Petunia and her baby

Petunia was given to me in May 2009 to raise after she was separated from her mother. She's now 2 years old and has her own baby born around May 27th, 2011. Petunia is semi-wild, meaning that she still visits me, allows me to touch her, eats corn from my hand, and, if given the opportunity, will "clean" my arms and hands. She treats me as her mother and at certain times of the year will visit my cabin daily. Other times, usually fall and winter, I might not see her for a week or two at a time.

I don't know yet if the baby is a buck or doe though I'm hoping it is a doe as that would mean Petunia would have a close companion all year. As it is now she hangs with the local deer but I don't think she is a part of their group, probably do to her relationship to me. If the baby is a buck he'll tend to keep more to himself once he has grown up as the bucks keep a bit of distance from the does. Time will tell. In any case the fawn seems healthy and wasn't too afraid of me probably do to Petunia's reaction to me which was not one indicating danger.

My guess is that I'll be seeing them almost daily now that the fawn is past the first week. Petunia visits everyday and the fawn will visit with her. It was amazing to hear the adorable sounds of a nursing baby deer which I'd heard with Petunia when I was bottle feeding her. I forgot just how sweet that sound is. Yes, it is the simple sound of a baby fawn nursing that makes my whole day.

P.S. Where the hell has the month of June gone? This is the third year in a row that we've had a strange spring to be followed by a June that is much more like August. 94-96 degrees??? The forcast for the next 6 days? Above 90 every day. Ugh. While I realize one cannot just look at a day or a month and say, "Ha! Climate change is real and it is upon us!", we've had one record hot year after another. Record numbers of wild fires, record drought, record tornadoes, record hurricanes. Yeah, welcome to human caused climate change.

Heaven on Earth

As an agnostic I don't believe in heaven or hell or any kind of after life. What I do believe in is the beauty and wonder of a simple life lived in the woods surrounded by wild critters. I spent the late afternoon and evening surrounded by such critters. 2 pair of Canada Geese and their 12 young geese as well as the pair that have been hanging around my cabin this spring, Henry and June I call them. After I filmed this and did a few chores I sat on the deck with a blackberry beer and watched them while the cat made himself at home in my lap and demanded attention. Talula sat in the chair next to me. In the background was a mix of John Denver, James Taylor, Bob Marley, Cat Stevens and a few others which blended into the changing soundtrack of birds, frogs and cicadas. Eventually Petunia showed up (without her baby who is nearby) and I fed her some corn. Of course, upon seeing the handout all 18 geese came over and were eating just eight feet from Petunia and I.

Really, if this is not heaven on earth I don't know what would be. I don't need an afterlife. I'm content with this one. I've lived a good life, simple and pretty poor in terms of money in the context of the U.S., but I want nothing more. To be surrounded by such beauty, to be able to cook good food I helped grow in my cast iron skillet, this is living the good life. This is my heaven, right here and right now.

Small is Beautiful!

I decided last year that I'd be shrinking the garden down to the area around my cabin and I can say that, as of right now, that was a great decision!  I've got more kale, lettuce and spinach than I was ever able to grow in the big garden thanks to these fantastic hugelculture beds! The work involved in getting them set-up and planted was substantially less even with hauling all the wood and the productivity of these beds is off the charts. I'm probably getting twice as much in a space a quarter the size.  There's zero loss to rabbits thanks to the raised beds and the fact that they are so close to the cabin which means  I can keep a better eye on them.  I harvested a bunch of lettuce today and planted tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in those spots.  Salad everyday? Check! Kale cooked in butter with eggs and potatoes four times a week? Check!

The food forests around the cabin are also doing really well. The plum-based guild out front is becoming a really nice example of what can be achieved with the guild model. A plum surrounded by comfrey, sage, thyme, lemon balm, yarrow, currant and gooseberry. I had a couple open spots so I put in a couple sweet potatoes and an eggplant today. The pawpaw guilds behind my cabin had some open spots so I planted sweet potatoes and will be putting a couple eggplant, peppers and tomatoes out there too.

Those guilds already  had rhubarb, strawberry, purple coneflower, yarrow, oregano, and self-heal. There are also volunteer pumpkins, potatoes back there and in the swale bed of comfrey and rhubarb I put in onions, tomatoes, and eggplant. I've got as much food planted as last year, all within 60 feet of my garden!

Last, but not least, the native wildflowers have all bloomed and look great: columbine, bee balm, jacob's ladder, wild geranium, purple coneflower with a few others to bloom soon.

First Friday in the new Gallery!

