November — The Black Walnut Trees

November 11, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm After, Before, Black Walnut, Chester County, Homestead, Uncategorized

We have quite a few Black Walnut trees on our property and they create several problems. First of all, there are a lot of things you can’t plant near them because they have toxins in their root system and bark that things like apples and pears don’t like – so we have to keep them apart. Then, the bark or chipped wood is also toxic to horses – so we have to keep them apart. And then, they provide food for the squirrels who are multiplying like rabbits on our property – so we need to keep them apart! I’m not sure how.

In addition to those problems, they drop these green-husked balls the size of hand grenades all over the yard. They are like ball bearings. If you step on one, it’s likely to take you for a ride. And trying to cut the grass with all these hand grenades all over the place sends them shooting in different directions and/or dinging up the lawn mower blades.

I spent the better part of a day raking them up, filling a 5 gallon bucket and moving them into some of the underbrush where we don’t cut the grass. But it wasn’t “a” 5-gallon bucket, it was 20 trips with the 5-gallon bucket, and that’s only from two trees, and more are continuing to fall as we speak.

Putting them in a pile is like creating a squirrel grocery store. That isn’t going to help solve the squirrel problem, and over time – we’ll have thousands of new black walnut trees sprouting from the black walnut patch.

I contemplated husking them, shelling them and picking out the nut meats – for about two seconds until I remembered that:

I’d need a corn sheller to run the husks through to peel off the tough green outer layer
I’d need rubber gloves because otherwise my hands would be permanently stained black (well, almost permanently – it takes a long time to get those nails clean again), and
I’d probably only get a pound or two of nut meat for all my hard work.

So, I called the cooperative extension service and left a voice mail to find out if anyone has a commercial black walnut shelling operation around here. Since they still haven’t called me back, I guess the squirrel grocery store is open for business.

dscn7372 — It’s a beautiful tree, until it starts dropping green tennis balls all over the yard.

dscn7383 — Bucket by bucket, I moved them…

dscn7384 — …into a pile of black walnuts where the squirrels can find them.

November – Secrets Men Keep in the Garage

November 1, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm After, Before, Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

We’ve been in the house for just over a year now – and other than some spot cleaning, I haven’t really washed the windows! The year just flew by, we were busy with other things and you could still see out of the windows – so it just never crossed my mind. Now that it’s time to close up for the winter, the spots from rain, dead bugs and dirt looked pretty bad.

When we renovated the house, all the old windows came out and new, energy efficient windows went in. Not only are they energy efficient, they are cleaning efficient. They have a magic latch that allows me to fold the window into the house so I can clean both sides without even contemplating a ladder (because if a ladder was needed, they still wouldn’t be getting cleaned).

Still, I hate washing windows. You get one side clean, and then when you do the other side, there are streaks, and you can’t tell which side they are on, so you end up doing both sides, and then there are different streaks. It takes FOREVER.

I told Chris I was about to clean the windows and he recommended, more like insisted, that I use his auto glass cleaner and old towel rags. I’ve cleaned with Windex-type cleaner and paper towels my whole entire life. What’s with auto glass cleaner and old towel rags? He even demonstrated how I needed to do it (one window down, 16 more to go). I thought about saying, can you show me that again (then there would only be 15 more to go) – but I figured I had the concept down. Spray stuff on, wipe stuff off.

And that was it. Done. Sparkling. Finished. I threw out my Windex-type cleaner.

I think men everywhere must be keeping this a secret. They say, “honey, I’m going in the garage to wash the car windows, I’ll be back in HOURS,” and we believe them!

dscn7379 — The windows fold in! What an amazing invention. No ladder needed.

October – Something is missing

October 25, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

Today would have been my Mother’s 90^th birthday. She passed away October 1^st.

Birthdays have always meant a family gathering. Last year we celebrated her birthday at the farm. This year we won’t.

Her arthritis made it difficult to climb the front stairs to get into the house and her poor vision made it difficult to see the house once she was inside, but she loved her visits here anyway. She saw the house before we started the renovations. She could see the potential, but as mothers do – she worried. She worried about how this would ever come together, worried if we knew what we were doing, worried where we would live while the house was being renovated, worried about how we would manage to move everything, worried, worried, worried.

