Our Wild Horse Adventure into Sandwash Basin Colorado

This summer Sara and I drove west to a place in Colorado called Sandwash Basin; this is located in the northwest corner of Colorado.  Our destination was in the high plains of Colorado located on BLM land just outside of Craig Colorado. We had become fans of a Facebook page, Sandwash Basin Wild Horses and we had been watching their postings of the wild horses in this area. These noble animals could be found dancing on the high plains with their bands and we just fell in love with their painted features and sheer beauty.  We knew we would have to visit this place and sure enough we packed up the jeep and headed west.  Our love of horses or stated properly, Sara’s love of horses has transcended into my own heart in a way I never would have imagined. What I have learned here on the farm about horses and out in Colorado is their never ending ability to absorb my thoughts or pull me away from the daily stress of life.

It was here on the farm I learned of their playground antics; there is a pecking order and depending on where the horse falls in the pecking order, will greatly impact how they get to interact with the other horses.  Our first year here we had a mare that ruled the pasture; frankly she was a bitch!  She kept at her side the young quarter horse and would not allow our Arab to be near him.  After a while we attempted to have her trained, but the trainer we chose let us know that she was going to be a difficult horse to train, and even once she was trained she was going to have some temper issues. Needless to say we shipped her off to another owner due to the fact neither Sara nor I wanted to deal with her poor attitude.   I think this was foretelling for me on how important it is to work with your horse(s) and do the ground work early on, if you ever expect to get anywhere. 

In the wild the pecking order is a more dramatic work and has much to do with the survival of a band as it does with forming new families.  I learned of how bands and the head stallion will force the young stallions out on their own at a certain age thus leaving them out in the wild without a band or to form up with other young bachelors.  The amazing part is to understand just how loyal the band is to each other and will not normally separate from each other.  Watching a stallion motivate his band into moving is quite a picture in itself; the stallion will walk behind the band and start herding them to the next area simply by walking briskly behind and nodding its head up and down constantly.  So I have to wonder what they might be saying, “move along now, it’s time to get to the next area!”

After driving through some magnificent country which included going through Estes Park and staying at the Stanley Hotel and driving through Rocky Mountain National Park (site seeing some incredible Elk along the roadside) we arrived in Craig Colorado. We had originally planned on heading straight out to Sandwash Basin, but due to the time of day of our arrival, we had to wait another day; we did not want to pick out a camping spot in the dark! The plan for the next day was to meet up with the group and the person who started the Facebook page, Nancy Roberts.  They had posted a time to meet and go out to view the horses.  Nancy who it turns out was a Wisconsin girl at one time, started the page and through her work with others, has been naming the horses and counting them.  It was remarkable to have her tell us the names of the horses or their background into how they came about in the various bands.  Our drive to the meeting area was fairly easy, with the exception of finding the turnoff to head into the BLM area being a little obscure.  Interestingly our best friend were our maps, you know those paper items you used to use when driving somewhere!  GPS is great but knowing how to use a map is still quite useful.  We arrived at the meet about a half an hour late but fortunately the group was still waiting.  I love the smell of the desert, it has the skunk smell and sweet sage smell all at the same time and this area was no different.  Getting out of our vehicle I took in the sweet smell of this desert and looked around the sage and cedars where we found our group.  We met Marty, Stella and Joe who were going to head out with us.  Stella Trueblood is part of another group SWAT or Sandwash Advocate Team; they too have a Facebook page and from what we learned the two groups are going to form together.  The first page has about 50,000 likes while Stella’s page is at about 1,600, but both are out there to inform the public, and make them aware of the horses. 

  After a short meet and greet we all loaded back into our vehicles and followed Nancy and Marty out on to the basin trails. Sara and I were admiring the back roads into the desert (little did we know just how familiar we were to become of these roads) when we came upon our first band.  We got out and started photographing the horses. The first thing I noticed was the camera gear of the others; we have a nice camera but these folks are serious business and their cameras were capable of shooting some pretty amazing shots! The first shots I took with the camera were okay but I knew I was going to have to do some work on adjusting the lighting, if we were going to get any decent shots.  After our first stop we moved on and eventually ended up at the local watering hole for the horses; the BLM had built this hole with a solar pump for the horses.  What a place! It seemed that band after band was showing up for their drink and swim; we were mesmerized by all of the horses showing up! One of the picturesque parts of these horses is their wild manes; they have the Rastafari look, long and in some cases multi colored manes! While we were learning and discussing about the various bands a couple of stallions got into action; the first one a red roan who looked like he had been splattered with white wash, started kicking up dirt near a grey stallion the two of them were ready to show who was boss! The grey stallion reared up onto his hind legs, his hoof clearly raised above the other’s head, his muscles flexing mightily as he demonstrated who was in charge! Wow! Our first day out and we just experienced an amazing scene!  I called it the money shot; although I almost missed it altogether as my camera lighting was off! I clicked away and walked away with what I felt was clearly the shot of the day for us! The sound of scuffling dirt and snorting could be heard by all as the two horses were demonstrating how they operate in the wild.  If you look closely you can see bite marks all over these horses, and as we watched these two you get an understanding as to where those marks come from.

Well after our first day we knew we had arrived and although we wanted to stay out, we knew we needed to find our campsite and get it set up for the next few days. 

 Marty as it turned out was camping and offered us a site near his; this later proved to be a wise choice on our part! We headed back to the area where Marty had set his camp and found an area we felt to be suitable for ourselves.  We unloaded our jeep and set our camp. We had a magnificent view out into the desert and we were surrounded by cedars to help keep wind off of us.  After setting up camp and eating some dinner inside our tent, because it started to rain outside, Marty stopped by and asked if we would like to go back out, it had stopped raining. We were all setup at the campsite and we said sure we would love to go back out.  The smell of the desert after a rain is definitely stronger and more pungent, in a good way! The air that night was full of sage and other plants who just received a nice soaking. Marty was from Wyoming and he too had learned of the basin through Facebook. Marty offered to drive as he knew the trails and areas to head out to, we were fine with him taking us out. We learned Marty had come out of retirement working for a coal company in the mechanical area but now was ready to retire again! He, like us, enjoyed the adventure of being out in the wild and had also traveled around as well. Marty took us to another smaller watering hole (a natural one) where we ran into a couple of guys who were also taking photographs of horses.  Not wanting to interfere with their photography we asked if it would be alright if we joined them.  They had no problem allowing us to pull up alongside and shoot our photos as well.  I was beginning to think we were on an African safari and we had found ourselves out on the Savanna!  Sara and our kids have gone on an African safari and I even asked her later didn't this feel like one!  She agreed it most definitely did!  We had even brought Ernest Hemingway's book The Green Hills of Africa book on Cd with us for our drive.  The obvious difference for us, we were shooting with a camera and not clawing our way through incredibly rough terrain to shoot an animal for its horn.  Yet, it was still part of our adventure and as the sun was setting through the clouds and we were shooting a band horses with our cameras.  Once again the camera equipment used by others was by far superior, this time I pointed it out to Sara.  She had a chance to see firsthand as one of the other gentleman showed her some of the photos he had shot, spectacular, I believe was the word Sara used.  She even had a suspicion that one or both of them worked for a magazine or were at the very least professional photographers!  Well at least we had our good ole cannon and with some work with the lighting we were able to shoot our own favorite shots.  I am really big into Macro shooting; this is where you frame a shot that you have zoomed in to and the object is usually tiny but the shot makes it look larger than life.  In this case I like to zoom into the horses head or part of their body to emphasize the look they are giving me.  It doesn't always work as the horse moves its head or body. 