It's been just over a month since we got the keys to the space at 120 West Main and in that time a great team of 12 or so volunteers have put in well over 160 hours transforming it into the new Gallery. We've painted, cleaned, removed carpet and more. We're taking care of some last minute details tonight and then will be hanging art in the next day or so. Come join us for our first art opening in the new Gallery! First Friday Fredericktown is an art opening, potluck, poetry reading and live music the first Friday of each month. This month we'll be showcasing art from local artists Jami Knight, Abi Borrego, Kathryn Buff, Julie Miller and Corey Warner as well as St. Louis artist Aime Oberheim.

It's exciting to have a real space in Fredericktown to display art and host music, poetry and community potlucks. From June through October Fredericktown Revitalization will also be hosting movies and live music in the park on North Main. The Farmers Market will also be there. Our plan is to build the event into a community block party during the warmer summer months with opportunities for any organization or business to sponsor events/games. Chalk art, horse shoes, karaoke and quite a few things have been discussed.

Plenty of rain around here!

In about 10 days we've had over 20 inches of rain fall, 2 inches a day average! It's wet around here as you can guess. The geese are happy campers but the rest of us are ready for some dry time! Looks like most of the next 6 days is set to be sunny but two days have a chance of rain. Ugh. Both of our lake spillways have been running all out for the past 10 days, our bridge and lower road are washed out pretty bad. The other night I realized 2 of our kayaks were left to close to the water and when it came up they went out. I realized this when I woke up at 3:15 in the morning. So I ended up in the last kayak at 3:30 going across the lake with a flashlight in my mouth trying to find them. You don't want a pair of kayaks clogging up your spillway or the culverts under a bridge that is already washing out! Didn't find them but at least verified that they were not in the spillway. Found them the next morning at first light, one washed up on shore and the other in some brush by the dam. Close call. So, kayaking at 3:30 in the morning, 45 degrees with a bit of drizzel? Not recommended! And that was after spending 2 sessions in the lake Saturday and Sunday inspecting for leaks. Our dam has held up very well for the past 20 years and has weathered this recent storm like a real champ! We do have to do a bit of routine maintenance to take care of though. Dams need to be kept clear of trees but covered with grass or some sort of ground cover to protect the clay.

The hugelculture beds are coming along fantastically! Lots of kale, lettuce, spinach and chard in full swing with eggplant, peppers and tomatoes ready to go in once we get past this last cold snap. They handled all the rain really well and my plants are not at all water logged thanks to the elevation. Not only that but those buried logs must be full of water which will help keep the soil moist for many weeks to come. The food forests are all coming along, most notably the one just out my front door is really filling in perfectly with plum, currant, comfrey, lemon balm, yarrow and sage. All the blueberries have come up looking great too.

Our last construction project is nearly finished. The shower house is almost done with only the last bit of plumbing to do. The walls, shower, sink are all in and it's painted. We still have to paint the outside and then finish the upstairs loft where Jake/other guests can sleep. The red cabin is finally totally finished on the inside with a little kitchen sink and cabinets. There's a bit more to do in terms of an outside roof to keep the door dry and an extension on the back side covered area so that the full length of the backside is covered. After that we should be done for a while with construction stuff! Will be nice to spend more time relaxing rather than filling the weekends with constant work. There's still maintenance to do of course but it will be nice to not have air compressors, nail guns and saws constantly running in the background.

Oh, and an animal update. I've had the pleasant tweet tweet of 5 chicks in my cabin for the past 3 weeks! They are growing up fast and so cute with their first feathers in. Petunia is definitely pregnant and will be having her first fawn in the next 30 or so days. She's been around most days for a bit of corn. The two canada geese have also been hanging out by the font porch every day as well, a nice addition! In fact I'm looking at them both right now as they lounge around in my front yard. I love their personalities, mannerisms, and constant vocalizations.

Greening up fast!

It's been a couple weeks since I posted about planting the hugelculture beds. They're a carpet of green: lettuce, spinach, chard, radishes, onions and kale. Another week or two and I should be harvesting lots of salads!  It will be interesting to see how well they produce, especially once I start adding in the bigger plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash. The tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are doing great in the greenhouse with another batch started a week ago. The rhubarb is about ready for a first harvest and the comfrey already has flowers! The food forests are also coming alive with fruit trees taking off as well as all of the perennial herbs: oregano, lemon balm, sage, thyme, yarrow, purple coneflowers, feverfew, and tansy. The blueberries, currants, serviceberries, gooseberries and pawpaws are also awake and growing rapidly. Last but not least, the hardy kiwi vines have really taken off and look great.

