Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm

Saving Gaia

2009-05-28T09:42:00.002-04:00

What we aspire to .... nothing less than saving the Earth, one bee at a time.

Want to see our latest pics? We have new stuff every month or so...Scroll down and click to enlarge. Welcome to our farm, we hope you'll come back and stay a while.

Feeding the Bees

2009-05-06T10:39:00.039-04:00

Honey I killed the bees!
That was my first reaction when, after creating last month’s featured luscious grease patties with organic sugar that the bees never touched by the way, I went outside to see my little babies and noticed they were dead. No buzzing, no nothing. A bunch of dead bees. I called the husband in a complete freak out, then madly started searching the internet to find out what I did wrong. I also placed a frantic call to Vilness Mattison. I was buzzing around myself like a maniac, completely heartbroken that one of my hives had perished. I tracked down Vilness, thank GOD, who immediately told me that there was no way I killed those bees with grease patties. Even if the bees did eat them. I hadn’t starved them either, he said, by taking away their sugar syrup. Evidently, bee patties take some getting used to and the bees would have eaten them at some point. I was still pretty worried so I immediately put sugar syrup out for the other hive, who hungrily started munching on it, making me feel a little better.

Off to the internet again, this time I found Bee Source forum, a very wise and experienced group of bee keepers who talked about everything from drugs for bees to organic without any drugs for bees. Here’s a current topic of discussion “Deadly parasite turns bees into zombie slaves.” I knew I found the right place, so I posted my query about the hive dying, and everyone immediately piped up asking for photos. They also reassured me that there’s no way I could have killed the bees. Whew! During my mad dashing around the farm, I really hadn’t thought about photos, so I set about trying to recharge batteries for three cameras, none of which were charged, while hoping that the rain would hold off (I had the hive completely taken apart) until I could get some decent pics and put everything away. Once I got some decent pics, I uploaded them all and waited to hear what the folks had to say about my dead bees. The consensus was that I had a healthy hive with fat undiseased looking bees, but they had lost their queen a while back and the other hive robbed their honey so they died. No queen, no honey, no hive. OMG! I had no idea that bees were like this. My other hive, they said, was probably really healthy and strong from all that robbing and by the way, welcome to bee keeping.

With not much light left, I brought all my hives with dead bees, honey comb and a little leftover honey into the basement, then got out my microscope to view the dead bees under some power. I couldn’t see a thing that told me anything, because by the way, I didn’t have a clue what I was looking for but the process made me feel much better. Bees wings are beautiful when magnified. While discussing stuff with folks on the Bee Source forum, I chanced onto some local names and made a few calls. One gentleman said he’d had 12 years of winter success with bees by feeding them 2 to 1 syrup in an upside down jar on sticks over their feeding hole, so I went right out there and created the same set up for my bees. They LOVE it! I have three more nucs on order this spring, along with one for my DEC ranger bro who also lost his hive this winter. I am committed to learning and growing with my hives, keeping bees, sharing knowledge, admitting lack of knowledge, and accepting mistakes.

On another note, here on the farm, the tipi has moved to Worthington, MA for occasional gatherings of our spiritual community there. In its place we are erecting a pavilion onto the former tipi deck for outdoor vegetable processing. The llama shed is becoming a greenhouse, and we are tilling the area next to it for corn. During the winter while the garden sleeps, I hike the trails here daily on my prayer walk, clearing branches and talking to the old apple, cherry, maple, pine and birch trees. I always circle round to the singing spring that I have dug out by hand for the past three years. This singing spring was once only damp soil that erupted at deepest rains, now it is a clean water source. Every little bit helps, every little bee pollinates, and we can all use a nice cold drink of water.

Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

Winter Bees, Grease Patties, and Crisco

Who uses Crisco, raise your hand! You know what kind, the hydrogenated solid stuff that you can buy at Wally’s for a mere few dollars. I have discovered, in the past month, multiple uses for this vile substance, and most notably, my bees love it! According to our wonderful go-to resource, Vilness Mattison, an elderly, bee-loving, honey producing, Latvian gentleman who lives in Averill Park, grease patties are needed in the winter to feed the bees. Bee Journal agrees with him, as do many online resources and forums. We have been buying many pounds of organic sugar from the Coop all summer, feeding syrup (sugar mixed with water) in a top feeder to keep our hungry bees content. Some folks say, ah just leave the bees, they’ll fend for themselves. Here at Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm, which is beginning to feel more like Noah’s Ark, we feed our bees as long as they are willing to eat. They have fended too much for themselves already and our goal is to bring them back to health.

Vilness says his 20 or so hives also needed to eat all summer, due to the fact that the rainy season (just like in the tropics) caused the pollen to be less accessible to the bees. So, he says, feed them if they are hungry. I would have done it anyway. Back to the Crisco. You can buy bee patties or you can make them yourself, and being an ingredient-minded Coop devotee (I have transcended ‘shopper’), I made them myself, thus ensuring organic sugar for my patties. The bees deserve organic, after all, for without the bees we would have no more sugar cane, sugar beets, or food on the planet. Crisco is recommended because evidently, the vile varroa mite attaches to the grease which leads to their demise. You know how I feel about pesky parasites if you’ve read the November Coop Scoop.

Here’s my grease patty recipe for those of you who are interested:

•One gallon container filled with organic sugar from the Coop’s bulk department
•One can of Crisco, heated in a pan of hot water so that it will loosen into a big blob
•Four ounces of Honey Bee Healthy, made of essential oils
•One quart of local honey
•Two ounces pink Himalayan salt

Slightly warm the Crisco in a big pot on the stove, add sugar and salt, mix till all is one syrupy glob, remove from stove, add Honey Bee Healthy and last, add honey.

Mix well, then scoop big fat patties onto wax paper, and head out to the beehives. Which brings me to the next part of my story, my first time handling the bees. Vilness insisted that I change from a top feeder, which doesn’t work for grease patties anyway, to smaller feeders that take mason jars with syrup. These sit on wooden dividers with a hole. What this entailed was taking apart the beehive feeder, which sits directly above the combs (filled with buzzing bees), replacing it with a wooden ‘feeder top’ with a hole in the middle for the bee tunnel, and placing patties on this wooden top. Then I was to add a large ‘super’ which is basically a rectangle without top or bottom, then finally the top cap, which seals everything. Vilness also told me to place crumbled up newspapers within the super to collect moisture, which is not good for bees.

We had one good warm day in the 50s before it turned cold with rain and then a big snowstorm. On that one warm day, the bees could be disturbed. Yes, they were truly disturbed all right. Always in the past, my husband has handled the bees as I have reactions to stings, thus keep an Eppie pen handy and loving them from a distance. We had one bee outfit with a mesh face mask, hat and gloves which fit only him, so I had never actually done more than add syrup to the top feeder while the bees were napping. Due to my desire to become more involved in their care, I purchased my own smaller outfit, and prepared to venture out to completely switch their feeding system. The bees were not happy to see me.

