Progress

It has been very weird these last two Sundays, not loading up the van and heading off to the Astoria Sunday Market. The feeling is a sort of mash up of the 'I think I've forgotten a meeting I'm supposed to be at' panic, and the feeling I had when I mistakenly showed up a day late for a flight to Thailand. Something just doesn't feel quite right, and I'm really supposed to be somewhere else right now.

We've had calls and e mails from customers wondering where we are, and although it's really nice to be missed, and everyone is being very kind and understanding, we would rather be at the markets. Still, it's all for a good reason.

I'm happy to report that we are at least making progress on our massive and daunting Farm To Do List. Each step takes us closer to being up and running as a real farm again, and closer to being back at all our great local farmers markets. Thanks to some recent just-long-enough breaks in the weather and tremendous help from some wonderful friends, much needed tilling, bed shaping, soil testing, painting and greenhouse rebuilding has taken place on 46 North Farm.

Here's the round up of what we've been doing in the small amount of time we have between the Real Jobs and Sleep:

Fun with Tractors!

Tilling is tricky. To avoid compaction, the soil needs to not be too wet, and this has been a very wet spring. It was a little borderline, but we knew more rain was coming, so our good friend Dan the Brushtamer brought his tractor over and did a heroic amount of tilling during the bit of sunny weather we had this past weekend. We now have two soil tests on their way to the lab which will give us a good baseline understanding of the soil we will be working with here.

Dan started on the upper part of the farm, where we are planning to grow our herbs and flowers. He'd tilled this area last fall, with the hope that I could use the newly tilled ground to quickly heal in a lot of the plants we were moving from the old farm. No such luck- before we got much moved, it began to rain and the ground got way too wet. My patience had just about worn out with waiting for it to become dry enough to safely work.

According to local soil maps, we have both Walluski Silt Loam and Hebo Clay on our property. I think the upper area has a bit of both mixed together, but it shapes up nicely into beds that will be planted with the perennial herbs that have patiently been waiting to get back into the ground, more flowers, and our long suffering dahlias that are stuck in the barn still. Plus, we can now finally move our lavender plants from Seaside- yeah!

Busting Open the Back Five


The area we call The Back Five is a relatively flat area at the bottom of the property, closer to the river. This is where we plan to grow row crops of vegetables, and build a larger greenhouse for growing tomatoes, basil and peppers. Dan had tilled a test plot back here last fall, so we had a sense that the soil was pretty nice here, solidly Walluski Silt Loam country.

I can't believe this is the soil we are starting with. It looks, feels and smells gorgeous, and has a healthy worm population, who will hopefully forgive us for tilling up their world. This soil is one of the main reasons we were so stuck on this property and struggled for so long to buy it- it can take years of amending to get soil to where this soil is today. It's like opening a bank account with cash already in it.

Dan also gave us both tractor driving lessons, at which Packy excelled, and I found...slightly terrifying. My jaunty drive was short, and added a distinctive curve to one corner of the plot. I know I'll have to get back in the saddle again and learn how to do this, but in the meantime I'll leave the tractor driving to the professionals.

We also learned that an acre of ground, when tilled, looks HUGE. Suddenly the thought of planting it all seems rather daunting. We are so going to need help. Still, we're just starting with a massive buckwheat cover crop this summer, so it won't be too scary.

Balancing On Top of the Barn

Our friend Luke has a head for heights and a good sense of balance. Or he might just be crazy. He had offered to give the barn's cupola a badly needed new coat of paint, and on reflection, we were happy to let him do that. We hope to get the whole barn repaired and painted this summer, but this job just really needed to get done as soon as it could, and we are both short on time these days. I'm kind of glad I wasn't here the day Luke did this, but Packy came home in time to catch him in action. Just to give you a sense of perspective on how high up he is:

Yep. Crazy.


Knowing When to Stand Around

'Standing Around Time' is critically important on a farm, and you have to give it proper respect and attention. Usually you are Standing Around looking at some piece of equipment that is not behaving quite like you want it to, or Standing Around waiting for something or someone to show up, and sometimes you are just plain Standing Around. But it always results in something, even if it is just a good bit of gossip.

