... May Flowers

Well, here it is May already. Memorial day weekend has come and gone. Next stop - the blistering heat of Summer. Maybe. So far, it has been a pretty cool wet Spring. One of my neighbors mused, "You don't suppose all this sheltering in place is reversing the warming effects of pollution, do you?"  Hmmm - food for thought. We actually had to cover our garden beds two nights in a row due to frost warnings.

Regardless, the flowers are indeed here...

I didn't mention this last month but in early April, the Ozonator overheated and warped causing a loss of my water treatment capability.  I rebuilt it using a large canning jar and some pieces machined from a thick plastic cutting board. The violet glow is coronal discharge which is how the ozone is generated. Water treatment is back online.

We braved a week in the big city this month to take care of things around Carolyn's house, mainly trimming bushes, cleaning gutters and gardening. We only ventured out once to go to Trader Joe's, Costco and Kroger to stock up on stuff that is sometimes hard to find up here in the country.

Just before we left for ATL, a huge tree fell near one of our tent pads. We were both outside at the time down in the garden on the opposite side of the house but neither of us heard anything. We spent a couple of days after returning to the country cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood from the branches. Plus I ended up with three 9-foot sections of trunk that I will turn into more paneling for the shop.

The wildlife abounds here as it does everywhere. We had a pair of Carolina Wrens build a nest in an empty flower pot on the back porch. There were three hungry babies when we left for ATL and when we returned they had flown the coop.
	We've seen red and gold salamanders as well as this camouflaged little amphibian.
One morning, a hen turkey ventured right up close to the house. Can you see it between the uprights? Good thing for it that we are vegan.
	And last but not least, we were glad to see this rat-hunter patrolling the yard. No, it's not a copperhead, it's a corn snake. Completely harmless to humans but lethal to rodents.

And now that I have learned how, bread baking is a regular happening. Here are some loaves I've baked using my sourdough starter (which Carolyn has named Brian).  Left-to-right are whole wheat-rye, banana bread, and all-white.

April Showers...

The biggest achievement this month was getting our little plants in the ground. Carolyn had been chomping at the bit since April Fools Day and I finally let her loose three weeks later. With everything blooming and greening around us it was understandable. At least now, I have the garden fence completed with the Groundhog wire and the electric fence charger. I feel like I've done everything I can to protect my garden short of keeping a mountain lion chained up inside the enclosure.

 

Kind of an afterthought, I quickly threw together a bed for a Three Sisters planting - corn, beans, and squash. It's a native American thing. The idea is that the beans will grow up the corn stalks and the squash will shade the roots during the heat of summer. We'll keep you posted on the success (or failure) we have. Also, another impromptu planting took place at the lowest edge of the garden (right of the bed below) where I sowed a row of field peas and okra.

Besides planting a bazillion tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplants, and cucumbers, Carolyn has been busy with her flower beds. She has dug up a bunch of lilies and daffodils from the edge of the road where they would have been mowed by the county and transplanted them near the house. Also, she has added wild phlox and some birdsfoot violet to the butterfly garden.

As you all know, the Spring weather in the Southeast can be a bit turbulent as well as perfectly beautiful. Easter Sunday we were kept up half the night by tornado and flash flood alerts on our weather radio. A week later a particularly nasty thunderstorm was threatening hail so I ran out into the storm to lower my solar panels. It was unnecessary but proved to be a reasonable exercise.

Feeling the need to be creative, I made some garden tool racks for the covered space at the north end of the house. I guess we will be calling this the garden shed from now on. Certainly the organization of the tools makes it much easier to find and access what you need. Speaking of finding tools, look what I found buried in the middle of my drive: my long-lost Swiss army knife. The recent torrential rains uncovered enough of the red handle that it caught my eye. A little scrubbing with soap and water and a drop or two of oil and its ready to go.