I was like a thief in the night. First, I prepared for my assault on their home by setting up my equipment in the tipi, getting the patties together, putting on my new size small hat-shirt-face netting combo, then the gloves. I slowly came out behind their hives, (you do not want to get in the way of active bee flight patterns) having turned off the electric fence beforehand. Once I began to get close enough to remove one of two top feeders, I heard a loud buzzing. Having watched too much Alfred Hitchcock in my childhood, I dropped everything, and ran to the house. Bees had attached to my green sweat pants, and one stung me on the rear end. I breathlessly called my husband “JEROME! You have to talk me through this!” Which he did. After removing about ten bees from my green sweat pants, I realized they had to come off, and I put on the recommended jeans. Multiple forays into the swarming angry hive nest later, each time freaking out, running back to the house and calling Jerome, the bees were happily munching on grease patties. And the next day it snowed, thus closing the window of opportunity to feed our babies their winter rations.

Now that I’m officially stung, and a proud keeper of bees, I can watch my flock closely through the hole in the wooden feeder to see how they fare. So far, ours are fast-multiplying, happy, feeding bees. Crisco and organic sugar, who’d have thought we would come to this? We have two more ‘nukes’ coming this spring from a local beekeeper if his bees survive the winter, and will add these new families to our bee village. Vilness says his bees are creating more propolis than he’s ever seen before. Knowing that propolis is used in herbal medicine as an antibiotic, I believe this means the bee’s immune systems are finally fighting back. With the help of our Divine Creator, each of us with a single organic, heirloom flower in our backyard will bring back the bees.

As Junesan tells us to pray,
Namu-myoho-renge-kyo

The Scene

There's a new composting toilet now and I love it. My friend called it the temple cos it's like a temple with a high ceiling and lots of glass. I burn incense in there, and as we have posters up and two seats, it's a roomy sanctuary. This pic was taken pre-decorating.

Kiwis and Bees
A new friend of mine who I recently spoke with at the Coop (which is where we met) was asking where to get bees for his garden. The honey bees were not around anymore, he said, only the bumble bees. What can a person do in a world filled with weaker bees who die off in the winter and slower bees who can’t travel as far to sup on chemically treated GMO crops? We are living in a radiated world with our beloved Living Earth falling from the sky. The young green plants including tomatoes have brown spots, the birds sure took a long time to start singing this year and some kind of really strange fungus is killing people who were injured by the tornados in Joplin, Missouri. What’s a person to do? We continue to shop at the Coop and go to PRIDE and pay our bills and try to help our family members who may be hurting themselves because the world is just too hard. We take grapefruit seed extract to ward off the fungus and eat less sugar which feeds Candida. We are smart and cool and we know a lot. Still, how can we get back our bees? So my friend and I had a conversation and quickly ascertained that we both know the same stuff. Putting our heads together at the checkout counter at the Coop we decided we would envision a better world, rather than envisioning all the negativity around us. The word is this: Each of you can envision those honey bees coming back to your land, to your house, to your flowers. The way to attract them is to feed them with your prayers, with your flowers and with your herbs. Grow perennials and self seeding plants to bring back those few and far between honey bees who are struggling now to find their way through the chemical mist that is our sky.

Some favorites who came back this year to feed the bees at Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm are: Asparagus, kiwis, strawberries, wild strawberries, elderberries, blueberries, a pomegranate tree, grapes, apples, valerian, comfrey, rhubarb, horseradish, chives, mugwort, fennel, arugula, motherwort, lavender, wormwood, spearmint, catnip, chocolate peppermint, lemon mint, bloodroot, wild ginger, lilacs, lily of the valley and many other flowers friends have given me that I cannot name. Wild ones are ginseng, goldenseal, wild ginger and trillium who live with the bloodroot. The self seeders are cilantro, fennel, marigold, calendula, dill, cherry tomatoes, mustard greens, kale, onions, garlic, leeks and probably many more I’m forgetting. Here in the forest we have ancient cherry trees which feed the birds and the bears. Gayle gave me an additional long list of perennials you can get where I bought many of mine, which of course is the Garden Shop at Honest Weight. The self seeders I purchased as seeds at the Coop. The majority of our farm has some type of blossoms on plants from early in the spring till late in the fall. This provides bee heaven and also allows the dear ones to take a breath for their body mind and spirit. Other than diatomaceous earth, we use little in the way of “bug killers,” although if the slugs show their pretty little faces this year I’ll have a snack just waiting for them which will make them stop eating, and is non-toxic. I think they understand because believe me, we’ve talked. Another thing to realize about having a garden during Living Earth’s weakened state is that just having a discussion with the bugs can be helpful. We had an ant infusion in the kitchen recently. They suddenly were climbing on the furniture, on the walls, and everywhere. I sent the Honey to the store to get boric acid and Borax, while meanwhile I picked up every single ant I saw and put him/her (I can’t tell them apart) outside for a new life in the sun. By the time our resident beekeeper, a bug lover himself, brought back the goods the ants had decided to take a hike and haven’t returned to the kitchen, the furniture or the walls. The moral of my story is this. We admit Living Earth is in crises and envision good health for all bugs, especially right now the bees. We plant seeds for their future and believe in a Living Earth filled with honey.

The Harvest and the Teaching
The harvest has arrived and is it ever yummy. I picked one of the first sweet yummy kiwis from our vines the other day, in preparation for thousands of kiwis which will suddenly be ready, then rot in a day if we don’t pick them all. The tomatoes yes, they are coming in too. MMMMM. Cukes, squash, all the greens. Lots of big fat juicy garlic. Blessed bees have brought us to this place. This year it seems like the garden is taller, bigger brighter with more blossoms than ever before. Bats come to visit us nightly, just like they always have. The beloveds are here.

The grapes are fine, even though those wonderful (I’m sending good vibes here) Japanese beetles have eaten most of the leaves. They arrived in July. Right about the time we all had decided there would be no summer we had the intense pleasure of a heat wave that lasted for weeks. I, being the wimp who can’t handle heat, found myself in the local river swimming hole, playing in waves. Then I would come home and “water the garden” which meant watering myself. I also weed while I water, which allows a good soaking to be had by all. Lucky to have a garden I am.
Looking around, it seems like there are more gardens than ever before in Rensselaer County, where we live, and in Western MA, where I travel to Kripalu for yoga. The people who already have gardens have expanded them, and there are new ones that have sprung up all over the place. It’s so beautiful to see. People are waking up with the knowledge that they too can grow their own food, and in fact, they are taking the plunge and trying it regardless of expected outcome. Planting even a few seeds will bring such rich delights, who can resist? Which brings us to a favorite topic of mine, composting.

