Power Toyz

Oh yeah! We're havin' fun now!

As you can see we received the Grillo and got it into action. It took me a while to learn how to engage the PTO. This has an automotive-type clutch and transmission. That is, an Italian automotive transmission. Mi parlo en po Italiano (I speak a little Italian), but I don't do it well: learning the ins and outs of an Italian transmission took some time. By the end of an hour, though, I was able to put this bad boy pretty much where I wanted it. The Grillo is a nice machine. It has 4 gears forward and 3 reverse; the forward/reverse control is in the right hand, the clutch in the left. It has independent wheel brakes, so swinging it around at the end of a row is pretty simple. The control column swivels to either side, and reverses 180 degrees entirely if the implement is to be pushed instead of pulled.

The tiller itself is just one of 4 implements we own. In due course we'll bring out the 53" sickle bar cutter, the chipper/shredder, and the rotary plow. I predict more fun will ensue.





We got this machine with a little (8 hp) Lombardini diesel engine. While diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline these days, a diesel engine burns only half to a third as much fuel as a gasoline engine with the same torque (in our case 8hp diesel = 12 hp gasoline). In two hours of tilling this quarter acre plot into a finished seedbed I burned about 1/3rd of a gallon of fuel. Added benefits are the reduced maintenance of the diesel engine (on average they last twice as long as gasoline engines), and the flexible fuel potential. We're going to plant oil-seed sunflowers so in a real pinch we could use some of that pressed oil as fuel in the tractor, with some minor modifications.

After the tilling fun was over we planted some asparagus crowns, and companion planted some tomatoes and basil. We planted some strawberry crowns, so we'll soon have a bevy of strawberries (we hope). And we also transplanted our pak choi and tat soi which we had started in paper tube planters. Hopefully the deer won't get them before I get the higher electric fence into action. Another concern is that we have frost potential tonight and tomorrow night. I covered the sensitive things with straw this evening, so hopefully we'll weather this cold air without loss and get on to growing in earnest.

Da BeeZ

Check...it...out!!







We are now livestock owners! As of a week ago, Edward returned from a business trip to the D.C. area with two packages of bees.

In the interests of general FYI, we did take classes in beekeeping back in 2006 from the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association. Boy, did we learn a lot! Ed has had a long-standing interest in beekeeping, and he found out about the class. When we found out that Yvonne could take the class for less if she came along, we thought, "That's a deal!" Turned out to be an even better deal than we imagined. In addition to the broad range of experiential data we received, beekeepers are some of the most colorful human beings on earth. Attending MCBA classes and meetings were educational in more than one sense of the word.

The important part, however, was how helpful and enthusiastic the club members were to get new beekeepers (the "new-bees") started. In the past 15 years or so, a great number of hives in the U.S. have been decimated by various blights, parasites and other less transparent factors. Knowledge of these issues is important for anyone planning to keep hives. Beekeepers have to know what they are looking for in their colonies to accurately assess the well being of their bees. Seasonal awareness of weather, nectar flow, pollen availability and neighbors' attitudes have all got to be on the beekeeper's radar. This preparation helped us greatly to start our own hives.

Last week, we started out bright and early Sunday morning to introduce our bees to their new homes. We carried the two packages out to the spot we'd selected between our blackberry brambles and the garden. Fortunately, the temperatures were balmy and there was little wind. We carefully pulled the queen cage (along with dedicated attendants) from the first package, quickly covering the opening it left on top of the main package so only a few more bees would fly out. We balanced the queen cage between the hive frames as we had been instructed so that the rest of the bees would be able to find her quickly. The cage holding the queen is often stoppered with a candy plug which the worker bees will chew through to release the queen. This cage had a small cork plug as well, guaranteeing some insurance that the queen would make it to her new home safely.


Later we would assist our workers in getting the queen out by gently pushing in the cork when we discovered her still in the cage a day later. The workers now had greater access to the queen's chamber and could enable her escape.




Then the real fun begins. We have to remove the can of sugar syrup that has been feeding the bees, while one of us (Ed) up ends the cage and dumps the buzzing, excited contents into the hive body. Only our bottom section has frames to get the hive started so there's room for two feeders to give the new occupants a food supply. Ed deftly handled this duty with verve and élan. Then we did it all again for our second hive.

We are happy to relate that few injuries were sustained. We both already possessed beekeeper's jackets and kept our hoods on during the moving operation. A day's inspection later revealed that the bees were starting to build out the wax foundations, gather nectar and generally make themselves at home. There was some burr comb on the floor of the hive bodies and between some of the frames Burr comb= any comb built in a random fashion around the frames.


It's best to scrape this off as soon as it is discovered so that later the hive body doesn't resemble a random mess of labyrinthine combs. In addition, it's best not to let the queen to have time to lay eggs in this stuff so that when it's removed, you are not killing off developing bees at the same time.