Marty and the two other gentleman were having a discussion about the horses and it seems there are a lot of myths about the animals or at the very least the management of the horses seems to be a bit dependent on the political mood of the public, ranchers, and gas folks in the area.  Ranchers want the land for grazing, the gas and oil folks do not prefer to have wild horses running through their drilling operations and the general public doesn’t have much information on what or why roundups are happening.  I have been surprised at just how political the whole situation really is; the belief that these horses are a nuisance and causing problems is far from what we saw.  I actually believe they are doing the area some good; they provide back valuable nutrients to the soil and what they graze compared to sheep or other animals is minimal.  Nature has a way of controlling the herds, foals do not always survive the harsh climate and there are other elements that are at work. It is true the horses do not have any natural predators; you would think the rattlesnake would be one!  Weather on the other hand is something that can be just as dangerous; the winter time in this area can get up to two feet of snow and finding food or some kind of shelter in that environment can prove to be quite tough.  The point is the environment in itself can be the very force that controls the population.  Nancy Roberts was in fact working on counting foals a couple of years ago and now was setting out to see how many of those foals actually survived.  I don’t have the answer to what to do or if something should be done but know enough to realize that as soon as it becomes political you can expect anything but a logical solution.  After our discussions and many pictures later it was time to head back.  Marty dropped us off back at our campsite and we talked about what time we might like to head out in the morning?  Sara and I were tired from our travels and opted out of the bright and early idea; instead we offered to meet up with Marty later in the day. He was agreeable and left us to our campsite. 

Our first night was spectacular as various cloud formations came across and the sun was setting. That night was going to be a full moon and it definitely lit up the desert! Shining across the sage and mountains it was delivering a beautiful glimmering light to us! The air was warm, thankfully, as we had learned it was too dry to have a campfire.  We did not need a fire; we were literally surrounded by moonlight!  We started to get a sprinkling of rain and thought it would be easy to put the tailgate up on the jeep and sit under it. Great idea and yet, poor thinking on our part! We sat under the cover of the jeep’s hatch enjoying wine and discussing our day.  We had arrived and we were excited of what we had already spotted and what we might find the next day!  I don’t believe I have ever heard of anyone planning a vacation of this sort but I can state without a doubt it is well worth the experience if you are up to camping and dealing with some of the harsh natural environments.  We headed to our tent for the night as we heard the coyotes howling away and the sprinkling of rain.  Our first night was uneventful and quite comfortable in our tent.

We awoke the next morning fresh from a great night of sleep.  We had a leisurely breakfast; all I can say, as a chef, dehydrated food has come a long way! Ours that morning was scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes and it tasted pretty good! We started packing our site to leave it for the day, when Marty came up on his dirt bike.  Marty was worried a major storm was going to roll in and he did not want to get trapped in the desert; he was packing up and heading out.  Sara noticed an elk shed attached to his handle bars and was admiring it when Marty offered the shed to her.  We were surprised and said it was beautiful he should keep it; Marty explained he had many more at home and she would be welcome to have it. Needless to say we now own a very large elk shed!  We were all set to head out for the day and jumped into our jeep, camera ready, water ready and some food, we turned the key and nothing! I tried it again and yup our battery was dead! Holy crap! We knew or hopped Marty hadn’t finished packing or had left; it was 20 miles to the road and another 30 miles to the nearest town! As I raced up to Marty’s campsite I was trying to think of how I was going to McGyver the battery to get a charge into it! This one was going to be a tough one! If you don’t remember, McGyver was a television show from the 80’s and the guy McGyver could fix anything with a string and a rubber band! I doubt some of the stuff he did was real but today whenever something has to be cobbled together the phrase McGyver it comes up. Incidentally, I learned later of a couple of tricks; if you can pop the cover off of your battery (where the cells are located) and drop a couple of tablets of aspirin into each cell it should create enough acid to turn the car over? The only problem is most batteries today do not have access to those cells! I also learned of using coke might also do the trick?  I have not tried this yet but we have enough batteries around here to give this a try! Fortunately I didn’t have to cobble anything together, as Marty just started to pull out when I caught up to his campsite. I explained our situation and he thankfully drove down and gave us a jump.  So our little rain cover idea was definitely not a good one; remember the little dome light that goes on when you open a door well it will run down your battery! From that point forward we made sure every possible juice sucking device in that vehicle was shut down before we did anything else at the campsite! In fact when we came to our first stop Sara and I were a bit hesitant to shut the vehicle off; we were worried the alternator had not charged it enough!  We eventually gained the courage to shut it off and the vehicle started up just fine and we did not have any trouble with the battery for the rest of the trip.  Lesson for all don’t use your car battery for anything but driving when out in the wilderness or travel with a method to charge it or change the battery out with a fresh battery!

Our adventure for the day turned out to be fun and exciting.  I think for the most part our eyes were constantly focused on finding the next band of horses.  We were not disappointed as we came across band after band. Each of the bands had their own personality and or way of watching us as we photographed them.  It seems they were quite use to these strange moving objects that would come to a halt and have humans depart from inside and hold up these box like things and stand there looking at them! I think a few of them were actually posing for us! Our adventure for the day was full of pictures of horses with their foals, tough looking stallions and the occasional Pronghorn running through the desert.  We snapped pictures at everything and in fact I think we came home with well over 650 pictures of wild horses! A few of those I am sharing here on this blog. The real adventure was going to happen later that night when we went to bed!  We returned to our campsite and setup for dinner and making sure we were not running down the battery somewhere from something plugged in to the vehicle! We sure as hell were not going to wake up to another dead battery!  The moon that night did not disappoint us it was bright and full! We had dinner and enjoyed some wine as we reminisced of our day’s activities.  Describing the smells and other sensory feelings one gets while camping where there is absolutely no one around is something like this; imagine not hearing a single car, the only sound comes from the wind, birds, coyotes and other creatures sharing the space around you. There were these birds that would make an incredible sound as they traveled at warp speed diving to get some insect; it really was something to hear or have happen right above your head!  The first time I was using the facilities nearby to expel myself when one of them dived right by my ear; I nearly jumped out of my pulled down pants! Other than the strange bird we were not visited by any unwanted friends and really enjoyed the time out in the desert air at night. We were tired from our day in the hot sun and it was ready to hit the sack. We climbed into our tent and soon fell asleep. We awoke to a rather large storm outside of our tent.  I was literally counting the time between the lightening and the thunder to see how close the lightening was to our tent! Sara was up checking the tent for any leaks, there were no leaks! Outside of our tent it was blowing rain and coming down hard. We had planned to drive into Steamboat Springs the next day and began to wonder if we were going to even get out of the basin to do so.  We had heard of how bad it can get when the heavy rains come; the desert floor becomes thick like cement in places and or the mud becomes so deep it is not possible to drive through. Awesome laying there thinking about being stuck out there! 