If you eat anything fresh, you can compost the remains. There’s something to be said about feeding our kind hearted Earth Mother instead of putting those apple cores and orange peels in the “garbage,” which is really a landfill full of plastic. Worms need food, so do the precious soil beings. Explaining composting to people who are used to plastic garbage bags and live in apartments requires some patience, but it can be done. I recently met a wonderful young man, Raphael Faerystar, who is a friend of my daughter Reesa (she has the BEST friends, I love them all). Raphael was wondering about the plants and devas who populate our gardens and how to bring them into his life. I explained the importance of feeding the faeries and took him to a little altar that has withstood time and winters so he could see for himself how simple it is to give back to the Earth Mother. He gave them a spoonful of honey we keep on the altar just for the faeries. This is what composting is, giving a spoonful of honey to the soil so that Earth Mother has a chance to continue to create food for her soil beings.
“But I live in an apartment,” he says. “There’s no backyard!” I gently answered that white buckets with lids can be filled in the apartment, then carried into fields and emptied, or to other compost piles. Anyone can compost, and everyone should. The magic of composting creates a connection with Earth Mother that cannot be broken. You will unleash the power of the soil beings with each seed you return to her body, each peel, each scrap of food feeds thousands of soil beings. These beings are thankful and by feeding them you bless yourself and your gardens.
Raphael Faerystar will be back to learn about devas and to eat more broccoli. He’s also getting to know mugwort, peppermint and catnip. In order to learn about herbs, he’s picking each type and studying it, letting the herb permeate his being. He is ready to know more about the devas, and like many of the young people who come to Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm, including our woofer who stayed for two months, Raphael Faerystar will go into his future nestled in the heart of his beloved Earth Mother.

The Bees Knees

Our girls and a few boys are here. My daughter says we have 2012 pets now, up 2000 from our previous last count of 12, including four cats, three dogs, four llamas and a goat.The day finally arrived, after three delays, when our babies came home to us. We are so thrilled to see the many healthy beautiful bees in their hives, eating organic sugar syrup mixed with Honey Bee Healthy, which includes spearmint and lemongrass essential oils. Smells good too. Rather than adopt the gloves and smoker routine to calm the bees, my husband chose to go in barehanded and use the Honey Bee Healthy sugar syrup to mellow out our girls. As you can see by the photos, we have an electric fence for the bear, which delivers quite a shock. We know for a fact we have many bears here, including a mom and two cubs (last scat I found), and they do love honey. The bee hives will grow as we add supers to the original set up, once they have made enough honey for their winter journey. After the cold comes again, we will have built a wooden barrier around the hives on three sides to keep out the wind, plus we are wrapping them in insulating material, leaving only their escape hole open. They are on rock to keep out the ants, and are up high to keep out the rest of the bugs and allow mites to fall onto the ground.

Yes, the bees are here and we are thrilled. The asparagus has popped up, as has a new bed of cilantro which came from out of nowhere. Oregano has self seeded all over the gardens, and hundreds of the cherry tomatoes survived, as did scores of marigolds as they self seeded. I tend to watch and see what comes up before committing to planting beds. Bloodroot, trillium, and one lone ginseng plant that always come back have survived the long winter’s snow. I planted some found wild ginger along with the others in a bed that is disguised as several rotten logs. It grows with bloodroot, yarrow, mugwort, motherwort, peppermint and comfrey, all placed there at one time or another.

Even though we are weeks behind Albany due to cold, the leaves are snapping and popping open. This year, we have a lot of visitors coming here, learning about organic growing, permaculture homesteading and microfarming. More and more folks are realizing that gardening is a labor of love, a beautiful way to experience the great outdoors. And, many of us who are ken with the fairie folk can listen and hear the plants talk. Yes, that’s right, they talk. My strawberry plants had a word with me the other day in fact.

I was throwing rocks out of one of their beds from the previous winter’s unfortunate snowplow destruction, and also handling (I guess not gently enough) the strawberry plants, moving them from one spot to a better spot. The strawberry devas were kind of complaining telling me to be more gentle, but I had been shoveling out beds for days so was feeling my brute strength rather than my delicate surgeon’s hands. Finally, as I went for a big rock to toss out of the strawberry bed, I heard one of the plants distinctly scream at me to “Leave my rock alone!” I talked back, rather than listen to the strawberry deva (it had been a long winter and I wasn’t very patient) and told the strawberry deva that the rock was leaving. So, grabbing the rock and flinging it into the air, I of course noticed too late that I was also flinging a really healthy and beautiful strawberry plant with it. Both tumbled to the ground, the strawberry plant being roughed up a bit. Naturally contrite, I gently picked her up, dusted her off, and listened to the complaining. “I want my rock back!” she yelled at me.

I have long listened to the words of our friend David Yarrow as he extolls the virtues of rock dust mineralization in gardens, and I do leave many rocks as his methods work miracles. Still, I have to toss a few, just like I have to toss a few weeds (albeit to the llamas and goat). Even though the strawberry plant loved its rock, I ultimately ignored the complaining and decided to leave it out of the garden bed. Even today, I feel her pain, that strawberry plant. She still misses her rock. I guess the lesson learned from this is, either you are a fully committed Perelandra/Findhorn gardener, or you are only partly committed and still infuse your own human nature into your gardens. Kind of like being an almost vegan who eats venison. Even with all our human imperfections, the plants forgive us and provide their bounty each season.

This spring, I am so thankful that the strawberry plants chastise me and that I can hear their song. My daughter and I hike daily into the woods, singing Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo.

We love you Tony Hindes!

Our beautiful angel friend man ... you have joined our Creator in Heaven again. Thank you for sharing your life with us, sharing your light and your sweet joy. Oh how we miss you. You danced into our lives and spread your angel wings with love for us. You are in our hearts forever.

Mary Leue, founder of the Albany Free School

2009-05-06T10:38:00.019-04:00

This is a prayer Mary read for us at the Grafton Peace Pagoda Flower Festival. To reach her, go here: http://www.purplepanthers.com/

Heavenly Father, Great Mother,
We gather here today to renew our dedication to a time when mankind will begin beating its swords into plowshares and learn to study war no more! We wish first of all to acknowledge our collective guilt for ignoring your basic rules for life on earth. The time is late. The stress we have laid on your bounty through our massive efforts to dominate over the planet have become intolerable. We have almost outworn your capacity to tolerate our arrogance, our greed and our corruption. Already the natural forces that we have awakened are gathering strength to wipe us off your earth as a failed species. Dear Mother, there is no need to tell you what is happening. No one, in my estimation, has expressed it more eloquently than the English poet William Wordsworth. He wrote, in 1806:

THE world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

At this stage of the development of global degradation, I do not believe that we can muster the will to halt its progress. We, the nations of affluence and power are too hypnotized by our own ingenuity, and too in love with our private well-being to stop what we are doing and learn to listen! Logically speaking, there is no special reason why humanity should prevail when so many other species have become extinct - but like them, some of us may survive if we can adapt - if we learn the lessons. I believe that honoring our spiritual parents and honoring the lives of each of us can make the difference between the downfall of human life on earth and its continuation - much altered by pain and deprivation, but still here. To whom can we turn to learn these lessons of true human survival? So many of our organized religions, having failed to identify the enemy as the false gods Mammon and War, are of little help. The Reverend Nichidatsu Fujii - or Guruji, as Gandhi affectionately called the founder of Nipponzan Myohoji, has told us,

It is false to talk of peace while possessing weapons that take life. When we practice peace, we must lay down all murderous weapons. Lasting and widely influential religion relies neither on the power of others nor of wealth. Real religious teaching strives to nurture compassion and harmony in our hearts and minds. Its influence comes from nothing more than the goodness of
veneration and prayer, by seeing the Buddha in others, and treating them with the kindness one gives to a child. This was true in the past and it will remain true in the future.

