Bears in the Driveway

I went to get the mail this afternoon and found fresh bear tracks on our driveway!  Good thing we have the electric fencer on the bees and gardens!

Pretty good size track - about 5 x 7 inches.

Another one

The tracks lead from our woods and down the road and to the foot of the driveway.  Better watch out, Kitty!  There's bears out there!

Meet the New "Farmhands"

I haven't had a dose of 'cute' for a while, so here goes.   This spring three of our female cats each had 3 kittens.   But two of the mamas pawned off their kittens on one mother to feed.   That poor mama cat tried for almost 3 weeks to feed 9 kittens (with 8 teats!).  She finally gave up and hauled the female kittens to another spot and stayed with them, and abandoned the 5 male kittens.  Funny how cats know what sex their offspring is at that age!  Anyway, we hated to see the poor things starve, and I have no time for bottle feeding kittens, so we called the feline rescue organization here which is only about 10 miles away.   They do great work with stray, abandoned, and abused cats.  They have an agreement with another feline rescue group in the Twin Cities and some volunteer veterinarians there, and they house and place cats and offer next-to-nothing cost for spay and neuter.   The lady from the local feline rescue place said these kittens would most likely become indoor cats in the Twin cities area.  

Here are the 4 females that we were left with.  As usual I had a hard time getting photos of the kittens as they would not cooperate and were too wiggly.  But they are extremely friendly and cute!

Harold needs a lesson on how to hold cats!

If they are all sleeping, I can take a picture of them!

I try to help out Mama Cat by feeding the kittens a little milk, but they aren't sure yet whether to play in it or drink it!

This is the runt of the litter and Mama helps this one out a lot.

Well, so much for the new "helpers" here on the farm.  Here's a photo of how things are progressing in the greenhouse:

Look at the size of things now!   The bok choy on the left is almost 3 feet tall!

Another view - the cherry tomato plant in the corner is almost 6 feet tall!

Well Pulling Day

Today, with the help of a couple of neighbors, we pulled the submersible pump on our well and replaced it with a new one.   The old one had been in there for about 28 years, and was getting weak, running way too much and causing high electric bills.   We replaced the 1/2 horse pump with a 1 horse pump, which should run less and be more efficient, and hopefully lower our electric bills considerably. .   I am documenting the procedure here to show what is involved in pulling a well pump, and also for our own benefit for future reference.   By doing the work ourselves, we saved probably close to two thousand dollars.   I guess that's why country boys do their own work - nobody has that kind of cash sitting around.   Old timers like us have learned a lot of practical skills over the years.  It is hard to convince today's youth that practical skills are important, as texting and video games seem more enticing, but if more young men learned a few skills, they could sure save a lot of money.   I asked Harold and the neighbors where they learned to do all this, and they said : "From the school of hard knocks"!

Anyway, in long photo form, here's what we did today!   (In about 4 hours)

First the well head is disconnected.

The first part of the well head is lifted via chain over a wheel.   Neighbor Ronnie lifts, while neighbor Frank pulls on the chain.

The chain is then connected to Harold's tractor/loader.

Harold begins to pull up the submersible pump - 175 feet down.

Ronnie guides the pump cable over the wheel, Frank guides the well head connection, and Harold backs up with the tractor.

Harold keeps backing up.

He backs way out - only another 100 feet to go.

Almost there!  Keep on backing up Harold!

The pump is finally out of the ground!

Harold and Ronnie connect the electrical wires on the cable to the new pump.

Ronnie uses a torch to apply the heat shrink to the connections.

Harold ties on some new black cable with electrical tape.

The new pump is lowered into the well housing, back over the wheel.

Harold walked out and gradually brought the cable in, while Ronnie guided it over the wheel.

A few more electrical connections to make to the fuse box.

Everything back in and connected up.

There is running water coming out of the main spigot!!  Success!

And so, this is how it's done, and how you can save $2,000 doing the job yourself!  All you need is enough skills to connect electric wires properly, some basic tools, neighborly help, (and a good tractor helps), and a working knowledge of how well pumps operate.   Some wells don't have to be this deep, it all depends on the conditions of where you live.   Ours just happens to be about 175 ft deep.   We should be pretty good for another 20-25 years or so.

Look Inside the Greenhouse Now!

Things are growing so nicely in the greenhouse!  Plants are doing exactly what I want them to do.  As you can see in one of the photos, Harold built a little shelf for me to put things like a radio, gloves, tools, knee pads, etc.   I call the greenhouse "Patty's Playhouse", and I will soon be making a sign for the outside of the greenhouse saying just that!  Please bear with me as I crow a little bit about the greenhouse - it's been a dream come true for me!

View is looking through the front door

This view is looking from the back to the front - my shelf is to the left of the door.   Bok Choy should be ready to eat any day now, and we are already eating green onions, and lettuce and spinach will be ready any day, too.  Cherry tomatoes are in bloom.

If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another!

So up here in the north country we have to put up with temperature extremes, winds off the prairies, too cold, too hot, too many deer, raccoons, bears and bugs.  Well, now we can add snapping turtles to the list!!  It seems about this time of year the little darlings like to lay eggs - and yes, you guessed it - they really love soft gardens!  A few years ago I had one tear up my corn patch.  Last year one tore up my carrots.  This year, one tore up my popcorn.   The popcorn wasn't doing very well anyway, so tonight I thought I would put cukes in the place where the popcorn never came up.   I get ready with seeds, gloves, equipment, etc.  and I find this:

A huge snapping turtle about 13 inches in diameter laying eggs and digging up the garden.

As you can see from the photo, they make quite a hole, and tear things up pretty good.   After I took this photo, I checked the other garden, and sure enough, there was another one heading for the other garden:

This snapping turtle was a little smaller, maybe 11 inches in diameter.  I managed to scare her off before she dug up my larger garden. 