We woke the next morning and inspected the area for any storm damage or other problems, like a mudslide or worse! There were no issues around the campsite and we made our breakfast and readied our campsite to head out.  As drove out we came across a few areas that required us to put the vehicle into four wheel low and shoot through some deep puddles. At a couple of places the rain had turned the soft desert sand into wet slippery silt that stuck to your tires like cement!  We got through some pretty tight places and never got stuck anywhere but there were a couple of places that we were not certain we would make it through.  We had survived a major rain storm and drove through the mess the storm had left behind. Success!

Our trip into Steamboat Springs was planned because we wanted to meet up with a friend of ours who is a chef in Steamboat at a place called Elkstone Farms.  Dan Almquist is an alumnus and former instructor of our culinary program and when he was a student he worked in our restaurant the Sandhill Inn.  We had known Dan for a number of years and we were excited to see his new place of employment.  We did a little research into his operation prior to our arrival and found it to be an awesome place; they specialize in raising fresh produce for the local markets along with preparing various canned items.  We met at Elkstone and just marveled at his location! The farm sits at the bottom of a mountain and overlooks Steamboat Springs.  His kitchen looks out over the valley!  The farm has a greenhouse and three hoop houses.  Dan gave us a tour of the farm and we found orange trees, and bananas growing!  Across the street, where the hoop houses were located, they were growing anything from tomatoes to greens.  Dan has found himself an incredible place to practice his trade and on top of that found himself a pretty nice girlfriend (she likes horses and works at a place with horses). That’s a good start! We enjoyed lunch in town with Dan and had some great conversation on food, horses and life in general but we knew we needed to get back to our campsite before dark so we parted our ways and headed out.

Upon returning to our campsite the rain had dried up in most places and going back was not as tough.  Our foray into the basin continued onward.  We enjoyed a peaceful evening as we were excited to continue on and explore more of this beautiful country.  The next morning we mapped out our route for the day.  We were going to drive north east into an area we had not yet driven.  Our day of driving and photographing was without a doubt one to remember.  One of the trails we were on led us to several bands in one area. We parked the jeep and got out to shoot some shots of the bands in the area; Sara even attempted to call one to her, but to no avail.  We got back into the jeep and as we drove behind one band in particular we watched a stallion come back to a pile of manure and witnessed firsthand the meaning behind stud pile! Yes, I have to admit something here; when we first arrived into the Sandwash Basin we had not heard of the phrase, stud pile.  We had the, naïve, thought that those wild horses must have consumed a great deal to leave behind huge piles! I know, really! How could we have been so naïve! The stud, upon coming on a fresh pile, will sniff, snort and even have a guttural sound over the pile and turn around, spread his hind quarters, lift his tail and leave behind his own droppings on top of the pile.  It really is something to see or at the very least see the reaction of the horse and its behavior.  Another time we drove up to a band and when we stopped, the band was curious of us and actually came closer to our vehicle. This is familiar to us as our own horses will do this but we certainly did not expect them to do this in the wild.  It was almost as if they wanted to pose for our camera!  We did shoot a number of pictures of this photogenic band.  Our day was indeed eventful as we came upon band after band of horses.  At one point we witnessed close to 75 horses racing up a mountainside or another time we had a group of three playing peekaboo with us and our camera! They were hiding above us and one at a time they would pop their heads up peering down at us! Towards the end of the day we had decided we wanted to go back to the watering hole we had visited on our first day. This was along the way back so it would not be out of our way.  We arrived and parked away from the watering hole as we had learned to do earlier.  We walked down and sure enough there were bands of horses hanging out at the watering hole.  What made this a remarkable stop was what happened shortly after our arrival.  We were taking pictures of the various bands at the hole when we noticed a group of studs who were traveling as bachelors.  Or at least that was what Sara had surmised.  Sara was sitting above me when suddenly one of the bachelors whinnied as he looked up above Sara.  To our surprise there was a young foal up there! The stud raced up the hill past Sara and stood next to the foal! At this point I asked Sara if she was sure the stud was a stud and not a mare! She wasn’t sure and neither was I! What we had just witnessed will definitely be forged into our memories forever!  I got some great shots of the foal and the charcoal horse standing next to the foal.  Later we learned, through Facebook, that Sara was right! The foal, it seemed had been adopted by the stallion! We found out the foal was wandering with this band of bachelors and it was suspected to have lost its mare.  Timing in life is everything and our timing that day was indeed spot on! By this time we were exhausted and it was time to head back to our campsite for our final night.  We felt it had ended on an incredible note and, although, we could have stayed out longer it was time to head back.

Needless to say it was an adventure we both will have to share for years to come and what we learned, witnessed and felt will always be a part of our lives!  Our knowledge of horses grew just a little bit more and the adventurous tour through Sandwash Basin was fulfilled!

Spring 2014

It has been awhile since I last wrote in my blog but that’s not because work has not been happening! This winter was harsh on all of us; I have never seen so many social media friends write for status updates of never complaining of the heat again!

Newly planted beds

First of all the garden beds over the winter were fortified with coffee grounds; our college coffee area saved the grounds for myself another instructor. I dumped so much coffee grounds on each of the beds I finally had to stop or it would have been way too much for the garden to handle!  The grapevines all survived (51 of them) and managed to handle the harsh cold. From what I have heard a lot of older vines did not manage as well. We also got up to them as soon as we could this year and managed to prune them, feed them and add mulch. We will now be adding the post needed to get the vines to climb straight. Originally I wanted to add another 50 vines but opted to wait another year and make sure the ones planted last year are established before taking on another 50.

New arrivals to the farm

The newest addition to the farm this year was our purchase of 25 chickens or as we affectionately call them, meat birds. We lost one in shipping another died due to injury in shipping; otherwise we have 23 chickens to butcher in the next couple of weeks.  We needed to move our hens to the outdoor coup to make room for the chickens; this proved to be a chore! In order for us to move the chickens into the winter coup we needed to clean out the coup. This became more fertilizer for the garden; we hauled six tractor loads up to the garden (who would have guessed 5 hens would produce so much in one winter season).  We did lose one of our hens just before the chickens moved in, not sure as to why? We have had the birds for two years; this would have been the third summer. The breed of chickens we purchased called Cornish cross or red have some quirks! Apparently they will eat so much that if you are not careful you will have chickens croaking from heart attacks! We were told to make sure they had to stand to eat and walk to get water.  To do this I built a feeding trough from an old rain gutter; I built two of these, the first one was the smaller version, which they quickly out grew, and the second one a much larger piece of the gutter.  The birds show no grace at feeding time, they climb over each other, climb on top of the feeder to eat! We had two smaller waters and they have quickly outgrown them; we now have a 5 gallon water feeder along with the two smaller ones.  They have about two weeks left before we turn them into fried chicken! This is the crucial time and it will be important to make sure they have plenty of water and we will need to keep our eye on them to ensure they are not dying of heart attacks!