The Buddhists as a group have learned how to live together in harmony - as have other groups like the Mennonites, the Amish and the Shakers. For all of these groups, the key has been simplicity. The old Shaker hymn written by Elder Joseph in the Shaker community of Alfred, Maine, sums up the learning that these groups have practiced for so many generations. I hope you will join with me to sing it together:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to
come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend, we shall not be asham'd,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Blessings on you, dear sweet Mary Leue. I only hope that when I am 89 I am like you.

Bees...are us.

The bees knees are here...they have joined our tribe. Two hives, two queens, some pheromones...we love you bees. Come live with us, sup our sap, drink the nectar of a farm who loves you....sweet bees. Thank you Creator.

Soon it will be May...right now it's cold!

Apple Cider Vinegar Spring Tonic Recipe

I get so many requests for this stuff that I thought it was time to post the recipe online, so here you go.

Acquire 2 oz powdered cayenne,2 oz powdered ginger
Soak (make a tincture) in two cups whiskey, vodka or rum

Let that set for about a month, you can start using a little within two weeks

Separately, mix 32 oz apple cider vinegar with one cup honey

To mix the two, use a cup of the apple cider vinegar mix with maybe two tablespoons (or more, depending on how strong you like it) of the cayenne/ginger tincture.

After you take a swig, remember to rinse your mouth with water.

Building a Greenhouse

A few years ago, I started working in the garden shop of the Coop. To support our newfound fresh homegrown veggie addiction, I built a greenhouse out of ... guess what? Cattle panels of course. We first used them to enclose the poopers (the llamas and the goat), then for garden trellises and finally for a shed, and now they are an 8 foot by 12 foot long greenhouse.
Here's our item breakdown:

3 16 X 5 foot cattle panels
2 2 X 12 X 10 rough cut planks
2 2 X 12 X 8 rough cut planks
6 X 6 foot metal stakes
4 2 X 4s
20 foam pipe insulators
greenhouse plastic roll
greenhouse plastic stripping
greenhouse plastic repair tape
12 X .99 cent clamps
hay bailing twine
1/2 inch staples
long screws for base

Tools:
good staple gun
electric drill
sharp box cutters for plastic
small hand saw
stake pounder

Here's how it all came together:

First, I took apart our old cattle panel shed which was housing the lawn mower, hay bales for the poopers, and a few chairs. That took an entire day but provided me with much needed posts and three full size cattle panels. At approximately $20 to $27 per panel, cattle panels are by far the cheapest strongest option for the really low budget greenhouse/shed/fence builder.

Then, I drove down to the local rough cut lumber yard and bought two 2 X 12 X 10s and two 2 X 8 very thick heavy rough cut pine planks to use as a base for the greenhouse. After screwing these together with the drill, I then attached four 2 X 4s (resized to fit) to the top of the base to ensure a solid backing for the strips and plastic.

Next I formed the cattle panels into a shape that would work for the hoop house. I tied them off with left over hay bale twine, and a few pieces of rope at the top, overlapping the panels to add strength, then somehow managed to get them into the frame of pine planks. Took a whole day. I then pounded four metal stakes inside the shed, as opposed to outside like my garden trestles, and began to pad them up. We had a stack of unused insulators in the basement, so I brought them up and padded up all places on the posts and panels using copious amounts of duct tape and insulating until I was out of foam. What people may not realize, as I don't see anyone else doing this online, is that cattle panels have little burrs that can catch and tear greenhouse plastic, so insulating them is the safest way to ensure the long life of your greenhouse.

Please note, home gardeners, using good plastic is the *only* way to build a solid greenhouse. A good product could be had from Griffins, and lucky for me they have a warehouse in Latham, NY. I bought a roll of plastic, enough for four greenhouses and the best price by far I'd seen anywhere, along with the plastic stripping (you have to staple the plastic onto it) and some repair tape, also useful for building the greenhouse. It really sticks.

Back to the greenhouse. In an almost anti-climactic moment I unrolled a little plastic, threw it over the top of the greenhouse and nailed the plastic onto the 2X4 base. Done deal. Added a strip to the front and back for "walls," using those great .99 cent clamps you can buy at Home Depot and taping a board to the bottom of each for weight, and presto framo, we have a very hot greenhouse. Whew!
Now, as we move quickly into March, I am planning to plant my seeds. The greenhouse is on its third year, and the plastic is holding strong. I fill up a big black feed bucket with llama poop and dirt, to add heat to the greenhouse. I place straw on the floor to keep down the weeds. Already I can feel the warmth radiating when I step into the greenhouse, and soon, little shoots of green will be popping up from my seedlings. I wonder if the praying mantis babies survived in there from last summer? I wonder what number of little insect creatures will hatch inside the warmth there…
Please contact me if you too would like to build your cattle panel greenhouse. www.cherryplainfarmblogspot.com

Winter Farming Country Style

What do you do when the garden is sleeping? Especially if you have a raw chunk of land that really could use some better trails cos during hunting season you don’t want to be on the neighbor’s property? You build trails. Trail building can be tedious work unless you do it country style, meaning with a mechanized vehicle. Yes, that’s right, we’ve gone redneck and are using vehicles to access our little piece of backcountry. Sometimes you just have to have fun with your work, especially after spending all day in Albany fixing broken bicycles.

Our day went something like this: Took the kid to school. Next stop found us looking for coffee on Route 43, then we headed straight to Grand Street Community Arts where we worked with volunteers fixing up old beaten dead stolen bikes from the Albany Police Department. These bikes had to be fixed before we could give them away to the locals in the Mansion District. The Albany Police Community Outreach unit has been kind enough to donate bikes on a regular basis to people in Albany. Our first bike giveaway in Washington Park included sponsors such as Troy Bike Rescue, Honest Weight Food Coop, and The DownTube. Our second bike giveaway is a combined effort between us, Grand Street Community Arts, and as always, the Troy Bike Rescue with a volunteer from the Saratoga Social Club (thanks Mike!). Anyway, it’s a lot of work to get these bikes road ready. Besides, the garden is sleeping.