Here at the end of Week One, we were happy to see both of our queens busily moving about the hive, attendant bees on duty and eggs clearly present in the comb. There were even a few capped cells with honey! We also had to scrape out a bit of burr comb to abort some extracurricular building projects. One small piece of burr had some capped honey and pollen. So far, the apiculture experiment seems to be well under way.

Signs of Life

Slowly, Spring is catching up to us. Nothing pleases a future farmer more than the sight of young snow peas stretching for the sky. In addition, recent surveys reveal small arugula, kale, and broccoli sprouts are joining the horticultural ranks. The potatoes that we planted last week are just beginning to green. As per tradition, April's farewell gift to us was a few days of cool rain. We felt lucky; most of April was dry (except, of course, on the days we had flurries!).





























As the introspection of winter wanes, one welcomes the promise of new discoveries. Part of the fun of living here is that Ken and Linda, the former owners, are avid gardeners. Already established in a neat row behind the workshop are a row of blackberry bushes. Not far away from the blackberries, one of a row of cherry trees is now at the height of a full, snowy blossom.




A neat patch of rhubarb with its leafy-crowned, ruby stems is looking more ready each day for early summer jamming.


Judging from the nightly wossails of the local frogs in Otter Creek and the number of avian visitors that appear, the local ecosystem is in good shape. The cherry trees are attracting buzzing clouds of pollinating insects: bumble bees, honey bees, the smaller orchard bees and wasps. With all the news about declining populations of bees and other helpful garden dwellers, we feel as if our endeavors might stand a chance. Here's looking forward to summer.

Ah, Spring ... sort of

We hear a lot of these little guys at night now. Ever since the snow melted the spring peepers have made nights very loud and exotic. The sound is similar to Maryland's insect chorus on August nights, but maybe louder. I'm sure we have plenty of tadpoles in the vernal pools in the back 6. The ducks and geese are eating something.

We've begun excavating the garden and planting some cold-tolerant crops (we're still a good 4 weeks from the first frost-free night). So far we have planted sugar peas, two types of chard, mesculin mix, spinach, kale, arugula, broccoli, two types of lettuce, mache, mizuna, and beets. The peas, chard, and arugula are all up. Hopefully they will stay up; we're supposed to have overnight lows in the lower 20s tonight.

Digging the garden beds has been a useful exercise. There is a lot of rock. So far the biggest boulder we've unearthed was the size of a soccer ball. The good news is that there is plenty of quality soil between the boulders. The soil maps were generally correct -- most of the soil we've worked so far is silt-loam, but there is a band of heavy clay towards the eastern end of the plot that the soil maps did not mention. We have submitted a sample for detailed analysis, and are waiting the results before we start guessing at soil amendments.

Our intention this year is to grow crops chiefly for our own use, and to get to know the place better. To that end, hand digging the garden beds is possible, even enjoyable for the first several hours. But larger scale production will demand a little more mechanization. That's where this baby comes in:



This is an Italian made "walking" tractor. It's a two wheeled tractor powered by an 8hp Lombardini diesel engine, with pivoting controls and mounts a standard set of implements on quick connectors. Ours is coming with a rotary plow, tiller (pictured), 53" sickle bar, and a chipper/shredder. The advantage of this system is that we buy and maintain a single power plant, rather than buying a separate engine with each implement. In time we can also add other implements -- log splitter and snow blower spring to mind, but they make all kinds of things for these tractors like carts, spaders, finish mowers, and even balers. We could have gone with a small, conventional tractor, but the neighbors have plenty of those for borrow or hire if we need them, and we wanted to be as miserly with fuel use as possible. Here is a link to just such a tractor in action with a rotary plow. I'll let you know how they are at handling rock.

The Move to Wallingford

Hi All,

For those of you who have stayed tuned, we are in our fourth inaugural week of living in Wallingford, Vermont. After a lot of time spent on the road, skirmishes with disgruntled owner/landlords, scary basements and weird smells, we found a house in VT that we believe will be the site of our Future Farm. Wallingford is a small town just about eight miles south of the city of Rutland with beautiful views not too dissimilar from Switzerland.


Even though this is great news, it meant that we had to leave Middlebury, a fine town. We had hoped that we could find a new home nearby, but nothing panned out. Although we were intrigued by the area's offerings of vintage farmhouses, most of what we visited was either super new and situated on land inappropriate for farming, or super old, falling down and situated on land that would great for farming...eventually. We truly are going to miss some of the great people we met through the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society and Frog Hollow Crafts Center. Deb and Bud Smith, the owners of our apartment, were essentially our "hook-up" to most things Middlebury. There is a stimulating charge in the air of college towns; and we were most lucky during our six months as residents to have so many cultural events, community activities and great company all within walking distance.

Our move took the form of a two-pronged attack: On March 28, after the closing at the sellers' attorney's office in Poultney, we were able to borrow a van from the sellers' real estate office. We drove the van up to Middlebury, packed our things in and did a drive by the home of Chris and Susan English who had kindly been storing things of ours that were too big to keep in our town efficiency. After the secondary loading, we drove down to our new residence to make the best of the first week. Sans real furniture, it was sort of amazing how much work Ed was able to do. Mealtimes were saved by the fact that we had brought some of our kitchen stuff from the Englishs' pole barn and we had just enough of Yvonne's ceramic pieces to make dinner civilized.