Packy and Dan are world class, Olympic calibre Stand Arounders. Dan says a truly epic Stand Around involves opening a bottle of whiskey and tossing the cap into the brush, but we haven't tried that one yet.

This Stand Around resulted in the application of the Farm Jack, a tool of Dan's that Packy absolutely covets. It all had something to do with moving the tiller over so that the tire track was covered. Accomplishing this also involved banging on things, a car jack, some super lubricant, a bit of creative swearing, and a velcro strap (because we couldn't find the duct tape) which eventually resulted in whatever needed to happen happening. Success!

The Greenhouse Rises Again!

I cannot even tell you how excited I am that the greenhouse is finally getting rebuilt. I am beside myself with joy. I have missed it so much, and cannot wait to fill it with plants, and stand inside its steamy warm space and listen to things grow.

Squeaky the Cat was very excited to help set the corner markers in place.


The post holes were easily dug with the loan of our friend Doug's auger. Thanks Doug!


Fawn Fawn the Deer (visiting from the Wildlife Rescue Center next door) was very intrigued to observe Packy setting the posts in concrete. (More on Fawn Fawn in another post, I promise...)

Joe (of Blue Scorcher Bakery fame), Luke and Packy moved so fast, I missed the action shots of getting the spans back up. We decided to extend the greenhouse as we were rebuilding anyway, as our old greenhouse was already starting to feel a bit small in the spring when it is heaving with plants. Our original 20'x30' greenhouse is now 20'x50'... I cannot wait to fill it up!

Fawn Fawn came back to check out the construction. I think she approves. Or she might have just been waiting for some private time with Luke, whom she adores more than anyone.

Luke played it cool, trying to pretend he was focusing on the greenhouse, but we know he really just wanted to be hanging out with his girl F-F.

My Old Bones Weep with Gratitude

At the end of last weekend, after a whole lot of mowing and digging and raking and planting, I could barely walk. I was six years younger the last time we did this kind of 'building the farm infrastructure' work, and I hadn't been spending months sitting in front of a computer on top of that. To have lovely young(er) people show up and actually want to do this kind of stuff...

So, while the greenhouse rebuilding was taking place, Luke's other girlfriend Katie, and his lovely sister Renia (a professional WWOOFer just back from a stint in Spain and Serbia) got inspired to dig into the bed shaping project. They were amazing, and I was honestly close to tears with gratitude and relief. I just did not know how we were going to get it all done in time to get the plants in this year. I am so much more hopeful now. There is still so much digging to do, but there is slightly less of it now, thanks to these two fabulous people.

Packy tried to give the girls lessons in How to Stand Around. This is the classic and always popular 'Leaning on Tools' technique. They're pretty good, but they work way too hard to really qualify as serious Stand Arounders. We'll continue to give them lessons, and see if we can improve their performance.

We finished up this super productive work day with a lovely al fresco meal inside the future greenhouse, and the rain held off long enough to let us get all the tools picked up and put away.

Fingers crossed that this squall that's blown in will blow itself away again soon, so we can get the end walls built, the plastic stretched, more plants planted and rows dug and cover crop sown and the barn painted and...

It's going to be a busy year.

Relocation

"Two inches or two miles"

The idea of moving a bee hive can can seem pretty intimidating if you spend any time reading about the many, many details that you are supposed to be paying attention to. Fortunately, we've approached bee keeping much like we approached farming in general, by using the ' jump off the cliff and flap really hard until you figure out how not to crash' technique.

Packy did take the precaution of telling the bees about their impending move, and I'm pretty sure that's what made the difference.

We inherited our hive from our good friends the Quennell Family a couple of years ago, when they left Oregon to move to upstate New York, where they are thriving on Three Stone Farm. (We mostly forgive them for moving.) The hive is a top bar design that Roger built himself, and he gave us some quick, basic advice about moving the bees before driving off into the sunset, which basically was:

Move the bees when it is dark, or on a cool rainy day when they will not be out flying around, so you won't loose the foragers. Block up the hole with something that will allow air circulation, but not allow the bees to get out- straw is good. Know where you are going to put them, because once you let them out, they need to be able to find their way home again. If you move the hive even just a bit more than a foot, but keep the hive within their familiar area, they will not be able to find the hive's entrance again, and will die. If you are going to move it, either move it a tiny distance–two inches– or you have to really move it, more than two miles. That way the bees will realize that they are in a totally unfamiliar environment, and re-orient to their new location.

