Photo Wrap-Up for July

July color: echinacea and crepe myrtles.

July has been such a busy month that it seems I should be saying it's a relief it's nearly over. But August will be just as busy, as building, gardening, harvesting, preserving, and researching continue their fast and furious pace. The amazing thing about July was all the rainfall and cooler temperatures. "Cooler" is a relative term, of course, but the highs only got to about 90°F (32°C), many days cooler. That's ten degrees cooler than what we usually expect this time of year.

To close out the month, here are a few shots from my July photo folder.

Freshly picked okra and tomatoes

Corn in the garden.

Cucumbers in the garden.

Cucumbers in salad (with hard-boiled eggs and feta cheese)

Blueberries in pie. (That first fresh blueberry pie is always the best!)

Hudson hoping for a treat of leafy blueberry branches.

Harvested pears

Canned pears

Pied pears

Iris and Jessie in the old goat barn. (Moving day approaches).

Muscovy Mama on the tree we need to cut up for firewood.

Fresh figs

Frozen figs

Figs in gingerbread pancakes

Solar cooked comfort food at the end of a busy day.

Meowy at the end of a busy day.

Photo Wrap-Up for July © July 2018 by

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

Six Months Later: How Dan's Hand is Doing

It's been six months since Dan nearly cut his fingers off with the table saw. How is his hand?

That's the first picture I've ever taken of it. And even though it's not pretty, it looks a whole lot better than it did before.

He doesn't have much pain anymore, but the fingers are still pretty sensitive. The worst part is the stiffness. Most of the time those two fingers just won't bend. Now if he gets busy with a project and doesn't think about it, he can get some bending of the knuckles, but they tend to lock up again quickly which limits his dexterity and especially the ability to grasp. He massages it with healing oils and that helps some.

He's not one to let it get him down, however, and he's been able to compensate for most tasks and tools, except the chain saw. He needs to be able to grasp it properly to use it, which he can't do yet. He hates using the table saw (and probably always will!) but forces himself because, as he says, we've just got too much to do around here.

The trucking company he used to drive for said he could come back to work with doctor's permission. But because of his limitations, especially with grasping and holding, he doesn't think he could actually perform the tasks required for the job. So after a few lifestyle adjustments we're making do on Social Security retirement. We can pay our bills, buy necessities, and still have enough to slowly work on projects. Happily, my author's advance from Prepper's Livestock Handbook enabled us to buy most of what we need to finish the barn. Hopefully it will sell well and help us with tools and equipment we need to save up for.

So that's the Dan report. He sometimes feels like his hand is as good as it's going to get, but I say it's still healing and there's still hope. At least he's back to leading a relatively normal lifestyle.

Six Months Later: How Dan's Hand is Doing © July 2018 

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

Goat Barn and Garden: Killing Two Birds With One Stone

In my "Goat Barns: Delays and Discoveries" blog post, I showed you how Dan dealt with a massive amount of rain runoff that was finding it's way into the soon-to-be-completed goat barn. Subsequent rainfall proved its effectiveness, but Dan wasn't satisfied with this:

This is the drain pipe in back of the barn. It's protected by an overhang which will serve as the goats' loafing area. However, Dan wasn't sure the pipe was buried deep enough, considering that goats and us will be constantly walking over it. Probably wouldn't be a problem, but neither were we looking for a future "why didn't I ...?" moment.

So he dug it up and buried it deeper. Satisfied with that, he wanted to build up the ground on top of the pipe and gently slope it away from the barn. But with what? Folks used to give away fill dirt for free, but apparently not anymore. We really didn't want to buy dirt, so we brainstormed: Gravel? Sand? Concrete? We really didn't want to buy those either.

"How about clay?" I suggested, because our subsoil is southern red clay.
"But from where?" he asked.We'd have to dig at least 6 inches to get it.
"I've got just the place," I said, because I've been wanted to build more hugelkultur swales in the garden.

So far I've dug three swales in the garden. One at the top of the garden, and two that became beds. Plantings in those two beds have really done well during our dry spells and require less watering. My goal is to convert the entire garden to permanent raised hugelkultur swale beds.

Our brown sandy loam topsoil doesn't hold water, but our red clay subsoil does. With our garden is on a gentle slope, rain runs right through the topsoil, hits the clay, and drains out down the hill. By digging swales into the clay and filling them with organic matter, I can capture and retain some of that rainwater.

Read more at, "Double Digging for Rainwater Collection."

When I dig the swales I save the topsoil to mix with compost, but I don't need all that clay. When Dan needed filler for the drainage pipe I thought the clay would be a good option. I had just the spot picked out.

Brown topsoil is about a shovel's spade deep, so I dug another
shovel depth into the clay to collect and hold rain runoff.

That's the earthworks part, the next step is the hugelkultur part. The bottom of the swale, the part dug in the clay, is filled with anything that will hold moisture and decompose slowly: logs, large branches, wood chips, corn cobs and stalks, and wood scraps from barn building.

We mill our own lumber so it isn't treated, and I feel comfortable adding it to the soil. The pile had been sitting there so long that the wood scraps on the bottom looked like this -

Mycorrhizal Fungi

Mycorrhizal fungi had already grown on the wood scraps and were making new soil. I hope it transplants well in my bed!

I used soil to fill in the cracks and crevices until the clay layer of the bed was filled.

The tufts of green alongside the bed are wiregrass aka Bermuda.

The top layer is topsoil mixed with compost and mulched with leaves.

Those are sweet potatoes in the bed on the right, melons on the left.

The next step will be to build a border around the bed. Over time we'll build the soil up with more mulch and compost. 

And Dan's project? The clay was perfect for the task.

When it's damp, our red clay is easy to form and shape.

Packed down it will dry hard and solve several problems.

The clay worked perfectly, and I have to say it's a good feeling to use our own resources. Best of all, we got two important jobs done.
 

Goat Barn and Garden: Killing Two Birds With One Stone  

© July 2018 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/