We moved into the farm last October. Our first family get-together was for her 89^th birthday. She was happy to see it finished, but still worried. She worried how we were going to keep up with the property, she worried about the big trees that line the driveway, she worried about the poison ivy that seems to find me if I even look at from afar, she worried how we would manage when it snowed.

Despite her worries, she liked hearing about the garden and the birds at the feeder and the deer that roam through on a regular basis. She liked to know about her great-granddaughter collecting the chicken eggs, and how, try as she might – she can never catch Fiona the goat. Mostly she liked knowing that this is our home.

dscn5588 — Nancy’s 89th Birthday — October, 2015

October — Greasin’ the Gourds

October 17, 2016October 16, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Autumn, Chester County, Farm, Halloween, Homestead, Uncategorized

Don’t.

I read on the internet (so it must be true), to wipe your fall gourds with a Clorox wipe to kill any bacteria, and then “grease” them with Vaseline to seal them and make them shiny. It sounded like a great way to preserve them through to the other side of Thanksgiving — and, it had the added benefit of making my hands REALLY soft after spending all that time dipped in Vaseline.

The problem is, it didn’t work. While the gourds looked clean and very shiny — they don’t seem to be lasting. At least a few of them have already sprouted soft spots, grown mold and hit the trash can.

But, the scarecrow is at the ready. The mums are blooming, the pumpkins are flanking the front steps and our pet crow is guarding the wine cellar.

dscn7236 — Dirty gourds ready for a cleanin’ and a greasin’.

dscn7232 — Clean and shiny gourds — I should have taken a picture of the moldy, rotten gourds too — but that didn’t look very nice.

dscn7367 — Our scarecrow — a “welcoming” sight for any trick-or-treaters.

dscn7365 — It’s definitely fall on the farm.

October – Fruits of our Labor (Part 2)

October 8, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Blueberries, Chester County, Farm, Fruit Trees, Garden, Uncategorized

Planting apple trees started the momentum. Once we had scoped out where additional fruit trees will go, we realized we had some space on the hillside just below the barn that is perfect for blueberry bushes. Chris had spent several weeks this summer clearing the hillside in anticipation of my planting plans for the spring.

When we were walking out of the Tractor Supply store the other day – there were blueberry bushes just sitting there looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes, saying take me home. I bought six of them. Then I realized that blueberries need a cross-pollinator, so I had to go in search of yet one more blueberry bush of a different variety from a local nursery. So now we have seven.

Thankfully, this dirt is considerable different than the concrete-hard dirt just 100 feet away. Chris tilled a path, dug seven holes and planted seven blueberry bushes in no time. Then he trenched a path just above the blueberries where we plan to transplant our raspberry bushes once they die back this fall.

So now we have a row of apples (three makes a row, doesn’t it)? A row of blueberries, and a row just waiting for raspberries. The farm is shaping up. And in the spring, we’ll be adding pears, peaches and cherries. Yum!

dscn6783 — To get from this over grown mess…

dscn6850 — and a professional chipper/shredder to get rid of the mountains of brush.

dscn7256 — A trip to Tractor Supply for horse feed and a salt lick turned into a blueberry shopping expedition.

dscn7260 — Good thing we have that truck.

dscn7291 — Thank goodness this is nice soft dirt — no auger needed for planting these.

dscn7295 — The blueberries are planted and a row is tilled and waiting for the raspberries to die back this fall so I can transplant them in the spring. Then we can have fruit salad!

September – Fruits of our Labor (Part I)

September 30, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Fruit Trees, Garden, Homestead, Uncategorized

When we bought this farm it was an overgrown mess. Parts of it still are, but we’ve made tremendous progress – especially clearing out the land around the house. As we clear away vines, dead trees and brambles, the last thing we want to do is plant more stuff – only to start the cycle again. So we’ve decided to only plant things that have a purpose and produce something for us to use.

