Time has slipped away again and I have not been as attentive to posting the activities of the spring as I would have liked.....
To catch up a bit - The new area for grain is ready for tilling and the manure has been spread over most of it. More hauling and spreading - then the tiller for a day or two....... The hops root starts have finally arrived and are now in the ground. Both the hops and the berry bush starts are planted but I'm still awaiting for some signs of growth. The vines are not showing any activity with the exception of the clematis on the front porch post. The willow is covered with catkins and the cherry is just beginning to have leaf buds open.
The garden is cleared and is ready for planting. It would be nice to have the wind cooperate in order to burn the piles of leaf refuse, weeds,corn stalks and raking that has been piling up. Only if I could mulch it! but it's way too dry and even if I mix it with manure from the animals I would need to water it and cover it with tarps to get any avtivity enough to mulch it, and barrel mulching is too small a scale for the quantity I have. I wish I could just char it and turn the carbon into the soil instead of reducing it to ash... Hummm something to see about perhaps...
I'm hoping this next week to get many things done and many things planted. I'm needing a larger place to start more plants in flats. The present glass panel lean-to is going to have to be moved and rebuilt double the size with another 4 glass panels in the next few days. The block I need to make a base to support the additional glass panels I have, will need to be brought out to the garden and set. I need to begin sprouting as soon as possible. But it's been so windy!
The spring winds have been roaring through and with gusts in excess of 50mph! I was told some gusts in the area were over 70mph..... The amount of wind erosion to the animal pen has been substantial. The roof on the house, barn, and chicken coop seem to have all withstood the gale over the last three days without any issues
As a result of the erosion I have been, and will be, hauling in a great deal of gravel to hopefully create a base that will not end up in Texas when the winds are howling again. Now if we could get a nice calm day or two or three and perhaps a gentle soaking rain over a day or two I think the growing season would be off to a great start.
