Angel's Farm Reflection 13

Angel Arias                Silk Tree Farm Reflection                  4/2/13

Today we did a lot of planting, which is happening pretty frequently since it is pretty much the beginning of the season and pretty much all the plants should be going into the ground right about now. In the morning, I’d noticed that the sprouts from Tuesday had grown more. I’d also been sent out with the task of gathering eggs from the chickens that morning, a task that seemed pretty simple and intrinsic. But I suppose the chickens used their psychic mind-prognosis abilities to predict my walking patterns and knew that I would be coming to collect their bounty, because a bunch of them were just lying around in their egg box, refusing to move and denying me ability to collect their eggs. I tried to get some of them out of the way but it wasn’t very effective; so I grabbed what I could and told Cathy what was going on and that was that. We’d later be feeding the sprouts to the chickens, but first we planted some more seeds into the ground; which consisted of digging trenches like last time, filling them in, and slashing at detrimental roots. Garlic, and some other plants, they may have been chive. In any matter, I grabbed some compost from the greenhouse, filled in the trench and then started planting some garlic into the ground. I suppose something I didn’t know before was that when garlic grows, it grows upwards out of the upper part of the onion in things I started calling by the moniker; “onion strings”. They’re strings that stretch out of the onion, and I didn’t really notice that until morning when we were in the kitchen eating, and I noticed some attached to an upper part of an onion. I inquired about it, and then I asked if it was possible to eat. “I don’t know,” was the answer I got, and that was pretty much good enough for me, besides it was only an onion piece. Picked a piece and ate it; pretty strong garlic flavor, but really good, probably for a soup or something rather than a garnish. But anyway; back to the farming. I’m sure that garlic also has quite the root system, but I just found it pretty interesting that garlic had those grassy shoots that went up instead of the fanned-out leaves a lot of other plants have. After planting the garlic (Which, some of it was rotted/rotting, so we’re being hopeful) I helped plant the chives as well. We also checked up on the goats during it, but after we were done planting we gave the rest of the plants, the ones that hadn’t been watered yet, quite a drink, especially the ones we’d just planted. It’s fun to see plants you work on to cultivate sprouting up and growing; procreating the bounty that has grown to fruition through your efforts. From this point, we weren’t very sure what to do, and we observed some of the plants for a while before concluding that we would try to go to the front yard and clean it up a bit; get rid of some of the more useless plants so Cathy could later till it up and convert it into a garden. I dug out some front yard plant, but efforts to successful separate and pot it were a bit less than successful, so we then resolved to go figure out what to do again. After a bit more discussion, we again decided that we would do work on the blog and upload photos, then head outside and start planting. Or take pictures of the plants we’d planted to show the progress that they had made and the work that we had done so far, as well as the work had done more recently. It took a little while to get every post up because the pictures (From the days that we took pictures, anyway) were kind of all over the place, plus it was at this point that we ate. Eventually though we got all of them up, and by that time there wasn't much time in the day left. So we went outside and took pictures of plants all over the place, it was cool because a lot of them were really starting to come up. I can’t wait to see them when they’re full-grown though, it’ll be very rewarding and awesome-looking, the last phase of the process. Plus, we can eat some of it, and it’ll also be fun to see kind of what works well and what doesn't  and connect whatever circumstances and valuables…it’ll be really interesting to see things develop and how they turn out. This will be something I really look forward to in the future. After we returned back inside, my ride arrived signaling the end of my day at Silk Tree Farm.

Angel's Farm Reflection 12

Angel Arias                         Silk Tree Farm                            3/30/13