We also decided this year to have our quarter horse (Babu) trained by a local trainer. The young man, Jacob, has a great connection with horses.  He has a true passion with horses and seems to understand them and if Sara was okay with this, I was definitely okay with the idea. The training was going well and we even went on a trail ride with Jacob riding Babu! Things were going swimmingly until one of Jacob’s mares went into heat! Typical guy thinking with his junk, despite not having the ability to do anything, he decided he needed to meet the lucky lady! Babu had been training at Jacobs when he got the call of nature from the mare.  Babu rain through a fence to get to her and in the meantime managed to gash his hind leg in two places; the cuts were deep enough for us to call a vet! Initially Sara and Jacob managed the wounds but decided we should have the vet come out and have him checked out. As it turns out Sara’s treatment plan was working and addition the vet gave us antibiotics for Babu. Sara brought Babu home and we have been hosing, cleaning and treating the wounds.  They are healing nicely.

Babu's gash!

 

The garden thus far had received large doses of nitrogen from the chickens and coffee grounds but was fortified with more soil from our woods.  I brought up numerous loads of soil from our woods to complete the task of stacking our beds with good stuff!  I choose soil from areas where we have dead tree stumps and the soil and wood had decomposed to become some awesome soil! The beds have also been rotated and the items planted in one bed our now planted in another bed.  The rotation is good for the soil and the plants. I was able to get the beds planted in just a couple of days.  Our son William helped with one of the beds planting some seedlings our daughter, Dawson, had brought home. The cool thing is that literally within a couple of days the garden is springing to life! Literally everything is coming up!

 

Some of our projects for the summer include having our neighbors bring their goats to our woods and do some cleanup. Goats do a great job of eating weed trees and other unwanted growth. Once we finish the cleanup I am going to build some jumps in the woods for Sara and her horse. The benefit will also be in creating new trails through the woods, thus easier access during hunting season!  Our woods also have a number of trees that need to be cut up and hauled out; unfortunately the woods have been neglected for the most part over the years.  The problem with neglecting the woods is the evasive species that has taken over much of the woods, including poison oak.  The storms over the years knocked down trees and some are sitting up against good healthy trees, thus causing more damage.  The goal is to take on small quadrants and cleanup those areas, moving on to the next area when we have cut away unwanted, dead or down trees.  Eventually we want to come back and plant more trees and replace the trees that have either fallen or died. 

Some of the cleanup needed down at our woods

 

Finally we have been eating a lot of asparagus this spring! Sara is the Queen of asparagus finding; zeroing in like a heat seeking missile, Sara can spot a stand of asparagus from her car while driving along our country roads.  We have made quiche, strata, salads and many other dishes from the asparagus this spring! Good stuff and typical of any growing season we are ready to move on to the next harvest!

Asparagus and violets from our foray into the country road by our house

 

Skijoring on the farm

Sara and I skijoring on the farm

Winter life on the farm can be fun and exciting. We have three horses on the farm and use them for pleasure riding. This year we decided on a new way to have fun with the horses!

Sara recently discovered a new and exciting way to exercise our Arab horse; the sport skijoring has a skier towed by a horse, this is an actual Olympic sport, and we found how fun it was to ski behind our horse! The sport was first demonstrated in the 1928 Winter Olympics. The sport has the horse pulling the skier as they maneuver themselves through a number of obstacles and jumps. The World championships have been held in Whitefish Montana since 2009. I told Sara we will have to make our way up to the championships someday, we can call it a learning expedition!

Admittedly I have no plans of entering into any event but I can’t lie it is an incredibly awesome experience! What we did was relatively easy; we used an old water ski tow rope and tied it off to the saddle horn. Sounds simple! Horses are interesting animals as they have personalities and sometimes those personalities can become crystal clear when you have them do something they’re not accustomed to doing! Our Arab has always been a little spooky when it comes to sticks, leaves and other small snake like creatures; tying a rope to a saddle horn and pulling a skier behind him was going to be an adventure! He has mellowed over the years and spooks less but every so often he splays his feet to hug the ground when something has spooked him. It can be exciting as a rider when this happens but we had no idea what to expect with this new idea.

The first time we tied him to a skier he did a good job; he was a little scared but we took a ride down one of our fields and through the woods. We had a small amount of snow but the experience was definitely a positive one. We didn't have a lot of snow for this first attempt which made maneuvering through the woods a little tricky, remember those sticks appear as snakes to our Arab! Despite our fears or my fears he did a great job! Sara also learned how much more difficult it was to ride him while towing a skier behind but she maintained control and did an awesome job.

Our next adventure took place Christmas day with a good six inches of fresh powder on the ground, we knew what we were going to do. We took out our Arab and saddled him up. It was snowing, a light snow, and definitely a cold Wisconsin wind was blowing. Our daughter was first to go. She put on the ski boots and as her mom got the horse ready, it should be noted, Sara, my wife, is the equestrian master in our house and without her knowledge we probably wouldn’t be doing this. Sara rides amateur jumping and has a trainer and I am curious what he would think about our doings? Once we had the horse ready we moved out to the field with the skies and tow rope. Sara tied the rope to the saddle horn as Dawson mounted her skies. My job was to photograph and video their performance. Honestly at this point I wasn’t going to do it, I figured our daughter would enjoy the run and I wouldn’t have to slip out of my warm winter boots into a pair of ski boots. Plus I had made the initial run with the horse a few weeks back and figured it would be best if our daughter got the experience. Once I saw them coming down the field I knew I was going to be skijoring shortly! Watching the snow fly as our daughter skies were gliding down the field was enough for me. Watching the horse canter through the snow is another delightful site, snow flying everywhere and all you can hear is the horse’s breathing and his hooves pounding down to the ground.

So it was my turn and looking back I am glad I decided to do this. I put on my ski boots and even chuckled as I realized I was wearing my Carharts, farming winter wear that is quite warm but not made for skiing! All my life I have skied and I guarantee if I would have showed up at any ski resort wearing this outfit, people would have chortled as they watched me ski. Heck even I was laughing! I carried my skies out and Sara was already tied off from before. I stood ready to go and off we went. The start is a little slow as the horse is getting ready and Sara is getting adjusted. Soon we were trotting and next cantering down the field. Like I stated before the only sound you hear is the horse, and the skies gliding along. Snow is flying off the skies and you are maneuvering the skies as you need to turn. Once we got down to the end of the field we headed into the woods. The snow covered trees and light snow made the experience surreal! Once we glided out of the woods we headed into our west field and went around the outer perimeter of the field; earlier this year Sara had mowed a path around the field and it has been used by horses for the last six months. At one point I told Sara "sharp corner", meaning she might want to slow down a little so I could make the turn, and it was when I learned she was already doing that but the horse was trying to get away from the guy chasing him! Needless to say I managed the turn and we moved along at a nice pace. Once we got through the woods and back down the field I was on fire with excitement, this had been an experience I would not soon forget and look forward to our next skijoring adventure! Enjoy the videos I know we did!