This was the month that we decided to taste our homemade vegan cheeses. These are basically made from nuts (cashews) or oats and fermented with lactobacillus derived from rye (check out rejuvelac). We left these in the refrigerator covered with cheesecloth for about 6 weeks. Such restraint.  They are good. They do not melt the way dairy-based cheeses do but the taste is very similar.  They are a good addition to homemade vegan pizza. We decided to extend the test by coating half of each cheese in wax and waiting another few weeks or months if possible. Of all the stuff I have given up in the name of being more healthy, I'd say Cheddar cheese was the hardest. Now I know I can have the taste without the dairy.

For some unknown reason, I ordered 50 asparagus and 50 strawberry plants with no place prepared to plant them. The race was on. The nursery won. The plants arrived 3 or 4 days before I finished a fourth hugelkultur bed outside the fenced garden area. What was I thinking?  Anyway, this is a long-term investment. It will be at least a year before we get any strawberries and two years before asparagus can be harvested. A side benefit of this was the removal of a large pile of stumps that had been accumulating along with another half dozen stumps that lay buried beneath.

So, with all this garden preparation and planting, it should come with little surprise that I spent almost no time playing at the sawmill. But still, I did manage a couple of hours. I am gradually building up a pile of oak planks that I plan to use for paneling inside my shop.

Stay safe and check in on us once in a while.

Beware the Ides of March

Richmond Woods, by its nature, is quite secluded. At a time such as this, we are glad of that! We try to order what we need online and have it delivered when possible. When delivery is not an option, we order online and have the order ready to pick up in the store. Much handwashing takes place when unpacking boxes. Visits with friends and family are, needless to say, conducted via wireless technology. Carolyn was disappointed to have to cancel trips to Mexico and Italy!

Gardening

Carolyn has taken advantage of warm dry days to tend her flower beds as well as her herb garden. She also transplanted all of the tomato and pepper seedlings into larger pots so they can continue to develop strong roots. We take them out onto the back porch every morning that is warm and bring them inside in the evening if its going to be cold.

I am not sure whether this comes under the heading of Gardening or Home Improvement, but since it is specifically for the vegetable garden, I will include it here. I have researched how to keep deer out of your crops and the best answer I have found so far is the 3D Deer Fence. Basically, this is a fence within a fence. The two fences are separated by three feet. Apparently, this "deep" fence stymies deer who ordinarily would be able to easily jump over a single fence of the same height. As an added measure of deterrance, I am electrifying both layers. To keep groundhogs and rabbits out, there will be chicken wire around the bottom of the inner fence. But that will be an April project.

Home Improvement

This month I took advantage of comfortable temperatures in the attic to finish some lighting projects, mainly installing lights in the newer attic spaces above the kitchen and master suite. I also installed lights in the carport.

The drain line project I started in February was carried over into March when I extended the kitchen drain further out into the back yard. It, too, will eventually be used to supply greywater to a garden bed. After both ditches were filled, I raked the area smooth and planted some fescue in the bare soil. I covered the new grass seeds with an old tarp to keep them moist until they germinated and to prevent torrential spring rains from washing them away. That worked really well.

Another little project that has been on the back burner for a while is a new compost bin. It got moved to the top of the list when the old one (green trash can) filled up. This one is two chambered allowing one side to fill while the other matures. Carolyn calls it the "Bear Kitchen".

Finally, I had to do something about the ever deepening ruts in my driveway - especially in this one place. I put a couple of scoops of rocky red dirt in the lower rut (on the right) and topped it off with the last of the gravel pile that was out by the gate.

Food 

Food is Life and we are full of both. Carolyn continues to research and prepare exquisite vegan dishes. I continue to attempt to bake sourdough bread. I've got a good starter that Carolyn successfully used the other day but so far my attempts have failed miserably. Maybe I should stick to things I can address with a hammer. I did manage to make corncakes and cornbread without eggs or milk. Its definitely not as tasty as when I used to make it with buttermilk and bacon grease. But when paired with a delicious vegan soup like this, its perfectly suitable.

Wildlife

First to bloom in March are the Serviceberry bushes followed soon by the little dwarf iris and azaleas. I've been hearing the spring peepers down in the bottom for about a week now.  And this young terrapin showed up as I was filling ruts in the driveway. I took it down to the pond so it wouldn't get run over.

 

That's it for now. More next month. Stay healthy everyone!