It doesn't sound too complicated, right? Fortunately the bees took their first move to Seaside in their stride, which means we did something right. We decided not to harvest much honey from it the first year, as the hive was a bit small, although we did open it up under the guidance of our friend Mark, and enjoyed a wee bit of the most delicious, sweet honey we had ever tasted. Is honey more flavorful when it comes from your own hive? I think it might be.

Mostly we just loved having the bees on the property. I would often find Packy down by the hive, watching the bees in fascination as they buzzed in and out of the hive entrance, covered in pollen. The bees, not Packy.

It seemed a good idea to know exactly where we wanted the hive to go on the new farm before we moved the bees again, given that we did not plan to ever move them again if we could help it. Finally we felt that we had the right spot identified, near where we hope to plant our orchard next winter. The Quennells– Roger, Youngiee, Romneya and new family member Avani– were back on the North Coast for a brief visit a little over a week ago, and that seemed like A Sign- it was Time to Move the Hive!

Packy and I drove down to Seaside at dusk, checked the hive to make sure everyone was still alive inside (I have to say, putting your ear up to the entrance of a buzzing bee hive is an amazing sensation),

stuffed the entrance full of straw,

loaded it into the truck and then drove very slowly back to Olney.

Somehow, It didn't occur to us that it would be pitch dark when we got home. We found one of our emergency lanterns and set it out in the field to mark the designated spot, and then carefully carried the hive out, squelching and stumbling a bit in the dark through the boggy pasture soaked with recent rain, to the hive's new home.

After much arguing about which way the prevailing winds came from and which direction was which, (something you would think we would have sorted out before hand as it is not a discussion to be having in the middle of the night in a boggy pasture while carrying a hive of buzzing, annoyed bees) we set the hive down, unplugged the hole, said "Welcome!" and then took ourselves off to bed.

The next day was bright and sunny, and when Packy went out to check on our gang, there were bees buzzing in and out and all around the hive- exploring the new location and some even, he was relieved to see, coming home covered with pollen.

Now we just have to take some soil tests, get the orchard area sowed with cover crop (dealing with the Canada thistle infestation we've discovered in the area first), use the ten yards of compost that just got delivered to get some beds ready so that we can get our lavender finally moved, and figure out how to afford several thousand feet of fencing.

And that's just the short Farm To Do List.

Still, the Bees are Happy, and that is good for today.

All is well.

Burning Chair, Man!

I really meant to just have a small birthday party for Packy this year- a week late, since this year his birthday fell on the day before Easter, and people were busy that weekend.

Last year we had a great little birthday party for him- a farm work party followed by a bonfire, good food and a spontaneous Effigy-in-a-Chair burning. We dubbed the day 'Burning Chair Man'.

So we thought it would be fun to have Burning Chair Man 2 this year, to celebrate Packy's birthday on our New Farm. Which I guess really makes this our First Annual BCM for 46 North Farm. I want to apologize in advance for the shocking lack of good photos here- we were both too distracted to take pictures, so you will just have to use your imagination, or maybe people will send us some and I can add them in.

It wasn't a very well planned day. We started mentioning the idea of a birthday party to some friends, sending out some emails, and mentioning it to a few more friends, having the "Burning What Man?!?" conversation a lot. The 'work party' project was going to be attacking the invasive plants on the property- especially the impressive infestation of holly around the edges. We asked everyone to bring a potluck dish; extra points if the potluck dish included ingredients from local farmers. I made homemade marshmallows and graham crackers for s'mores again. (And for all our vegetarian/vegan friends- next year I promise we'll figure out the vegan marshmallow recipe!) Naturally there were delicious baked goods from the Blue Scorcher Bakery, and our great friends at the Fort George supplied a keg of Oatmeal Pale Ale for the thirsty workers.

The food and drink begins to assemble

I was chatting with our friend Tim Kennedy (the wonderful woodworker behind our new barn roof) about needing to find an old chair to burn, and he said, "You know, why don't you let me make you one? We've got all that scrap wood left from re-roofing the barn, and I'll get a bit more. I'll take care of that."

