There has been little time for blogging about Bufflehead
Pond Farm lately. Summer and the garden
have sucked all the hours from our days, what little is left over after our
full-time jobs. But all in a good
way. We had the most gorgeous summer
ever, especially for western Washington, with constant sun and hot days for
months on end. (And there has been more than enough physical work to keep us buffed up, albeit beneath deepening layers of contented fat cells.)
But this great weather meant having to spend two hours every day watering the new
lawn and all the thirsty tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, peas, beans, cucumbers,
carrots, beets, turnips, onions, garlic, shallots, bok choy, strawberries, a bay
tree, melons, rhubarb, three kinds of basil, lettuces, spinach, all kinds of
herbs, and a huge raspberry plant weaving in and out of the garden fence. And
other stuff too… a rue plant, blueberry bushes, savory, lavender, rosemary,
lovage, spring onions, and more…
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| Totally out of control... |
And numerous daily visits to coax the “children” to grow
faster, bigger, more prolific, or to toss the occasional giant slug into the
pond, or pick the caterpillars off, or harvest some salad-fixin’s for dinner,
or deposit the daily compost scraps, or stand and stare for long minutes musing
about how the garden is going to look “when it’s finished... someday.”
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| Dee's New Fitness Center Workout |
And now moving into fall, the moisture returns, bringing: Mowing... Weed whacking… Mildew and vine rot for all the tomatoes, zukes,
cukes, pumpkins and melons… Harvesting, every night, baskets of tomatoes and cukes
for pickling… Canning and freezing… Blackberry picking, washing, freezing… and,
did I mention mowing?
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| Too Many Tomatoes |
In short, without going into the thousands of other happy
chores, big ones and small ones, that have to get done around here to keep this
place civilized and to make it look like the paradise we visualize, we’ve gotta
get organized and make a plan about how it’s all going to get done and when. Otherwise, we’re just plain doomed. It’s a slippery slope indeed.
When
Bruce bought the property, the county (Department of Conservation) gave him a
satellite shot of the whole 12 acres, divided into labeled sections. It looks a bit different from today’s view
from space because of the added and deleted buildings, but the basics are the
same, and we’re going to use this as a guide to understanding and planning for
the property workload for the year.
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| 2009 - When Bruce bought the farm, so to speak. |
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| Early in 2013, house under construction |
To complicate matters, there’s not one specific section of land where the most important
activity (bird watching) will take place, so we’ll have to organize our
organization in such a way as to allow for non-location-specific chores like this. This one job involves constant vigilance from
all portals within the house, with bird books and binoculars ever handy, and
with ears alert for bird songs and chirps outdoors. Sometimes this work requires a glass of wine
and an internet connection, to facilitate bird identification, of course.
But Bruce has lamb chops on the griddle and my ability to concentrate on blogging is no longer possible, what with all that wine to facilitate, or whatever it was that I was doing... I'll let you know when we get organized. Do stay tuned.
Cheers!
Dee and Bruce
But Bruce has lamb chops on the griddle and my ability to concentrate on blogging is no longer possible, what with all that wine to facilitate, or whatever it was that I was doing... I'll let you know when we get organized. Do stay tuned.
Cheers!
Dee and Bruce
