Tiled Bikeway

They finally finished the tiled bike path between Annie's Glen and Bidwell Park. The tilework looks wonderful. And while I was checking it out, I saw at least 20 bicyclists go through, so it certainly is useful. This is the approach from the Annie's Glen side.

Close up of the Welcome sign.

This is Rick's piece, modeled on leaves from our oak.

Here's Titus's snail. I never did find Catherine's mole-pher, and couldn't remember anyone else's piece. Find yours and show me!

I went all the way through without seeing mine, and thought maybe it broke or just didn't get used. Then I finally found it, way on the outside. 

It's on the wall leading from Bidwell Park to Annie's Glen. 

Here's the Annie's Glen Welcome sign..

Ok, so what does this have to do with the farm? Well, it was an Amberglen project so it counts... But meanwhile, back at the farm... the guys are standing around drinking beer. What a surprise!

Maybe they were resting from their efforts, because Rick C. researched the spotting we were seeing on the potato leaves, and said it was possibly a nasty blight. We went to work and dug up all the potatoes, and disposed of the leaves. We did get a nice crop of baby new potatoes. Unfortunately, we also threw away a lot of potential potatoes, but better to sacrifice some harvest than get a blight that will also affect our tomatoes and peppers.

Cindy has been having so much fun with the Gnome Home. She made a lovely wreath.

And this wonderful broom

She looks pretty mischievous!

I couldn't remember if I posted pix of the teapot/kettle combination, but here's one just to be sure. Aren't they too cute?

Raining Peas

Well not exactly, but... on Thursday it was raining and we had peas. It wasn't raining when we first went to the farm, although Buddy and Rick eye the sky apprehensively. Notice that we're still wearing coats and hats in late May.

We had ample reason to be wary. We sat out the worst of the rain in the playhouse.

Bleah! Where are our warm summer days?

It almost looks like peas are growing from the tomato plant. We've planted them pretty close together, counting on the peas to finish before the tomatoes get big.

Rick checks the growth. These Black Cherries are quite tall and vigorous, despite the cool weather.

And every plant is setting fruit.

The peas are just lovely. This is the inside of a fully formed Paso. The peas are tiny, but utterly delicious.

We've been shelling and eating them daily.

Fence Done

We're so happy to finally have the fence done. It looks wonderful.

The gate is totally custom, and includes a sliding door "peephole" so I can look out and make sure I'm not opening the gate right into a pedestrian or bicyclist.

While we were working, I noticed this iris blooming in the front yard. Since were were moving demo materials to the truck right over it, I went ahead and picked it.

Back at the farm, here's the "wall o peas" in row 8. When these peas set up, we'll have tons more. I expect we even may have to freeze some, although so far we've been able to eat them as fast as they come. You can just see the Big Jim peppers in the foreground of this picture.

Of the three kinds of peas we planted, I liked the Maestro for big peas and the Pasos (shown here) for petite peas. The Burpeanna Early were disappointing. They were actually later than the Maestro, which ripened first even though the Earlys were planted 2 weeks earlier. Also, the Earlys didn't have as good flavor, and tended to go starchy fast. We won't plant those next year.

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What We're Eating

We're frantically eating up the lettuce. Rick and I have been having big salads every day, but I still ended up feeding some to the chickens. And when we're not eating lettuce, we're eating peas! Lots and lots of peas. We eat a lot just right out of the garden. They make an excellent snack with beer. But while we were tied up on the homefront with the fence project, Rick and Catherine were very kind and brought us some shelled peas. I promised to make pot pies for them, but then couldn't figure out how to make them "farm grade." I wanted something that could be brought to the farm and eaten easily. So I made pot pie pinwheels.

These are just puff pastry, spread with rondele cheese, sprinkled with raw shelled peas, a little sliced turkey, and grated cheeses, then rolled up and baked. They were gobbled right up.

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On "farm TV" the chickens play their favorite game: "I'm the tallest chicken!" Our chickens are such fun, and so useful in the garden ecosystem. However, I don't think they can ever be totally free range. I let one get out accidentally, and I wasn't all that worried, thinking that she would go back in the pen eventually. She had found a nice hiding place under the pen, nestled in the straw. But Rick and I decided to go ahead and catch her. We did, and right after that, we heard/felt a huge swoop of wings. It seems our hawk had seen her, and was making a bombing run at her last known location. If Rick and I hadn't caught her right then, she'd have been hawk dinner! So... they will have to "free" range in their tractor.

Despite the cold, the tomatoes are setting fruit. This is a bad spring for tomatoes, but I'm hoping we get some warm weather soon.

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Weather Note

It's still unseasonably cold. Daytime highs have only been 65, and it's still getting in the high 40s at night. The ground has warmed up some, however. It's raining all this week. I'm just glad we got the fence done with little rain interruption.

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The lettuce I recently transplanted it doing really well. In a normal year, it would already be too hot for lettuce, but this year it's thriving. We cut a couple low hanging branches on the sycamore so row 2 gets a little more light, which will help the peppers you can see here planted among the lettuce.

This pepper is blooming! This is a Quadrato d'Asti Giallo (nicknamed "Quads"). It's a large, square yellow bell pepper, and one the GRUB folks said did well here. This is just a little farther up row 2 from the lettuce seen above.

Last Sunday, Rene and Cindy came over to the farm, and Cindy decorated the Fairy House. She's also making a lovely sign for it. Notice the tiny borage flower in the window, the garland over the door, and the box of harvest out front.

And yesterday, I was reading the ER, and there was a new ad for a 3-wheel bike. I rushed right over and bought it. I had just gotten it cleaned up and the tires pumped up when it started to rain, so I haven't really gotten to ride it yet. However, it carries the beer and my basket just fine. I had to switch to the slightly smaller of my two baskets. We'll put an electric motor on it, and then I'll be cruising!

