Homestead Log, week of May 29-June 4

Two of my Facebook posts from last Thursday: “Rain was not in my plans for today.” A retired friend asked “what are plans?”
My response: “those things I blow off to fool around on the Internet”

Rain in June? On irrigation day? Very strange. When I was photographing Highway 89, I never planned anything for June because the weather was uniformly “severe clear” and really boring skies. That weather pattern is late in setting up. In a way it’s been nice, for several days there’s been a cloud parked right over Torrey while I did shovel work.

Husbandry and gardening: A major push to get the main garden ready to plant, which led to cleaning out the goat shed to raid for manure. After we exhausted that, R hauled up some horse manure a friend had dropped off at Bluebird two winters ago. We have become known as a place to drop off organic materials, and week before last some tree trimmers brought us 6 loads of free wood chips to the house. We were happy to take it, they were happy not to make 6 trips to the dump. R started using them to mulch the garden paths, a project that had been back-burnered for years. Now we won’t have to weed whack the paths, a necessary but colossal waste of time that contributes to the August malaise where the entire garden weeding program gets out of hand. I hope it will help with the mud in the house, and it looks so nice. Cukes and zukes planted, along with parsnips. It’s not quite warm enough to plant beans. I started transplants for fall cabbage and kale.

Carson went back to the vet to have his stitches removed and promptly worried the wound open. We borrowed a “cone of shame” which he is sporting while playing frisbee and using as a blocking device while wrestling with Wyatt.

Thursday night irrigation. We got enough tail water during the week that we sent all the water to Bluebird and some of that into the swales. I forgot to close the head gate tot eh swale, but switched the water off, drained the pond while we were in Richfield. Switched the water back (the next person in line wasn’t around to use it) and refilled the pond in three hours. It sure is nice to have so much water this year. In years past, we were being cut back pretty hard by now.

We are down to one turkey poult. If we ever have hens hatch again, we are going to move them to a confined location. The moms marched those chicks through too many hazards and the babies just can’t keep up with their foraging. Lesson learned. Still no sign of the turkey poults I have on order, need to follow up with the breeder next week.

Food and preserving: I go through cycles of filling the freezers with goodies, then emptying it for the next wave. We are in a draw-down period now. I pulled out some turkey backs and scraps, made ten quarts of turkey stock and canned seven. The rest got frozen and used in a Dutch oven jambalaya. We have loads of canned tomatoes to use before September, so I’m trying to think up things other than spaghetti and chili to use them, especially recipes that don’t take a lot of indoor cooking on hot days. About all that’s left from last year’s produce are shallots.
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Finances: we met with a friend who does financial advising to get a handle on this shift to R’s retirement. He gave us some excellent advice in our “one free trial” and sent us along, as he too is getting ready to retire. That meeting added lots of tasks to this summer’s to-do list.

Energy and conservation: the outdoor blinds came and R installed them first thing when he came back from Salt Lake. They make such a huge difference we are kicking ourselves for not doing it earlier. All the pets lounge the afternoon away on the porch now.

Community: The Entrada Institute had an art show of paintings made at the “Art in the Park” workshop weekend. We went but did not shop. Then we went to see some cider friends play in their punk band at the local pizza joint’s outdoor patio show. A strange juxtaposition for sure, but we weren’t the only ones who attended both that evening.

Creativity and recreation: We each got our music lessons in, mandolin for me, guitar for R. We had a day trip planned with the dogs, but Carson still can’t get wet, so that is delayed.

Next week: Get the corn and beans planted and the transplants out of the hoop house and into the ground!