Painting the Barn

One of the projects on our to-do list is giving the barn a fresh coat of paint.

It's been seven years since the barn was built, and it definitely needed a new coat of paint. I had hoped to find oil-based paint because it's longer lasting, but apparently they don't sell it anymore. I did switch brands however. In the past we used Lowe's Valspar paint on everything and were satisfied with it. But the quality doesn't seem to be as good as it used to be, so I switched to Glidden which seems to be a better product. At least it gives better coverage, so that means fewer coats.

Sadly, the barn quilt had to go. Here's what it looked like when it was new . . .

Photo from July 2018

But now . . .

This was Lowe's best plywood, but it' beyond repair. We'd both like to put up a new one, but making it isn't at the top of my to-do list. Dan wondered if cement board would be longer lasting, but I'm not sure about paint on cement.

We've had some beautiful days for painting and I'm glad to have the job done before the summer heat takes away the fun of outdoor projects.

This side of the barn is where our fig trees used to be. We had a slow die-off over the past several years. Except for one young survivor, they've been removed and I planted the area with fescue. The magnolia tree in the center of the picture serves as winter shelter for scores of birds. Grandiflora magnolias are evergreens with large leaves and offer good protection for them. Early in the morning the bird song and chatter is quite loud!

Of fig trees we planted two new ones.

We put them is a different spot, where they'll receive more sun. It will be a few years until we get figs, but they do well in our growing zone and are easy to maintain.

That's one big job crossed off the list! Now I'm on to giving Dan's workshop a repaint. 

Painting the Barn © April 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Garden Notes: October 2023

 Rainfall 

• 12th: 0.55"
• 14th: 0.33"
• 16th: 0.01"
• 20th: 0.31"
• Total: 1.2 inches

Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 38 to 59°F (3.5 to 15°C)
• range of daytime highs: 59 to 84°F (15 to 29°C)

Weather Notes

About mid-month the mornings were getting cool enough to switch to my winter work schedule. That means I do my garden and outdoor work in the afternoons. Mornings are indoors. That's when I used to do most of my writing, but now I mostly weave and sew (which I talk about on my other blog).

According to the weather forecast, a cold front will push through any time now. Our first frost looks extremely likely after that. 

Planted (all early in the month)

• carrots
• daikons
• turnips
• lettuce
• kale
• Egyptian walking onions

It's been pretty dry, so many of my seeds sit dormant in the ground. Maybe they'll make for an early spring garden.

Transplanted

• hazelnuts 
• chestnuts

These are saplings I traded hopniss tubers for.

Harvested

• greens: kale, turnip, daikon
• turnips
• cherry tomatoes
• slicing tomatoes (which don't want to ripen)
• sweet peppers
• sweet potatoes
• first sweet potato squash (the others are still greenish)
• peanuts
• pecans
• quince

1st quince

I planted two little Chinese quince trees back in March of 2021. I've kept an eye on them for fruit, but missed this one entirely. I found it on the ground! I have no idea what to do with it yet, but I'm looking forward to learning.

Okra and green bean plants are fading but still manage to put out a few. I'm letting these dry to save the seed for next year.

Salads, of course.

Kale, Swiss chard, daikon greens, cherry tomatoes, green pepper,
and aged goat feta. The dressing is a commercial chickpea dressing.
It's tasty, so I want to experiment with trying to make my own.

Things to do before first frost

• Harvest sweet potatoes
• Harvest sweet potato squash
• Bring my potted ginger indoors
• Try potting one of my green pepper plants again this year. Last year's didn't make it, but I didn't have a good place to store it. This year, I have the greenhouse, so I'm hoping for success.

Parting shots

Not much fall color this year, but the forsythia bushes never disappoint.

Spotted this little guy on a leaf of one of my potted chestnuts.

Garden Notes: October 2023 © October 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Of Fallen Trees and What We Do With Them

In my last blog post, I mentioned that a tree had fallen on our fence.

Uprooted pine tree.