One of my tomcats is not sure what to make of this thing!  Snapping turtles can be quite mean and give a nasty bite.  I sure didn't want my cat to get bit. 

Of course after I worried about my white tomcat, here came more of the farm cat crew!

Turtle watching is great fun if you are a cat!

Needless to say I never got my cucumbers planted tonight.  And I have news for that turtle mama - those eggs will be tilled up tomorrow.   These turtle mothers lay dozens of eggs, and then walk away, never to return to the young.

Working hard!

In between predicted rains we have been working very hard to get everything planted, and cleaned up.  I finally finished planting my gardens - it usually takes me about a week to complete my over 10,000 sq ft gardens.   Besides all the small plants, now protected by large cans, I have rows upon rows of seeds planted.  Here's a photo of my largest garden, which is about 75 x 175:

Peppers, tomatoes and cabbages are in the cans.  Everything else is seed planted.  The big green stuff in the middle is a stand of yarrow I need to move yet.  Bees like yarrow, and it is good for dried floral arrangements in the winter!

This year I have tried some new things to grow - leeks, sugar snap peas (edible podded peas), a new variety of heirloom green pepper called Keystone, buttercrunch head lettuce, and a new variety of heirloom pickling cucumbers called Chicago Picklers.   I like to use heirloom seeds and non-GMO seeds as much as possible, because if they are not hybrid, you can save the seeds to plant next year.  If times get tough (like all the financial experts are saying is "coming soon"), then I can at least plant my own seeds without having to buy anything.    I think the only hybrid I plant is acorn squash and zucchini, and I could probably do without them.   All the main crops I grow are from non-hybrid seed.  I have found that heirloom varieties are pretty stable growers, so I have to wonder why botanists are so intent on coming up with hybrid seeds?

While I've been planting away, Harold has been very busy trying to clear a field next to our smaller garden.   Since 1986 when he first came up here with his Dad, that field has been a junk-all.   It's been hard to mow around the garden to keep weeds down, so now that Harold has a tractor capable of moving things, he has been taking out large boulders, scrap iron, and 29 years of farm junk.  Also young trees not worth anything (popple)   We will be able to mow this very soon.   Our dream is to plant a bunch of apple trees there, but I wonder if I will live long enough to see apples from them?  A person can dream anyway!  Speaking of dreams, Harold has always wanted a big enough tractor to move things around and do real farm work.   It's been many years in the making, but he finally got his wish with the tractor we purchased earlier this year.   Just goes to show that dreams can happen, but sometimes it can takes years! So finally at age 65, Harold got his dream tractor. 

Loading up the bucket with scrap to haul to the scrap pile.

Harold has already cleared quite a large area!

Hauling off another load to the 'back 40'

Our bees are doing so well that they are just about bursting at the seams.   Time to put supers on.

Bees hanging out everywhere!

Well, this is what we've been up to lately!  Supposed to rain for a couple days now, so we can get a rest.

Greenhouse is done!

This weekend we finally got the roll up side mechanisms installed on the greenhouse.  Things are pretty much done now, just a couple boards yet to anchor the plastic around the roof peak and on one side.   Harold designed the roll up bars after the tarp rolling bars on a semi truck, and welded the pieces in his shop.  There is a long metal rod bolted inside the plastic pvc pipe, and the plastic for the sides in clamped onto the bottom using cut out pieces of pvc pipe.  The whole thing is rolled up on the pvc pipe, and the side ropes help to support it in place.   The roll up bar is then pushed to the side and down to hold in place.  Here I am trying to demonstrate how it works:

For the photo, I have the rod slightly bent, but in actual use, you hold the bar straight out, and crank the end. 

Here is a view of the finished greenhouse.  Harold is in the process today of putting on the roof end pieces, and the one long 2 x 4 on the side near the top to help anchor the plastic roof a little better. 

On a sunny day with the sides rolled down and the screen on the door shut, it can get to 120 degrees in there.   That's why a high tunnel is a special kind of greenhouse that allows you to regulate the temperature a little better by rolling up the sides for air flow.   Ideally, it should be no more than 95 in there, and 80 is great, but in summer that will be impossible.   In summer, the sides will need to be fully open at all times, as well as the screen on the door.  

Things DO grow quickly in here, though:

Things have really grown in the last 10 days!  Onions, green beans, bok choy and tomatoes are all growing nicely!

Here's another view:

Oh my!  Looks like I have some weeding to do today!   The pathway and beds could use a little TLC!  We have been so busy with garden planting, I haven't had time for weeding here, but today is rainy so I will have my chance.

Here's a view of the other side:

Yes, we still have a little clean-up to do - in our "spare time" (what's that?)

 Yesterday I planted about 75 cabbages in my smaller garden.  They are of various growing times, so I should have a constant supply for our vegetable stand in town, which begins on June 18.  Cabbages won't be ready, but lettuces and bok choy should be.

This smaller garden is about 25 x 125 feet.

Do you remember the ferris wheel planter that Harold made for me last year?   I was supposed to paint it, but never got around to it until this spring.   Here it is all prettied up with a couple coats of rustoleum paint, and planted with petunias that haven't bloomed yet.

Pretty soon there will be blooms on my ferris wheel planter!  I started all these petunia plants from my own saved seed, so it will be interesting to see what the colors are.  (By the way, Harold [jokingly]says if you want one of these built, he will do it for $600!! - Ha!  Shipping costs would be a little steep, though, as it weighs over 300 pounds!)

A couple of our female cats had kittens recently.   Scruffy is under the ladder, and Mama is the one with the winky eye.   Poor thing had a tick on her eyeball earlier this spring, and her eye is still recovering from that.  Both mothers are enjoying a little time off from the kitties, who are in a box in the cat house.