Diary Entry

I haven't made a daily diary entry in awhile. I like to post a diary occasionally just to let those interested in a homestead or small farm life know what day to day might be like. I composed this Monday evening. 

Early dawn wakes me up. The start of another day. After completing the usual morning routine, what does the day hold now? Rain. Yuk. Rain, which turned out to last all day. 

..... Move yesterday's laundry water down to the greenhouses. Charge it with compost tea, then water all three greenhouses, even the empty one. The empty one is ready to prepare for replanting. I don't want the soil in it to dry out between crops, so I water it along with the other greenhouses. 

..... While I'm in that area, I harvest two pallet boxes of potatoes -- Yukon Gem and Caribe. After removing the spuds, I cart fresh compost to the boxes and mix it in. It took 6 wheelbarrow loads to tup up the boxes. Lots of mixing, lots of effort. I should have waited for a dry day so that I could have used the rototiller, but I was eager to replant these boxes. Once ready to replant, I sow each with bean seeds. After all, how many more days will it be raining? One never knows, especially when there is a weather system spanning the entire island chain. I don't want to wait. 

..... Still in the area, I harvest lima beans, sweet peppers, and tomatoes. It's always rewarding to harvest something. 

..... I still have time to work on harvesting bamboo poles before lunch break. I don't know what name this bamboo has, but the poles are 1 inch in diameter, solid cored, and tough as heck. A lopers won't do it. So I bring out the battery operated sawsall. Yes, it's still raining, but it's slowed down to a misty drizzle. So I can use the sawsall as long as I protect it and don't lay it in the rain. Zip. Zip. Zip. Hack down about 40 poles. Putting the sawsall back into the truck, I grab the hand pruners. I don't have enough time to clean up all the poles, but I get about half done. 

... Lunch break. Heat up a pot of homemade soup that I made last night, and trek down to town to share lunch with hubby. After lunch, spend the next hour taking care of business in town, plus pick up slop buckets full of waste food from the local restaurants. With the addition of cooked rice, this will be the chickens' dinner tonight plus their breakfast tomorrow. 

..... Back at the farm, I put the slop & rice onto the outdoor cook stove. I'll come back in about a half hour to turn it off. Next, I finish up cleaning the bamboo poles. The thick poles get moved to the pole storage spot next to the greenhouses. The thinner poles, which get used for plant stakes and markers, get piled over by the garden beds. All the trimmings get cut up into 1 foot long lengths, then go into the hugelpit that I'm filling alongside the driveway. 

..... Interrupting my "fun" with the bamboo, I check on the chicken's dinner slop. All four pots off the stove and into hayboxes to complete their cooking. By dinner time they should be cool enough to feed, though still warm. The hen's have gotten use to eating warm meals. 

..... The hugelpit is due for a layer of manure. So, armed with old feed bags, I head back to the back pastures to gather up donkey manure. It takes an hour to gather what I need. After dragging the bags out of the pasture, I drive them down to the pit. It doesn't take long to fling the manure about. Job done. The 3 pits are ready for the next layer of weeds and trimmings. But that will be another day...actually days. 

..... With still a bit of time left, I head over to pond to harvest the excess pond plants. Loading them into buckets, I drive them over to compost bins, adding layers to the bins I'm working on filling. I'm totally soaked by now from the rain and pond water, and I'm running low on energy. Time to slow down and think about calling it a day. 

..... Before heading back to the house, I pick up the fallen macnuts (a 5 gallon bucketful) and lilikoi (23). 

..... Back at the house, the first thing I do is dish out the chicken feed for the girls. Next are the kenneled dogs -- clean up the pen and add fresh litter; fresh water; fresh food. Give each dog a brushing and give them fresh blankets. No walks today due to the continuing rain. Yup, it's still raining. 

..... Time to clean up. Shower. Dry clothes. Next .....

..... Process the morning's harvest. Macnuts get washed and set on a tray under the house to dry. The lilikoi are washed, then juiced. The juice goes into the frig. The peppers are sliced and popped into the freezer. The tomatoes will be for tonight's dinner, with the extras going into the freezer for future soups. The limas will wait to be shelled later tonight. I go outside to harvest some green onions for dinner. 

.... Feed the cats. Check the solar batteries. Feed ourselves. Shell those limas. Look back on the day and give myself a pat on the back for jobs well done. Line up a few tasks I'd like to do tomorrow -- tasks that could be done despite the rain. Oh crap, I just remember that I have a truck appointment at Nissan tomorrow, over in Hilo. Well, that shoots the day for any farm work. But on an upside, I get to pick up the new riding mower. Yes, I'm breaking down and getting a riding mower again. I need more grass clippings than I can mow with the regular lawnmower. I'm not giving up the push mower. It's a great form of cheap exercise. No need for a membership at the gym! I need a goodly volume of grass clippings, which a riding mower will deliver in a hurry. I used one before, so I know that it doesn't take long to get a whole truckload of clippings quite fast. And now that I am getting older, I just might make the riding mower a permanent piece of farm equipment this time around.