Flax is planted!!!
Apr. 25th, 2019 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7I got the flax in the ground. It took me far, far longer than it should have taken anyone, but I am extremely inexperienced at farming, it turns out.
I managed not to get sunburnt, though my skin is a little tender on the back of my neck and... my lower back, because my family heritage on my maternal line is that the women tend to stoop to do work by, instead of squatting or kneeling, just bending double at the waist, and I have discovered that I do this instinctively, and exclusively. (It's called the Denison Double, after my mother's mother's maiden name.)
I had to pick rocks first, out of the field-- there were some huge ones, and we didn't fancy hitting them with the hand rototiller. Then my sister ran the tiller, and I'm really glad I didn't volunteer to try to use it, because the thing kept hitting a bump and shifting itself into high gear and she'd have to run a few steps and wrestle it down to a stop while taking one hand off the handles to shift it back into Don't Run Away gear. She had to wrestle that thing the whole damn way, and it was truly a terrifying spectacle. She is a little taller than me and much, much stronger than me; I would've lost the thing and it would have just kept going all the way up the hill to the neighbor's property a mile away and probably killed dozens of people, it was just rampaging.
She tilled an area about 25x75 feet, figuring I could fill the first bit with flax and whatever was left she had some things she could direct seed into it. (She also then ran the tiller over her flower beds, to make them easier to plant, so I didn't feel bad about making her haul the tiller out.)
I then used a rake to form the beds, and then a hoe to make the furrows, and then I found one of those little plastic hand seeder thingys so I wouldn't just drop seeds everywhere, and went and dumped seeds into the furrows, and then I had to use the hoe to cover the seeds up and mush the dirt down.
There's an implement on the farm that could do the job, but Sister said it'd be too much of a pain to set up. VegMan was like, "uh we should've just set that up," but I was half-done. (A seed drill, I guess it's called-- a little walk-behind thing with a wheel and it carves a little furrow, drops the seed in, and then covers it up after itself and then the wheel rolls over to press it down, and it's just continuous, you just have to get the right plate for the size of the seeds.)
I kept thinking I was done and then I'd still have some more seed so I had to go back and extend the beds just a little farther, and then I was thinking well, I should just do them all evenly (I was doing it in rows separated by narrow aisles so I could more easily weed it when it's small), and then I finally gave up and it's kind of on an artsy angle at the end, but I did use up the very last seeds and make an even end do it.
The seed packet said it would over a 20x20' plot, but with the aisles, I figured it'd have to be more, so I sowed it really thick in the furrows, but the whole area wound up being more like 25x40'. It is directly across from the yurt, and in a site where there'll be a greenhouse next year, which is cool, but we figured this was a good use of the space and also it'll mean a second year for the site to be under weed control, since the sudan grass cover crop last year also didn't let any weeds sprout or set seed. When organic farming, you have to play a really long game with weed suppression, and the previous owners of the farm just believed their plants should fight it out with the weeds, so uhhh there's a lot of weed seeds in that field.
Then I remembered that I bought some native forest shade plants as little bare root divisions to put out near the yurt, so I figured I'd better get those in the ground. I took my car up to the compost pile and got a big tote bucket thing of compost, then came back down and dug some giant holes, discovering in the process that the area around the yurt is host to ENORMOUS ROCKS, probably dumped there from the field, but like holy shit, HUGE rocks, I easily dug a ginormous hole for one of the plants because I uncovered a behemoth and removed it.
I also pulled some garlic mustard from the area near the yurt, and discovered a native wild clematis sprouting right near the yurt doorstep. So now there's a little clump of wild ginger under the tree the yurt's tucked under, and three black cohosh plants over by the outhouse.
As I was in the midst of this, BIL showed up; his farm work was done, and he wanted to help me. So he helped me move the giant bucket-tote-thing of compost around, mostly. And as we were done, Sister showed up with three beers and the dog and said she was knocking off to walk the dog before it got cool.
She went back out after that and packed eggs, but I was so exhausted I couldn't function. Every part of me hurts. I didn't realize there were so many different muscle groups in your back.