Bum Trap

We've had some problems with bums sleeping on our side yard, so while we were working on the fence, we came up with a great plan! We're sure our "bum trap" will work just fine!

On Sunday Bill came over to help on the fence.

I always manage to catch him with a drink in hand, although this time it was water.

By now we're almost done, and we sincerely appreciate all the help we've gotten.

Row Plan Summer 2010

I found the old system of making row maps to be too troublesome, so I devised a new method. I've made this map to show the numbering of each row sector. Then I can just list what's where, instead of trying to type into tiny boxes. 

1-1: Paso Peas (2-18), Bidwell Melon (t 5-12). Melons reseeded June 8.
1-2: Paso Peas (2-18)
1-3: Paso Peas (2-18)
Boston marrow added near apple tree June 8.


2-1: Borage, Onion (last fall), 4 Ancho Peppers (s 2-17, t 5-12)
2-2: Onion (last fall), 5 Ancho Peppers (s 2-17, t 5-12)
2-3: Onion (last fall), 6 Anaheim Pepper (AV t 5-12)
2-4: Onions (from seed) and Parsley
2-5: 2 Yolo Wonder (AV t 5-10), Rouge Gren/Blushed Butter lettuce (t 5-10 from small starts from coldframe)
2-6: 6 Quadrato D'Asti Giallo yellow bell (s 2-17, t 5-10). Fruit set by early June.

3-1: Potatoes (Red, from C Bar D Feed, 3-15). Pulled late May.
3-2: Peas Maestro (2-18).
3-3: Peas Maestro (2-18), Rose
3-4: Rose, Parsley, Lemon Balm, Gray Zucchini (s 4-20, t 5-12)

3-5: Ronde de Nice Zucchini (s 4-20, t 5-12)

3-6: Costata de Romanesco Zucchini (s 4-20, t 5-19)

4-1: Potatoes (Red, from C Bar D Feed, 3-15). Pulled late May.

4-2: 1 Better Boy (AV, t 5-10), 1 Tangerine (s 2-17, t 5-10), 1 San Marzano (AV, t 5-11)

4-3: 2 Tangerine (s 2-17, t 5-10), 2 San Marzano (AV, t 5-11)

4-4: 2 Early Girl (AV, t 5-10)

4-5: 1 Lemon Boy (AV, t 5-10), Lettuce, Radicchio

4-6: 3 Tangerine (s 2-17, t 5-10)

5-1: 2 Black Cherry (s 2-17, t 5-4)

5-2: 6 Principe Borghese (s 2-17, t 5-4)

5-3: 2 Bucks County (s 2-17, t 5-4)

5-4: 6 Tangerine (s 2-17, t 5-10), Onions

5-5: 1 Better Boy (AV, t 5-10), Onions

5-6: Radicchio

6-1: 2 Chili de Arbol, 2 Red Peter, 2 Serrano, 2 Pasillo (all s 2-17, t 5-11)

6-2: Garlic

6-3: Garlic

6-4: Garlic, Biker Billy (s 2-9, t 5-10)

6-5: 13 Biker Billy (s 2-9, t 5-10)

7-1: 4 Red Thai (s 2-17, t 5-11)

7-2: Snow Peas (1-16)

7-3: Snow Peas (1-16)

7-4: Snow Peas (1-16), Chile de Arbol, Tabasco (s 2-17, t 5-22)

8-1: 2 Cayenna Peppers (s 2-17, t 5-11), Paso Peas, 3 Biker Billy (s 2-9, t 5-10)

8-2: Paso Peas, 4 Big Jim Peppers (s 2-17, t 5-11)

8-3: Paso Peas, 4 Big Jim Peppers (s 2-17, t 5-11)

Key:

AV= Al Vogel start

s = seeded on

t = transplanted on

Fencing

En garde! No, not that kind of fencing. We finally got around to rebuilding the fence around our house. This is the fence that actually fell down this winter. I told Rick that propping it up with poles was ok for a little while, but after a few months, it was a little too "hillbilly" for our neighborhood. We hired Reny to help with the construction. We just picked up the broken sections of fence and moved them back a foot or so. We can't be without a fence, even while we're building it.

We started on Thursday. Rick managed to get off at noon. Rene digs some post holes.

Titus starts the first of the demolition.

Rick, Rene, and Titus mix cement for the post holes.

Shoveling cement is such fun.

Finally the first set of poles are in, and we sit down to have some beer and homemade rolls with avocado and homegrown lettuce. Of course, we cleverly took all our chairs to the farm, so we're sitting on makeshift furniture.

My lettuce patch is packed, and starting to bolt. 

On Friday, we get stringers up. Again, Rick was able to take a half day off.

The guys start to nail boards up. I schlepped pickets for a while.

This section looks pretty nice! Notice that the old fence is still there on the inside.

On Saturday, we start serious demolition of the old fence. I had taken some apart on Friday, carefully removing nails and loading the boards onto Rene's trailer. Here Rick helps with the demo. I'd told him: "Hey Rick, I can get us some free wood for the farm...." See! There is always a farm angle. The old fence wood will be useful for various farm projects, including fixing that fence.

Titus has been battling allergies, so after helping on Thursday, he took a day off on Friday, but rejoined us on Saturday. We'd gotten up early, started some post holes, then went to brunch at Sierra Nevada. I mean, you gotta treat your workers right! We managed to get all the post holes in.

Even the tricky ones under the fatsia.

This is a view you don't often see--straight from the back door to the street.

Saturday night we took the boards to the farm, and stacked them alongside the garage. Then, we ate cherries and peas.