Thar she blows, or I guess in this case he

The Unimog has arrived! As the title suggests it is quite a large fellow. Abrahm has dubbed him Otto, and is thoroughly enjoying our latest acquisition. I think Abrahm has logged by far the most seat time so far, and he is more than willing to tell anyone and everyone anything they would like to know about Otto. We have not put the truck to use much so far, but we have big plans for the near future. It is kind of hard to put the truck's size in perspective, but its tires are quite a bit taller than Abrahm and as you can see in the pictures the sides of the bed are higher than my head. Otto does need a new set of tires which of course I cannot go down to the local tire shop to procure, so I have been searching the internet for tires that will do the job and not break the bank. At the moment I am also waiting for a local eaxcavation contractor to come and help me get the loader out of the back of the truck. We have discovered that one of the benefits of having such a tall truck is that you can use it as a platform for picking apples that are too high off the ground to reach any other way. Once the loader is out of the back we'll be able to put a ladder in the back and reach even more!

We have plenty of fall projects going on around here as well. We need to set up some fence for the cows that we will be getting in early October. We were offered a few cows from the fellow that we buy grain from and after a brief inspection we were completely sold on them. They are a cross between Scotch Highland, and Black Angus. They do not have horns anymore which is just fine with us, and they are very mellow which is great since I'm sure that Abrahm will want to spend a fair amount of time right in with them. He is quite the little farmer, often reminding us about various chores that we may have forgotten, and doing what ever he can to help. All reasons that we wanted to make a life like this.

Samuel is continuing to grow and change. He is quite a happy and mellow little guy. He loves to laugh already, and is beginning to reach for things which of course also means he's sticking any item he gets a hold of in his mouth. Both he and Abrahm are enjoying another extended visit from Grandma, and I think she is having a good time even though she is either occupied full time with the boys or preserving food for us. Not exactly a restful vacation I guess.

Unimog

Well, the biggest news of the last few weeks is that we have acquired a Unimog. It's a Mercedes vehicle, used more commonly in Europe, which has features of both a truck and a tractor. It has a front and rear PTO, 3-pt hitch, dump box, front loader, 4 wheel drive, and high clearance. We're intending it to do field work, get logs out of the woods (with a Farmi winch on the back), and be a general hauler. We've realized that the skid steer is not versatile enough for our needs, so it's now for sale and the Unimog is soon to be trucked from southern Indiana to us. Ben and Abrahm took a road trip to scout out this vehicle before we decided about buying it. They did a marathon drive (40+ hours of driving over 3 days), and confirmed that it was purchase-worthy. Abrahm brought a small library and some machinery to keep him occupied, and Ben had hours of non-stop commentary to keep him awake.

More news and photos soon. The blogger site doesn't seem to be functioning right....

Late blight, plague, smallpox

In that context, late blight doesn't sound so bad. But when we first identified late blight in our tomatoes, I wanted to throw up my hands and scream at the weather gods who conspired to create this wet, cold, fungus-brewing summer. I found the first signs of late blight (the cause of the Irish potato famine, to put its seriousness in perspective) the day after I finished trellising all our tomatoes. So I probably spread it to every one of our plants. We're infected beyond control at this point. We're still spraying copper, but it feels a bit like spitting at a house on fire to try to put it out. Every day there are more plants showing signs. So we keep pulling plants, and revising our tomato hopes - from quantities sufficient for supplying the CSA and canning a year's worth, down to just enough that Abrahm gets to eat some fresh. He's been talking about growing (and eating) tomatoes since last winter.

It's August already, and it's just starting to feel like summer. We had such a nice stretch of weather recently that we almost forgot the 17 inches of rain we've had this summer. Until yesterday, when we got another inch of rain in 20 minutes! At least we needed some rain - just not that much, that fast. It's raining again now, and again foiling our attempts to get the garden under some semblance of control. We resorted to mowing down big areas of the garden, to keep the weeds from dropping seed. It's not a good sign when it's satisfying to mow the garden rather than weed it!

The pigs seem to be thriving despite the wet summer. We haven't had to worry about making a wallow for them; most of their pen serves that purpose. Our turkey numbers have dwindled dramatically (14 down to 3), thanks in part to a hungry, and now probably obese, fox. We resorted to getting a late batch of meat chickens as a quicker-to-raise source of protein. They're growing well, and as soon as they have a few more feathers, we'll put them out in the garden in a portable pen so they can eat their way through the weeds.

The Turners have been here to hay our field, in our hay-for-firewood swap. Firewood? Yes, we're surrounded by a jillion cords of wood, but most of them are vertical still. And we're realizing that it's going to be a while until we have any hay-eating critters, so this is still our barter. We'd like to make our own hay, but that's also a ways off. We're missing the key elements of hay machinery and time.

In people news (I'm not sure what this indicates, that I report on vegetables and animals first)... Abrahm ran his first race last weekend, the one-mile kids' race at the Blueberry Festival. Ben ran with him, and reported that he (Abrahm) chattered about the machinery seen (real and imagined) over the whole course. He wanted to stop only once, when the course ran along the river, as he wanted to go explore in the water. The best Abrahm quote of the last week, while he was on his excavator, trying to dig a root out of his sand pile: "This excavator can't get the root out. It's doing its best. The thumb is a powerful tool, but it's just not up to the job." Where does he come up with this stuff? He is learning to use a camera with our old one. Not surprisingly, he wanted to take pictures of the hay bales.

Samuel continues to eat, grow, sleep, and charm us with his delightfully wordless communication. We're thankful for his mellow personality, willingness to sleep, and easy-going ways that balance out the intensity of his older brother. We see Samuel start to look adoringly at Abrahm and his antics, and it's not too hard to imagine the mischief they will get into together in not too many months!