I feel less bad, though, because everyone is tired; Sister planted out fourteen flats of flowers today, and the others planted about 500 onions out of the several thousand that have to get planted out in the next few days, and BIL got the pasture units for the chickens set up in their correct spots so that on Monday the oldest broiler chicks can go outside, so the third batch can go into the brooder when they arrive in Wednesday's mail.
I took a shower before dinner. I had sunscreened myself, and to be safe I also just left my long-sleeved shirt on, except for about twenty minutes I let myself be in the sun with bare arms. I don't react well to sun, though, so I put my shirt right back on. And so I had no noticeable hives or red marks or anything, and I'm crossing my fingers I'm over that phase of my life where I was allergic to sunlight... I had no notable reactions last year either but I'm still so leery of it. And I know sunscreen irritates my skin, so I feel sometimes like it's sort of vaguely circular, like, I put on sunscreen and then my skin gets irritated and then I get allergic. It's gross and annoying and upsetting. But hopefully, not happening anymore. I feel like very carefully moderated sun exposure is the way to go.
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day. I have plans to spend a long time making dried bouquets up in the granary attic, because it's still a while until fresh flowers, and we need some bouquets. I'm going to take a class on making paper flowers in May, I think; paper flowers would really expand my repertoire for those dried bouquets, I think, and if I start making my own paper, too, then I'll have some really funky/unique stuff to use, and could spice up those bouquets a lot.
I hurt everywhere, y'all.
But I still have to plant the madder, and the woad, before I leave on Sunday. ...
I managed not to get sunburnt, though my skin is a little tender on the back of my neck and... my lower back, because my family heritage on my maternal line is that the women tend to stoop to do work by, instead of squatting or kneeling, just bending double at the waist, and I have discovered that I do this instinctively, and exclusively. (It's called the Denison Double, after my mother's mother's maiden name.)
I had to pick rocks first, out of the field-- there were some huge ones, and we didn't fancy hitting them with the hand rototiller. Then my sister ran the tiller, and I'm really glad I didn't volunteer to try to use it, because the thing kept hitting a bump and shifting itself into high gear and she'd have to run a few steps and wrestle it down to a stop while taking one hand off the handles to shift it back into Don't Run Away gear. She had to wrestle that thing the whole damn way, and it was truly a terrifying spectacle. She is a little taller than me and much, much stronger than me; I would've lost the thing and it would have just kept going all the way up the hill to the neighbor's property a mile away and probably killed dozens of people, it was just rampaging.
She tilled an area about 25x75 feet, figuring I could fill the first bit with flax and whatever was left she had some things she could direct seed into it. (She also then ran the tiller over her flower beds, to make them easier to plant, so I didn't feel bad about making her haul the tiller out.)
I then used a rake to form the beds, and then a hoe to make the furrows, and then I found one of those little plastic hand seeder thingys so I wouldn't just drop seeds everywhere, and went and dumped seeds into the furrows, and then I had to use the hoe to cover the seeds up and mush the dirt down.
There's an implement on the farm that could do the job, but Sister said it'd be too much of a pain to set up. VegMan was like, "uh we should've just set that up," but I was half-done. (A seed drill, I guess it's called-- a little walk-behind thing with a wheel and it carves a little furrow, drops the seed in, and then covers it up after itself and then the wheel rolls over to press it down, and it's just continuous, you just have to get the right plate for the size of the seeds.)
I kept thinking I was done and then I'd still have some more seed so I had to go back and extend the beds just a little farther, and then I was thinking well, I should just do them all evenly (I was doing it in rows separated by narrow aisles so I could more easily weed it when it's small), and then I finally gave up and it's kind of on an artsy angle at the end, but I did use up the very last seeds and make an even end do it.
The seed packet said it would over a 20x20' plot, but with the aisles, I figured it'd have to be more, so I sowed it really thick in the furrows, but the whole area wound up being more like 25x40'. It is directly across from the yurt, and in a site where there'll be a greenhouse next year, which is cool, but we figured this was a good use of the space and also it'll mean a second year for the site to be under weed control, since the sudan grass cover crop last year also didn't let any weeds sprout or set seed. When organic farming, you have to play a really long game with weed suppression, and the previous owners of the farm just believed their plants should fight it out with the weeds, so uhhh there's a lot of weed seeds in that field.
