Mud Puddle Farm’s Weblog

THis is no longer going to be our farm blog then I am going to change it. Foci will now include the everything that has the ability to disintegrate our way(s) of life. We have potential,. but such energy and examples are being squandered by global forces of which we have no control. Entities exist to return our gratitude to earth, but the corporate world has meddled enough in our routines, reaching beyond legality of the nation-state, that they are no longer accountable to our livelihoods. A person can no longer make a difference, yet we struggle. This blog from now on will be about struggle to exist, and coexist, which are synonymous, yet we always forget. Organic coexistence should be a struggle demanding critical thought, but we are constantly treating beneficial relationships with indignation. Profit, and market economy, and the nation-state political bodies are antediluvian.

OK, Loyal readers.

Now that we have a farm name, we are getting a logo, and we are getting a brochure for our CSA (both thanks to the talented Greg Cella! Wait til you guys see it all, it is awesome!), and thus, we need to have a better blog address. So, from now on, we will be posting to mudpuddlefarmoregon.wordpress.com

Change your bookmarks. Keep on checking on us. We are trucking right along, and can’t wait to share it all with you. And you should all look into coming out and visiting us. Fly into Medford, OR. The airport there is tiny, but way faster than Midway or O’hare, and only 30 minutes away from the house.

And check the new blog soon, because I have lots of news and lots of pictures to get up!

Nate arrived Monday, after an epic series of flights which routed him through Minnesota, then Portland, then finally arriving at Medford airport. He woke up at 3:30am Chicago time, and stuck it out until 10pm Oregon time. Rockstar.

We had a small barbecue style gathering in the evening, and invited all of our friends from out here to come see the house and eat with us. They showed up despite the fact that the low last night was 26. We even stood outside for a large portion of the time when everyone was here! Also totally rockstar.

Then Tuesday Chad, Nate, and myself got up early and drove to Jedidiah Smith Park in Northern California to wander and wonder at the redwoods. I have never seen them before, and I was a little nervous before we started because 20 extra pounds does not necessarily make hiking fun. But, in the long run, I did great, the hike was awesome, and we had a really good time. I hope one day we can edit the movie together in even a near semblance of the plot we were hashing out while walking, because you people really need to see it… Anyway, here are some pictures of along our hike. Oh, and the answer is WAY too many times.

things i miss about chicago and midwest.

1. Not depressing winters.

2. ramps the harbingers of spring.

I really don’ t care to have more depressing winters, but can i bring ramps to me? Are they farm able? I know they are still cultivated, but can they dig cultuvation, even if it is in Oregon?

http://flavorpill.com/chicago/events/2008/3/28/rampfest-2008

Here are the peas:

And these are the paths that we have put between the fruit trees:

The plan is to utilize this area while the trees are still small, and before their roots have stretched out all over the place. Next year, we will only have 2 rows, and the following year we will have one. Yesterday we planted carrots, beets, and more radishes in the first row. I want to do another round of peas, and we need to get potatoes in the ground.

Our chickens are growing like the dickens. Check out their big fancy new wing feathers:

The Rhode Island Reds are starting to get their combs above their beaks, too. It is so unbelievable that they only hatched 2 weeks ago! They still aren’t so used to us, but they stay pretty calm once we have finally caught them and are holding them.

This week is supposed to be kind of rainy, so we will be working more on moving into the little house on the property. I am trying to decide on paint and curtain colors, but I have never had this many rooms to do before! It is a little overwhelming, and I keep second guessing myself. Off to the paint store for more swatches!

Chad’s garlic that he planted last fall looks GREAT:

Now we just let it do what it does, and when the tops start to brown and die off, then we pull the bulb from the ground and dry it, and put it in storage to eat!

These are the French Breakfast Radishes that I planted in the other raised bed next to the peas.

The peas, by the way, have begun to show their heads, but we will wait to get a picture up until their leaves start to unfurl and you can see them. I was so excited by this development! Just when I was starting to feel like there wasn’t anything we were going to grow this year, up they come!

Everything is starting to bloom around here. The fruit trees are beginning to burst with flowers, and our blueberry bushes are opening up too.

Chad and I got the little asparagus transplanted into their permanent spot yesterday. They look awfully tiny, but their stems are strong and straight, so they should do OK.

Chad is feeling much better. He is obeying a very strict diet, which is hard, but we are trying to make it yummy for him. The lack of cheese and chocolate is the worst, but after a couple more weeks of being REALLY good, we’ll start phasing it back in. Send him positive thoughts to hold out and make his internal organs strong!

So for those of you who have been checking up on our web blog, there has been nothing updated. We are sorry for that.

But now we are BACK! And as you can tell from the top of this page, we have decided on a farm name! Although, we are currently debating whether or not it should be one word or two. Let’s look at it both ways:

Mud Puddle Farm

Mudpuddle Farm

I have to say, my vote remains in the 2 word camp…We will work it out…

Anyway, here are our baby chicks! This is the day I got them:

I got a dozen of them. 7 are RhodeIsland Reds, and 5 are Araucanas. The Araucanas are the kind that lay turquoise eggs. I don’t know how many of them are girls and how many are boys, so we might have to kill some of them when they get older, which is sad to think about when they are so small and cute.  We got them on Saturday, and they had been hatched on Tuesday the 11th. They grow really fast! The day after we got them I saw differences in their size and feathers and everything…It is amazing. They will be laying eggs in 5 months.

This is them Tuesday the 18th:

I am trying to do some research on how to build a chicken ark, because that is how I want to haul them around the property. That way they are protected from the coyotes, hawks, and foxes, but they still get to free range and provide us with the most awesome eggs ever!

In other news, we are struggling with the first round of Broccoli and Cauliflower that we planted. We think we have been treating them too kindly in the germination stage, so they take off right away, and then get tall and spindly. So we are experimenting with different ways to get those seeds started. The greenhouse is sealed off enough that we have moved that first round out there to see if they will recover and make vast improvements, but at this point we are starting to realize that we might lose that whole first planting… Live and Learn, like I keep saying to Chad. It would be different if we weren’t city kids who never have done any of this before. Then I would feel worse about making such basic mistakes. But as it is, I think we are doing A-OK. Especially because the first round of tomatoes we planted look fantastic!