Fire and Rain

February 7th went down in the farm journal as "Blazer Mudslide Disaster Day." You see, Thomas came driving down the driveway at a "very reasonable speed" in a mild rain and pulled in to park. However, the tires locked or the mud gave way, or maybe the Blazer hadn't been driven in a while...but it kept going all the way down the bank and into our very first three trays of transplants for 2011 which we were trying to harden off so we might get them acclimated and into the ground this month. Thomas grabbed plants by the hand full and Lindy re-positioned the stressed out little seedlings that afternoon. Final count: we lost half of the first brussel sprouts, yellow onions, and cauliflower. That was the last time we got measurable rain until the very last day of February. The Blazer wouldn't crank again for 2 weeks so it stayed parked in the front yard as an everyday reminder of the incident. From this we learned never to curse the rain, it might just leave you alone. 

As the weather warmed and the soil dried out, we broke ground, built beds, seeded and successfully germinated sugarsnap peas and spinach, transplanted brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, onions, and kohlrabi. We're still waiting on the beets, carrots, and turnips to poke through the soil. For the better part of February, we kept sprinklers running.

Hoagie and Veronica

So as to stop referring to areas of the field as "you know, where the okra used to be", we gave each set of beds a distinct and honorable name. This month, the Three Sisters and the Morning Star plots were planted. Both of these fields refer to our shared Cherokee heritage though we ignore the possibility of shared geneology.

Every battery on every piece of equipment and almost every vehicle went dead at some point during the month of February leading the more paranoid half of Puzzle Peace Farm to declare a universal electromagnetic shift and thus the beginning of the End. That would be 4 vehicles, 1 Gravely, and 1 John Deere within the matter of two weeks. Well, the dirt bike didn't die, but it did get a flat tire, fell over, broke a rear view mirror and scratched up a car not belonging to either of us.

Oh yes, and Thomas turned 30 on February 20th, much to his dismay.  We had a nice fire and potluck in the 60 degree weather featuring the food of our dear farmer friends and family to celebrate.

Right now, the hens are laying. We are gathering a few more eggs each day. Jersey and Weezy, our alpine goats, are with "kid:", job well done, Manchester!  And Veronica and Hoagie are wallowing and rooting and growing ....their "one bad day" is fast approaching.


The beds of the Morning Star field



Jersey and Wheezy, respectively.



February 23rd went down in the farm journal as "FIRE". We took a lunch break, leaving the field around 12:00. In blessing our food, we gave thanks for such things as our water supply, our opportunity to farm family land, the warm dry weather that allowed us to prep our field and seed for the spring. At 12:15, Thomas's dad, Jim called and screamed into the telephone "THE FIELD IS ON FIRE!!!". Thomas grabbed his fire extinguisher (and his sandwich) and we ran for the truck, speeding for the field. We could see the smoke half a mile away. Apparently the electric fence was rubbing some wire grass the wrong way and, well, we've got a lot of bermuda grass. One little spark and it was up in flames. The fire spread to the well, singeing the electrical wire and knocking out our water supply. Jim was on the tractor tearing up the field, trying to create firelines with the disc harrow. Thomas was guarding the beehive, and a dangerously close stack of flamable railroad ties with the fire extinguisher. Lindy and Seth (Thomas's brother) were stomping it out, burning up their boots. Fire was out by 2:03. Crops safe. All 4 parties involved safe. Bees safe. It was a good day.



We are grateful for the rain, our water supply, the field, the opportunity to farm family land, and now fire extinguishers and tractors.

Puzzle Peace Out,

Thomas and Lindy







In the Cold Rain and Snow

The month of January has been a trying time for us at Puzzle Peace. As we clammer to come up with a plan for the upcoming season, we are excited, overwhelmed, and regretful that our winter projects are not where we want them to be. This month we took inventory on seeds and drooled over pictures from our seed suppliers' catalogs as we ordered more of the same, debated back and forth over which varieties to try and added a perennial stand to our regular planting of annuals...look out for asparagus three years from now. The onions and garlic we planted in December were mulched and the much anticipated soil test results finally arrived. With ph, CEC, and NPK up, it looks like we're doing something right.

The winter projects chugged along as we created a grow room out of the spare bedroom (below), which allowed an early jump on transplants when there was snow on the ground.



Our new grow room for seedlings.



Onion Sprouts



We started work on a packing shed, a luxury that has elluded us for too long, took down a small deer fence in order to construct an enormous deer fence that might actually work, began moving Lindy's greenhouse from her former life as a bachelorette farmer in Rutherfordton, and aquired a milk truck body which we hope to convert into a walk in cooler very soon.  In the thick of these long term projects, we fed goats, hogs, and chickens to help them through the winter when green pasture is an unappetizing shade of brown. Right now we're chomping at the bit for a series of dry days so we can re-shape beds and finally put the first seeds and sets of 2011 in the ground. Here's to spring which can't come fast, or slow enough.

puzzle peace out,

Thomas and Lindy