Driveway rock wall --- I've been hauling rocks for days, a few at a time, multiple times a day. I've finally brought enough to build another 80 feet of rock wall. Believe me, that's a heck of a lot of rocks. But it feels really great to see that long section get completed!
Hugelpits --- with it being a winter lull right now, I'm getting the opportunity to clean out the gardens around the house before things start growing like crazy again. All the weeds and trimmings are being layered into the hugelpit beside the driveway. You'd think the dang thing would be full by now, but the material has been decomposing over the years, thus settling down. This past year the level dropped 2 feet, giving me plenty of room to add more layers. I'm already growing a few banana trees around this pit and they are surely appreciating the constant compost.
Pasture improvements --- the grass seed and oats I sowed the past 2 weeks is sprouting. Although it's just baby grass, it's giving a nice greeness to the pastures. I've also been seeding some various forbs that I know the sheep will eat, plus transplanting cuttings of kukui grass and guinea grass. It will be many weeks before the sheep will be allowed to graze for a couple hours here and there, but after a few months they will be able to enjoy these pastures as part of their pasture rotation. This has been a big, big project and I'm glad to see some visual reward.
Food gardens --- my neighbor, Matt, has been champing at the bit to get the gardens going again. I finally gave him the go ahead to start seeds. He turned all his garden areas by his house and I followed up by tilling the clods apart and removing any newly dug up rocks. He promptly got beans planted. Way to go, Matt!
Main food garden --- this is the main project for this week. I've just started. The sheep have already eaten the grass down. And I followed them by using he lawnmower to scalp it closer. Now I'm tilling to bust up the grasses, turn in a layer of compost and manure. I'll do one 3'x20' area at a time and let Matt plant his seedlings and seeds into it. I'll post some photos at the end of the week.
Manure clean up --- here's one job that most people don't do. But the manure is a major fertilizer source in this farm, so I collect it. I spent a few hours each day picking up donkey and sheep manure, putting it into a compost bin. I'll let it sit there for a couple weeks, heating up and decomposing a bit. It will be growing billions and billions of soil microbes, critters that really improve my soil.
With these projects getting caught up on, I'll need to add a few more to the task list........
...plant turmeric starts
...collect banana keiki and plant them into new beds
...start sugar cane starts
...start sweet potato cuttings
Yup, work is never done on this farm. There's always something waiting around the corner that needs to be worked on. That's ok with me. I'm still enjoying learning to farm this place.
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