Bustin' Sod!

Sunday was another garden preparation day in which I prepared another 120 square foot section of the garden using the broadfork. Week before last I did the same but recorded some video of using the broadfork to prepare the bed. Since Inge was brushing Herbert, her donkey, I looked around at the tools and things around me to see how I could record myself using my cellphone (HTC DNA) and realized I could access the video controls and leave the lens clear for recording by clamping (gently) the cell phone to one of the garden fence posts. And a little iMovie editing later, here's the results!

Planting Straw Bale Potato Garden

This weekend we planted a straw bale potato garden. I stumbled upon a video of someone in England who planted a massively productive potato garden by placing the seed potatoes on news papers on the ground and covering with straw, manure, and blood and bone meal. I had to give that a try, and for the first time in this blog, I am going to embed a video taken this week of this potato planting method.

If this works out, I may add more videos in the future.

Shedding a Donkey

Shady Side of Shed - Note hay loft in back...

Sunny Side of Shed - Construction assistant eventual shed occupant, Herbie

Inge insisted her Donkey, Herbert, needed shelter. Our neighbor was of a mind that our woods provided enough shelter but it just takes time and effort and a small amount of money to build a shelter. So without further ado, here's Herbert's shelter!

We had already mapped out and built a corral and let me tell you, a corral made life with Herbie significantly better because Herbert has absolutely no sense of personal space. My love of this piece of land had waned dramatically when I lost the ability to wander and camp without a nosy beast sticking its head into everything. Now we toss some hay into the feed trough to which Herbert gladly runs and munches and with the snap of a chain my personal space is saved and camping and hiking in peace restored.

Two summers ago (2011) we suffered through the worst drought on record. 70+ 100 degree days and no rain from February through October. During that period the land withered under the heat, our garden shriveled even with weekly hand watering (from water transported from Cedar Park in 35 Gallon drums). And our woods suffered as well as perhaps a dozen juniper pine trees died. And thus the genesis of our shed.

Kenny, my brother, harvested and de-limbed six of the dead cedar trees with his chainsaw and lots of post-hole digging later (thank God we have blackland prairie clay and not West-of-Austin limestone) we installed cedar posts for my vision of an 8x8' shed with a 4' extension to act as a hay loft. A few pressure treated cross members later and we're almost to shed state.

However, I wasn't paying full price for brand new steel siding. So for several weeks I camped out on Craig's List waiting for a good deal on steel sheeting. I finally got a hit and bought several sheets of steel and over two weekends finished the Shelter. These pictures are from the first weekend of steel application. We were cleaning up as the steel chewed through all 5 of my jigsaw metal cutting blades and it was too late to go buy more for any meaningful work that day.

Tall Prickly Meadow

 Today Inge and I took the new trail Stephen and I cleaned up last week and when we stepped through the newly opened wood copse into this meadow we had to stop and gaze in awe at the splash of flowers here. Last week I told Stephen that I've named this meadow, The Big Prickly Meadow. Maybe after this week I should rename it to "Bloomin' Big Prickly Meadow".

Here's a close-up of big prickly in a bed of flowers.

Inge posing by Big Prickly in the meadow.

 I started the blog with the meadow because that was the "catch of the day". We headed out to Die Gruene Weide for a short visit before leaving for NEW YORK CITY! to attend our daughter's Columbia University Commencement and a real live Broadway show.  We didn't bring water for the orchard and garden because it had rained during the week. At home we got more than 5 inches of rain over a week. During every rain event I watched the radar over the land but the only rain I saw on the radar occurred Thursday evening. The rain gauge showed 6/10ths. Thorndale,  only 10 minutes south of Die Weide got 2 inches so we didn't get the best of the rain. We took a walk to load a memory stick in critter cam and find a new home for it. The last batch of critter cam pictures had only Herbert the donkey pictures so I needed to move critter cam to a less traveled path.

Here's the weekly garden progress picture from the usual watermelon corner. The watermelons and cantaloupe are blooming.








Different vantage point showing the sunlight through the corn leaves and the blooming yellow squash. The yellow squash is looking extremely healthy.







Here's my first yellow squash fruit. I don't have a clue how to tell when it's time to harvest squash so I'll have to do some research later. I do know it's too small right now.








What I find amazing is that the raspberries and blackberries are producing fruit this year - we only planted them a few weeks ago! These were totally yummy! All I know is that my berry production is going up by a LOT of plants because these are fantastic!





And for reference here's the compost heap I built from free pallets I scrounged. Looks like doo-doo, but it will serve its purpose anyway.

Friendly Camping

Friday my brother and I headed out to Gruene Weide to camp out and await my guest, Stephen. He's a former coworker and friend and we've talked about him camping out on Die Weide and bringing his telescope for star gazing for quite some time. So we scheduled this weekend for a campout and star gaze fun.

Since Stephen wasn't due to arrive until the evening, Kenny and I spent the afternoon building a compost bin from free pallets I've scrounged over a few weeks. I'll need to scrounge some more to expand the bin to double or more in size. We divided a huge pile of leaves into dry leaves and donkey manure for the compost bin and we spread partially composted leaves as mulch around the whole garden. The temperature reached 92 muggy degrees and it was pretty hot work

After the leaves were mulched, Kenny and I fired up the pit and started the beans and ribs, anticipating that they would be done by the time Stephen arrived. We relaxed, sipped a brew, and enjoyed the scent of ribs a smoking over mesquite and pecan.