I think our Barn Nisse is still looking out for us, and took care of the weather because after a wretched week of rain and hail, the day dawned clear, with just a light breeze. It was a glorious, sunny day. Packy thinks we should have called the place 'Lucky Weather Farm', but I think that's tempting fate.

Tim and our friend Luke rolled up early Saturday morning to build the chair. Their rules were: only scrap wood, and the only tools could be a chainsaw and a nail gun. I glanced over at the field a few times in the course of my running around doing party prep and wondered "Why are they setting up scaffolding to build the chair?!"

As they arrived, Jean-Marc, Dennis and Luke #2 all joined in the construction project, and I stood there watching as they raised the first side of The Chair up off the ground. This thing was HUGE. Over 15 feet tall huge. Closer to 20 feet tall.

Trying not to think about what is happening behind me...

I confess to a few twinges of nervousness at the thought of setting the thing on fire, but the look of sheer joy on everyone's face as they banged The Chair together was so lovely, I just tried to let go of it. "Don't Worry!" Tim and Luke cheerfully assured me. "It's far enough away from the barn that when it collapses, it won't affect it. Probably." Packy turned to me with a huge smile on his face. "This is GREAT! " he beamed. "Terrifying, but totally great!"

Somehow the day just happened. People showed up. There was enough room for everyone to park. Everyone's dogs got along, and as the cats Eddie & Squeaky were safely hiding upstairs in the house, there was no cat chasing.

The holly brush pile begins to form...

An amazing crew of people with loppers and machetes followed the sound of Doug and his chainsaw to the holly infestation battle site, and they cleared out so much holly from our woods, Doug bucking the larger trunks up into firewood for us to season for burning next year. Mark and Kristen helped James get a lot of trees planted, although I don't know if he's managed to offset the carbon footprint of those trips to New Zealand yet.

Jean-Marc is always up for a destructive project....

Teaching the next generation about invasive plant removal

Dan tries out the straw bale seats, while Bob documents the day.

Dan brought hay bales for seating, as the ground was super muddy from all the rain, and a bushel of oyster too.

In fact, every one brought great food- special thanks to the Amazing Fred Johnson of Fred's Homegrown Farm & Produce in Naselle, WA. A chef turned farmer, Fred took charge of the barbeque, grilling the lamb ribs we got from Lance's Farm Vittles that were marinated in the sauce that Dana (chef at the Fort George) made for us, making burgers out of the local beef and elk meat that Doug brought, and making To-Die-For onion rings on his portable tempura set up. (!!) Our friend Sandy jumped in to frost the birthday cupcakes that I ran out of time to do, along with bringing some of her always delicious soup to share.

I think Michelle, our friend from Friends of Family Farmers wins the most local food points for her contribution. A former chef herself, she made the most amazing salad using ingredients both from her own garden and sourced from her local farmers around Portland, and also brought these incredible local ingredient fig and some-other-fruit cookies that were phenomenal. Everyone who had one was stunned. I need to get that recipe from her. We can't wait to have her and Fred cooking together next year. It was, as someone observed, a very high quality potluck, and there was enough for everyone to go back for seconds, and even thirds.

It was SO great to see the lovely Romneya again!

An award for the greatest distance travelled to the party goes to our beloved and much missed friends Roger and Youngiee, and their two lovely daughters Romneya and Avani. Former North Coasters, they now farm just outside of Ithaca, N.Y., and were back in town to sign the sales papers on their former farm land here in Astoria- it was bought by people who are hoping to farm it, which we are thrilled about. More farmers on the North Coast- yes!

But you don't want to know about the food, or the people. You want to see The Chair Burning, right?

All the creative energy had been spent making The Chair, and we never did get a Man put together this year. I decided that really, it's all about the punctuation.

This year it was ' Burning Chair, Man!'

From first ignition to final collapse: about 30 minutes.

The crowd waits patiently for ignition

Luke and Packy head to The Chair with the Super Fun and Handy propane torch

It was SO satisfying!!

Then a hard core crew of pyromaniacs burned all the holly brush, and everyone ate lots of s'mores and cupcakes, drank more beer, explored the property, ate more food and sat around and talked until the fire turned to embers, the sun went down and it was time for bed. And there really wasn't even that much to clean up.

