As usual, sorry for the blog hiatus. Time has just been zipping by, but that’s what happens when you’re busy from sun up to sun down. So, let’s see what’s new.
I’ve planted a ton of new fruit trees and berry bushes in the garden. At the last minute I decided to try some blueberries and put three plants in this evening and added some sulfur to acidify the soil and mulched them with dried out cedar needles.
I also planted two different varieties of Goumi, which fixes nitrogen in the soil and grows an edible berry. It’s related to the Russian Olives that grow here wildly so I figure it’ll do fine. I planted them in among the fruit trees so that when I cut it back its roots will die back and feed the fruit trees.
The garden looks amazing and the first thing I do every morning is go check on it and just soak it all in. The sugar snap peas have started coming in full tilt and there’s more lettuce and spinach than I know what to do with. The first little green tomatoes have appeared on the early variety tomato plants, and there’s already some little zucchinis in the making as well.
I have a work exchanger from Nebraska who I’ll call “Dan” for privacy’s sake among other inside joke reasons… He’s been helping me since early May. He’s staying through the 4th of July weekend when I’ll be holding an earthen plaster party and having a large bonfire down at the lake. If you’re interested in coming just shoot me an e-mail and I’ll get you info.
Mid-way through May I also had a couple visitors from St. Louis who stayed for a week and helped me raise the wind generator. I would’ve raised it sooner but it had been far too windy, and now that it’s up the wind hasn’t come back. I’d like to have gotten higher above the trees but it just wasn’t easily done without cutting a bunch of trees and having a lot of ugly guy-wires all over the place. I may have to cut the tops off a few trees to get some better air flow, but it still spins regularly. I’m thinking about getting a small solar setup to augment it in the meantime.
Dan and I have gotten a lot done on the interior of the roof, and tomorrow we’ll be filling over half of it with cellulose insulation made up of recycled paper. I also put quite a bit of alpaca wool scraps in there, but it was nowhere near enough and apparently all the other alpaca farmers sent their scraps to the gulf to help with the oil spill.
I’ve also installed the basic wiring for the house and put in the breaker box. I used the chainsaw to cut out the depressions for the switches and outlets, and then attached the boxes to a plywood wedge and pounded it in between the bales to secure it. I left them jutting out a little over an inch so that they’ll be flush once the wall is plastered.
With the help of my dad, Charlotte, Jessica, and Dan we’ve also got a bunch of mushroom logs inoculating. Right now there are 3 different kinds, shiitake, chicken of the woods, and reishi. I have another large bag of plug spawn for maitake(hen of the woods), which I need to get plugged in the next few weeks. I won’t actually have any mushrooms for at least 6 months, possibly a year.
The main trees that needed to be removed from the dam have been cut down and piled up for the bonfire on the 4th. The roots can penetrate the heart of the dam and cause leaks. There’s quite a few more trees that need to come out though and there’s already enough wood down there for several large fires. While I was clearing one day I almost stepped on a fawn in the reeds by the lake. It was clearly scared, but just hoping that I didn’t see it or would ignore it. I somehow just expect animals of that size to run, even if they’re small.
We also cleared the tour route and cut back the grass so ticks won’t be a big issue when I give tours. The ticks haven’t been bad, and the only reason I get them at all is because Pink brings them in on his fur and they fall of in my bed in the camper. I’m working on getting a lavendar oil/water mix to spray on him so that hopefully the ticks won’t hold on to his fur. The mosquitoes are just now getting kind of annoying and aren’t nearly as bad as they were this time last year.
I’ve got 200 pounds of hydrated lime slaking in preparation for making lime mortar, i.e. lime putty and sand, which I’ll use to mortar rocks against the foundation wall of the house. I’d come up with the plan of using the rocks surrounding the foundation wall at the old cabin. My dad told me that they actually got the rocks from an old farm house that had been on the property so far, so this would be the 3rd time they’d been used. However, I passed a granite counter place in Jefferson City that just had piles of broken granite pieces and I’m talking to them trying to see if they’ll sell or let me have it. In which case I might have a really pretty foundation wall material, not to mention a great material for mosaic counter-tops, furniture in-lays, etc.
I took a fantastic trip down to a place called Jack’s Fork in south east Missouri. It’s actually in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. We went canoeing one day, and exploring water falls and springs the next. There also a bunch of really interesting caves. Surprisingly, the water was almost perfectly clear. I have a bunch of fun and interesting stories from the trip and I’m contemplating whether to post that kind of stuff on the Maya Creek blog. I know I make this pretty personal, but it has a pretty specific scope. Let me have your input on whether I should branch out or not.
I’m having a hard time believing it’s June already. I still think I should have everything done to live in the house this winter, but I’m getting a little anxious. The trip to Jack’s Fork this last weekend and the wedding I’m going to in North Carolina this coming weekend have me feeling like I’m not getting enough done. I had a couple other trips planned later in the summer, but I may have to cancel them depending on my progress out here. I’ve definitely got one new work exchanger coming out at the beginning of July from Ohio, and very possibly a second one from New Jersey coming at the same time. Having help is fantastic. It’s great to get so much done, but also to have someone to hang out with.
Hopefully, I’ll be getting back to my regular 2 week posting rate, but we’ll see.