It's a pine tree that was growing on the other side of the pasture fence. When it uprooted and fell, it got caught in the branches of an oak tree, so it didn't hit the ground. Being precarious and therefore dangerous, it had to come down. 

This is actually a fairly common occurrence here. It's always pine trees because pines are pioneer trees; they grow quickly in untended open areas, then gradually give way to young hardwoods. This is called succession. They grow tall and spindly competing for the sun. Their fast growth makes them weaker and subject to uprooting when the ground is too saturated or breaking mid-trunk when the winds are high. Fortunately, no buildings or critters have ever been hit (including us!) although we've lost a lot of fences from this happening. These trees were the motivating factor in buying Dan's portable sawmill and have provided most of the lumber we've used for building projects.

Dan first checked to make sure it was safe, and then let the billy boys into the pasture to eat the oak leaves.

Piedy and Magnus on their way to check it out.

Jonah got there first. The little building you see in the
background is our original buck barn, Fort William.

Most people typically graze goats on pasture, but their preferred food is browse, i.e., leaves and tender twigs from trees and shrubs. So, the boys happily did the job of stripping leaves.

When they were done, Dan cut the tree down, trimmed off the branches, and dragged the log to the sawmill.

Bonus points if you can spot the two cats.

The project we have in mind is the second pergola to shade the front bedroom windows on the setting sun side of the house. 

These windows get the hot afternoon summer sun.

Having a project in mind meant Dan could cut the log to the specs he wanted.

This project isn't imminent, but the cutting needs to be done to give the lumber time to cure. It will be ready when we get to it.

Rough cut & curing. Sticks (stickers) between
the pieces allow air to flow so it will dry evenly.

The branches were run through our chipper for the wood chip pile.

The pine wood chips

When we're done, all of the tree has been utilized. 

Did you spot the two cats in the above photo? In case you didn't, here they are.

Katy

Meowy

Of Fallen Trees and What We Do With Them 

© June 2023 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Greenhouse Progress: A Side Project, Actually

Every big project seems to present at least one thing that isn't the project itself, but must be addressed in conjunction with the project. This time, it was removing a clump of crepe myrtle trees that we don't want shading the greenhouse. Crepe myrtles are deciduous, but the trees were pretty large and have no other purpose than ornamental. Dan decided to tackle it when it finally rained after a long dry spell. The root system of this clump of trees was likely to be extensive, so he wanted the soil moist and workable.

I didn't manage to take a before photo, but I found an old picture.

Photo from 2019. The crepe myrtle clump is circled in yellow.

People call crepe myrtles the 'lilac of the South,' but Dan calls it the 'chia bush of the South,' because it thrives on being cut back. It will send out numerous thick sprouts and spreads by runners. It's difficult to get rid of, so digging it out by the roots was the only option.

We trimmed it back first, reserving the branches and brush for wood chips. Then the digging started.

Hand digging revealed that the root system was
too extensive to remove the clump by hand.

Dan's PTO driven auger to the rescue.

Eventually, he was able to get a chain around it and pull it out.

He dragged it to the woods, and we wonder if it will reestablish itself.

Dan filled the hole back in and resumed actual work on the greenhouse. We talked about what to do with it, and we agree another African keyhole garden would be great there. Someday.

Greenhouse Progress: A Side Project, Actually

© Dec 2022 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

March Photos

Closing out March with a few random photos from my March photo folder.

I have to comment on the above photo. I've put a lot of "cat in front of the wood stove" photos on my blog over the years, and about 99% of them have been with Sam in the kitty bed. One day, Meowy helped herself to the kitty bed, and big scaredy-cat Sam is too intimidated by feisty little Meowy to take it back! So, he's found himself a new spot to sleep. 

All remains well in Sam's world.

March Photos © March 2022 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Brush Fence

Some of our property is fenced, some of it isn't. The garden and pastures are, but our woods aren't. But the woods is where I take the goats to browse, and while they mostly stick close to me, they don't recognize property lines and don't mind invading the neighbors to see what they've got growing. 

