Rose-Hip Farm

A tree guy is coming to give us an estimate. We quit counting at 12 big trees pulled up by the roots. Fortunately we had not installed the bee hives yet or they would be pancakes and honey under most of a big old oak.

The tornado(s) hit on all four sides of the house, but not the house. Not one animal was killed, although all are jumpy and thoroughly traumatized. One week later, the chickens are back on there laying schedule. 

Jack Russel terriers are indispensible to microfarming! 

We came around the hen house and there it was. An almost five foot black snake climbing up the wall looking for a crack...

No sooner had I knocked it to the ground with a long stick, but Superdog jumped, chomped and cracked it like a whip again and again until snake was limp and dog was bloody.

A dozen chickens and three goats just stood back against the fence and watched in stunned admiration. It seems nobody but snakes love snakes. (Well, herpetologists, zoos, and exotic dancers.)

The other big shock of the week was to find myself on someone else's blog. Holly Hickman Eat Well. I think that's right. Other than looking 110 in the photo she did a very nice piece on Rose-Hip Farm. It's a beautiful web site, worth a long visit when spring planting is over.

It came a hard rain last night... days of planting peppers, tomatoes and basil followed by rain!

THAT'S a good week. Something to remember as I spend the morning crawling around in mud pulling radishes!

 

Two good gardening days in a row! Not too hot, not too cold. Not too wet, not too dry. An Oklahoma Goldilocks week. No doubt a literal storm is around the figurative corner. Can't get too smug during tornado season.

Today was especially sunny & downright lemony. A row of Lemon Grass and then Lemon Cucumber seedlings were planted in the "monstervine" trellis, where the Sun Gold tomatoes did so well last year.  Best of all, I bent over aproximately 300, x 2 =, 600 times... planting basil. I hope pesto has not suddenly gone out of fashion a'la 70's fondue. 

I have a lunch bag full of Zinnia seeds from last year, enough to fill every unclaimed corner.  

Less than a week ago I was worried about how dry this spring has been. Now we're coming up on our second weekend of drenching. Today is only Wednesday & if I play hooky from market, I can get the rest of the basil transplanted, maybe even some cucumbers. There is no time to lose. 100 Strawberry plants will be here any day and they will have to go in immediately. Yesterday, I got all the Roma's done, but not staked yet.

Ah, April.  At last my favorite jeans fit again... after quitting cigarettes exactly a year ago. And quitting cookies, well cutting down, about 6 months back.

Once upon a time, I couldn't have guessed rain would become so exciting. But oh yes it is. All week the planting has been plodding along, looking forward to the promised rain today. Such a wet winter followed by such a dry spring. 

No sooner had the last scheduled CSA member gone and the last Sun Gold tomato seedling been transplanted... the clouds opened!  And the goats hollered... they had been clearing honeysuckle around the chicken house & couldn't get into their own house. The neighbors down the hill must have thought there was a slaughter going on. 

Knee high rubber boots are almost my favorite fashion accessory this spring. At last.  

 

Hunkering down before dawn, we listened to small hail bouncing off the greenhouse. At first light my first foray into the mud was a relief. So far, so good on storm damage. Not that I would notice one more broken tree branch. 

Once I've feed & watered the rabbits, I might have the nerve to look at the lettuce garden. It's tucked into a sheltered spot. Overhanging oak branches, fenced to filter wind. But, this is Oklahoma... the weather is only getting started.  

Tomorrow is the first Norman Farmer's Market of the year. This early, it's mostly bedding plants. All day today, decision after decision... you go, you stay. I get too attached to plants. 

Some things just don't like to be transplanted & have to be seeded right where they're going to grow, fruit & die. 

I direct seeded two of them today. Arugula & dill. Every year I say why didn't I plant more dill? This year I'm going to say why did I plant so much? What a nice complaint. 

  

 

Nine apricot, two nectarine, a peach, two pears, five stanley plums, a 30 ft pecan & a 6 ft cherry. About half are in bloom and the rest look like they will. 

I walked through the young fruit trees amazed at the blossoms that have made it to the edge of April. Could this be that rare year without a late spring frost?  

It must really be Spring. I woke up at 4 a.m. wondering why it isn't light yet. That's what greenhouses are for. It's never too early to go water.

The new billy, Vortex arrived from Good Measure Farm. He's a handsome devil. Big, relatively speaking, black, bearded & blue eyed. Our deaf as a post geriatric shepard mix dog immediately tried to make friends, and just as immediately got knocked on his butt. Pun intended. Now Linus is trying to bore him to death by monotonously barking at him. A good day to turn the radio loud. 

A couple of CSA members are coming over to clear up my egg backlog & give me a chance to put faces to names. The whole CSA thing has made the garden a lot more exciting. As if anyone needs more than the weather for excitement in Oklahoma!

We got another lettuce patch fenced off & seeded yesterday. Just in time for the rain predicted for this afternoon. This morning is a frantic pass at housework. We're having visitors for lunch.

Vortex. Our new Nigerian Dwarf buck is arriving today. He's a beauty, one of quadruplets! I've been reading up on dairy goats & cheese making. With a little help from Vortex...and Evie and Zelda... we might get enough milk next spring to do some serious experimenting. 

Yesterday was one of those warm, WIND FREE spring days so rare in Oklahoma. All the chickens gathered round & encouraged me as I dug into the most dreaded spring cleaning event. The chicken house. I put a compost bin close by and with an assortment of hoes, rakes and shovels (including a snow shovel) winter's litter was transferred from point A to point B. Scoop by scoop. Patience and National Public Radio are all it takes. A cheering section helps too. And repeating the mantra "That's not waste. That's next year's tomato food!" 

I want to make a habit of the blogging.

We're only a couple of days into spring and thanks to the weekend's snow storm, I'm feeling ahead of, not behind, the curve. Radishes, arugula, raab seeds had been planted, but not sprouted before the snow slammed us.

Once upon a time, snow was called "poor man's fertilizer" because it brought nitrogen. Glad it's gone all the same.

Two starter batches of bees are on the way. Early May I'll find out if bee stings are really good for arthritis.

Thankyou to the new Rose-Hip Farm CSA members! 

  

I finally made the leap into offering CSA shares. After accumulating all the necessary gear, books, etc. for beekeeping, all we lacked were the bees. After locating "starter bees" in our region the cost caused a pause. Bees or seeds? No doubt everyone's heard about the strains of the honeybee world. The price to enter beekeeping is accordingly steep. BUT bees can double the gardens output! And of course there's the honey. The real clincher is new research I stumbled upon that the presence of honeybees can drastically reduce caterpillar damage. The caterpillar can't tell the difference between a predatory wasp and a bee and will hide which means it stops eating. That bit of news did it. Our first CSA member can rest assured they have created a new beekeeper single handedly. That first check is headed just south of us to a family apiary in Texas.