All of my native perennial wildflowers are also coming up and doing well a year after transplanting. Orange coneflowers, bloodroot, jacob's ladder, geranium, primrose, columbine, bee balm, cardinal flower and blue lobelia.

Last, I'm not a big fan of grass but late last summer we trenched in our water line from the well to the two cabins and the grass never reestablished so I've had LOTS of mud around here. We seeded it with a mix of grass, red and white clover, all of which is starting to rally take off. I'll be glad to be rid of all the mud!

Missouri's Madison County

I mentioned recently the work I've been doing with our local main street group, Fredericktown Revitalization and the local Chamber. The latest work has been focused on organizing a First Friday event and a space for art and poetry in Madison County Missouri. We've made a good bit of progress with a variety of improvements to our historical buildings as well as several successful community events.

This is a fairly depressed area, economically and morally. It's hard to get folks out of the rut they are in, there's a lot of negativity. There's not much here in the way of art or spaces for teens or young adults. It will be interesting to see what kind of support and interest we get from the community, especially the younger part of it.

Garden Rising

We're in the middle of what will, hopefully, be our last cold spell of the season. March has been pretty nice in terms of temperature and precipitation. Today it's cold and raining but over the past week I've gotten all my cold crops in. Peas, lettuce, chard, spinach, kale, radish, onions and potatoes. Larry Cooper's broadfork was amazing for loosening up the soil! So easy to use. Thanks again Larry! I'll be encouraging my local garden friends to take a look at these for their own gardening.

The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant were all started about 2 weeks earlier than last year and have now been transplanted out into little pots and are sitting on my cabin table with a light on them. The fruit trees are all budding out and have flowers. The comfrey and rhubarb are popping up everywhere and the bed by the greenhouse most of all. Those plants are already full of leaves and nearly a foot tall. If they don't get killed off by the cold I could probably get a rhubarb harvest in another week or two! Is that normal?

In other news I've been seeing Petunia around several times a week and I've got two Canada geese  that have been hanging out. Not nearly as friendly as Loretta but they are less afraid every day and have been coming up for snacks and visiting just 10 feet from the front porch a few hours a day. I love geese. Their mannerisms are adorable and they are such beautiful birds.

I suppose that's it on homestead news. I'll post a few garden pics soon.

First Friday Fredericktown

I've been working with the Fredericktown Revitalization Initiative for the past two years and one of our latest projects, in cooperation with the local Chamber, is First Friday. Fredericktown does not have much going on in terms of public art shows or poetry so we're going to remedy that with First Friday which is a monthly art opening/poetry reading/potluck the first Friday of each month. During the warmer months we'll be adding outdoor activities on the north side of Court Square and the adjoining park on North Main. In addition to acoustic and bluegrass music we're hoping to do movies in the park, karaoke, games and crafts.

We just held our second First Friday and had a fantastic turn out... in fact the place was crammed with about as many people as we could handle and still maintain a level of personal space. Very exciting. Even better, we've worked out an agreement to use the whole second floor space above the Chamber for our new gallery/visitor center. It's been unused for years and needs painting, track lighting, old carpet removed. A few weekends and a few hundred dollars and it should be ready to use. We're hoping to have it ready to go by May 1st which should be a pretty easy to accomplish goal.

Hugelculture Beds!

Hugelculture Beds!
Originally uploaded by Geek in the garden.

The Hugelculture beds are coming along and almost ready for planting. They've got a layer of soil and manured straw from the chicken coop which was all put on this past fall. I'll add another layer of soil and then get them planted with lettuce, spinach, kale and a few other cool weather crops. Will be interesting to see how they work out and if they hold the moisture as well as many claim. It does make sense that the wood logs would soak it up.

I've also buried our rooster, Boots, in that mass of wood. He was killed by an unknown attacker a day before I was planning on adding more logs and finishing the final bed area. I put him in between a few logs and covered him up with soil and then wood. He'll feed the soil for a while and then feed the plants and then me! I'll get these beds seeded early next week after we get through this next cold snap.

Seedlings!

Seedlings!
Originally uploaded by Geek in the garden.

I started my seedlings about a month early this year. Normally I'd just now be starting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. This year I got them going the second week of February. The soil I'm using is also a bit richer in nitrogen content thanks to some aged chicken manure. In past years my plants, while healthy, never looked quite as good as commercial plants. I'm determined to make sure this years plants get off to a better start.

Another change in this years garden is that it will be much smaller with many of my plants going into two hugelculture beds near the cabin. It's an experiment!