 

 

Winter Harvest

It has been a while since I wrote about the garden! The final results for the garden this year are for the most part positive. It’s now December and as of 4 days ago we harvested the last of the garden; we managed to harvest 75 lbs. of carrots, 20 lbs. of parsnips, 4 ½ dozen leeks and a few beets. Not a bad haul for dismantling the garden in the spring and moving towards a Hugelkulture style! The leeks were started, along with the parsnips, in a cold frame I had built earlier but due to a huge wind storm in the spring I lost part of the seedlings! I figured I would not make up the loss but went ahead and replanted new seeds and transplanted the ones that had made it through the high winds into the newly formed bed. This was also true for the parsnips. Despite mother nature’s best efforts we managed to grow leeks, parsnips and carrots all season! When it came time to harvest the temperature outside was dropping (around 20 degrees f), it was drizzling rain and we had already had a hard freeze for the season. I usually leave root vegetables in the ground until the first or second hard freeze. I believe it converts the sugars and makes them sweeter! Sara went through 3 pairs of gloves in 2 hours of harvesting the carrots! My favorite time in the garden is harvesting the bounty but sometimes it can be a bit on the extreme side of liking as your hands are freezing and wet! Despite the uncomfortable conditions I have to say Sara was a trooper; even when I felt we had found all of the carrots she went about making sure every single last one was harvested!

Freshly picked carrots, parsnips, beets and leeks

For the last three weeks I have been bringing home coffee grounds and filling the beds with the grounds. Keep in mind the beds are formed with logs and contain sticks inside of the soil; the sticks create air pockets and help to keep the soil lose. The issue with using wood however is that wood tends to suck nitrogen out of the soil! To supplement this I am adding some nitrogen rich nutrients, coffee, mulch, compost and later I will add horse manure to the soil. When spring comes and it is time to plant, we will use a broadfork to lift the soil up, but we will not till the soil. The permaculture  process is to attempt to duplicate mother nature and mother nature doesn't till soil, she stacks on top continuously and as each layer is added it breaks down below.  This winter I will plan a rotation for the beds, not planting the same items but to move them to a different bed. The rotation is another way to give plants important nutrients left behind from the previous plantings. There are guides that will help in determine what should be planted after tomatoes have grown previously in one bed and provide information on where the tomatoes should move to next.

Fresh processed leeks!

The planning for a garden should happen in January and by time you complete your plan you should be purchasing seeds and investigating good seasonal planting dates. Some items may need to be started early and require you to plant indoors; this is something  we start this year and hopefully get to in time. Last year I wanted to plant celeriac for example but due to not getting the seeds started in time it never happened! This year however, I plan on getting those darn seeds started!

 

Admittedly our garden is a big undertaking and does require some planning; but you can start out small and manage your garden without it taking up all of your time. This is the time of the year you want to think about what you want to grow next season. You can order your seeds from various sources depending on your needs. We like to purchase non GMO seeds and heirloom seeds whenever possible. This is our choice but certainly you can grow what you feel best suits your needs. The other important decision to remember is one we are still learning; what to do with a successful harvest! Where in the world do you put all of those carrots and leeks! I like to can some of our produce but as a chef I have learned that canning removes a lot of the great nutrients and flavors of the produce. So, the next best thing, is to freeze your produce. We do this but often find ourselves out of freezer space! I suppose it is a nice problem to have and we do manage to cook with our produce and eat it before spoilage occurs.

 





Eating fresh food from the garden

Fresh foods for me are something of a marvel. The idea of walking out to our garden and picking, pulling or clipping something fresh from the garden to prepare into a simple dish; is much like the perfect musical piece. Have you ever heard a musical piece where it took you on a journey of sounds, carefully choreographed, to excite your ears, and actually force you to close your eyes as you look for those glorious notes? Fresh food can do that for me. I cannot explain to you why I love to pick a beet, shake the excess soil off and smell the dirt and beet as they have been working together for months building an olfactory of delight. Nor can I explain why I feel something when I pull the carrot from deep into the soil, exposing it to its first shade of light and marvel at the color, smell and anticipation of what I am going to make with that carrot. When we plant our seeds, some of which are so tiny you can hardly believe it will grow into a thick and hearty leek, we watch the transformation of small fragile to hearty and bountiful in a matter of months. 

A recent harvest for dinner, swiss chard, carrots, parsnips, onions and leeks

The time of the year has arrived when we must decide to pick, pull and clip for the last time before the big frost comes and if we are not picking, pulling or clipping than we are building mulch piles ready to cover our plants for the cold harvest. The cold harvest is where we bury our leeks, parsnips and carrots in deep mulch and after the first or second severe frost we harvest the parsnips and carrots. The leeks on the other hand if properly covered will handle the cold and can be picked throughout the winter. What happens when we are patient and manage the winter garden? We are able to transform hot sun from the summer sun to sweet sugars from the winter cold. Parsnips take on magical sweet flavor and when cooked they produce sweet addicting flavor. 

Recent dinner with carrots, parsnips, leeks, swiss chard, tomatoes and  poached egg from our hens. The broth is a simple chicken broth.

Fresh food is not a wealthy choice of eating, although if we point out the cost of food in our supermarkets and look at the foods found in low income neighborhoods or compare those markets to the so called organic markets found in our cities across the country, we most certainly will find a price difference. The problem however, is not about the comparison between the two types of markets but instead about our food sources. IF you are foolish enough to think the more money you spend on your food, the better the quality of the food, than spend your money, you make the economy work with your spending habits. I am here to tell you that it is not necessary to purchase food at trendy, high end, hedonism market but if you open your eyes and look around you, the opportunities are all around. You only need to understand it is in the interest of food producers to spread the word that only the elite and wealthy can afford fresh food therefore you will need to purchase what I make. Sadly, it seems, we are losing a battle as some populations no longer understand how to become the great "hunter and gatherers" that their grandparents once relished in skill. No, I am not saying they all went out and shot or killed the dinner for the night, instead they were very good at sourcing their food from their own backyard. They grew gardens or had a working knowledge of what was edible in the yard or woods. When I hear of people stating they have no where to plant a garden? I have to wonder, what happened to the home supply stores and their great marketing campaigns?  Go to a home supply store, purchase some small, medium size and large planters. Fill with soil, either purchased or dug up and plant. The confusion in all of this is something of a conundrum for me; I bet the very same people have a lawn and I bet they are proud of how green and pretty their lawn looks? Growing food, I believe, is a much simpler process and you actually get something out of it! Networking with your neighbors can also double your harvest as you share in the produce grown and as your small network grows so does your harvest. You can also grow food in the middle of the winter and if you and your neighbors plan right you can be eating fresh greens and lettuces in to the depths of winter! 

