Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Records as of Friday afternoon (June 17th) showed 2.56" of rain on the property since June 6th. Records as of 2:00 PM Sunday (June 19th) showed another 0.95", and it was still raining when I left. Fifteen days and 3.51" of rain, and 13.91" since April 19th (two months!)  It is so green and lush. The grasses in the meadow were already 3' and growing, the trees looked great, and the garden is coming along, or at least the potatoes and asparagus are. Verdant is the best word to describe it.

Because of the earlier May wash-out, we are only going to get 60% of the seed potatoes to sprout, although some are just now showing, so that number may improve. The Russet variety seems very slow to sprout, and the Red Pontiacs that were completely unearthed by the May rains are looking really good. I mounded some manure around the plants and raked dirt into mounds. There are about 20-22 asparagus plants coming up, out of the 25 planted.

What is really surprising is that the beets, carrots, and parsnips haven't come up to any significant extent. Nothing. The beets are only 55 days, so these can be replanted. When we're back on the property over the Independence Day weekend, we can see if anything new is up, but the seeds have been in the ground a month, so I doubt much will happen any more now. The corn is doing OK, but just. The plants are still pretty small. I fertilized everything, so that may also help.

Our fruit trees are looking really healthy. Out of a total of eight apples, three cherries, three pears, and three plums, we have lost only one pear tree. This year, we will get our first crop of sour cherries (a whole dozen) and one apple. One day...

Added one new bird to the list of sightings: Grey Catbird. That brings the total to 49.

There's another big storm headed that way, and I don't know how much more rain the ground can absorb. A big rain will probably wreak havoc with the garden again, but there isn't much I can do about it now.

Electric and Hydrogen-Powered Cars

Charging a Chevy Volt

This topic is intimately related to West Virginia and the health of the environment. Everyone has seen these slick commercials about the Chevy Volt and other electric cars on TV. They look very clean and they plug right into the wall. No pollution, nothing dirty, no messy toxic gasoline, no toxic emissions or carbon dioxide. Very nice. A simple solution to a complex problem. It's fantastic that battery technology has developed to the extent that electric cars are feasible and available at reasonable prices. The chemistry behind modern battery technology is exciting and highly innovative. I have some very smart colleagues who work on battery materials.

However, no one discusses the obvious question: where exactly does the electricity that comes out of this nice clean charging station come from? In the United States, there are more than 100 coal-fired electric power plants, and they provide 57% of the total electricity generated. These plants are responsible for 93% of the sulfur dioxide (think acid rain) and 80% of the nitrogen oxides (think acid rain and the greenhouse effect) generated by the electric power industry. Coal-fired power plants emit 48 tons of mercury per year into the environment, more than 40% of the total from anthropogenic sources. The fly ash produced by burning coal contains significant amounts of uranium and thorium, among other heavy metals. More importantly, the vast majority of coal mining in the U.S. is accomplished by strip mining or mountain top removal, both of which are less than environmentally friendly.

Weekend Update

We did get a small amount of rain Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but it only amounted to 0.1". We hauled about 60 gallons of water up to the garden and gave everything a good soaking. The corn and beans were completely up, and the beets were starting to peek out. The potatoes looked good and there appeared to be about 20 (out of 25) asparagus plants growing. We pulled up at least 200 milkweed plants and mowed another 100+. Someone needs to invent something useful to do with milkweed. I'm wondering if I can't find some neighbor kid to pull them up at 5¢ apiece. Takers?

We did get some actual R&R this trip. Sunday evening, we took a bottle of wine and some cheese down to Reading Rock and listened to the birds while the dogs wandered off and ate a quart of deer poop. Reading Rock is located along an old logging road, deep in a hollow. It is flat, about eight feet across. It is a nice place to go very late at night and listen to forest sounds. When Lucca was a puppy, I fell asleep there one cool autumn night cuddling her, with our previous boy Palio curled behind my legs. I will occasionally take a folding chair and a book, and spend the hotter part of a summer afternoon reading in the cool shade.

We've got raccoon problems once again this year. I guess Mr. Evans didn't get all of them this winter when he asked if he could hunt on our property. I have nothing personal against raccoons; I just prefer not to have them destroy my bird feeders and gorge themselves on birdseed. We had the same problem last summer, and I guess it will get solved the same way I solved it last summer. The dogs are useless in this regard.

Drought after the Floods

We're off to the property this weekend to see what has become of the seeds we planted and the asparagus and potatoes we re-planted after they were washed-out. There was some rain around the 25th of May, but nothing much since then. Flood or drought, but nothing in between. We have been watering our garden and tomatoes at home for about a week. It is supposed to be dry all weekend in WVa.

We have a 110 gallon stock tank with a drain plug to collect rain, set above the garden so that the water will flow easily downhill and we won't have to pump it. This weekend, we plan to rig a 10'x10' tarp to collect a greater amount of water than the tub can by itself. If you do the math, one inch of rainfall onto a 100 sq. ft. tarp is more than 60 gallons of water. That is over 500 lbs. of water, a prohibitive amount to haul uphill to the garden with an ATV. Even a five gallon pail of water weights more than 40 lbs. Our biggest concern is the survival of the tarp in big winds, although summer winds are much less vigorous than in the fall and winter. We would have set the collection system up earlier this spring, but given the near continuous and voluminous rain during April and May, we never imagined we would need collected water in early June.

Hobby Farming

I learned that the term "Hobby Farming" does not imply farming that is a hobby. It is farming in order to provide food, not profit. For some, this means having a real job, and the farm tags along. There is a new book on the subject, The Joy of Hobby Farming by Michael and Audrey Levatino. It is a wonderful, motivating read by two people who bought a farm in Virginia and are living the life Cathy and I dream of (or at least we think we dream of). The book discusses fences, tractors, chickens, composting, different vegetables and fruits, even growing mushrooms. I've only skimmed the book, but there is lots of great advice and practical tips. I will post more on this topic as I learn more and make my way through the book in detail. Cathy, on the other hand, is reading Raising Chickens for Dummies. Just sayin'.

Another book I thought I would find interesting is A Householder's Guide to the Universe. It is largely about food preservation and gardening, and it is organized by month. The author is Harriet Fasenfest. She is cranky and eccentric, and could qualify for a reality TV show on hoarders. She puts up enough food to feed an army. She probably has boxes of dried fruit and beans piled to the ceiling of her living room, with chickens living in her bathtub. This business seems to attract some unusual personalities.