After a fairly cold and grueling work session that required a lot of tweaking of parts that never were meant to work properly in the first place, we locked up the shop and zipped to Honest Weight to munch a large lunch of hot soup, a roll and an extra large cookie. Ahh. Bellies full, it was time for me to drop out of college at HVCC, which took literally hours, then we found ourselves back at the farm in time for only one hour’s worth of trail building before dark.

That was our hour outside for the entire day, even thought it had been a glorious day, filled with sun and beauty. My suggestion to hubby was, hey, let me show you this trail I’ve been working on so we hopped on our ATVs, which are also our working tractors. Hubby’s has a winch on it and tonight, mine has a feed bucket (the ubiquitous feed bucket) filled with saws and trail markers. Driving carefully into the woods, we followed a very loosely marked barely existent trail, ducking branches and moving at a snail’s pace till we reached what I consider a turn around, but in reality requires backing up and making an V turn. Hubby is smiling by now because my idea of a trail is definitely agro.

After smash crashing through the woods, running over old dead branches, we finally ended up looking at such a tight situation that the old man had to get out his saw and cut some branches. Then it got dark. My poor vision is fading, ever since I got a big stick in my right eye one night at dusk looking for bear poop with my friend Grace, so seeing the hastily constructed orange trail markers became quite a challenge. I asked him if he’d like to go first (please go first!) but he abstained. After multiple changes of direction and turn arounds I finally got us out of that jungle of undergrowth and overgrowth without more sticks in my eyes and we high tailed it over to the neighbors (still on ATVs, this is the country after all) to explain yes, I’ll pay the $800 that it costs to fix your son’s car that I backed into yesterday while he was working on my house.

We finally hung up our machines with smiles and came inside to the total destruction wrought by my 13 year old rescued Weimeraner Dante who broke into the cabinets and ate several packets of seaweed, while trying to open two bottles of olive oil. He’s outside now, complaining about how unfair I am to not let him back into the house. Our cold winter bike giveaway is scheduled for this Saturday, and even though the garden is now sleeping soundly, I think sometimes that it smiles when it sees me out there having fun, using 21st century technology and making noise in the woods.

White Flowers and the Lone Pumpkin

This farm tale starts, like many a modern farm tale, with a phone call. My good friend and sister Wendy called from California with a simple request: Would I be willing to create a small five day altar consisting of an apple, a white candle and fresh white flowers, and continue her angel blessing prayer for three people across the continent? Well, my first reaction was, sure, I’ll do it for my friend. Wendy works hospice, and her elders seemed to live for years once she begins their care. Everytime I went to Wendy’s house in Stinson Beach, I always heard bells from *somewhere* out there. My only real concern was, where in the heck would I ever find the requisite white flowers? It’s officially Fall and O dark thirty here in upstate NY. I kind of figured all the white flowers have faded. I have never bought flowers, preferring to grow them myself (cheaper!). Still, I was committed to somehow finding a way to make this happen without a visit to the flower store. Did I take a really close look at what was growing in my gardens? Of course not.

While I’m waiting for my miraculous white flowers to appear out of thin air so I can do this very special angel blessing for a really old friend, the lone pumpkin in our yard finally turned a beautiful shade of orange. This big mambo pumpkin began life as an unwanted seedling in an otherwise nasturtium, garlic and carrot bed. I saw the little leaf peek out and at first had no idea what plant it was, but decided since it appeared relatively near the cattle panel hoop trellis, I’d go ahead and see what it sprouted. Pretty soon we had lovely flowers that looked kind of squash like, then all of a sudden a beautiful monster green striped pumpkin appeared. This pumpkin got so big that we were all amazed that it managed to stay on the side of the cattle panel hoop trellis. The tenacity was amazing, and made us wonder what was holding it on. Finally, after close inspection, we realized that it was also growing a thick vine to accommodate its, well, hind quarters. The big mambo volunteer pumpkin came into the world on its own volution, almost got weeded, then against all odds, grew its own support system. That’s pretty poetic, and certainly fits into the cooperative model of living.

Meanwhile, I’m still wondering what to do for white flowers. I drove to Ada’s Spiritworks Botanica which moved to way out in Latham near the Toyota dealer so I could get the proper white candles from a sacred store. This is during a big rainstorm so I didn’t go check the garden. On the way back my 50 year old brain is trying to conjure flowers for the angel altar which was to be located inside the tipi if and when this slacker ever made it happen. I go home, go to sleep and dream that a sweet, wonderful, unnamed person gave me white flowers specifically for the angel blessing. I woke up knowing I had white flowers coming to me. Even though three days had gone by since the angel blessing request, it was going to happen soon. While driving (I get my best insights driving evidently) I realize that the other plant volunteers, five beautiful nicotania sylvestrious tobacco plants who appeared this summer in the asparagas beds would provide me with numerous fresh white trumpet flowers. These volunteers started out as two little plants from the Coop Garden Shop years ago. Why I never looked in the garden for these white flowers is beyond my understanding. I assumed the flowers were all gone but in fact, they were waiting to become part of a five day angel blessing for three people.

And the pumpkin stands alone, with its strong support system holding the world steady. Blessings to you all this fall. May we who remain close to the Earth always be fed.

Harvesting the Karma

As I write this article, I reflect on how the summer has gone. We’ve experienced a very high heat index, bigger than life weeds, Japanese beetles, slugs, a llama who ate my corn. A fox who ate my cats, fishers who ate many other local cats. Flowers, birds and bees. Then there’s the larger wildlife who live here and freak out my dogs. Bears, for example.

One day, I took took a morning off from the garden to track a longterm resident big black bear from his morning swamp root breakfast to his pawprints to his den by a wild berry patch, deep in the woods. Have you ever seen a bear’s bed? It’s a big surprise, let me tell you.

Other excitement included having my locked, 2009 Toyota truck stolen stolen in broad daylight in downtown Pittsfield, MA. Truckless, expecting to never see my beloved Tacoma again, I sent the thieves really good vibes even though I felt like buying a shotgun. I told the thieves that if they knew me, they would never take my truck. I physically sat next to them as they pawed through my stuff, including a silver necklace on the gearshift. I felt sorry for them that I had such abundance here on the farm while they were reduced to stealing trucks. I even told them their mothers loved them… 48 hours later, my truck was returned to within two blocks of where it was taken, with all contents intact, including checkbooks, jewelry, Netflix, and CDs. The Pittsfield police are amazed. These were professional thieves with a pass key. I think they just changed their minds.

Then there’s the harvest. Recently, four of my friends came over to ferment veggies together, probably 40 pounds of beets, carrots, garlic and cabbage. Jim and Mary don’t have a garden this year, so they come to our place and work in ours. I always call Vince as he’s my fermenting guru. While Mary trimmed the Japanese beetle eaten grape leaves, Jim harvest broccoli, cukes and cabbages, and Vince prepared our large containers by hosing them down and scrubbing them out.