End of the summer as the garden is about to transform from lush to protected beds

The conclusion for me; I love fresh foods. I especially love fresh foods grown by my own hands. Weaning ourselves off of boxed, processed foods and changing our eating habits can not only be satisfying but healthy.  When I get up in the morning one of my favorite things to do is to wander through the garden and look over the plants, looking to see what grew in the night, what might have gotten ravaged by a garden pest or just to admire. Fresh food to me is an easily obtainable way to go and despite our being told it is not possible, I urge you to reconsider. 

How we fared in the new garden

As the summer winds down it’s time to report on the success and not so successful garden transformation. When I started this project I wrote about the permaculture concept. What I didn’t state or write about was the other concept the garden beds are based on. The concept hugelkultur is a method of burying logs and wood into very large beds. The wood breaks down over a period of time and provides nutrients to the soil. There are some very important factors to take into consideration when deciding to go this route. First and foremost is the understanding that wood will suck the nitrogen from the soil and deprive the plants of the valuable nitrogen. Picking the right wood can make all the difference in the world; it is best to pick wood that has started to decompose and stay away from walnut, cherry and other hard woods. Hard woods tend to take a very long time to break down. In my case I used dead wood found in our woods with some stages of decomposition happening. The other important factor is that I did not bury the logs in my soil in the same fashion as a large hugelkultur. Instead I framed the beds with the large logs and filled the beds with large sticks in various stages of decomposition. The idea of the wood in the beds is to hold water, provide air pockets for roots to grow and eventual break down of organic material. To compensate the nitrogen loss I used horse manure, compost and large amounts of mulch throughout all of the beds; our mulch came from hay. Hay is interesting in that most hay is not cut when it goes to seed; it is cut before it goes to seed thus the problem of the hay sprouting new seedlings is not really that likely. Weeding the garden was not a problem and usually amounted to picking one or two weeds every so often. Even if you do not build your own hugelkutur you should be using mulch in your garden or planting companion plants that will hold back weed growth. Both of these methods will also help in water holding for the plants and in some cases help to resist pest.

The tepee or three sisters

So…how did we do? Let’s start with the “teepee.” The concept for this area was the “three sisters.” The three sisters are where corn, squash and beans are planted in the same space, each provides important nutrients to the other and they are exceptional growing companions. In my case I planted sunflowers instead of corn; sunflowers are acceptable in this concept. The beans climb the large sunflower stalks and produce beans as they grow up the stalk. The squash fills in the space below and help to hold water in for the rest of the plants. I also added flowers in some of the nooks and crannies of the log walls; this produced areas for pollinators, bees.  In addition later in the season I added cucumbers and peas. The harvest of this area will be okay but not great. I have about 7 to 8 butternut squash, several cucumbers and have picked about three pounds of beans. The peas we ate as we picked them! We just could not resist the pea’s sweet raw flavor!  Overall I am happy with the bed but know that I will have to feed this bed a lot of nitrogen over the winter season and I am considering moving the tomatoes to this bed in my crop rotation plan. I will be researching what will be the best follow in the rotation plan.

The next bed contains our parsnips, assorted salad mix and spinach. This bed also has a patch of fresh thyme. We have been eating the salad mix for the past two and half months and we consumed all of the spinach. The parsnips are looking good and I will harvest them in December. I will cover them with a heavy amount of mulch and when it is time to harvest I will brush away the snow and mulch and harvest. We did this last year and they were awesome; the sugars in the parsnips really took over and they were excellent! The bed itself was small and again little to no weeds! One of the greens found in the mix was mustard; mustard is an awesome plant to have in your garden as it acts as pest control for the plants.  The other added benefit to having mustard in the garden can be found in its ability to work as a living mulch. I have to admit I did not plant the mustard with any of the benefits in mind; in fact it was quite unintentional. Yet, the mustard grew with the salad mix and ended up adding some excellent beneficial cover crop, pesticide and tasty addition to the garden!

Parsnips, salad mix, spinach and thyme bed

The next bed was our carrot, lettuce and cucumber bed. This bed has been an awesome producer thus far. We planted butter leaf lettuce and a wide variety of carrots. Carrots are fun to grow and you can add more to the bed if you are not getting the results early on. This is exactly what I did; we planted our carrots and some of them did not take so I sowed more in about two or three weeks later. The bed is full and I am sure we will be eating carrots well into January or later. Just like the parsnips I do not plan on harvesting them until late November early December. The sugars in the carrots will convert, making the carrots sweeter and just like the parsnips produce some awesome flavors! The butter leaf lettuce has been incredible and we have been enjoying eating it for about two months. I have noticed the bees liking the lettuce and witnessed them flying into the leaves seeking water. This creates an interesting harvesting plan; carefully cutting the lettuce away, rinsing the lettuce and getting those pollinators to fly out before my fingers reach in to pull out leaves. So far I have not been stung! At the end of this bed I put up a trellis and planted cucumbers on the outside of the bed. Probably one of my most disappointing aspects of the garden has been the cucumbers; I believe we have been hit with a fungus and have been working with hydrogen-peroxide to remove the fungus. Thus far I have not been too successful and will continue my research into what we can use that will not kill bees. A recent study found that the use of fungicides have more to do with the contributing loss of bees in North America. Pesticides are a problem but the study found that the fungicides might be a larger factor in the loss of the bees. So … I have been monitoring the situation and yet still have harvesting a small amount of cucumbers.

Above is the carrot bed with the cucumber trelis above this picture is one of  our big bushy carrots!

  

This year I decided that my love for leeks required a bed dedicated to leeks! I was worried about getting the leeks planted in time as it took me a little longer to get the initial beds built. I planted the leeks in my cold frame and managed to get them started while I was finishing the beds. I am really happy with the results! I have a nice crop of leeks coming and have picked a few to thin them out and they are wonderful in flavor! What I found was they need a good daily soaking and lots of mulch. The bed is doing nicely and once again I will be harvesting them later in the season after the first frost. As you have read in my blog; I cannot stress the importance of mulch!

Our Tasty leeks!

The next bed is our tomato bed. Last year we planted 27 tomato plants! We just cooked up our last bag of tomatoes from last year! This year we planted 6 tomato plants; I suspect I will not be using this year’s tomatoes next August! Timing had everything to do with how many plants we were able to plant this year; just not enough time to put more plants in and besides we did not want to deal with the harvesting issues of last season! Literally we stopped harvesting tomatoes as we had nowhere to go with the excess! The new bed was planted with onions, nasturtiums, dill and basil. All of the planted items were companion plants and seemed to be thriving quite well. Our dill did not take to well but not worried because we have dill popping up everywhere else in the yard! I let last year’s dill go to seed (on purpose) and the seeds must have blown around the yard! Needless to say we have plenty of dill. All of the tomatoes we have planted are heirloom varieties and all seem to be thriving. We have just started picking them and they are meaty with good flavor. The nasturtiums, on one side of the bed exploded and we have blooms everywhere. Nasturtiums are edible and have really cool looking blooms, the leaves and flowers are edible and have a pleasant peppery flavor. We used to serve them in our salads at our restaurant (The Sandhill Inn) years ago.

