General Update

First of all, I had assumed (wrongly) that my life's activities would be getting back to normal along about now. But alas, not the case. I've been busy off the farm helping out seniors that are still avoiding social interacting due to coronavirus. There are trips to the pharmacy to pick up medications, runs to the dump to haul off their trash, shopping trips and visits to the food giveaways to keep meals in their kitchens. I've also made a few visits to check out health problems with their pets, and set up pig traps to eliminate the feral pigs that have  moved onto their places. Then a good friend of mine badly sprained her ankle the other day, so I've now added another daily stop to my schedule. Don't think that I'm complaining. I'm not. I'm just explaining why I haven't had much time for farming and blogging recently. Add to this the farmers market, and my schedule is full. 

I'm managed to get a little farming squeezed into each day. I've gotten another small hugel style pit almost filled in. It's one alongside the driveway, created by the new rock wall being built. About 20' long and 2' deep at the rock wall, sloping up 8' wide to join the hill. It took a lot of vegetation, cardboard, and manures to fill it in. It was like making a gigantic compost pile in the hole, starting out with compacted layers of wood (branches, tree truck pieces, and discarded heat-treated pallet wood), then layer after layer of organic material. I have a seemingly endless supply of organic material for such pits. It's just a case of time and effort to collect it. Anyway, it's filled in and now only needs to be topped with a layer of finished compost and mulch. Once done, I plan to plant pineapples there. I have a couple dozen pineapple tops just begging for a place to be planted. 

Up at the house I've kept the kitchen gardens going. I make a lot of soups out of those gardens. Peas. Beans. Onions and green onions. Beets. Potatoes. Chinese greens. Other greens. Herbs. By growing them near the house, it's easy to harvest what I need to finish off the soup or stir fries I'm working on. 

A month ago I plant little seedlings in the greenhouses. Tomatoes. Basil. Cilantro. For the past two weeks I've been able to harvest the herbs as I need them. The tomato plants have tiny baby tomatoes already! But it will be a while before I'll be harvesting ripe tomatoes. 

Almost each day I manage to get something seeded or planted. Not much, but I'm focusing upon getting at least something planted each day. This past week I've gotten 42 papaya seedling started. Also potted up a couple dozen taro keikis. Sowed some green onion seeds, and planted a few ounces of bean seeds. Started some more pipinolas. A friend just gave me 3  baby trees, so it's a priority job to get them planted in the next couple of days. 

So you see, I've been keeping busy. Just not farming as much as I had been. And not working much on the house or the cat sanctuary pens. But I did make a bunch of picnic tables for our local restaurant. I feel really good about that! The past 2 Saturdays we've been eating breakfast there, using one of those tables. It's set up in a side garden, so it's secluded, private, and alone. A rather safe place to eat out.