It's pretty yucky out side, and despite the warm temperatures we can't plant anything. So I thought it would be a good time to send out another Suburban Farm. The last three weeks have been uneventful. Ryan's had some work and I started my class - American Popular Culture, post civil war. There's a TON of reading, and the professor doesn't post the reading until the Friday before the Tuesday class. It wouldn't be a large problem, you know me I love to read, but the stuff is so poorly written that it takes me forever to get through a 20 page article. Since I have to read two articles and one book a week, it takes up a large portion of my weekend and my Monday night. Nevertheless, I find the class engaging and enjoy stretching my mental muscles.
Ryan did get two very large projects done. He cleaned the chimney. Thankfully while I was at work; I would have freaked out about all the black creosote everywhere. The cleaning involved a large brush and some elbow grease. Its just like a bottle brush, so imagine scrubbing out a very large bottle. In all probability this is the first time it's been cleaned since the house was built 11 years ago, so we did have a bit of a hazard on our hands.
The other massive project was sorting the worm bin. The process is this: You lay out a big tarp and dump everything out onto the tarp. You take the big pile and divide it into smaller piles. The worms, who don't like sunlight, will burrow into the center of the piles. Then you just scoop off the layer of castings (worm poop) and you are left with a pile of worms. We put all the castings in large plastic under-bed-box that we use for starting seeds and stuck it in the shed. The large piles of worms we put back into our worm bin filled with damp shredded paper, and the process starts all over again.
Despite his best efforts to get all the worms out of the castings, several were left behind. Today we used the casings to fill in the hops barrels, and when we pulled the casings out of the shed they were full of happy worms! We are a worm making factory over here. Ryan also tossed a handful that were left on the tarp into the compost pile, and we now have a large colony that has developed there. (We still use the compost pile, since the worm bin can't really keep up with all of our "green" garbage.) The pictures are too cool not to share:
In other news, we had some pear wine that we haven't bottled in an open fermenter. Ryan checked on it Monday night, and surprise! we have vinegar. To be truthful, I didn’t like the wine all that much so we weren’t in any rush to bottle it. But the vinegar is FANTASTIC! We have to find some bottles to put it in, but we’re happy to share with anyone who wants some. Pear vinegar - who would have thought?
We are starting to layout spreadsheets and diagrams all coordinated with our own personal almanac - there are massive plans ahead. Stay tuned for more adventures in suburban farming, at the very least it will be entertaining.
- Gretchen
Ryan did get two very large projects done. He cleaned the chimney. Thankfully while I was at work; I would have freaked out about all the black creosote everywhere. The cleaning involved a large brush and some elbow grease. Its just like a bottle brush, so imagine scrubbing out a very large bottle. In all probability this is the first time it's been cleaned since the house was built 11 years ago, so we did have a bit of a hazard on our hands.The other massive project was sorting the worm bin. The process is this: You lay out a big tarp and dump everything out onto the tarp. You take the big pile and divide it into smaller piles. The worms, who don't like sunlight, will burrow into the center of the piles. Then you just scoop off the layer of castings (worm poop) and you are left with a pile of worms. We put all the castings in large plastic under-bed-box that we use for starting seeds and stuck it in the shed. The large piles of worms we put back into our worm bin filled with damp shredded paper, and the process starts all over again.
Despite his best efforts to get all the worms out of the castings, several were left behind. Today we used the casings to fill in the hops barrels, and when we pulled the casings out of the shed they were full of happy worms! We are a worm making factory over here. Ryan also tossed a handful that were left on the tarp into the compost pile, and we now have a large colony that has developed there. (We still use the compost pile, since the worm bin can't really keep up with all of our "green" garbage.) The pictures are too cool not to share:
In other news, we had some pear wine that we haven't bottled in an open fermenter. Ryan checked on it Monday night, and surprise! we have vinegar. To be truthful, I didn’t like the wine all that much so we weren’t in any rush to bottle it. But the vinegar is FANTASTIC! We have to find some bottles to put it in, but we’re happy to share with anyone who wants some. Pear vinegar - who would have thought?We are starting to layout spreadsheets and diagrams all coordinated with our own personal almanac - there are massive plans ahead. Stay tuned for more adventures in suburban farming, at the very least it will be entertaining.
- Gretchen