We've talked about fencing the woods, but it would be a big job. It just never makes it close to the top of the to-do list. One reason for that is because we've had a lot of pine trees fall since we bought the place.

We used to think it was because of disease or insect problems, but finally figured out that what we were observing was natural succession. The land was farmed 80 or so years ago, and the pines sprung up when the land went fallow. They grew fast, tall, and spindly, so that by the time we arrived, they were ready to give way to hardwood saplings. We're happy to see the hardwoods growing, but the fallen pines have made a real mess of the woods. 

We've made the best of the waste. Dan has milled a lot of thesm (see some of them here), but that still leaves a lot of branches. Some of the branches get chipped, and some of them become my brush fence.  

I cut them and pile them up along the property line.

Once the piles get high enough, the goats stay on their side.

Trees along the property line help hold them in place.

Every year or so they settle and need more branches piled on top.

Progress is slow, but I'm getting my walking trails back.

I work on it until the goats head back to the barn.

I doubt my brush fences would keep coyotes out, but they are very effective for keeping the goats on the homestead. And, they're free! Plus, it's good exercise and nice to see things getting tidied up. 

Brush Fence © February 2022 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Forest Garden Update: What I've Been Planting

Here's another update from my winter outdoor project list. Besides swales, I'm working on my forest garden. (Planning pictures and lists are here). I started planting in September, but except for the pawpaws, I haven't made a blog record yet. This post is to rectify that! 

I started by transplanting seedlings that I found elsewhere on the property.

Pecan seedling. I've also been planting these in
our woods, like the pawpaws and persimmons.

The first of two transplanted redbuds. Besides edible flowers, redbuds are
nitrogen fixers. It's mulched with chop and drop from nearby crepe myrtles.

Also, I scattered redbud seed pods everywhere. This spring, I
have 10 more seedlings coming from our state forestry service.

In my research, I learned that strawberries can be part of oak tree guilds. So I bordered off an area beneath two mature oaks for a strawberry bed.

Oak guild strawberry bed, with 1st transplants in the ground.
In addition to strawberries, I also planted garlic in the bed.

As an experiment, I tried an idea from Bill Mollison. Instead of a swale, I dug a pit in the center of the bed for capturing water.

That is, I dug as much as the oak roots would let me.

Once dug, the pit is filled with wood chips.
The pairs of bricks are my stepping stones.

I don't know how well the pit will work, but it's not a spot for a swale. 

A couple months later, the strawberry plants and garlic
were doing well and tucked in with a layer of oak leaves. 

The last of my transplants was my potted golden seal.
I also ordered more roots to expand my golden seal bed.

Here's what I mail ordered.

Wild ginger.

Hostas. These started off well and then got munched
down, probably by skunks. Will they survive? Unknown.

One of two spice bushes, before it dropped its leaves. I marked all
my plantings with stones or bricks, so I'll know where to find them!

Here's another mulberry (which I now know I can propagate with cuttings). It's dormant now, but beginning to bud.

Mulberry

Next, I planted honeyberries (haskap). These were pretty much just sticks with roots when I planted them. Even now, I'm wondering if they're alive.

Scraping away the outer bark with my
thumbnail reveals it's green and still alive!

Haskap are primarily found in colder regions, but these varieties are said to do well in my USDA growing zone, so we'll see. They may require a little pampering the first several years, but if I can get them established, it will be worth it.

And here's my map, so I can remember where everything is planted. 

The fuzzy green circles are the mature oaks.

Some people start with beautifully planned out designs, but I couldn't visualize it. So my choice of planting places has been pretty haphazard intuitive. The pear tree (like the hostas) has disappeared, so I suspect its tender leaves were devoured by a skunk. I'll know for sure this spring. If they have survived, I'll give them a little fencing to protect them.

That's my progress so far. I think I'll add a path next. This spring, I'll have more to plant, including adding some annuals into the mix. Looking forward to that!

Forest Garden Update: What I've Been Planting © Feb 2022 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com