We all sat around chatting, and scrubbed veggies, trimming the tops and bottoms. Moving the operation over to a large, wooden block on our picnic table, we commenced to chopping and bruising the veggies in a big 10 gallon pot. We added salt, bruised, and mushed with our very clean hands.

Next, I crammed jar after jar with the luscious soon to be bubbling veggies, while Mary added a little salt to the top, a little water and topped them off with waxed paper and a lid. Then we all had a feast, as my husband was busy cooking while we were fermenting. My friends each took several jars of veggies home with them, filled with organically grown, good energy, love and friendship.

At the moment, we have about 75 pounds of garlic drying, as the garlic harvest was early this year. After pulling all the garlic and hanging it to dry, I replanted the beds with some peas and clover to add nitrogen to the depleted soil. I’ll replant these beds in October with the best garlic, and mulch it over well for the winter.

We ate large when our friends invited us to pick their blueberry bushes. Mine are still young babies. We will enjoy beets and cabbages and carrots made into kimchee with garlic and cayenne this winter. I still have corn growing from the other side of the garden as the llama who escaped didn’t know about that well-hidden patch. This year, the most exciting news is that almost everything in the garden was grown from Co-op seed, started in beds in the cattle panel greenhouse.

Probably my favorite aspect of gardening is sharing with others. I took a huge wad of garlic up to the neighbor’s house so that they have some to plant, promising them more as they have six children and are avid garlic eaters. Growing food in great abundance and sharing with friends is the best reward for a summer of hot, hard work, gargantuan weeds, loose llamas, and voracious bugs.

Here’s to another great harvest. Om Shanti.
Jules

Prayers for Healing the Waters

Dr. Masaru Emoto is the scientist from Japan who has done all the research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions. Many people have predominantly angry emotions when we consider what is happening in the Gulf. And while justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr. Emoto, himself, has proposed.

I am passing this request to people I believe may be willing to participate in this prayer,to set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico. We are not powerless. We are powerful. Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily...multiple times daily...can literally shift the balance of destruction that is happening. We don't have to know how...we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any other power active in the Universe today.

"I send the energy of love and gratitude to the waters and all living creatures
in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.

To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, corals, algae ... to ALL living creatures ... I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I Love You."

Please join me in often repeating this Healing Prayer by Dr. Emoto's. Feel free to send it around the planet. Lets take charge ... and do our own clean up.

[From Robin in Great Barrington]

Please send this out as we all can do this without going anywhere or spending money. Bless you, Love Mariam

"You Are Desperately Needed"

Today the Grandmothers woke me with this message and asked me to send it out. Please forward it on so we reach as many people as possible.

"We ask you to cast, anchor, and hold the Net of Light steady for the Gulf of Mexico," the Grandmothers said. "This crisis is affecting the entire world, and humanity is asleep. Wake up!" they cried. "Animals are dying, plants are dying, and your Mother is writhing in agony. If you hold the Net of Light steady at this time you will help stave off further catastrophe.

"You have been lulled into a false sleep," they said, "told that others (B.P.) will take care of this problem. This is not so," they said. "And this is not the time for you to fall into oblivion. Determine now to stay awake, and once you have made that commitment, think of, cast, and hold the Net of Light. Hold it deep and hold it wide. Amplify its reach to penetrate the waters of the Gulf and dive deep beneath the crust of Mother Earth. Anchor it at the earth's core and as you hold it there, ask it to unify with the mineral kingdom of this planet. It will do this and will harmonize with all the solid and liquid mineral states on earth-including oil and gas. The Net of Light will call these minerals back into harmony. Men have wreaked havoc. They have abused the kingdoms of life on earth for many years, but this time their destruction has reached crisis proportions.

"Whatever human beings have damaged, human beings must correct," the Grandmothers said. "This is the law. We repeat: This is the law. You cannot sit back and ask God to fix the mess humanity has created. Each of you must throw your shoulders to the wheel and work. We are asking for your help. Several years ago we gave you the Net of Light so you would be able to help the earth at times like this. Step forward now. This is the Net of Light that will hold the earth during the times of change that are upon you," they said.

"First move into your heart and call on us. We will meet you there. The Net of Light is lit by the jewel of your heart," they said, "so move into this lighted place within you and open to the Net of which you are a part. Bask in its calming presence. It holds you at the same time that you hold it.

"Now think of magnifying your union with us. We, the Great Council of the Grandmothers, are with you now, and all those who work with the Net of Light are also with you. There are thousands, even millions now connected in light," they said. "Along with this union, call forth the power of the sacred places on earth. These will amplify the potency of our joint effort. Then call on the sacred beings that have come to prevent the catastrophe that threatens to overwhelm your planet. We will work together," they said, nodding slowly.

"Think of, cast and magnify the presence of the Net of Light in the Gulf of Mexico. See, imagine or think of it holding the waters, holding the land, the plants, the sea life, and the people. Holding them all!" they said. "The Net of Light is holding them steady; it is returning them to balance. Let the love within your lighted heart keep pouring into the Net of Light and hold, hold, hold. Calmly and reverently watch as the light from your heart flows along the strands of the Net. It will follow your command and continuously move forth. As soon as you think of it, it will happen. We ask you to practice this for only a few minutes at a time, but to repeat it throughout the day and night.

"We promise that this work with the Net of Light will do untold good," the Grandmothers said. "We are calling you to service now. You are needed. Do not miss this opportunity. We thank you and bless you."

Sharon's note: To learn more about the Grandmothers and the Net of Light, go to grandmothersspeak.com.

Bugs, slugs and turning nettles into wine

I thought I had it all figured out last summer, and blogged about how successful we were eradicating slugs and bugs. Something like this: The slugs are gone! After using white vinegar and water to squirt the little buggers as they ate, rather than picking them up (eugh!), sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the plants on top of the soil as to not disturb the earthworms below, a healthy application of Escar Go, from Gardens Alive dot com, and finally, a complete demulching of the whole garden (since it's so wet here we don't really need it), I checked on the lovely gardens because it rained for the past 12 hours.

No slugs, not even one.

Me thinks I'm going back out there just to sit and stare in awe at the beauty of no more slugs in my gardens. (Of course they replicated and came back). Cohorts from Honest Weight read my happy farming blogs and occasionally commented. My wonderful friend, Dennis Phayre, former owner of what was the best vegetarian restaurant in the Capital Region, Shades of Green, emailed me in response to my site and said,

“So you like torturing hungry little bugs?”

I decided to share my feelings about garden eating bugs with all of you spiritual seekers out there who believe that bugs should live long fat happy lives. I too am a fan of bugs and by the way, almost completely vegan. I too love the Earth and all its wonders. Here’s the saga of me and the slugs, which started out oh so Perelandra.

I don't like torturing bugs, I told my friends. I kindly asked them to leave on multiple occasions. Then I picked them off carefully one by one into the hundreds. I have photos of kitty litter boxes full of slugs to prove it. Then finally one day I decided that it would be best for their spiritual evolution for them to fast, so I applied Slugaway, which is completely non toxic to humans and pets, and it makes slugs stop eating. The slugs fasted, they evolved, and they have reincarnated as butterflies, last I heard.

