Bright Time/Flowering Time 2022

 

Assorted salad greens

In case anyone noticed, yes, I am a couple of days late updating you on the happenings in Bright Time/Flowering Time. Lay the blame for my tardiness on the strawberries. I've been very busy picking and processing a large crop. More about that later.

Our weather has been fairly typical; a few hot and humid days followed by a couple of cooler and drier days. We've had perhaps a little less rain than usual.

The garden is growing well and everything has been planted. Here's a sample in pictures:

Dry beans around a trellis

More dry beans along a different trellis

Beets

Swiss Chard

Cabbage

Kale

Red and Blue potato plants

Tomato plant

Things are already going into the freezer:

Rhubarb Ginger sauce

Shiitake mushrooms

Garlic scapes which were made into pesto

Cilantro

Strawberries

Greens

The dehydrator has been busy, too:

Bob helps prep berries to dehydrate

One batch of dried berries

I've dried berry slices and leathers. A dehydrator is a very handy item to have, especially when you have an over abundance of something. Nearly anything can be dried for later use.

We've enjoyed quite a few salads and micro greens from thinning out our beet bed.

Beet microgreens thinned from bed

You can see what has been keeping me busy. Bob hasn't been idle, either.

Bob measures the concrete tube

Bob has poured the footers for both of the porches that we will build. That's where the work stands at the moment. More pressing issues have arisen.

This week the crew returned and did the finish work on the excavation site of our ground loop for the heat pump.

Leveled and seeded ground

No more furrows!

It's nice to see the ground all level again. Hopefully the grass and white clover will start sprouting soon. Now Bob is at work doing the necessary edge clean up work around the vegetable garden.

Last week was our green energy open house. Some people were interested in the ground source heat pump and the air source water heater heat pump. Several others were interested in the induction cook top and the garden. Bob discussed the "stuff" in the cellar. I handled the cook top and garden. Three hours of talking takes it out of you!

At the beginning of June, we also had a visit from extended family members that live on the west coast. It was a nice, but all too short visit. We wish them well on the rest of their travels.

Well, we anticipate just getting busier from this point on, between the garden work and the porch construction. We will try to keep in touch around the time of the full moon each month.

Till next time, enjoy your summer,

Kathleen and Bob

Greens heading for the freezer

Shoots Show/Growing Time 2022

 

Strawberries in bloom

A full moon tonight and another month ends for us. This has been a busy month. Our winter rest is definitely over!

Our weather has been a mix of above and below normal temperatures. Hardly any in the "seasonal" range. It's been a bit dry, too. Some rain is predicted for the next couple of days.

I took advantage of the nice days and finished my spring cleaning.

Getting the windows washed

 

I finished washing the windows and curtains, cleaned the refrigerator and touched up dings and chips in the paint. I also got the laundry room door painted and painted the wooden box that encloses our geothermal lines into the house.

Painting the wooden enclosure

Bob and I cleaned out and straightened our big garden shed, too. Everything is all organized again.

Step 1: empty the shed

Bob finally got my clothesline back up. It's so nice to be able to hang clothes outside again.

Curtains on the line

Bob's been busy, too. The electric fence has been repaired and is ready for the season. We found a woodchuck in the yard. He had skirted our wire. That's been taken care of. He can enjoy the 35+ acres that are outside of our fenced area.

Bob has also done some cleaning in the cellar and sorted through the clothes in his dresser and closet. (Hurray!)

The big auger

The work on the porch is well underway. Bob rented an auger and dug the holes for the footings the easier way. No more strained back and PT visits. Due to the cost of the rental, we dug these four footing holes, along with one for the clothesline pole and three for the porch we will be putting on the west side of the house. We won't need to rent the auger again.

On Friday, Bob rented a cement mixer and together we poured the concrete for the four footers on the east side. It was a long, hot afternoon, but it's done.

Bob mixing it up

The garden is beginning to show growth. The peas, beets and potatoes are up.

Adirondack Blue potato plant 

I have all of the cool weather plants set in and they're beginning to put on some size. I have my warm weather plants ready to go in - probably next week.

Setting in cabbage starts

Bob picked up a load of mushroom compost and has that spread on the new planting bed.

Compost on new bed

The new raspberry plants are in; red and black.

Red raspberry plants

And, the strawberries are full of blooms, as are the currants. Rhubarb is looking good, too.

The strawberry bed

The blueberries and fruit trees have very few blossoms this year. They all had an abundance of flowers last year, so they're taking a "rest year". Too bad people aren't as smart as plants.

Things will begin to pick up speed here very soon, so there will be more to share as the season progresses.

One last note. The group, HeatSmart FLX South, has asked up to be part of their green energy house tour group. The program is set up to let people see what energy saving projects can look like in an actual home setting. Our open house is scheduled for June 7th, from 4-7pm at our house, 2178 Grove St in Lodi. Any of our local readers are invited to drop in to check out our geothermal home heating system, our heat pump water heater, our solar panels, electric car and charger, induction cook stove and insulation/conservation measures. We hope to see some of you then.

Flowering Time is ahead. Let yourself bloom!

Kathleen and Bob

Our only trillium on the property

Blustery Winds/Awakening 2022

Daffodils are blooming!

Our month changed yesterday with the full moon. Blustery Winds/ Awakening has stepped aside and a new month begun. To sum up the old:

Our weather has been very erratic. We have all of the seasons here. Sometimes all in a very condensed span of time! This morning it alternates between snow flurries and sunny patches. Right now it is sunny and snowing at the same time. Last week the temperature was in the 70s. That's how it goes here. 

