the 2010 growing season has begun

the word on the street is my tomato seeds have been planted. today, officially, is the start of the 2010 growing season. next stop, the official planting day - farmer fred's bday - april 28th. this year we will use some walls of water and hopefully pull in the growing season. at nearly 1900 foot elevation, i face some challenges that the flatlanders dont. i will be cutting back on the numbers this year to 24 plants - 2009 had 41 plants and it was way too much. as a reminder, here is the first string for 2010.






gregoris altai
early girl
matina
big beef
cabernet
big raspberry
champion 2
costolto fiorentino
nyagous
sioux
super fantastic
black zebra
crnkovic
black from tula
chreokee purple
sun gold
sweet gold
mr. stripey
better boy
bella rosa

i like burn piles

dont know if its the smell of the smoke, or not having to haul it away, or just knowing i am rural enough to do this - but i like it. burn piles are just cool.

half way thru the pile, we continue to add sticks and brush to keep it going. its a hot fire, so we are able to burn some green material.

the end result is a pile of coals, which i will continue to allow to burn and soon it will be very fine ash.

cleanup continues

well, with chain saw in hand, the erck boys hit the backyard over the past few weeks and 8 trips to the dump and one burn pile later, we at least have the brush gone from the yard. we still have quite a bit of logs to cut up and stack (much to the chagrin of my sons) - but hey, they have to earn thier keep - i want something back for all that food they eat - and boy do they eat.




here i am handling my binford 6000 BFC in action. handed down to me by my grandpa. this is an early 70's vintage chain saw and it lights off easy and cuts with the best of them.










photo number two is of my youngest son getting into the action with the binford.










the third photo is of the oldest son, giving direction to jed the wonder dog. looks like jed is taking direction just like the son whose giving him orders :)