The following Saturday, April 5th, we drove down to the D.C./MD to retrieve the balance of our worldly possessions. We had beautiful driving weather, for a change, and we made great time (about 9 hours). Once again, we were welcomed by our friends Steve and Andrea Matney in Glen Echo. The next day, Sunday, we wisely chose to goof off and socialize. We attended the 10:30 service at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. It was great to see so many people and update them on our travels. It turned out that other UUCSS ex-pats were visiting that day, so it was somewhat like homecoming.

Monday was all business. Chris English also hails from MD, and had arranged to take off time from a family visit to help us load our moving van and his personal vehicle with our stuff. Chris met us at the storage facility at 9:30 on the dot. Because Chris and Susan had moved to VT approximately a year and a half earlier than we had, Chris arrived organized and armed with recent memory of the best ways to relocate everything you own. Except for the fine drizzle that kept up through the mid morning through early afternoon, we couldn't have asked for a smoother transfer of items. All three of us were largely in agreement about the best ways to pack a moving truck (i.e. putting the big things in the truck first and then fitting smaller things around them.) I have participated in moving "parties" that involved far more people and way less competence. The very next a.m., Ed and I were back on the road up to VT.



The turn around time was about 4 days (April 5 to 8). On Wednesday, April 8, we unloaded the van, again with Chris's help (he was on his way back up north that morning), got all the furniture into the house, and made sure that all boxes went either to the basement or garage to shelter them from the elements.

Chris left to rejoin his wife Susan in their home in Cornwall in the early afternoon (we were sorry; we had wanted to share a celebratory pizza with him), and we made it our business to put together the bed and the dining room table. One week's camp-out without them was enough.

























At present, we are enjoying our first spring in Vermont. Late-night online seed buying has gotten us enough seed to start exploring what the soil up here will support (besides small boulders. The mineral capacity of VT soil is legendary). The property has a number of blackberry bushes and an established rhubarb bed. Young red shrubs which might be either raspberries or miniature roses (we're hoping for raspberries) are starting to put out tiny little pleated leaves. The lilacs are getting greener every day. The snowmelt lake that had occupied the five acres closest to Otter Creek is slowly evaporating.




We started last week turning over the rich, rocky soil to see the encouraging pink-brown glistening of several healthy nightcrawlers.
So far we've planted arugula, spinach, snow peas, kale, mixed greens for salad and broccoli. Now, to figure out where the asparagus bed will go...

Winter Rap Up

It's been a long winter. This image is my car after a March ice storm (no damage done). Note the spiffy new Vermont tags on the car!

This winter was one for the record books, literally. All-time snowfall records were set state-wide. Burlington, VT (to our north) received 120.2 inches of snow this winter (or about 10" more than the previous all time record). I told folks before we moved here that I only grew tired of winter once in my life. That total has been doubled.

Our last snow (so far) was Saturday (April 12). There was no accumulation, but we had driving snow showers all day long. The snowpack on the mountains is still over 60" in most places, though the snow on the lower elevations has been gone for over two weeks at this point.

PASA 2008

In early February we attended the annual PASA conference in State College, Pennsylvania. Last year's conference was, in a word, transformative -- that's in large measure why we're here now. This year built upon that experience. The conference was slightly larger -- approximately 2,000 folks attended, from 39 states and 8 countries. We again did the pre-conference, day-long track for beginning farmers and learned a great deal about high tunnels for extending harvests into winter, effective pasture management, effective marketing, and many other topics.

In the business portion of the conference we learned the latest on PASA's effort to overturn the PA state regulation banning certain specific milk labels (see this link for the full story). The executive summary is that Monsanto got to the Pennsylvania Ag department and persuaded them to ban the use of any phrase on a milk container stating rBST/rBGT was not used to produce the milk. Call me a zealot, but I view the elimination of the corporation as the sine qua non for democracy's continuance. And if you want to follow me to the barricades and face the big ag/pharma juggernaut head on, see The Future of Food. Other frustrations at the conference included the news that the dean of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences decided there was no need to replace the only one (1) retiring pasture scientist on his staff, because, in his words, "...there is nothing new to learn about pasture management." Absolutely amazing. And as long as I'm on my soapbox, we got to see King Corn at the conference. It offers more proof that our government is acting in the best interests of Monsanto, Pioneer , Archer Daniel Midlands , and other deep pocketed corporations, rather than we the people.

Beyond production and marketing workshops, book vendors, the art show, and political activism, we chatted up many of the equipment folks. I spent quite a bit of time at the BCS dealers booth. I'm convinced that's the solution for us, as opposed to small, conventional tractors and implements. I also bought a nifty stirrup hoe.