Then I remembered that I bought some native forest shade plants as little bare root divisions to put out near the yurt, so I figured I'd better get those in the ground. I took my car up to the compost pile and got a big tote bucket thing of compost, then came back down and dug some giant holes, discovering in the process that the area around the yurt is host to ENORMOUS ROCKS, probably dumped there from the field, but like holy shit, HUGE rocks, I easily dug a ginormous hole for one of the plants because I uncovered a behemoth and removed it.
I also pulled some garlic mustard from the area near the yurt, and discovered a native wild clematis sprouting right near the yurt doorstep. So now there's a little clump of wild ginger under the tree the yurt's tucked under, and three black cohosh plants over by the outhouse.
As I was in the midst of this, BIL showed up; his farm work was done, and he wanted to help me. So he helped me move the giant bucket-tote-thing of compost around, mostly. And as we were done, Sister showed up with three beers and the dog and said she was knocking off to walk the dog before it got cool.
She went back out after that and packed eggs, but I was so exhausted I couldn't function. Every part of me hurts. I didn't realize there were so many different muscle groups in your back.
I feel less bad, though, because everyone is tired; Sister planted out fourteen flats of flowers today, and the others planted about 500 onions out of the several thousand that have to get planted out in the next few days, and BIL got the pasture units for the chickens set up in their correct spots so that on Monday the oldest broiler chicks can go outside, so the third batch can go into the brooder when they arrive in Wednesday's mail.
I took a shower before dinner. I had sunscreened myself, and to be safe I also just left my long-sleeved shirt on, except for about twenty minutes I let myself be in the sun with bare arms. I don't react well to sun, though, so I put my shirt right back on. And so I had no noticeable hives or red marks or anything, and I'm crossing my fingers I'm over that phase of my life where I was allergic to sunlight... I had no notable reactions last year either but I'm still so leery of it. And I know sunscreen irritates my skin, so I feel sometimes like it's sort of vaguely circular, like, I put on sunscreen and then my skin gets irritated and then I get allergic. It's gross and annoying and upsetting. But hopefully, not happening anymore. I feel like very carefully moderated sun exposure is the way to go.
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day. I have plans to spend a long time making dried bouquets up in the granary attic, because it's still a while until fresh flowers, and we need some bouquets. I'm going to take a class on making paper flowers in May, I think; paper flowers would really expand my repertoire for those dried bouquets, I think, and if I start making my own paper, too, then I'll have some really funky/unique stuff to use, and could spice up those bouquets a lot.
I hurt everywhere, y'all.
But I still have to plant the madder, and the woad, before I leave on Sunday. ...
no subject
Date: 2019-04-26 01:45 am (UTC)The rain is just about to us in PA now at 9:45pm. I spend the day killing the crap out of the yellow rocket mustard that is in my field. It's already going to flower! like what the fuck!
no subject
Date: 2019-04-26 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-29 01:26 pm (UTC)Jean said the only things that normally survive are hackles/hetchels, because they've got metal in them. The brakes, the scutchers, the scutching boards-- they're just big pieces of wood, so they tend to get burnt or repurposed or used as kids' toys (the scutching sword is like, a kid magnet, you know?) -- and so sometimes heavily decorated ones survive, but the plain ones almost never. So, I do have a hackle in my possession, borrowed from Jean, and I'm going to measure it and make plans from it-- I want to make a set, though, of coarse, medium, and fine, and maybe eventually some super-fine ones too.
I have a series of photos from my Mom to go through and pass along to Jean, and then I'm going to go visit Hull House at some point this month, and after that I'll decide if I need to buy the plans or if I can figure out how to make the equipment myself. Between my dad and BIL I definitely have access to the carpentry equipment and building expertise, so.
But definitely peel your eyeballs for good antiques, and at least get photos! :)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 11:13 am (UTC)Also next time you're in, I can bring over last years flax and we maybe can do some retting stuff. Experiments or something.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 11:18 am (UTC)i gotta, like. collate all my notes and get organized.