Wild and Free

Heat Wave Broken

We are behind in documenting our visits.

Today, after nearly 2 weeks solid of 100+ temperatures, a storm front delivered a little moisture and significantly cooler weather. We brought our friend Brian, a seminarian who will be a deacon in May (hooray!) to the land. The cooler weather provided a startling contrast to our other visits this summer. No one poured sweat, Q didn't cry in protest that he was too hot, and we could all hike a bit.

Six Penny Pond and the cat-tail watering hole were both dry, with deep cracks perforating the ground. With Six Penny Pond dry, it is easier to see and remove the rusting metal (no, it was Sunday, so we simply talked about it). James shot at the rats that live in the metal.

The trees we planted in the spring are, for the most part, surviving the recent drought. Most still have plenty of green on them, and while there are some dead ones, we are pleasantly surprised by our better-than-average survival rate.

As our house is still not ready to put on the market, we continue to paint and pray and plan.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potato Harvest Complete

With a grand total of 130 pounds of potatoes, we did well. We pulled 5 very small bulbs of garlic.

By offering our neighbor to the south some potatoes, we became the recipients of 6 dozen "farm fresh" eggs. Our neighbor is very generous.

Until next time, remember: this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potatoes!

As of July 4, we have harvested 97 pounds of potatoes. Yum!

Until next time, remember: this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potato Harvest...

... in the rain.

Yesterday, the family visited the land with my brother, his wife, and their two girls. Our girls slept through most of it.

Since it was raining briskly when we arrived, only I opted to exit the car and soak my clothes in order to dig potatoes. The total yesterday? 16 pounds. I'm just getting started, too, so there may be lots of potatoes in our future. Some are already trying to resprout, so it's time to harvest them.

Until next time, remember: this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.

Fruit of the Land

Today, the high is forecasted to be 100. We were due for a trip to the land, intending to harvest potatoes for the baptism this weekend, as well as to see if our labor had borne any fruit at all.

Behold, the fruit of the land! From six plants, we harvested 10-12 pounds of potatoes, both Yukon Gold and Purple Viking. The plants-sans-compost are going to have a very poor harvest, but it was a useful lesson for us to learn this year.

I must admit, digging up potatoes is very fun. I enjoy filling the bucket with produce that I have been a part of growing. Of course, it will be a few more weeks before we harvest everything, but I think we will do better than 40 pounds of potatoes grown from 40 pounds planted.

Until next time, remember: this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.

June 2

I arrived second to the land in the evening, around 7:15. Dan had arrived just moments before, but that's fine as he had the important equipment: a trailer to mow our overgrown paths. A nearby neighbor kindly loaned it (he even brought it and mowed part of the trails). Part of me thinks it would be great fun to have a tractor to drive around, but then the other part of me is reminded of the costs involved and how I want to do more with less... is a tractor in the plans? James arrived a little later with his dad and family, who had never before seen the land. I think it's overgrown state was a little more than they expected.

Then again, Dan almost hitting the van with the trailer was a little more than I was expecting.

We can one again drive to Six Penny Pond and search for the skunk. The saplings have paths around them so the grass competes just a little less.

I managed to weed one more row of potatoes, trying to lay down my weeds as neatly as my dad had on Monday, when he completed a row. The obvious distinction between use of compost and not will continue to be a lesson for me on soil quality. I tend to grow things a bit willy-nilly, attending to weeding and care of the plant more than care of the soil. Not anymore.

Until next time, remember: this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.