Today was a really fun day that had been packed with things to do, things that had to be polished that had not been completely done, and entirely new things all together. In the morning before we went out, I looked over to the table and to my surprise I noticed…sprouts. But not really sprouts that were too similar in comparison to the other sprouts we did, these ones were doing quite well and had also been going for a bit, from the last Thursday prior, if I remember correctly. These ones had been soaked in peroxide, for sterilization, and I remember that because last Thursday (When they were soaking) I asked about what they were in and why it was bubbling a bit. The peroxide was cleaning their hulls and during that process, the peroxide mixture bubbled a bit while cleaning impurities off them; and, it was more morally comforting than soaking them in bleach. Cathy also said that she was going to let them go until at least Thursday, to see how they do given the time constraint to that extent. When we went outside, we started doing some more work on the rooty land nearer the back of the farm. I didn’t really know what we were going to do at first; we both started off with rakes to scrape up the roots and a machete to cut them. But then, as I started to chop down a bunch of roots I discovered that I had an affinity for slashing at roots with the machete. So I continued to do that for a while, and let me just say, hacking at roots, particularly the bigger, thicker roots that are typically connected to trees can be very draining work. But the feeling of accomplishment you get when you swing really hard and it just splits underneath the pressure of your swing is awesome. After doing a bit or raking, and doing a bunch of hacking, Tom returned and started digging up some trenches where we going to plant some of the plants we already had going in the seed starters. I think some of it may have been red lettuce, and the rest were all variations of lettuce. Not all of it went into the ground though; Cathy told me that she was going to be selling some of the seed starter racks as packed, priced accordingly for people to grow on their own. We dug the trenches, and during that I had to run and grab some compost from the greenhouse to add to the trenches. First I had to wait for Tom to grab out some of the wild tomatoes that been growing in the compost itself, which went into buckets of moist soil. After that I grabbed a bunch of compost and started delivering it liberally into the trenches that hadn’t been filled in yet, trying to get in enough so that I could spread it around in the trench for the plants to have access to. I believe it was about right after this that Tom started yanking at a tree stump that was in the ground. Then he said that it was a tractor job, and I went to get the tractor. He moored a loop of rope to the end of the tractor over a bulb, and underneath the stump. After a bit of learning what to do, and some reversing and accelerating, the stump yanked out of the ground, done and gone for. After taking a bit of a break, we headed back outside and started working on the chicken coops. I was forking and then raking the remains of what was unfinished in the smaller coop, while Cathy got to work on the larger one. While I was walking on the smaller one, being right next to a tree there were some roots that were getting in the way of my digging and raking. I was only able to tolerate it for so long before I grabbed the machete again and started eliminating some of the ones that were more in the way. After I was eventually completed with this task, I started walking over to Cathy, pitchfork in hand ready to do some work when I heard some familiar noises from the front of the house. My ride was there to pick me up; I had completely lost all sense of time. That was the end of my day at Silk Tree Farm.

Angel's Farm Reflection 11

Angel Arias                  Silk Tree Farm Reflection                     3/25/13

Today was actually much better than some other, more dreary days. I’m hoping that this kind of weather keeps up so that we can be doing as much outdoor things as possible. Morning consisted of CDT shots for the goats, preventive inoculation so that the goats were immune to sickness and in addition to what it did, it also protected them from an overeating disorder that goats can develop. It was mostly the kids that were getting the shot, and for the most part they weren’t really a fan of being separated and given shots. Some were a bit less feisty and difficult than others, especially so for the adults. The shots were to be administered to a certain part of the goat, closer to the backside, and after they were given the spot was have to be rubbed earnestly for a bit of time to prevent infection. They took their shots gracefully while locked in the milking stand, distracted while gnawing away at some goat feed. I was more observant than participating, Tom was holding the baby goats and Cathy was distributing the shots. After this, we had some more peas to plant; the old ones had somehow rotted into the ground and not planted properly. The begetter of this issue wasn’t really known, maybe it had to do with the age of the seeds, perhaps something else had messed the seeds while they were in the ground. Regardless, we also planted the pea seeds and went to the Greenhouse. In the Greenhouse, we took a look at the progress that the plants we’d previously planted. Then we gathered a bunch of compost for the potatoes that we would also be planting that day, but not before digging the ditches that the potatoes would go in. Potatoes need ditches because their roots grow up when they develop as a plant and procreate new potatoes. After planting in the potatoes and layering them with ample compost, we moved on to something else. We started planting carrots in the same area, along the fenceline that separated the land from the other plants.

Angel's Farm Reflection 10

Angel Arias                  Silk Tree Farm Reflection                    4/23/13

Today, lamentably, was a somber rainy day, for the most part anyway. So it probably would have not been too much fun to be outside all day. Therefore, it took us a while to figure out what we were going to do, and Tom told me about the plywood that he had bought at the Re-Store down at Habitat For Humanity down the road. Apparently, plywood is usually pretty expensive, but since it is the Re-Store and they probably didn’t need it anyway, it was selling for five dollars a piece, and the boards themselves were 4x8 each. Being so huge, they were supported by nails, bolts and 2x4s, a whole lot of supply for a modest price. Take it all apart and you have a whole bunch of work to do, as well as a whole bunch of supplies. Now this all seemed pretty cool and handy, but Tom also told me that he had bought forty of them.
So let me break it down:
Forty 4x8 plywood boards
Two people
A truck, a trailer
A short distance
And we ended up decided on five boards every trip

So altogether, eight trips loading and if you count the unloading, eight unloading sessions as well.
40/5= 8

Now don’t get me wrong it wasn’t really too arduous, really, but what I was trying to convey was the amount of time it took to unload all of it. Even considering that we gradually became better at the whole loading/unloading process in and of itself, driving there and back, loading and unloading all in all was a pretty gangly process.

Additionally, we stopped halfway through and had lunch. So it wasn’t really a straight-shot job.