Tomatoes, onions, nasturtiums, dill, and basil bed

Finally our last bed, another success story, the swiss chard and golden beets has done quite well. We have been enjoying swiss chard for about 2 ½ months now. Swiss chard is considered to be one of the super foods and if anything it is super in flavor! I tend to braise it lightly with vinegar, butter, onions, garlic and salt and pepper. The beets are looking awesome (I only wish I would have planted more but due to the late planting, we have what we have) and I have tasted a couple. My favorite thing about beets is the earthiness they have when you inhale the sweet smell as you pick them. Not to mention they taste pretty darn good! I also have a few leeks in this bed as there was not enough room in the leek bed for all of the seedlings.

Swiss Chard the super food!

Golden Beets

Overall the garden has fared well. The plan for the winter is to build a couple of small hoop houses over two of the beds. This will allow us to grow fresh greens, and other hardy plants all winter long. I am currently reading two books about four season gardens and if all goes well we will be enjoying our fresh salad in the middle of winter! 

Coralling our quarter horse

Before I write about this experience it should be noted, my experience with a horses is limited to the instruction of my wife, Sara. Sara has instructed me in the equestrian world and without her lessons I would have not attempted what we accomplished last night!
We have three horses at the farm, two of which we can saddle up and ride. Our youngest is a quarter horse, he has not been worked with much but we have gotten a saddle on him and Sara has ridden him for a short distance. He has become the alpha of the pasture and is downright stubborn when it comes to catching him. He will come up to us when we bring grain or he is curious. Try to put a halter on him however, that is a different story altogether! Sara had an idea to take him to another farm where she could put him into a small pen and separate him from the other horses.  This sounded like a good idea but both of us knew that catching him was going to be a bit difficult!
Sara backed the horse trailer up to our small pasture and set up a path to the trailer. Mr. Curious (his name is Babu) walked right into the pasture. We pulled the wire rope gate shut and started to work on moving him to the trailer. Sounds good so far! Well...not so much. he was not going to cooperate. Sara had a prod and whip to get him moving but all he would do is walk in the direction to trailer and bolt away when we attempted to push him into the trailer. No, I don't mean get behind him and shove, we used the prod, whip tried to get him to step into the trailer. About this time some of you may be wondering, why not put a halter on him and lead him into the trailer? Remember what I said about catching him to put a halter on him, not going to happen! At one point we had a rope to shorten the pasture and attempt to persuade him into the trailer, nope not having any of that he would just rear up and bolt through the rope! In one attempt he just broke through the electric fence as I am being yelled at for not being in front of the electric gate! Yelled at affectionately of course. So... now we had to replace the handles on the gate and both of us were hot, sweating and pissed! Our kids were standing guard to close the trailer gates and that was about all we could get from them to help. Neither one wanted to be in that pasture chasing a horse that could pummel them in a hurry. What was I thinking? Taking a break we devised a new plan; we would put the other two horses into the pasture to coax Babu back into the pasture. Once all three were in we would
separate the two from Babu and start over. This worked and we were back at it. Our dog is a healer but not trained very well when it comes to the horses. She likes to bark and run from them and Babu likes to chase her. We have witnessed Babu at a full gallop going after Spot (healer) through the pasture, zigzagging after her and believe me that dog was scared! So usually when we are working with the horses we keep her in the house. Well Sara's mom let her out. So now we have our dog ready for action and jumping into the fray. I swear, I thought I was going to blow a gasket! I know Sara was ready to blow! Well instead of putting the dog back into the house we decided to put her to work. We sent her after Babu and she did it somewhat; sometimes she herded him in the wrong direction.  Well by now the horse was sweating bullets, no literally the sweat was pouring off of him. Than the most amazing thing happened; Babu walked up to me as if to say I quit. I gently rubbed his neck and head and slowly wrapped a lead rope around his neck. He tore it from me a one point but I had it hooked around his neck and it did not come off. He came back up to me, now thoroughly exhausted and Sara managed to slip a halter on him. She also attached a small chain on the halter that would go over his hose. We were in business, or at least we thought so! Now that we had this hot sweaty exhausted horse in our hands we thought we could coax him into the trailer, not so much. After many attempts I took a hold of the lead rope with the chain and attempted as Sara did her best to coax him from behind; trust me I will forever look over my shoulder if my wife is going to attempt to coax me anywhere! Well this didn't work so I pulled him away from the trailer and made him walk in different directions, when he moved in the direction I wanted I switched up to another direction, working him hard for not cooperating. He got pissed and reared up, awesome to see unless you are the one holding the lead rope! He did this to me several times before landing on his feet realizing I wasn't going anywhere. So what do you do with a horse who will not go into the trailer no mater what? Saddle him up! That is exactly what we did. Sara got on him and rode him in the pasture. We decided we did not need to take him anywhere, we had made progress and it was enough. We also left the saddle on him over night, we are not finished with him and he also got to spend the night away from his buddies.

Babu

All I can say was it was an awesome experience and despite the danger of one us of getting hurt, I would do it again. Horses are interesting creatures who have a real sense of mind and when they respond positively it can be amazing. Our hope is to train Babu into being a great horse and one we can work with on the farm.

Farming and the labor of love

The romantic vision of life on the farm is an existential vision based on the idea of the land of milk and honey. When we see acres of crops and farmers on their tractors we sense they are driving that tractor thinking about philosophical solutions to solving the world. Watching a farmer cut hay or plow under a field we may envy their stress free life. What I am learning however is an entirely different concept. Whether I agree with their farming techniques or not, I am but a novice in their world. It is easy to asess their methods when we have never tilled a field or fixed a broken tractor because we have never felt their pain. I have learned what it is like to hook your plow up when it is below zero and your hands are so cold you can't feel your fingers. I have fixed things mechanically and realized the ingenuity of the farmer. The laws of physics play an important role as the farmer devises a pully system or how to move a tree by himself. Summer time for many may mean camping, going to the beach but not to a farmer. Farmers working the plan are worrying about water, insects, and other very trying needs. The monoculture farm may be disdained versus the polculture farm and although I think the polyculture farm is the better plan I will still respect the work of any farmer. They work in an industry surrounded by those who view their work as an opportunity to profit from. Those profits dwindle quickly and leave many farmers in the lurch.
We are learning and as we learn our once rose colored glasses now see things a bit differently. Not that we haven't enjoyed the life on the farm, we have set up a campsite on the farm, or enjoyed riding our horses. Just like other families we have our share of drama and stress. As a chef I am building a bank of knowledge to share with my students as well as continue my own personal growth.
Finally I know that this farm has had new life breathed into it, and whether it will sustain itself will depend on well crafted plans. These plans are going to be dependent on not only economics but on mother nature and coming to grips with what doesn't work and what will work.

