New Year’s Eve, federal cider regulators, Nov-Dec retrospective, blackberry and raspberry pruning, the Oliver 88, garlic planting, record rains, snow storm, tractor and truck woes

 

We’ve reached the end of the year, so this is my last chance to catch up on all my entries for the year. We’ll see if I can’t do better at keeping up in 2007. It was a beautiful sunny day today, rare for this time of year. All in all a good optimistic tie up for 2006.

 

Yesterday we stopped by Minea Farm for some Pink Lady cider. Lee broke the news that they would no longer be selling us cider to sell by the glass at our farm. The state regulators are fine with the Mineas’ operation as it is, but the federal regulators are forcing changes. They justify their involvement with the Mineas due to their involvement in interstate commerce – their spiced cider includes cinnamon and nutmeg that are not grown in the state of Washington. The Mineas will continue their retail operation, but will no longer make wholesale sales. Another case where regulations put in place to control the giant national “food manufacturing” corporations drive the small, local, high-quality operations out of the business.

 

There’s not a lot of new farm news since my last entry. The crew is just about done with the Marionberry pruning. I covered blackberry and raspberry pruning quite bit in last year’s entries. If you are interested in details, you can search the entries.

 

 Ruth & I are still working on the records. There’s still a lot to do, but I’m hoping to close the books on 2006 by mid January.

 

Here’s some notes from the gap I never covered in the blog entries.

 

Nov 8 - 14

 

This time was spent mostly on getting the farm ready for winter. We pulled the ground cover plastic from the fields, bundled up the row cover, started winterizing the hoophouses, collected the hoses, sprinklers & other irrigation stuff, shredded leaves for mulch, and spread and tilled in winter rye grain as a winter cover crop.

 

Rob was excited that he finally got his Oliver 88 tractor into use.

 

Rob’s Oliver 88 tractor: Here the tractor is put into use pulling the trailer. There is still a considerable amount of work, but the tractor is up and going. Rob says it pulls and maneuvers powerfully through our sodden roads where we haven’t dared to drive a car or truck for weeks and in places we even avoid with the John Deere.

 

This was the week the first 2007 seed catalog showed up in the mail.

 

Nov 15 - 26

 

Most of this time was spent continuing the same tasks of the prior week.

 

We planted garlic on November 16, two weeks later than my target.

 

We plant garlic in raised beds. We form the beds with a tractor-mounted bed former, but we have to plant by hand. The dibbler speeds up the process significantly.

 

We received record-breaking amounts of rain during the first half of November.

 

A sun break from the rain. Large areas of the fields were covered with sheets of water accumulated during the record rainfall of November.

 

We started pruning the blackberries the week of Thanksgiving. We took off Thanksgiving and Friday.

 

Nov 27 – Dec 3

 

On Monday the crew did some digging on the irrigation system. Rob has some plans to improve flow and pressure. They mostly worked on winterizing the flower garden. They pruned back perennials and mulched the dahlia beds with a thick layer of straw. The crew was scheduled to make significant progress on pruning the blackberries and raspberries this week. Monday evening a snow storm came in. On Tuesday and Wednesday the temperature in the morning was 20 degrees, so the crew stayed home. On Thursday and Friday it was not quite as cold, but even so Rob had them work on other tasks such as moving our remaining good straw bales into storage, clearing away the rain-sodden straw play pyramid at the Ranch, and hanging the bundles of row cover. Last year the mice got into and nested in the row cover during the winter, destroying several sheets. I’m hoping that hanging the bundles from the hoophouse arches will keep the mice out.

 

I managed to avoid most of the snow and cold. Monday evening Carol and I flew off to Las Vegas for a three day trip. Carol had several training meetings to attend and I went along for the ride. We were delayed quite a few hours on the way out due to the snow storm – Carol had one hour of sleep before she had to head out for her meeting.

 

On Friday we had our end of year lunch with the crew. As usual, they chose a Mexican restaurant. Friday was Juan’s last day until next season. He is heading back to Mexico to visit family – and escape the cold.

 

On Sunday we held our annual tea with the farmstead and education staff. In prior years we had met at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle. This year to shorten the drive time we chose the Peach Tree Tea Room in Bothell. We did enjoy the tea at the Peach Tree, but decided it would be more fun to move the event to a new tearoom each year. There was some interest in forming a committee to visit candidate tearooms to make a recommendation for next year.

 

Dec 4 – 10

 

I pretty much lost this week to a root canal done on a neglected tooth. I spent several days pretty much drugged out. On Saturday we had our monthly business meeting. I was short on details, I did pull enough together to review the highlights of the year. I’ll try to put together an overview for an entry in January.

 

The crew spent most of the week pruning raspberries. We are pulling out 5 rows that are showing some root rot damage. Around here it is expected to show up in the 7^th to 10^th year, so I guess we’re on schedule. I have a scheme for a crop to alternate with the raspberries, but I need to work on convincing myself that this particular crop makes business sense. It would be a wonderful addition to the landscape and I know our visitors would love it, but it has to work financially also.

 

Dec 11 - 14

 

This week was spent almost entirely on raspberry pruning. I mentioned in my Dec 18 entry that the John Deere tractor was in the shop with an electrical problem. Monday Dec. 11 was the day it stopped starting. We did get it back last week, but the problem wasn’t really fixed for good. Apparently the starting problem was created by a different short.

 

I also neglected to mention in my last entry that the flatbed truck needs work. Enrique told Rob that the power steering fluid was dropping rapidly. On investigation, Rob discovered the power steering pump was missing two bolts. Since the Ford shop replaced the pump a few months ago, they agreed to take care of it. Rob & I dropped the truck off on Friday before Christmas. We’ll pick it up next week.

 

The big windstorm came in on the evening of Thursday, Dec 14. I covered the storm and the aftermath in my last two entries.

 

Concluding the year:

 

So, here we are, racing the clock to get this entry finished and logged in while it is still 2006. Where would we be without deadlines? There are many events, thoughts, and pontifications I didn’t manage to get entered in the blog this year, but once in a while I have to get some farming done so I have stuff to write about.

 

Here’s to 2006, a great year. May 2007 be even better!

 

What's playing in the Jeep CD player today? Clatter Bone – With a Twisted Grin