Soil Test

I have had professional soil test done previously but not in the last few years. I decided to try one of the home soil test kits sold at many hardware stores and nursery outlet stores. They are both pictured and I used both with similar results.There was a green vial in both test for ph also and I had already done that part when I took this pic. The tests are quick and simple. Both had detail instructions on the inside of the card. They are not as accurate as a professional test of course and simply give a low, medium ,high reading on the NPK portion and go from5.0 to 8.0 in four steps on the ph portion of the test. NPK is nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash. A full professional test would also check many other trace elements such as copper and magnesium. Acidity or alkalinity are checked in the ph test with 7.0 being neutral ,lower numbers more acidic, larger numbers more alkaline. The test did show that the lime I put on last year had brought my ph up to near 7.0. The phosphorous and potash readings were in the medium range on all my test. Nitrogen in the main gardens was in the medium range but my new garden areas need a lot of nitrogen. Fortunately, nitrogen is easy for me to apply, llama droppings are a great source and the llamas considerately put them in communal piles! 

Good Weeds

Front Joe Pye Weed ( Eupatorium maculatuim), middle, Boneset ( Eupatorium perfoliatum), back, some type of Goldenrod, probably Canada Goldenrod, (Solidaga canadensis). All of these are or were used medicinally .This is a pic from last fall near the edge of one of our gardens. I have been busy this last week and didn't get a pic of any thing I was working on so I raided the pic files for this. Any time I visit a farm that is supposed to be organic I look for so call weeds at the edge of the fields. Those weeds are an important part of the eco system. In some cases they are one of the few, if not the only, host plants available for beneficial insects. If we don't have the host plant we don't have the beneficial insect. Of these three, golden rod is a great bee plant, providing a lot of pollen late in the year. Bees feed pollen to the larva so a good source of pollen is necessary to have a strong, productive hive going into the winter. I do not let any of these grow in the garden but I encourage them along the margins. Biodiversity is the keystone of a health organic farm.

Pigs V/S Rototiller

 Last summer we raised two hogs. We had them penned in an area we planned to use to expand our garden this year. They rooted up their pen fairly well but pigs are fastidious creatures and they will not root in the area they use as the bathroom. This left two areas in each of the pens that wasn't rooted up . I have been rototilling the first pen they were in this week for Ann's flax patch. It is worked up fairly uniformly except for the sod areas. That ole Troy horse tiller really bucks when it hits the sod. I finally got the whole patch worked up and we raked it off and seeded it today. We were going to hand broadcast the seed but it was so windy I don't think much of the seed would have ended up in the intended area. Ann had a great idea and we went with it, we used a yard size lime spreader to spread the seed. We then raked it in and used the three wheeler to compact the seed bed. It is supposed to rain this weekend so I'm glad we got it in. Next time I use hogs to root up a patch I will plow it instead of just going at it with the tiller.

Spring Wild Flowers

Yesterday Ann and I went on a walk about to see if the ostrich fern fiddle heads were up yet. They are not, probably next weekend. We did find this big patch of bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis L. The flower comes up with the leaf wrapped around it and the leaf unfolds as or after the flower opens. They are named for the bright red sap from the root although the sap in the entire plant is red. The root contains the alkaloid sanguinarine. There are traditional medicinal uses but modern herbalist advice extreme caution as it is toxic.It is also a traditional dye used by many American Indian tribes at one time.

This next pic is of Spring Beauty,Claytonia caroliniana. This one was a little pinker than they normally are. These have a edible tuber like root. Samuel Thayer, has a chapter in his first book,The Forager's Harvest, about Spring Beauty. I would highly recommend Sam's books to anyone interested in foraging wild foods. There is also a web sight of the same name.
We spotted a few Marsh Marigolds blooming too but I didn't feel like getting wet feet to get a pic.

Hoary Comma Butterfly

I try to carry my camera most of the time I am at home. Yesterday as I was walking back from the garden this beauty seemed to want it's picture taken so I obliged. I am fairly certain this is a Hoary Comma. If so, it is on the edge of it's range being a more northern and eastern species. It was on the cool side and it seemed to be trying to warm up a little. Usually commas are flighty and sit with their wings closed. I never did see the color of this ones outer wings so I am not positive about my ID.

We are not into the survivalist thing but we do look at several sites on facebook that are survivalist sites. We find useful info there on occasion and sometimes they are very amusing. Ann saw these fire starters and since we go camping sometimes thought they might be handy. They are simply a paper egg carton filled with wood shavings and covered with paraffin wax. You only use the bottom part of the carton.  To use them you just rip off one section and light it. I went further and tried out this magnesium fire starter. I didn't use the magnesium, just the striker part. I fluffed out a cotton ball on top of the egg carton and scraped sparks onto it using the flint edge and the little piece of hacksaw blade that comes with it. Cotton balls catch the spark quickly and they burst into flame. This started the egg carton,wood chip,wax combo burning. It burned hot enough and long enough to start a camp fire even with slightly damp wood. Don't know how much we will ever use them but will add the knowledge to the"nice to know" category.

Troy-Bilt Rototiller

It seems awful early to me but we are getting started on this years gardens. We will put in stuff like peas and onions first. Ann wants a spot for some Jerusalem artichocks too. First step of course was getting out our 16 year old Troy-Bilt rototiller. I changed the oil, put on a new belt, air filter, and spark plug. All right, ready to go. It is pull start. I pulled. And I pulled, and I pulled some more. No go. Oh, Oh, didn't drain out the gas last fall.Off to the hardware store to get some carb cleaner. Had to remove the carb, clean the float bowl which was full of gunk, spray out the jets and put it all back in place. Thankfully it started on the third pull after that. It is still not quite up to snuff but it ran good enough for me to get a good size patch gone over. Ann is putting in some flax for linen fiber this year and that needs to go in soon so I guess that will be my job tomorrow. Before I can start on that I have to get my new bee hives set in place and my bear fence around them. Guess it will be a busy day!

Homemade Cream Cheese

 Getting a second cow is starting to have benefits. Although her mastitis seems to be clearing up we are still only using her milk to feed our steer calf. That frees up more of Bella's milk for us to use. This week Ann made cream cheese. It  is yummy! Ann said it was Swiss style cream cheese but I'm not sure how it differs    from some other style of cream cheese. We have a large supply of butter canned so we are good there. Now we will see what kind of cheeses we can make at home. I am working on a cheese press which Ann will need for several kinds of cheese. I think all of the hard cheeses which are better keepers are pressed cheeses.I made two molds for the press, one from a small stainless steel stock pot and another smaller one from a stainless steel coffee press. I used a die grinder to cut the bottoms and handles off leaving a smooth cylinder. Then I drilled small drain holes all around it. The larger should make about a three pound cheese and the other about a pound or pound and a half. I'll get some pics on when I get more done on the press.