Wild Windy Monday

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Yesterday was super windy as the front of the incoming storm system moved in. It was a nice sunny day but the wind made for some extra work. On my morning walk around I saw the lilacs are starting to bloom nicely all around the farm. We have all native purple ones but there is some good variation in color intensity.

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After finishing the deck I had a couple little things to finish up. The main one was the rocks to help hold the area together. I had removed a bunch of the rocks when I built the upper deck and used some of them to fill in the little corner and to help lock the weed fabric down. I ended up nice and super solid and now the steps are quite a bit wider, and safer.

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I got a text that the plastic on the squash garden was starting to lift so I gathered the boys, planting pots, and a shovel and we headed up. Only a section had blown off so I got it back in place and then filled the pots with soil and placed them around the plastic. It was fun to do with the wind trying to take the plastic but between J and I we got it all locked down.

Nicely there are a bunch of the squash and sunflowers starting to sprout si things will be taking off fast.

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I have been given permission to harvest the giant rhubarb that is growing in Anita's main garden area. Her husband used to love it but she doesn't and wants to see it get used. You can see it stood as tall as J.

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I cut and pulled a massive amount of huge leaved stalks out and we piled them all in the trunk of the car. It was a huge load.

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After we got home with the load of rhubarb I got a little wading pool and a tarp then began cutting the leaves from the stalks. R was around and he grabbed a long stalk and it was taller than him. Incredibly huge!

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I ended up with over 40 pounds of rhubarb stalks piled in the pool. The leaves were all taken to the mulch pile and the pool taken inside out of the sun. I am going to be cutting them up today and getting them in the freezer.

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After lunch for the boys I made my way to the creek. I have had it in the back of my mind for a while now that I needed to cut a bunch of logs that were blocking the creek. One above the main tunnel under our road, one below that tunnel, and a few below our smaller tunnel.

The one above the main tunnel got a couple cuts and busted it down into a few pieces. The next rain will help push the pieces around and likely down stream. The water is still icy cold but the cutting needed to be done. The logs below the tunnel were on a corner and backed up mainly in winter, but it had caused some flooding that I wanted to alleviate.

The hardest was below the smaller tunnel. You can see the large log in the water and that was one of the main problems. Prior years the water would back up from this log and would cause erosion on the upper side of the tunnel. If the erosion were to get worse it would start to effect our road into the farm. There were a number of logs that were wedged into places just down stream of this one that got cut out and removed as well. The stream flows much better and has less chance of harming our road.

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In the afternoon I got out to the pole bean garden and dug the holes for the end poles. With the beans all starting to pop I am going to need the wires up pretty soon. At least the lowest couple but that requires the poles in.

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I found some nice little boulders as per the norm, which makes for a bit of a troublesome dig.

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I got the poles dropped in the holes and I will back fill today and get them locked in place nice and solid.

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Today the rains have been going all around us so it looks to be far drier than I was expecting so I hope to get the poles done and started on the wires.

For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.

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3 comments
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I checked my lilacs today and just 1 of them had a couple flowers open in the spire. Yours are much ahead of mine!

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We are in full tilt spring so everything is blowing up, including my allergies. This year has been better than most though thankfully.

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