In spite of the "confused" weather, nature is moving ahead - awakening- here.

Bloodroot emerging

Bloodroot have emerged in our woods...

Bloodroot only open on sunny days

... and violets are blooming, giving off their sweet scent. Willows and honeysuckles are leafing out.

In the garden:

Allium bed is awake

the garlic, shallots and walking onions are up, and the rhubarb is emerging.

All of my plants have been started and are up under the lights.

Sunflower seedlings

Sweet potato sprouts

Seedling trays under lights and heat tent

I've taken the cool weather plants outside to harden off before setting them out in the garden. I have already sown some lettuce, spinach and half of my peas. Tomorrow I plan to sow more peas, my beets and carrots, and plant my seed potatoes. I certainly hope I'm not planting in a snow flurry.

Bob prunes an apricot tree

Bob has finished pruning all of the fruit trees and is planning out the next porch renovation project.

New porch site

This new porch will replace one that was removed last year. It will connect to and complete the existing porch on the house's east side. What remains of the back deck which you see at the left edge of the picture will be removed and replaced with a patio.

This year we are making more changes to the garden. We had been contemplating what changes to make last year. Then, when the trench was dug for the geothermal system, our decisions were made for us.

When the trench was dug, they didn't actually dig up any of the garden, but they piled the dirt on top of 2/3 of each bed on the extreme south edge of the garden. Now the area is covered with uneven lumps of clay and is basically a big mess. We had been considering what to do with this area because its productivity had waned, in part from lack of adequate sunlight. We have decided to abandon it, returning it to lawn area. We will keep the undamaged 1/3 of the beds, using them for future strawberries, fall raspberries, compost and straw storage.

To compensate for the loss of some of this planting area, we're removing the herb bed and returning that space to annual crops. I've not been using the herb bed as much as formerly, so it's not a huge loss, but it has been a chore to dismantle.

Herb bed as it had been

We had to dig out and remove roughly 200 bricks. These will be reused elsewhere. We then had to dig out large amounts of lovage, sorrel and chives, not to mention weeds! We finished this job last week.

Digging out bricks. Who needs a gym?

Last autumn, we also dug out all of our raspberry plants. Some were in the way of the trench digging. All were showing signs of disease, so we decided it was time to start fresh.

We will put half a dozen black raspberry plants next to the currants. Another half dozen fall red raspberry plants will be put in at the south edge of the vegetable plots. That's about a quarter of the amount that we had, but just two of us don't need so many berries. I have many other interesting things to spend my time on besides gardening.

Our birthdays are here in the early spring. The weather was less than spectacular for both, so no nice walks this year. We each had a nice take out lunch for our day. I got a "chore free" day and some new harp music. My library is now far larger than my repertoire, so I need to get busy! Bob got a new sweater vest. He's so skinny that he likes these to help him stay warm. I refer to them as his "artificial fat". We also went to the art museum on the Cornell campus for his day.

That's all the news for now. By next time things will be progressing in the garden and hopefully the weather will have become more consistent.

Don't forget to look for the signs of awakening in and around you.

Happy spring,

Kathleen and Bob

Violets are up!

 

Ice and Wind Time 2022

Daffodils are starting to peek out

This full moon has brought to a close our month of Ice and Wind Time. It's the month when the tug of war between winter and spring begins. One day, the temperature may work its way up into the 60s, the next, it may be 20 degrees colder. Then it climbs up again over the span of a few days, only to repeat the cycle. We've had both beautifully warm days, and days of wind, rain and heavy snow. As the month begins winter definitely has the upper hand. As it ends it is more of a even draw, with spring perhaps slightly ahead. By the end of the next cycle, spring will definitely be in the lead. 

The birds are returning; red winged blackbirds and kildeers are here, and today I saw my first Mourning Cloak (butterfly). I have not yet heard the peepers.

Taughannock Falls

Yesterday was one of those deliciously warm days, so we went for a walk along the North Rim Trail of the Taughannock Falls State Park. We're lucky to have so many beautiful waterways and falls in our immediate area.

The upper falls at Taughannock Park

 This is also the month that I begin to start my garden seeds in my cellar. 

All set to begin

I've started kale, chard, cabbages, celery, parsley, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. So far only the kale, and some chard and cabbages have come up. I'll begin some more things soon.

The laundry room is all done! Well, except for one door that I need to paint. It's a steel exterior door and I want to make sure the weather will stay warm enough for the paint to cure.

Here's a sort of panorama of the room:

Kitchen entry to laundry room

Here's the door into the laundry room from the kitchen. This is the "barn door" that I mentioned in the last update. If we slide this aside and step into the room...

Laundry side of "barn door"

and turn around, we see the opposite side of the "barn door". Turning to our right a bit, we see the rest of that wall.

Rest of the east wall

Now to our right again, we see the south and west walls with my storage shelves and "tool rack".

South and West walls

Turning to the right once more we can see the laundry sink, washer and door to the downstairs bath on the north wall.

Laundry sink and washer

The thing above the sink is a fold out drying rack (in use there). That's all there is to this little room. I'm very pleased with it. It's so much brighter and easier to work in now. You can check out the "before" pictures on our post "Long Nights Time 2021".

The last task

This door is the last one that I have to paint. It will match the trim color.

That's about all from here right now. This coming month we'll be getting busy with garden preparations, and I'll also be doing my spring cleaning. Bob will be planning out his next project, so stay tuned.

Enjoy the coming nice weather (and expect and tolerate some crumby weather, too).

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

At Taughannock on March 17