I tried in vain to find replacement pins for the quick release mechanism on the tractor loader. Then I remembered, with old things you’re supposed to be able to make your own parts. So I did. Now the quick release works again.
I lifted the old well cover today, and the water was 7 feet below ground level, giving us 16 feet of water.
We got our first picking of blackberries today.
I got my first handful of beans a few days ago. We haven’t been able to keep up with the pea harvest of a pound every few days, so I’ll plant half as many next year. My kale and chard are very healthy and producing well. My Mortgage Lifter tomato finally has some blossoms that have become fruits. Overall, my garden row hasn’t needed much watering.
Four days since last picking, and I got 20 oz of peas this time.
This my first pea harvest of more than just a few peas that I eat while in the garden. About 4 oz. My pea plants have been growing like crazy. I also got another 4 oz of kale.
Our neighbors’ fields were cut today.
I got my first kale harvest (4 oz). I found one green worm eating some kale.
My peas are looking fantastic. I picked a few today, but I think I should have enough to be part of dinner tomorrow or the day after. I added a one-foot-high fence for them to climb. I probably could have added something taller.
My second planting of beans is up, and greener than the first planting, which is yellowish.
My Mortgage Lifter tomato seems to be recovering and greening up.
The peas that I direct seeded have taken off in the past week. They’re looking great. The beans have been up for a couple weeks. I planted 14 more beans today.
The tomatoes and squash plants have been doing poorly.
The NHS plant sale is a dangerous place of you’re wanting to have the value of your harvest exceed the cost of planting. We spent $31. I transplanted dwarf blue curled Scotch kale, Italian silver rib Swiss chard, and Mortgage Lifter tomato in my garden row (all heirloom), plus Delicata squash, yellow summer squash, and spaghetti squash in the row that we planned to leave fallow this year. Grant transplanted a black Krim tomato in that row, too.
Heather transplanted herbs out into the pasture along the fence.
I ran a 1/4-inch soaker hose on my row. It’s not very good. All the water leaks out within the first 15 feet–especially the first 5 feet. I might try a 1/2-inch soaker hose.
Frost took out the tomatoes the night after we planted them, and the chickens tore up about a quarter of my garden row.
The peas that I direct-seeded have caught up with the transplanted ones, and they’re healthier. Today I planted an Early Girl tomato plant that I got at the Ag Fest, and 10 blue lake bush beans. The soil on my garden row dries out quickly and can absorb a lot of water.
Heather planted a few Oregon sugar pod peas on her row and transplanted two tomato plants of unknown variety from the Ag Fest.
In the back corner of the property, one of our douglas fir trees got mowed down. It was the one that wasn’t doing well anyway. We planted another one in its place that we got at the Ag Fest. We also planted two lodge pine trees that we got at the Ag Fest, and we mulched the trees with wood chips.
The Oregon Sugar Pod peas that I direct-seeded on April 14 have sprouted (in the middle of the row in the picture).
I transplanted some plants that Heather started. From the end in: kale (dwarf blue curled), chard (mixed colors Swiss), spinach (Bloomsdale), lettuce (cutting mix), lettuce (unknown–the label faded), and marigolds (petite orange). Some of the starts were waterlogged and others were dry, so we’ll see how they do.
We planted about half of my garden row with Little Marvel peas that Heather started, two rows with one-foot spacing, and direct-sowed Oregon Sugar Pod peas every six inches down the center of the row.
A hawk killed one of the Jersey Giant chickens today.
I turned my garden row a second time with the pitchfork. I decided to remove the chunks of sod that I had turned over the first time I worked on the row. I was afraid the grass would keep growing if I didn’t. By leaving it there for the past month, I think it created a good environment for the microbiome to transfer to the manure and wood chips that I added. I saw a lot of worms, so that’s a good sign.
We also mulched between the rows and over garden area that will remain fallow this year but be cultivated into two more rows next year.
I reinstalled the original oil bath air cleaner on the tractor. I bought a 30-inch long flex radiator hose with a 1-1/2-inch inside diameter to connect from the air cleaner to the carburetor.
Got a small trailer load of horse manure. It’s mostly aged already. I dug and turned over the sod to make my 3×30 garden row. I layered and mixed the manure plus a tractor bucket load of wood chips.
We had to put down the boy lamb today. He still had a fever, and his breathing had become faster. We could tell he was in pain.
We had a friend come over with a .22 rifle and help us end the lamb’s suffering.
Transplanted two Douglas fir trees for Christmas 2026, one in each corner of the back acre. They’re about 2-3 feet tall.
Transplanted a bunch of chives found in the hazelnut orchard.
We worked on building the trail today by spreading wood chips. We also put up fencing around the fruit trees that we planted a few weeks ago to insure against deer. I pruned the pear tree today. I probably removed about 30%, which is more than you should for a pear tree. It might cause the tree to grow over-vigorously this year. But there were a lot of branches growing downward, across the center of the tree, or crowded.
We also dumped about three tractor buckets of wood chips on Heather’s hügelkultur garden row.
The boy lamb looked quite a bit better the day after his first shot five days ago. However, he has continued to run a fever of 104, and he has been lethargic compared to his sister. She is very empathetic and spends a lot of time with him. This morning we gave him his second (and final) antibiotic shot. A few hours later, he was already looking better. But we don’t know if it will last.
Yesterday, we noticed the little boy lamb was limping. We checked the leg, and there was no injury. We learned that infections usually affect sheep in the legs first. We called a vet. He checked the lamb’s temperature, and it was 104. He gave it an antibiotic shot. The vet visit was $250. We need to give it another shot in five days.
