Back at the farm again
Posted by Rich on 08 Jul 2008 at 08:38 pm | Tagged as: Construction, Gardening, General, The Organic Life
Post title sung to Aerosmith’s Back in the saddle again.
Last weekend was a good weekend. I love getting work done. Maybe you don’t consider getting 12 feet of sill plate installed and/or replaced exciting, but I do.
The cool part is, that the new section of sill plate was across the back of the new slab of concrete. Not only is it something new, but I had to cut old rotten sill plate at the major corners, jack up the barn again (see last year) and shove the new wood underneath. We even got the main electrical panel and meter socket installed. We’ll have electricity in no time.
I have another great thing to report. Although we got into this situation in the first place, we reclaimed the garden. The front PTO on the mower seemed to burn out, so I need to fix that. The flood producing rains and warm weather caused everything to grow. Grass, weeds, and vegetables all grow with water and heat. I used both a weed-eater, and the push mower from the house to trim out the gardens. Then used the trail-mower to clean up everything else.
We did claim some zucchini, squash, cucumbers, a large onion, and more lettuce out of the garden so far. We are eating good. The taste is unbelievable. Yum! One of the cukes, is sitting in some leftover pickle juice. We’ll make some proper ones later, and hopefully avoid any kerosene cucumber references.
Next, Order some 10′ 2×6′s and frame in the East end of the corn crib. I found a huge 38×42″ double casement window for that wall at the Habit for Humanity Restore in Des Moines. That, and some siding…..oh boy!
Quick update, if any one reads comments.
2×6′s are on site, but I wasn’t in the mood to frame out a wall tonight.
We got 2 more cucumbers out of the garden. I don’t know the exact variety, but they are pickling variety. Although ‘refrigerator pickles’ take a week or three, the 2 day old spear we tried was pretty good. We stuck another 1 5/6ths pickles in the jar tonight.
At the farm, we found all kinds of cucumber blossoms, with the same happening on the squash and zucchini. Although we are not overwhelmed at this point, it’s like we see the writing on the wall.
Sounds good Rich. Before you know it those zuccini squash will be taking over the garden. Too bad you cant find a way to grow some of those pork tenderloins in the garden. lol There is no place like Iowa in the summer time. Enjoy!