But at the end of the day (and I mean that quite literally) we were finished moving and unloading all of the plywood. Actually, we were pulling in the driveway with the last load when it was time for me to leave. But before I touch on that, let me say another thing; the intended use for all this neat plywood. It was intended to be used to create some sort of storage shed, perhaps for hay or for tools, or both, but something more or less along those lines. The only thing I can think of that would make that a pain would be lugging the hay down the goat pen, but then again, I actually don’t know where the construction of the shed would even be. Maybe next time, we’ll be working on that, figuring out where that shed would be or maybe we’d just be building it, which could be fun.
When considering that the day was kind of sullen weather-wise, I’d say that we got what we needed to get done finished – and it wasn’t so bad. I’m just hoping that on Thursday, the weather is better and we’ll get to be outside so we can get a lot of outdoor work done.

As a last note, I got to see the baby chicks that had been moved into the space where the other laying hens were, and I also got to see the plants that we had planted before Spring break, which were starting to sprout and come up. I think that was a really cool experience for me, because I think I got to see the work we did start to pay off, and that is one of the greatest moments when you’re farming. Getting to see your hard work come to a rewarding culmination…but I’ll have to wait longer a bit for that full experience.

Angel's Farm Reflection 9

Angel Arias                   Silk Tree Farm Reflection                   4/11/13

Today was one of those sullen April days, where it’d rained earlier, but luckily it did not rain for the rest of the day. We started with watering the greenhouse plans, since they were not subject to the natural waters of the sky. We also did a bunch of work on a computer, research and updating things; that day I had brought in the flax seeds that I had started. Interestingly, the flax seeds were doing impressively well, even though I had started them on Sunday. The germination rate was stellar, and the plant progress itself was pretty good as well, considering its factors. But even so, a lot of the fodder system things that we had been reading were telling us that our fodder would be done in 24-48 – max 72 hours, and this was clearly not the case with any of the seeds we had been sprouting, which concerned us. We wanted to know why this was happening, and something that we had wanted to try was soaking the seeds in vinegar, instead of water, to cleanse the seed hulls and help the germination rate. Well, at any rate, if we use many different methods to sprout seeds, inevitably, one will end up working. The flax seed sprouting method that I had used asked for a sheet of paper towel underneath the seeds, and for them to be misted (Sprayed with a bottle) instead of conventionally watered. The issue with that, though, was that the flax seed root grew through the paper towel, and thus were a pain to separate. We’d decided that we might split it up; continue watering about half of the seeds, and feed the other half to the chickens to see how they might like them. We also had to start cleaning out the chicken coop, which we got to after we were done inside. This consisted of a pitchfork, a shovel, a tractor, and a barrow to shovel it all into. The pitchfork was used to break it all up, shovel to get it in there, and when the barrow got full; the tractor to transport it over near the compost pile. So we did that for a while, alternating between breaking up and piling, and while it wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst, after a bit we were done with the first half of the chicken pen. It was similar to the goat pen in that all of the manure had been compressed and packed down into sheets; so it was large, broad, and heavy, if you were too fast to pull it up. Then, we worked on the second half of the chicken coop, freeing it up, shoveling it away, finding things that had been buried under the soot and manure, and when the load was too large, we drove it over to the pile and unloaded it. We did for a bit too; about half of that half, but collectively we’d already passed a lot of time in the day, and it was just about time to start looking out for when the buss would come and I’d have to head out for the day. So we headed inside, and Tom arrived back from the errands he’d been running, then we waited for a little bit until my bus arrived, and I headed off.

Angel's Farm Reflection 8

Angel Arias                      Silk Tree Farm Reflection                    4/9/12