The road to figuring out how to deal with slugs and bugs has been a long hard slog through organic land with many errors along the way, including the voracious Japanese beetles. I put out traps fairly far from the garden, and I walked around with Dawn dishwashing detergent diluted in a spray bottle, and sprayed them while they ate. A few fell off here and there, stunned by the blue spray. Between the traps and Dawn, I planned to hopefully salvage 98% of the garden. Also, the wild and beautiful mullein plants tried to help me by sacrificing themselves to the beetles, who love mullein. While those beetles swarmed the mullein, I spray them with Dawn is what I told my friends. Then… bad news struck.

RED ALERT!!! Either Dawn is totally poisonous or I just made the mixture too strong, because it totally hurt my plants. Yikes! Don't use Dawn. It's BAD for Plants. Sorry plants! Yes, I killed many plants with Dawn. And the beetles marched on, eating and replicating, much like Mr. Smith in the Matrix.

Well, I thought, at least they are mostly eating the nettles I so thoughtfully transplanted from a farmer’s field into two of my beds. We happily ate simmered nettles in the spring (tastes like mild spinach) and during the summer I saw how they sort of kept the beetles at bay. Until this spring when I noticed that eek! The nettles had morphed into monsters and spread to many other beds, and so frantically I started the Nettles Eradication Program. How to metaphorically turn nettles into wine?

I carefully and microscopically dug the nettles from the garden beds, and replanted them in a fenced off over grazed llama pasture, where they are happily sprouting anew. The llamas will soon have a nettles feast and I have again warded off another garden disaster, or shall we say, misadventure.

The birds are certainly chirping, but since we have snow, well I'll just have to keep snowboarding! To keep inspired about spring, I am writing a monthly gardening article for the Honest Weight Coop Scoop newsletter. Go here for the latest.

If you are in the area, stop and and enjoy the ambiance of Albany's favorite vegetarian and now meat stocking health food cooperative. Honest Weight is a place where we go to eat great food, purchase our groceries, participate in food activism and see our friends. Look for me there.

Cheers!

Forming Intentional Community one dog at a time...Meet Zuchini

New tipi at the farm!

This effort was masterminded and built by Sean Bohley, who is a new landsharer of the Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm, with assistance staining and other gruntwork by locals Zake Griswold, his friends, Jerome Tracy and myself. Rough cut lumber (hemlock) by Fiske in Stephentown, tipi (22 feet, made of 15 oz duck and reinforced with buffalo hide) from Colorado Yurts, stove by Four Dog Stoves out of Minnesota. Our tipi is a healing circle for friends, a place to stay in the country, a new experience of roundness for those of us who just can't do square :)

Winter Farming Country Style

May 2009 ... Strawberries

May 30, 2009

The pups watching us, watching them.

May 6, 2009

Hi Everyone. Welcome to Spring at Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm. Soon, I will be posting new photos of our upgraded farm, including pics of the new beds, expanded strawberry beds, blueberry bushes, and asparagus.

Let's start this season talking about strawberries...I'm a fan of letting them run wild. Isn't that what we all really want to do anyway? Why not plants too?

I let them run wild in the summer, our family enjoys luscious strawberries from early, mid and late blooming flowers, then in the winter, the happy plants naturally die off and/or go to sleep. Springtime rolls around, many of them come back to life, the old ones just continue to compost, and I have a whole new crop of strawberries everywhere. That's just the beginning...

I take this new crop, one plant at a time, and shovel carefully under it, then transplant each plant to a new home. Right now, we have four happy strawberry beds that also include a few garlics and perennial flowers.

We started with much less last year.

I bought a total of maybe 20 plants at the Honest Weight Food Coop. Since then, we have probably 300 plants growing and I have given away probably two hundred plants to friends.

How does this magical abundance work? Back to my original plan, you let your strawberries run wild! Then transplant them in the spring. Simple solution to an age old question which is, What do strawberries really want?

They want LLAMA POOP! Oh, didn't I tell you? That's our secret ... pics coming shortly.

Jules

Fall/Winter 2008

2008-03-20T11:29:00.034-04:00

Friday June 26th, AERO Conference Workshop:
More From the Living Green Cheap Series

http://www.aeroconference.com/workshops.htm

Live Green Cheap Through Permaculture Micro-Farming
Presenter: Julie Ann Harrell
Format: Presentation and Discussion
Type: Practical Skills
Conference Track: Future
Additional Focuses: Present
Target Audience: Everyone

Description:
Growing your own food is simple if you have the right tools to create soil, then add a structure for the plants to grow. You can use any non-toxic materials you have on hand to create your own, home-based, permaculture garden and/or microfarm.

This workshop focuses on building small amounts of soil, along with the design architecture to allow for the most growth in the smallest space. Including are color photos of our raised bed garden, complete with cattle panel hooped trellises with 13 foot long tomato plants. Also, for those who are interested in early spring planting, plans are included for a good-sized, inexpensive, homemade and totally windproof greenhouse. Step by step, I will guide you through the process of working within your personal space requirements, using visual aids and an open discussion. By the end of this workshop you will have the tools to go home and do it yourself, with the help of your children. Included in the discussion is information about how we take care of our family pets and barnyard animals (four dogs, two cats, four llamas and a goat) using an easy access living space, and natural mineral supplementation products.

We have built our microfarm using cattle panel scraps, throw away lumber, windows salvaged by the side of the road, and dumpster-dived odds and ends to create a living, breathing wonderland of bee and hummingbird-friendly annual and perennial plants. Using fresh llama droppings, combined with old washed out soil, we built this garden step by step and now provide insect sanctuary along with food for our human and animal family for much of the year. We freeze, can, ferment and compost our produce, with nothing going to waste.

If you are on a budget and willing to spend some time and elbow grease to create your garden, this workshop is for you. Children learn by doing, and working in the garden to bring growth out of old scraps and health to the family garden/farm and pets is a learning experience that will remain in their hearts and minds for the rest of their lives.

Handouts include a list and directions to build your cattle panel hoop greenhouse. For more information, please visit: www.photonicgirl.blogspot.com and www.cherryplainfarm.blogspot.com

Bio:
Jules Harrell is a mother, wife, farmer, educator, and writer. She's the proud mom of Reesa Harrell, former Free School student (for eight years) who is now making straight A's in the eighth grade at Woodland Hill Montessori. Jules has a Masters degree in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and is PMP certified from the Project Management Institute. She's a published writer in both the science and technical fields, and believes strongly in human soul regeneration through nature. Jules is on the Jiminy Peak Ski Patrol, is involved in animal rescue, and spends a lot of her time helping those who are less fortunate than others. She takes children into the wilderness to teach them practical skills and help them believe in themselves.

2008....It's officially Fall.