I’ve wanted to get an orchard started, but even with five acres, our space is limited. The first problem is that the front meadow which has sunlight, is too wet and boggy from the stream that runs through it. The second problem is that the side yard has several large black walnut trees, and black walnut trees produce a chemical that isn’t compatible with trees with seeds (like apples and pears). The third problem is that the horses now occupy the sunny, black walnut-free hillside behind the house. Figuring out where to plant an orchard has been challenging.

Getting the trees has also been a challenge. In the spring we went on the website for the Adams County nursery and every tree we wanted was already sold out. The website said check back in July. I guess they meant it, because by the time I remembered to check back in August – many of the varieties we wanted were sold out again and the ones we did try to order went into some website abyss and the order was never received.

So, at a Mud Sale in Bareville we happened upon some apple trees up for auction. I’m not very confident with auctions yet. I’m never sure whether it’s my turn to bid again or even what the price is up to – but I gave it a shot and got three dwarf apple trees (a Gala, a Granny Smith and a Jonagold) – for $28 each – a good price since the ones we tried to order on-line were $30 each.

I must admit, the pick-up truck came in handy. Bringing home three trees was no problem – but planting them – that WAS a problem. There is a sunny stretch of land behind the house and adjacent to our patio. I envision sitting on the patio, in the shade of an apple tree and reaching out to pick a beautiful ripe and juicy apple – in a couple of years. But the dirt was impenetrable. My daughter offered to bring over her post-hole auger and her friend Luis. It took Chris and Luis an hour per hole – manhandling the auger through cement-hard dirt studded with rocks.

Once the trees were in, Chris wrestled with a roll of wire fencing and made nice cages for the trees — after all that work getting them planted, we didn’t want to find them chewed to the quick by the deer.

Finally, our apple trees are in place and I can’t wait to make an apple pie.

The truck came in handy at the mud sale — the trees are loaded.

dscn7242 — The ground was so hard, we thought maybe turning it to mud would help with the digging, but it didn’t.

dscn7250 — The auger and Luis are what helped Chris to dig the holes.

dscn7251 — It was an all day project by the time we wrapped the trees in wire fencing to keep the deer away.

dscn7254 — And now our three apple trees just need to grow — and give us apples!

September – And the Walls came Tumbling Down

September 7, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Homestead, Renovations, Uncategorized Spring House

After all our renovations, the last thing we want is for walls to come tumbling down. But, there was one wall that was really annoying me. It was a cinder block wall on the southeast corner of the spring house ruins. It wasn’t so bad during the summer, covered in vines and weeds; but once we started clearing the meadow and cutting/shredding more of the ubiquitous brambles and briars – the wall started to stick out like a sore thumb.

I’d been eyeing that wall since we first looked at this house. The cinder blocks were a blot on the landscape and an impediment to the natural flow of the spring. Chris took a sledge hammer to it. I’d like to say it tumbled into individual cinder blocks with one hard hit. That’s not exactly how it happened. Over the course of a couple of days, armed with a metal wedge and the sledge, he chipped away, chipped away, chipped away. Good practice if he ever needs to chip his way out of jail! Some cinder blocks broke into pieces, others stayed whole. We used the broken pieces for fill; the whole ones are up in the “bone yard” where we keep odds and ends of things we’ve found on the property (old metal fence posts, old bricks, etc.), just in case we ever need a cinder block or two.

Once the cinder blocks were out of the way, we found old pieces of galvanized metal that may have been the roof of the spring house at one time. That was another project to dig them out. With the cinder block wall and the galvanized metal gone, the spring now flows more directly into the stream rather than making a boggy mess. Now we’re left with the next step of the project — hauling out all the rocks that have collapsed into the inside of the spring house. We’ll pile them up to the side and wait for that day when we can rebuild the spring house to its original beauty. I found a picture of what I want it to look like…someday.

dscn5914 — The spring house ruins — with the cement block wall. What’s it there for anyway?

dscn7181 — We started knocking it down — at least it’s progress.

dscn7184 — A pile of cement blocks to be sent to the “bone yard” in case we ever need cement blocks.

springhouse — How I want the spring house to look some day… when I win the lottery.