Here I've just added the foil package with squash, onions and butter with seasonings. and I'm stirring the beans. Kenny and I went perhaps a bit overboard adding jalapenos and one serrano pepper. Kind of a Tim Allen (grunt) thing in food. It was a bit too spicy for my taste in the end. Good beans that I'd cook again but go easier on the peppers.

 This is the weekly garden picture. The fire pit cooked quietly in the background and Kenny and I decided to water the garden. I took this picture as the sun sank low in the Western sky lending a nice back light to the leaves. The garden grows nicely and I hope the mulching improves the garden production.

Sunset over the firepit. Notice the roofing material propped up as a windbreak. When we started the fire the breeze was a bit stiff so this setup has been my solution for grilling in a breeze. By this time Stephen had arrived and since the food was ready, we pretty promptly sat down to eat. Photos didn't cross my mind as the smell of the ribs, beans, and veggies left little room to think of anything but food.


We took a dusk hike with Stephen through the property, back down the south side fence, right at the west side fence and about 1/2 way down, cut across (east) to the pond. It was a nice hike ending back up at the camp.  The sky darkened rapidly after this and Stephen and I put together the tent he brought. I don't own a tent yet as I have always "tarp tent" camped out there - stringing a tarp up from the Pecan tree. I have to say the tent is very comfortable and I'll be getting one in the near future. Kenny slept in the shed as the tent was only big enough for two cots.

After the tent was set up, Stephen put up the telescope facing mostly east. Unfortunately for star gazing, the skies weren't cooperative. There was a haze from the Mexico farmer's annual crop burning, and the haze was lit up by a very bright full moon. So we looked at one planet, which mysteriously exhibited a crescent shape. (more research to come) and we looked at the moon. I was really impressed with Stephen's telescope. With a moon filter and the strongest magnification we could focus in on and see individual craters with astonishing clarity. I found it really neat to look around the rim of the moon and see the deep shadows in those craters. I used my cell phone camera to grab the moon shot here.
  

We woke up before 7 a.m. this (Saturday) morning and I cooked up some sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast tacos to get the day off to a good start. Everyone who comes to Die Weide may choose to help with work. Here Stephen shovels donkey manure shortly after sunrise. Seriously, though after this bit of levity Stephen and I took the garden shears and loppers back into the woods and chopped back some brambles and cleared a trail I've wanted to expand while Kenny caulked the shed.

Shortly before noon Stephen took his leave as Kenny and I watered the orchard. We headed home after that chore and on the way home stopped at the Granger Lake Dam where we snapped this lovely scene of Texas wildflowers covering the hill. And thus ended another weekend on Die Manchmal Gruene Weide!

Where are the Turtles?

Today while walking the trails we've blazed on Die Weide, we came across an empty turtle shell. I decided to write about this as we have seen around a dozen empty turtle shells, two of which I've photographed below.

 This one was located in the northwest corner of the property.

This one was found in a hole in the north-central area.

Almost all of the turtle shells we've found are of this large, mature turtle size. Have the turtles turned our property into turtle graveyards like elephants? Inge and I are wondering why we have never seen a live turtle on the property in all our explorations. It'd seem there ought to be plenty of turtles given all the turtle shells we've found!

Most of the day was spent watering the orchard, the blackberries and raspberries, the grape vines and of course, the garden. Here's this week's garden shot. I hope to take a picture a week to track the growth of the garden.

Cactus Blooms, Bees, and Boon Companions

Inge's donkey, Herbert, is a constant companion on Die Weide. As you can see, when we take a hike, he hikes along too. But before Herbert, there was Penny, and as you see below, she too tags along on our hikes in the woods. However, she has learned to keep a close eye on Herbert as Herbert doesn't allow dogs in close proximity. He is quite quick to charge, nip, kick, or otherwise attack Penny or any of our neighbors dogs. Interestingly, the neighbors dogs haven't come around since Herbert took up residence on Die Weide.

 Last weekend and this weekend, the Prickly Pear Cactus has been blooming with its yellow flowers that start out red and change to yellow as they bloom. Very beautiful blooms! Bees and bugs abound around the blooms.

 Inge took this picture of her Herbie. It has a very nice perspective but there are a couple of asses in the picutre.

 Today's the day we found a home for the beehive. This is the mostly finished top bar hive and I carved a place out of the woods for it in hopes the donkey doesn't knock the hive over. I plan to pound some rebar into the ground next to the legs and bolt the legs to the rebar to keep it from tipping over.

And, just for reference, this is the state of the garden on Die Weide, Apr 22. Last year we planted earlier than this year, but by this time last year the drought had already taken full effect and it wilted away the rest of the year. This year, it looks very healthy, if a bit bug eaten. Due to having to hand water until we get the well drilled, we chose to only plant about half the area we planted last year. The front (bottom left) corner of the picture is the north-east corner of the garden and has watermelon mounds. Next are cantaloupe, then several rows of black-eyed peas, then several rows of corn, which are surrounded by mounds of yellow squash and zucchini.  We're growing tomatoes, peppers, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, leeks, and broccoli in our home raised bed gardens.