Today there was a lot to do, Cathy had reorganized the list that they had on an easel board in the kitchen so that it was actually organized and more manageable, and put it into columns so we knew what we had to do. That day we were to move the chickens, plant some more things into the earth, start going over some more things with the sprouting system, and some things too, like making sure that the second chicken coop was fully built and ready before we moved the chickens, soak the mushroom logs, and maybe one or two things that I am neglecting to mention for lack of remembering. First thing that we did was something that wasn’t really official or on the list, but Cocoa had kidded in my absence, on Thursday, after I left. Yeah, that was pretty interesting, especially since it had been only hours after I’d left, but anyway, we went over to see them, I believe they were mostly does, three that were beige and white and one that was black and white, like the goat that Puppet had kidded. Smaller in comparison to the other does and bucks, but maybe it was the small age gap, or maybe they were smaller since there were so many of them that were delivered at once. Of course, after gawking at small goats for a little bit, it was time to really get to work. But before this, some guests came to visit the farm and Cathy had then been busy for a bit, so I split some logs with Tom, then me and Tom put some of the mushroom logs into a trash bin to soak, and worked on the chicken coop until Cathy was done speaking with her guests. After which me and Cathy planted a plethora of seeds straight into the earth, right next to the goat pen, a few rows of various vegetables and then we covered it with some white fabric from a large, thick bolt. I believe it was so that other animals couldn’t get to it as easily, and since they hadn’t taken off yet it wouldn’t mess up their growth, nor their germination rates. Next, I believe we ate, and we also at some point near here talked about what I’d like to refer to as the Angry Chicken (Yes, it is significant enough to warrant capitalization), a chicken who had become very upset, left the coop through sheer will and shrewdness, and then took residence inside a small little holding structure. I guess chickens can be quite stubborn, but at least the chicken was in a fortified position, instead of wandering around. The next part of the day was a bit crazy, and if were to tell you that I wasn’t chasing some escapee chickens around for a bit, I’d be a liar, and I’d also be downplaying the situation. So basically, when we moved the chickens (Which was what we were doing) we had some boards and auxiliary-route blocking obstacles so that the chickens had a minimal chance of escaping. Welp, some of them decided that they wanted to escape anyway, so I tried to capture them; but only after making sure that my area of the funnel-fencing was secure, and then tried to capture the more skittish chickens, successfully detaining about two or three, two or three more escaping in the process. As you can see, it was an interesting time. Since the chickens weren’t really as used to us as the other chickens, they were a little less happy about being grabbed, and you can probably see how that could be a potential issue if say, one of them were to escape. But by moving them into the new pen, not only do they have more room, we also have more room so we can interact with them and make them more accustomed to out presence. This was the culmination, and also the end, of my day at Silk Tree Farm, and it was bunch of fun. This summarizes my day there.

Angel's Farm Reflection 7

Angel Arias                     Silk Tree Farm Reflection                   4/4/13

To start, I’m going to state that again, a lot happened today, a whole bunch. I brought had brought in some sproutlings that I’d started a while back (But weren’t doing too well) that were barley seeds, so I set them down for a bit, not sure what to do with them yet. After I first arrived, they were trying to get some things figured out, and the first thing that we ended up doing on the farm was prepping for peas to be planted. Which was more than just planting some peas in the ground, actually, a bunch more than that, we had to take fencing and metal drivers, then line them up with each other, drive the metal poles into the ground and tie them to the fencing and then, we could start preparing the ground to actually be planted. But it would wait for just a bit, in-between that we did some other things too, because it was a long process. I captured the conspiring rebel chicken (A chicken who had escaped his pen to our dismay; he had to be re-assimilated), split some wood, and chipped away chunks from a concrete pillar in the ground with a power tool. The wood splitting happened pretty much because I had really wanted to try my hand at it, and after a little while it really isn’t too bad, just a bit difficult to pick up. You have to look for stress marks and try and hit them; bringing the axe down with precision but also, force; as to not miss or hit it too weakly, but the axe I was using was fairly heavy (Evidently not to the point where I couldn’t use it) so the amount of force I was using was amplified by the weight of the axe. You get a real sense of accomplishment from cracking down a log in just the right spot that you don’t really get too often; it’s pretty cool if you ask me, but not easy. After that, was the time which I used the power tool to chip away chunks of concrete for a large concrete pillar in the ground. I was poking it with a shovel because I kind of wanted to move it in some form, then Tom noticed, grabbed some power tools and I chipped away at it for a while. Moving on from this tangent, we had plans to till up a bunch of land but the rotatiller wasn’t working and this was why we moved to planting the peas initially, and we went back to it at this point. We extended the previous fencing with more fencing (Surprise!) a dug a small rut into the ground beneath the fencing, when peas grow; they grow upward, so apparently they grow much better when you give them something to grow on, like a fence, for example. This is something that I didn’t know about peas, and I think that it is really cool that I am getting to learn things about plants I never knew before; and getting familiar with plants I wasn’t previously familiar with.  After finishing up the small trench, we had to gather compost in a wheelbarrow using a shovel, and then spread it onto the small, previously-created rut, again with a shovel. We then watered it valiantly and that was that for the peas. It was really cool, because there were already so many different kinds of plants that were growing in the garden, plants that I don’t think I even knew about, and there were a lot of plants that had just re-seeded themselves and come back after being harvested; another thing that I thought was really cool. We had also planned on getting some seeds soaked in vinegar, but due to some time constraints we weren’t able to do that while I was there; though, I am sure that Cathy will soak them some other and try to spout them, perhaps along with the other sproutlings that I had brought in, the barley seeds. I’m hoping that we can get something done around, and that the barley seeds fare well, moreso than they were already. Although one plus about them would be that they were more or less free of mold, and I’m also hoping to get some flax seeds started soon, which I will then bring in on Tuesday. This wraps up my day interning at Silk Tree Farm.