August – Organization

August 26, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Homestead, Renovations, Uncategorized

I love organization. Everything should be in its place.

The one place we had not organized was the basement. The basement is damp and dark and has spiders and things. It’s not a place I’m apt to “hang out” in order to spend time organizing.

Holiday decorations, luggage, and other stuff we didn’t need in the house were deposited there when we moved in last October. While most things were in storage bins, some things were still in cardboard moving boxes. We put 2” x 4” boards on the floor to keep the boxes dry – but it was an unorganized mess. Ugh.

With the rain we’ve had, everything kept getting damp. We didn’t realize how damp until two weeks ago when we opened the basement to retrieve our luggage. It had grown mold. It got hosed off, scrubbed with soap and disinfected with sunshine – and it was still disgusting, so we bought new luggage that will now be stored in the attic.

But, we still had a moldy basement. We bought shelf brackets, hardware and a dehumidifier and spent two days in the dark, dingy, damp dungeon – cleaning out cobwebs, building shelves and throwing out moldy stuff. The dehumidifier tank holds 90 pints of water. Chris empties it twice a day. The basement floor is the driest it’s been since we found this place. It must be sucking up water from the springhouse because it just keeps filling up, and we keep dumping it down the drain.

Finally, it feels cool and dry, the shelves are in place and it’s organized! But I still don’t like the spiders.

DSCN7148 — And things shoved on shelves —

DSCN7156 — To this organized shelf of extra paint,

DSCN7157 — And shelves of canned goods and kitchen supplies;

DSCN7159 — And neat shelves of holiday decorations! It’s organized.

August – Carrots

August 20, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Garden, Homestead, Uncategorized

I wasn’t sure how the garden would do this first year. We had obstacles to overcome – rocks, stones and gravel – to begin with, questionable soil, and then pesky rabbits.

But those little seed packets seem to have overcome the odds and continue to amaze me. I planted two kinds of carrots – typical orange Nantes carrots and a specialty pack I picked up somewhere of “rainbow” carrots in a variety of colors – purple, yellow and white. Despite all the impediments in the soil, the carrots have grown fairly large, and mostly straight.

Digging the carrots out has been a bit of a challenge; the soil just doesn’t seem to want to release them. I thought a good tug would be sufficient, but it has taken a variety of digging tools to pry them loose.

Then they need scrubbing and peeling; but if you peel a purple carrot – you get an orange carrot. That’s just not fair. I wanted purple all the way through to add color to my soups and stews. So I scrubbed them extra hard and left the peels on. Then there is the chopping and blanching and chilling in a cold water bath and drying and then freezing on a cookie sheet.

The “girls” ate well — they loved the peels, and eventually – I ended up with two big bags of frozen carrots – a gallon of orange and a gallon of colorful ones. Now I need a cold fall day to make a big pot of vegetable soup.

DSCN7172 — The problem is, when you peel the red carrots, they are just orange underneath. That’s not fair.

DSCN7173 — Blanched and ready to freeze.

DSCN7174 — Peels and scraps for the girls.

August – Birds of a Feather…

August 15, 2016August 15, 2016 Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Bird Watching, Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

So the saying goes, that Birds of a Feather Flock Together. I’m not sure exactly what that means in relation to our bird feeder. There are a lot of birds flocking there, and squirrels – which aren’t birds at all, but apparently, think they are.

Chris takes good care of the birds – the feeders are always full and the bird bath always has fresh water. We’ve been rewarded by a growing number and variety of birds that frequent our front yard. Whether it’s coffee in the morning or a drink in the late afternoon – we sit in the rocking chairs on the front porch and watch the rotation of birds.

There is the constant fluttering of cardinals, blue jays, nut hatches, wrens, sparrows and gold finches, sometimes interspersed with red-bellied woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers and an occasional blue bird. The hummingbird feeder in the back yard gets an infrequent visitor – but at least we know there are hummingbirds around. And flying overhead are hawks, black birds and sometimes turkey vultures. The other day we had something new and ran for the bird book – maybe some sort of an Oriole.

It’s a great place for bird watching; apparently there is a lot of flocking going on.