I'm always amazed at how plants grow. Seeing the 13 foot tall tomato plants growing over the cattle panel hoops, with little tendrils containing new bright orange, grape-like, cherry tomatoes...mmm, scrumptious! Even with all the cold damp and rain, we got more tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, basil, squash (acorn, zuke, yellow), cauliflower, peas, beans, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, potatoes, kale (too many varieties to count), greens (many varieties), spinach, lettuce (at least five kinds) chard, flowers (woo hoo!) and strawberries than we could possibly eat can and freeze...I'm fermenting too! Just finished my third bowl of fresh saurkraut/kimchee made from garden beets, garden carrots, including purple and white heirlooms, garden garlic, garden cabbage, and some Honest Weight bought organic onions and ginger. MMMMM!~ Wow!

I took a couple more pics you may enjoy, after which I am heading out today after a light freeze to see what the camera can see. After snapping a few shots, I'll pick more kale for freezing, cabbage carrots and beets for saurkraut, and finish building the third new bed. Then it's time to go get hay for the llamas, and chop veggies for the next batch of kraut. Most of these photos are of tomatoes...they are a favorite subject and also well, we love to eat them. Beyond food, the hoophouse is my latest cattle panel creation, made of three cattle panels, eight T posts, and two tarps. Everything is tied together with recycled hay bale twine. It's quite solid and very nice for an outdoor hangout. Total cost is around $100, which is less than the canopies you can purchase and WAY more solid during a storm. If the tarps die from UV exposure, they are really cheap to replace. The frame will probably last for at least 20 years.
Cattle panels are tough as you know.

Spice up your cattle panel hoophouse hangout with a few Tibetan prayer flags, put some comfy chairs in there and presto, you've got an outdoor place for all your happy times during the spring/fall and summer. In the winter, you can always stick your grill under there and continue cooking ...

Back in June/July

My wonderful friend, Dennis Phayre, former owner of the best vegetarian restaurant in the Capital Region, Shades of Green, recently emailed me in response to my site and said,

So you like torturing hungry little bugs?

I wanted to share my feelings about garden eating bugs with all of you spiritual seekers out there who believe that bugs should live long fat happy lives. I too am a vegetarian and I too love the Earth and all its wonders. Here's the saga of me and the slugs, which started out oh so Perelandra:

I don't like torturing them. I kindly asked them to leave on multiple occasions. Then I picked them off carefully one by one into the hundreds. I have photos of kitty litter boxes full of slugs to prove it. Then finally one day I decided that it would be best for their spiritual evolution for them to fast, so I applied Slugaway, which is completely non toxic to humans and pets. The slugs fasted, they evolved, and they have reincarnated as butterflies, last I heard.

Om Shanti,
Jules
Those freakin Japanese beetles...for those of you who have asked how I deal with them...I put out traps fairly far from the garden, and I walk around with Dawn dishwashing detergent diluted in a spray bottle, and spray them while they eat. Between the traps and Dawn, I will hopefully salvage 98% of the garden. Also, plant mullein plants near your garden if you don't have them already. The beetles love mullein and it will willingly sacrifice itself to save your corn, tomatoes, etc. While they swarm the mullein, spray them with Dawn.

July 13th RED ALERT!!! Either Dawn is totally poisonous or I just made the mixture too strong, because it totally hurt my plants. Yikes! Don't use Dawn. It's BAD for Plants. Sorry plants!

So, onto better things. Yech. Those bugs are annoying. Anyway, it's time I shared a few pics of our Farm this year. These pics are from June, I'm about to go shoot some more for July. At the moment, the tomato plants are about five feet tall, squash leaves are two feet across, we are picking zukes, peas, greens of course and literally gallons of strawberries from a small patch. I guess mixing three different types of strawberries together, adding perennial herbs and garlic, then lots of llama poop did the trick. The garden is just styling!

June 4, A Slug's Story Continued:For those of you who remember my slug issues last season, well, I have good news. The slugs are gone. After using white vinegar and water to squirt the little buggers as they ate, rather than picking them up (eugh!), sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the plants on top of the soil as to not disturb the earthworms below, a healthy application of Escar Go, from Gardens Alive dot com, and finally, a complete demulching of the whole garden (since it's so wet here we don't really need it), I checked on the lovely gardens today because it's rained for the past 12 hours.

No slugs, not even one.

All I can say is YAHHOOO!

I'm going back out there just to sit and stare in awe at the beauty of no more slugs in my gardens.

Jules

May 19th.

I've been so busy with the garden and llamas that I haven't had time to blog! But it's time now to show you what we've been doing to prepare for this wondrous summer. Soon you'll find early May photos of the greenhouse and surrounding new garden beds. All raised beds, mixed with rich humus, composted cattle poop, mixed with llama and goat poop. It's pure poopy! And the plants just love to eat.

See if you can guess what the mystery plant is...right now I have to go outside and tend to everything, but photos are forthcoming so check back with us soon.

Jules

Sometime in late March:

This past week has been busy. Jerome and I built three more raised beds, then Davie and Amelia came over to participate in the gargantuan task of seed inventory and planting. We got about 100 little babies into their nests, and I'm finishing off our initial task today. At one point, we ran out of soil but rather than go with available commercial mix, we chose to wait and get more organic soil and kelp at Honest Weight Food Coop.

Thanks to Amelia's tremendous organizational skills, we were able to transform my pile of stuff in the basement to a beautiful seed apartment complex. Daniel Dog Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm called to tell me that we can plant our little Brassicae and Lettuce babies in the greenhouse now, and let them germinate in cooler temperatures.

More to follow!

Together we bring peace

I've received a little flack for this prayer, but after spending mucho time in tipi ceremonies with Native American medicine people from the Four Corners area of America, I can tell you this: We all pray the same way. It's not about being a Christian, which you surely could not call me, nor is it about being any one religion. It's about praying for peace, plain and simple, whether we be witches, pagans, rainbow, or any other color. Peace is peace, and this prayer works.

Pray this for a new Heaven and Earth here now.

In Jesus Name, I cover everyone on the Earth and in the surrounding Universe in the Blood of the Lamb.

All conflicting and otherwise lower dimensional entities within the Earth and surrounding Universe are Bound in Jesus Christ's Holy Name. These grey entities now float upward to the Light where God and His Angels take them forever for reprogramming.

Amen.

2008-03-13T16:48:00.001-04:00

First post of the season on this new blog, devoted entirely to the garden home. I guess a photo might be useful. Don't have much in the way of exciting garden pics quite yet, so instead here's a pic of just me, the proprietress of this operation.

Well it's still snowing here, so for now, we haven't even started planting seeds in the house, but that's coming next week! Amelia will be helping me, the new moon is waxing so there's still time before it wanes to get some seeds going. Okay, I'll admit it, the ginseng came and I had to plant those seeds immediately. They were sprouting already. They are sitting in some recycled organic lettuce containers from Honest Weight. I'll post more later, for now, here's the snow.