Deer in early spring in the alfalfa field

looking south towards the woods

looking west towards the woods

Farm life

As I set out for the evening chores I have had some time to reflect on the projects I started back in late winter. This year I reorganized the garden (using a management term) to better manage the soil and water. I cut unwanted trees or dead standing trees to build raised beds. I recycled cardboard to cover walk ways between the beds with wood chips. In between each bed I created swails to allow water to be absorbed under the beds. We have had a heavy amount of rain and because of my reorganization planting was late but I am happy to say we have a great harvest coming and everything seems to be working. It should be noted that during the heavy rains, the garden was one of the few places on the farm that did not get flooded out. I went up to the swails and each one held a small amount of water while the rest was being absorbed into the ground. Our son William and his friend Tyler assisted me in cutting the trees for the beds and William helped me build the beds and swails.
The chicken coop I built out of pallets is 90 percent complete.  I just need to put in the door, flooring for the egg boxes, and fence in the chicken run. Our neighbor, Barry, built the doors for the hen boxes, I did not like my design and he offered to build me a better design! He has now offered to do the same on the door and help with the flooring for the hen boxes! On top of all of that neighborly help he assisted me in cutting the roofing for the coop. I needed a saw to cut through the metal and he brought one over! Our son helped me in some of the construction and believe me any help you can get when you take on more than your schedule can handle is a gift!
Finally 51 grapevines were planted, fenced in and just need to add the electric wire (cattle will be near the vines thus the fencing).  I believe the vines are far enough away from cattle manure and will not affect them.  The. Cattle are on 15 acres below the vines and off the top side. The runoff, if any will not run into the plants or soil. This task was completed with the help of our son and our daughter, Dawson, as I have never put up a cattle fence previously we worked our way through the learning process and put it up! Okay this is where I have to share our favorite learning tool on the farm, YouTube! Yup, that's right we look up our conundrum on YouTube and watch the how to videos! When we were putting the wood post into the ground we looked up how to lock a post in the ground without concrete and found a great video using a 2X4 as a key to lock the post in place. It turned out to be exciting for the three of us as we had never put a fence like this and in the end it came out pretty nice.
In between all of this work I am still doing my work at the college! Talk about a weight loss plan; I have lost almost 20. Lbs!

Gate heading into the vineyard and fencing around the grapevines

One of the beds with tomatoes, onions, nasturiums and basil on the other side.

Chicken coop built out of pallets, old cedar siding and leftover metal roofing. Still needs gutters, door on the front and flooring in the egg boxes. The run will be fenced in towards the garden and next year we will add portable chicken runs into the garden.

Creating a Permaculture Garden

 

This year I took on a very significant new approach to our garden. Earlier this year (in a Facebook note) I wrote about our new favorite word, “Permaculture” and reshaping the garden to encompass the concept of permaculture. This project has been ongoing for over the last month in a half. Weather has played a role and what could be accomplished and when various tasks could not be accomplished. One of the principles of the permaculture is to go slow and observe.  The observation has been going on for the last two years. The garden has produced in the past but through observation I noticed our soil was not improving in quality and in fact it seemed each time I tilled the soil it had not changed much; meaning I was not seeing a richer soil because of any additional composting. I noticed a significant amount of water being used to keep the plants watered. Having a well can be beneficial as you are not charged for using your water but it does not make sense to work on water reclamation as you pour gallons on to your garden.  In years past we planted what we liked but really did not give much thought on what goes well together in the garden. We probably got lucky in our choice of plants. This winter I did extensive research on what might produce a better garden utilizing the principles of permaculture.

Dawson our daughter (recent graduate in environmental science) holding an outline of the principles of

permaculture.

The design I came up with involved building raised beds filled with sticks, stones and other organic material. The beds were to be constructed utilizing logs from our woods. Through the advice of our daughter, I created swales between each bed to help collect water back into the soil.  In between each bed I secured recycled cardboard from our town recycling center (formally called the dump)! The cardboard was placed down on to the soil and on top of the cardboard I poured wood chips, I collected these from the township (they were going along the roads chipping trees that were in the way of the road). The purpose of this was to work on water retention, soil rehab, and control the growth of unwanted plants. The added benefit will be the reintroduction of worms to the soil. The area will grow with some of the earth’s best soil producers, worms! Eventually the wood chips and the cardboard will decompose and we will plant plants that will hold water, add nutrients to the soil and work as ground cover.  When we can plant the ground cover it will also be an added benefit to the chickens that are now going to be housed next to the garden. When completed we will have a chicken run through the garden directly from the coop.

 

This is one of 7 raised beds with the swale leading underneath the bed. In addition the bed is planted with plants that work well together, tomatoes, onions, basil, dill, and nasturtiums. You can see the wood chips left of the bed and we are using hay to heavily mulch each bed.

Along with putting beds in we will be inoculating fresh cut logs (not the ones pictured) from live trees. We have pretty large elm coming down in our pasture; the power company wanted it taken down as it is so close to our power line. We were more than happy to have them come in and take it down! Some of the logs from the elm will be used for inoculation while the remaining will be used to finish the other beds.

Earlier this winter I built a cold frame to start seeds in; unfortunately I did not get to those seed plantings! The good news, because the building of this new concept it has taken a lot more work to complete,  and therefore the garden has been delayed in planting; thankfully I have the cold frame, and now all or most of the seeds are planted and in the cold frame waiting for the finished beds.

The other concept I undertook, in this garden building adventure, is to create an environment within the garden that would invite back the bee population. This will be accomplished by planting flowers, placing bee baths throughout the garden and creating an overall environment inviting to the bees. In between the logs on each bed I am planting flowers and other types of plants. One bed for example has cucumbers planted between the logs and they will climb a trellis I put in front of them. In another bed I built a log teepee that will allow squash, beans and peas to climb for easy picking and keeping them off the ground. In this bed I also planted sunflower plants and flowers. All of the items planted go together and give other plants nutrients.

This bed contains carrots, lettuce, and at the top of the bed I have planted cucumbers between the logs. In the far back you can see the teepee for the squash, beans and peas.

Cucumbers planted at the top of the carrot bed in between the logs with a trellis in front of the cucumbers, allowing the cucumbers to climb trellis instead of lying on the ground.

In the background you can see the cold frame (built out of old florescent light covers and an old window). Further back you can see the chicken coop which was built mostly out of old pallets. I am not finished with the coop as I am going to use old cedar siding we have here on the farm and leftover metal roofing.

As a chef I am very interested in food, where it comes from, how it is produced and what might be best practices when it comes to raising/growing food.  I undertook this project along with building a coop, planting a vineyard (small one with 51 grapevines) and taking care of chickens as research. We are undated with information today about our food, organic, GMO’s, non GMO’s and other information thus I felt I wanted to go about raising food for our house and study how sustainable growing food in a permaculture environment could work. We have been eating fresh eggs from 5 hens for about 8 months and honestly I can say, the eggs are awesome to eat. I make our mayonnaise with the eggs and no one has gotten ill. I have started making our bread on a regular basis and will be producing batches of bread to freeze, allowing me time to do the work on the farm.  All of the seeds and plants used are non GMO seeds or plants; you can actually seek out these seeds and plants when you go about planting your garden. I did not have any trouble in finding these items.

As the garden springs to life I will report on the progress and start putting in some of the recipes for the items I am preparing from the garden. In the meantime, go slow, observe, and focus on what you can accomplish now and plan for what you envision later!