Adventures In Homesteading (Day 340)

Hello Everyone!

A slow start, Spreading straw, Planting seeds everywhere, Raised bed gardens as water diversions & A new privacy wall vine trellis!

Alright, it is a few hours before dawn... and although I got a full night's rest... I am feeling quite 'blurry eyed' whilst waiting for my espresso to kick in and wake me up a bit. If it gives you any idea about how worn out that I am feeling... I awoke at the two in the morning (like I have been doing lately) only to look at the clock, roll over and drift back off to sleep again.

Obviously or not-so-obvioulsy... yesterday was a full day to the max... and I finally (at long last) got into a rhythm of doing stuff outdoors... in such a way that I made a tremendous amount of progress in a relatively short amount of time. I also got some straw... and was able to spread it over the main paths, the dog yard and the camp's common/work areas... which made it so that I was no longer slipping in the muck with every other step whilst doing anything outdoors.

The main project that I worked on was building a new privacy wall (that is primarily for trellising vines onto) and at the the base of the wall I used a bunch of the older (and more pulpy) mimosa wood to create a raised garden bed. Overall, I wound up with a five meter long by three meter tall wall... that has a roughly one meter by four meter garden bed... that I transplanted living grape, wysteria and jasmine vines into along with some corn, 'bird seed' and wildflower seeds for good measure.

One neat aspect of the placement of that wall (and the garden bed) is that the water coming off the greenhouse and my overall camp (especially my tent's tarp) all water (irrigate) that raised garden bed. The shape of the wall... along with the garden bed's shape... plus their positioning along the downhill terrain... all aid in catching the surface water runoff... and then fanning it out across the hill to water areas where other vines are naturally growing.

Basically, the entirety of the new wall's structure(s) helps in water management... and will (most likely) effectively thwart any erosion from occurring due to my own setup with all the tents, tarps, walls, fences... and everything else that sheds water downhill from the camp. To help things even more, I began leveling an area near the new wall... and used all of its soil to fill the new raised bed... which resulted in a roughly one meter by one meter square, 'shin deep' retention pool... to act as an excess water catch for runoff.

There is also a big cedar stump in the center of the pool that I need to get out of the way... and I am hoping that the water will first soften the ground around it... and then flood the stump hole (that is mainly clay) so that it will push the stump towards the surface for me. That entire project could change rapidly depending on how much ground the stump removal disturbs... and I might wind up having to excavate the entire pool area deeper than I really want to... to correct the scenario.

Aside from all that jazz, I also finalized the conversion of what started as my water tent... became the chicken coop for the fall and winter (of the chicken's accord) and is now in its current form... what I call... the stinkubator which is wrapped in fencing with its internal space covered with spread straw. I am working on converting the entire setup into one big worm house... which from the looks of it already... will not be difficult to achieve.

What I am angling for, is that once I have a good colony of worms going in minimal soil... I can then move it all from above the tent... to somewhere that I can drain the entire setup's liquids into a container or vat. In its current location I am using it to fertilize (and attract worms to) the uphill privacy (shade) wall where I will be transplanting grape vines to over the coming days.

Anyways, there were some other projects that I attended to as well along with doing some more mundane things afforded to me... by finally getting a sunny enough of a day to get most of my laundry dried out... before the hail storm hit just before sunset. The sun also dried out the path leading downhill (to where I buried Esmarelda and Bob Backwards next to each other last year) and I did not slip and slide around while building a large raised bed garden over their graves... and planting wildflowers, corn and bird seed in it.

There is another new raised bed adjacent to the grave one now also... and it has a bunch of small vines growing in it already... so I added long sticks from it leading onto the brush wall below the dog poop compost mound. Both of those raised beds, also act as erosion control devices along the steep hill... so all in all... the entire arrangement complements the main camp's water management system placed uphill of its location... by further fanning out any surface water over the heavily vegetated area below.

For the most part, I think that I have finally begun to make the entire place work out better for my farming endeavors... and now that I am starting to see the results... my morale with my agricultural experiments has improved. Thankfully, my biggest hurdle of having abundant water for irrigation... was overcome so easily by that initial rainwater catchment system that I constructed in my first few days here.

Another factor that I need not concern myself with is the topsoil... because it is in excellent condition nearly everywhere on the property... plus it tends to stay quite moist for a full meter anywhere that I have dug that deep at. Admittedly, I have yet to find a whole lot of worms while digging... but I almost always find at least one or two of them... so most likely the compost mound will act as an incubator for them here... which would make the west facing slope perfect for farming pretty much anything.

Well, I think that is all the words that I have in me for this entry. I hope that most folks are doing well... and continuing to fight the good fight per usual. Ciao for now.