Speaking of Samuel, he is now awake, so I'd better wrap this up.

Leslie

Busy

There's so more succinct way to describe our life right now. Running the farm with a 3 year old and 2 month old (and no daycare anymore) is just a recipe for running in too many directions at once. Overall, it's going as well as (or better than) I expected. Life has been helped immensely by improvement in the weather. It still rains frequently, but not with the extremes of June and early July. I believe we ended up with 14.4 inches of rain in just over 6 weeks. Over the last few weeks we've had a window of better weather that has let us be in the garden more. Some areas we just tilled under and started over. Those that we didn't, we're trying to catch up on weeding. The garden is looking surprisingly good, especially if you don't know that a large area that was supposed to be our corn patch looks like lawn since we mowed down the weeds!

Samuel is growing exponentially, it seems, and is 2 months old tomorrow. He has recently started sleeping through the night. He had been on a 11-1-3-5am wake-up routine which got tiresome quickly. So we decided that Ben would take Samuel down to my aunt and uncle's house, which was conveniently vacant during their vacation. We'd feed him at his first wake-up, and then let him get himself through the rest. We expected major crying with this plan, but he must have known the jig was up, and he started sleeping from 6:30pm to about 5am. Hurray!

Abrahm continues his fascination with all things mechanical. Recently he told me, while pointing to various parts of the engine of a scale-model tractor, that "there are connections between gas tank and the throttle, and between the gas tank and the engine." How does he put this stuff together? He spends hours each day playing with his fleet of machinery (one set for inside, another for outside). Those machines that he doesn't actually have, he imagines. So you might hear him narrating a building project with references to his Hitachi excavator, Caterpillar dozer, Komatsu excavator, Yanmar excavator, and Caterpillar excavator. Though he might have bought or sold more by now.

I'll let the photos say the rest. One of these days I need to do a photo retrospective too, to capture the months that elapsed when we fell off the blog wagon.

Leslie

Will the rain stop?

We're now up to 11.6 inches of rain in 18 days. There's no way to capture in photos the extent of sogginess in the garden (or anywhere else, for that matter). The crops that were well established by the time the rain started seem to be okay, but all the later plantings are gone. We're not quite sure how we'll fill our CSA members' weekly shares.

We've invested in a tiller, with the assumption that at some point (maybe next year) it will be dry enough to actually get it in the field. The photo comparison shows our BCS tiller next to a fairly standard-sized tiller that we had borrowed before we found the BCS. Despite its size, it's very maneuverable, and it can take other attachments.

Abrahm has been perusing heavy machinery brochures, perhaps in hopes of finding us something with which to establish better drainage in the garden. (See photo...)

The boys are both sleeping, and I probably should too.

Toad Drowner

I must give credit to Ivan Doig for that description of a rainy spell, but it was too perfect to pass up as the summary of our last few weeks. I think we've topped 6 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks. We're getting a bit water-weary, and each time it starts to rain again, Abrahm asks, "Why is it raining again?....Eventually, it will stop raining!" And we think, again and again, "I don't know why it's still raining, and I'm glad you continue to be optimistic that it will stop." Perhaps our next building project should be an ark, rather than garden shed, pig house, greenhouse, or any of the other of the current short-list of projects we're contemplating.

Vegetable shares have been beautiful and bountiful, despite the rain. All the leafy greens are enjoying this cool wet weather, and we have collard greens big enough to use as umbrellas. If only there were a way to weed without actually having to set foot in the garden. We're hoping that it dries soon enough that the roots and fruits aren't stunted or rotted.

In non-vegetable news, Samuel weighed in at 11lb, 9 oz today, and has gained more than 1 lb/week these last few weeks. He's quickly losing the brand-new newborn look. Abrahm continues to thrive as big brother. He is starting to take on the big-brother-as-entertainer role. He helps with harvest days, albeit with decidedly Abrahm-devised methods (eg harvesting the radishes with his backhoe). He went strawberry picking with Grandma and Paka today, and managed to get at least a few berries into the boxes instead of his belly.

That's it for now, as I should go take a walk (or mudslide) through the garden to see how things are faring.

Leslie

Back home

Back from where, you might be asking? The hospital, again. One week after we came home after Samuel's birth, I ended up back in the hospital for three days with a nasty bout of mastitis. Once again, we were thankful that Arlene willingly and capably held home and farm together in our absence. We are happy to be home together again. I am slowly regaining my strength, and trying to find ways to be useful without exerting myself too much.

This week is our first week of vegetable shares for our CSA shareholders. Ben, Arlene, and Abrahm harvested and packed shares this morning despite more than 2.5 inches of rain in the last couple days. We're ready for some warm dry weather. It doesn't seem quite right to be using the woodstove in mid-June!

brothers

Hello,

We started this post a few days back, and the photos disappeared. Somehow between Samuel feedings, a planting marathon in the garden, and a somewhat needier big brother, we've not gotten back to it until now. The photo of Abrahm on the loader is documentation of the very real need for special time dedicated to big brother. Ben had a skid steer part to pick up at the dealer, and he and Abrahm checked out (and climbed on) every piece of equipment possible!

The summary of life right now, as quoted to me by my Aunt Tini: "The days are long and the years are short." I might amend that to include, "the nights are even longer", as Samuel sleeps better during the day than at night. Nonetheless, we're doing okay, and are continually thankful for Ben's mom being here for help with children, cooking, and garden. Thank you Arlene!

That's it for now...
Leslie

A new addition to Counterpoint Farm

We welcome the newest addition to Counterpoint Farm:
Samuel David Bardo Geissinger
born May 28, weighing 8lb 13oz, 21.5"