two weeks, and Charlotte is sullen because she is in heat. All in all it is a beautiful morning.

-3F Degrees

At 6:30am, it is -3F degrees and a hoary frost coats everything as we set out to do chores. Really, i don't notice too much difference in temperature. Your pinkies do get cold when you milk, ........whether your good at it or not. Charlotte, the sow, is not eating her feed, which i would think would be contrary to the weather situation. But, then i

find out she is in heat and that might explain the lack of appetite. Chores are done and i get a chance to go and actually see the pond that the farm is named after, Flying Pond. It is a beautiful lake dotted with several small islands. Being on the northwest end, i can settle down on a sunny rock and enjoy the quiet. There is a thin, clear film of ice and i can see all the leaves and debris resting on the bottom. I feel most fortunate to be here. On the way back through the woods, there are tracks of red fox, maybe grey fox, deer, and American crow. By noon, the thermometer in the unheated greenhouse reads 50F. It is amazing what a little bit of sun and plastic can do. But, as soon as the clouds roll in the temperature drops rapidly.

Cheese Making

Tuesday it cheese making day. If there is any extra milk from the week of milking it is processed into cheese. Laura, in her ability to be super efficient in every thing she does, shows me how she makes mozzarella cheese and with the whey from making the cheese, how to make ricotta. Not much is wasted here on the farm; food or time. I am not going to go through the whole process but Laura makes it look so easy and effortless. The last step of stretching the mozzarella is magical in how it changes from rubbery blocks of cheese to the long stringy texture that we all know and love on our pizzas.

Since I have been to this area many, many times during the summer, today i took part of the day to visit the booming metropolis of Waterville in the winter. One of our favorite family stops is Gifford's Ice Cream. Unfortunately, it is closed for the season............ so, i opted for the next best thing, Ben and Jerry's at Hannaford's.

Winter Arrving

The cows have been in the barn for about 4 days. Water lines are kept inside now and remay row covers are pulled over the spinach in the unheated greenhouse. A large pile of logs awaits sawing and splitting and the furnace is kept burning during the night to heat the other two greenhouses of salad mix greens. Tonight, Charlotte was given a bale of hay to nestle into. She was so cute disassembling the bale. Nudging, nibbling,and much flapping of her giant ears, she meticulously rearranged the bale into a large nest. Snow fell gently all day with an accumulation of about an inch or so. In the greenhouse, you could hear the snow whispering against the taught plastic skin while we weeded. Outside, every thing was hushed. As night descended, i took pine shavings out to fill the nesting boxes in the luminescent coups. What a beautiful night.

Harvesting

Today is harvest day. Several different types of leaf lettuce are cut and 4 types of mustard greens. Yesterday, the carrots were harvested from under row covers outside and spinach was picked from the unheated greenhouse. The salad mix was washed in the salad mix washing machine. It is made from the pieces of three no longer used gym tread mills. It is quite an ingenious design................ and it works. Every thing is weighed, bagged and set in the cooler to await pick up.

Another attempt at getting wood split, but the belt began to slip again. More lettuce is weeded and chores done.

Seeding and Rosemary

Mucking out Stanley's stall, milking Aster, and feeding Charlotte and the chickens, the chores are done. After breakfast, we weed more lettuce and Josh shows me how to seed lettuce and mustard greens. He uses a 6 row seeder and does 12 rows to a 30" bed. New lettuce is planted every week in the summer with the possibility of doing it more frequently. In the winter, the lettuce grows much slower. We are almost all caught up with the weeding! Yippee. In the afternoon, we harvest carrots and spinach. The carrots are long and a bright orange........... and very sweet. Spinach is harvested one leaf at a time. It will spend the winter in the unheated greenhouse with remay row covers to help keep the cold at bay. Before you know it, the light is waning and it is time for chores. I take care of the chickens and wash the eggs.

In each of the heated greenhouses, tucked to the side, are some perennial plants. My favorite is the rosemary "shrub" that is currently in full bloom. It smells delicious when you accidental brush up against it.

Milking

I don't know who is more patient, Josh or Aster. Aster is the cow that i have been trying to learn to milk. My right hand does okay but the left is weak and pitiful. Practice makes you better, but how much practice it takes is a different story. We weed in greenhouse 1 and 2. They are both have salad mix in them. Weeds are meticulously removed and escorted down the hill to the happy chickens. A few broccoli plants that were gleaned all summer in greenhouse 2 have stalks as thick as my wrists. Pulling them up from the oh, so sandy soil, they are delivered to the chickens, cows and Charlotte. It is fun to see a very, large pig so excited about an ancient tree of broccoli. After lunch, we move the two chicken coups. They are open on the bottom and slide across the ground on skids. A tractor is used to pull them and Josh goes inside the coup to make sure all the hens understand that they are to move with the coup. The electric mesh fence is collected up and reinstalled. Water and feed barrels put back in place and the chickens are let out to graze on a fresh field.
Day light disappears quickly and it is time to get the evening chores done before there is not any light left; milking Aster, (I opt for mucking the stalls to give every one a break.) collecting and washing the eggs, feeding the pigs, adding wood to the furnace to heat the greenhouses and straining the milk and putting it in half gallon mason jars.

Chickens

In the barn are 50, two week old chicks safely nestled in a 4x4x8 plywood box. With two heat lamps and two flannel sheets draped over the chicken wire ceiling, they are all busy doing what chicks do best: eating, pooping, growing and....... peeping. It is amazing to step into an unheated barn in December in Maine and hear the cacophony of tiny peeps. These will be next springs new laying hens. (They are a yellow variety. Last years are all black. This makes aging the chickens very easy!)

Down the hill are this years layers. Currently, they are housed in a kind of Quonset hut type structure. It has a door to it but it is rarely closed. Around the perimeter is an electrical fence which helps to keep the ground predators at bay, Except one time, when the skunks found a place where the fence didn't quit touch the ground and they were able to squeeze under without getting shocked. Luckily, they were only interested in the eggs and to fix the problem only required staking the fence down to cover the hole. There was a very persistent hawk though, which would swoop in every few days and take a chicken. A cover was added to the greenhouse at the time and after the covering was adjusted to fully thwart the hawk, it gave up and moved on.

As winter begins to become colder, the chickens will be moved to a plastic covered hoop house with wood shaving covering the ground. More shavings will be added as the excrement piles up. This will make great compost and also, help keep the chickens warm. The chicken coups will be connected to the hoop house so the nesting boxes do not have to be relocated. To keep the water from freezing, a 40 watt light bulb is laid on top of a flattened soda can. Next, a metal pan is placed over the bulb to keep the rain out. The water feeder is set on the pan and the water has just enough warmth to not freeze. Later in the winter, a 60 watt bulb may be needed. Awesome!