It was a completely awesome day. Thanks to everyone for coming out to share your time, your food and your friendship with us, especially our farm friends like Fred, Lance, and Ginger who took a rare sunny spring day away from their farms to come celebrate with us. Our farm feels very warmed, and very blessed, and Packy says it way the best birthday party ever.

Tim and Luke are already plotting about next year. I thought I heard Luke mutter something about 'pyrotechnics', but I'm sure I was mistaken....

Inspiration

It's been four days since we got back from our weekend in Corvallis, and I am still buzzing. Last Saturday we attended the OSU Small Farms Conference- 600 people all gathered in one place to talk about small family farms, farmer's markets and the challenges and joys of running a small farm in Oregon. It was great, especially the opening talk by David Mas Masumoto, author of ' Epitaph for a Peach' and 'The Wisdom of the Last Farmer', which I look forward to reading as soon as Packy is finished with our new (signed!) copy.

We had never been to the OSU Small Farms conference before, and it was such a good experience for us both that we will definitely be back. It was great to run into so many friends from the North Coast food and farming community there, and to meet up with fellow farm enthusiasts from all over the state.

One of the best things was seeing how many other first time attendees there were at the conference. Interest in farming is exploding in Oregon, especially among younger people- I've heard that our state is actually seeing an increase in the number of farms in operation, running against a declining national trend.

Even better than Saturday's experience was the gathering we attended on Sunday sponsored by Friends of Family Farmers.

The Farmer and Rancher Delegate Meeting to discuss the Agricultural Reclamation Act has to be one of the most inspiring days of my recent life, as well as one of the best run meetings I have ever attended. (And given that this was a meeting of 60 or so highly opinionated farmers and ranchers, that's really saying something.)

The best description I can give for what this was all about is in the words of FoFF themselves:

On February 28th, 2010, we will host our first Farmer Delegation in Corvallis, where a cross-section of family farmers will come together to establish a statewide platform for food and family farming in Oregon. Through this process, the Agricultural Reclamation Act for Oregon will be written. Our combined strength, represented through this document, will put family farms first, and ensure that public officials hear and understand the needs of farmers who are practicing a type of agriculture that respects the land, sustains rural communities and contributes to the states economy.

You can go and watch this short film that FoFF made about the process to learn more- if I was tech-savvy enough to embed the video I would, but I'm not, so you'll have to just follow the link.

It was a phenomenal day- great discussions and debate about some of the biggest issues facing small family farmers all over the state. There are a lot of seriously talented and smart people farming in this state, which gives me great hope for the future of small farms in Oregon. I have never felt so sure of my decision to become a farmer, and of the importance of that work to the communities we farm in as I was that day. When we were all asked to come up at the end of the meeting to sign our names to the ARA declaration, it was pretty powerful stuff. I will admit that that was not just a speck of dust in my eye- I was genuinely moved by the courage and determination of all of the people in that room to find a way to continue farming and providing healthy food for our local communities. Packy and I both came away so fired up, and determined to find a way to get our farm up and running again. We had a lively discussion throughout the long drive home to Olney shifting between the ideas and questions raised at the meeting and our plans for our farm's future.

Many thanks to all the hardworking people at FoFF, both staff and volunteers, for organizing the meeting and for pulling the whole day off so brilliantly. You are all amazing.

Thanks also go the the Astoria Co-op for helping to sponsor the event when they saw that we were attending as delegates from the North Coast. Their commitment to supporting more local food production in our community is so encouraging, and we hope to be able to supply them with great locally grown stuff in the not-too distant future. (Maybe even some edible plant starts this year, if we can get the greenhouse rebuilt in time.)

Getting ready for more seedlings... you can never have enough!

It was more than a little hard for me to come back down to earth on Monday morning, get in the car and head off to work to help make sure our mortgage gets paid. We still have a long way- and several thousand feet of elk fencing- to go before we can truly start farming seriously, but for a couple of days I got to think of myself as a farmer again, and to remember why I love doing it so much.

Which is why I know that I will find a way to make our farm rise again- I can't not do it.

As hard as the work is, I have never done anything so satisfying in my life.

Little do The Elk know that they are standing smack in the middle of our future orchard.

We need SUCH a huge fence.....