Blog

The house addition is underway!  The contractors actually got the foundation done speedily, finishing up last Friday, and we started work this Thursday.  Caleb is going to take a couple of long weekends, and see how much he can get done.  So far, Thursday and Friday have seen the floor joists and decking laid, the walls framed, and half the rafters set in place.

We have exciting (though daunting for us) news here at Solace Farm - our house addition is finally underway!  There have been numerous delays, the norm for the construction business I know, but since we're only hiring the foundation dug and built (cinder-block) and then we're doing the rest ourselves, every month it got pushed back was extra-frustrating.

This past weekend was a momentous occasion on Solace Farm - at least for us humans.  We finally got around to butchering the 50 meat chickens we've been raising for the last few months.  It went really well, I was very pleased with it.  

I periodically realize I have a number of little things that have happened around here to talk about, but not anything big enough for a whole post to itself.  So, to catch up on those little developments, here's a week (or two)-in-review.

Every summer, I usually plant a few winter squash.  I really like butternut, they just seem more prolific and hardier than many others.  I get a lot of squash vine borers (grubs that drill into the stems and kill the plant) and squash bugs (beetles that eat the plants and damage fruit) and we don't use chemicals (and not many deal with these bugs anyway) so survivability is pretty important to me.  This year, I planted a variety of butternut, I think it's Burgess or something.

July is when the garden really hits its stride, I've been cutting basil for a few weeks now and picked a few squash and okra, but the tomatoes in particular are coming in strong.  

Well, so much for trying to post 1-2 times a week!  My excuse this time is that, while I've been busy as usual, it wasn't farm stuff much, so I didn't have farm blog material - or time to write it.  I've been going to the market, a board meeting, driving to Pennsylvania and back, and basically taking a breather before the garden produce starts pouring in.  Here's a quick review of the last couple of weeks...

This is the time of year that the farmers markets really take off.  I participate in 2 year-round markets that are online, and they have many items all year (soap, baked goods, eggs, some greenhouse produce, etc) but the customer numbers still fluctuate dramatically from winter to summer.  Even though my and other growers' non-produce items are available all year, the customer base is so much smaller in the off season, and it only returns when vegetables traditionally do.

We are having an excessively wet and cool July so far.  Since the last few days of June, in fact, it's been in the 70's and even 60's and raining - very much like late winter, rather than mid-summer.  We have gotten sweaters out of the attic!  I'm not sure exactly how much rainfall we've gotten, but at least 6-8" in the last 1.5 weeks.  There's been the obvious good effects of a well-watered garden and just more pleasant days of cool temps - but there's been several downsides as well.  

This past weekend was a wonderful break from the usual life on the farm - we went to a family wedding in Kentucky. Unlike most of our trips, it was only a 5 hour drive - we didn't leave at 2 am or drive the whole night, it was really quite luxurious. The wedding was beautiful, we got to see family we hadn't seen in a couple of years, and even had time on the trip home for an extra stop. We went to Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville and took the walking tour.