Monthly Archives: February 2014

Valentines Day and Percocets

Happy Valentines Day from the JAZ Farm!  What a strange week.  I went to a client’s house up in the mountains at about 10,000 feet and after the meeting walking to my truck I fell and landed flat on my back.  The clients didn’t see it thank goodness but I had to kind of crawl myself to the truck and get in and feel all of my back muscles knot up.  I spent the next day pretty horizontal and sore.

Yesterday, Thursday, I had to have some oral surgery done.  Of course, after the anesthesia wears off, one quickly finds where the bruises are.  The pain radiating into my right ear has been very entertaining.  Fortunately, I have been staying stoned and numb on Percocets and Advil.  Happy Valentines Day indeed.  I will be making a heart shaped pizza for dinner!  About as romantic as I’m getting this year.

So with not much else to do I watched a bunch of You Tube videos and ran across one of a professor and Facebook friend who gave a talk on climate change at The University of Colorado.  Again, another uplifting thing to do as he is talking about human extinction.  When you have kids, or grandkids, this is something that will certainly give you pause.

This is Guy McPherson, Professor Emeritus from The University of Arizona.  He held a position as a professor of Evolutionary Biology and left a tenured position to leave the grid and homestead in New Mexico.  He walks the walk and talks the talk and no…. he isn’t making a ton of money off of preaching climate change issues.  Give this a listen, if you have any capacity for open-mindedness and can understand that most people who are issuing warnings about our world are not extremists, just those who have had the powers that be attempt to silence them, then this talk could change your life.

 

Trying To Stay Organized

Ordered the drip tape system for the farm. It will handle up to 40, 100′ rows on one flow zone. The garden will use up every one of them.

Also mapped out the urban garden today and used my Mother Earth News garden software to get the calendar set for planting dates. Seedling starts begin next week and will continue through March. The urban farm hoop huts will get the cool season veggies going faster than normal (Cauliflower, Broccoli, Spinach, Peas, and Lettuce). The direct sowed seeds will happen Mid-May through the first week of June. Cover crops this year for soil improvement will be Crimson Clover, Dry Beans, Bush Beans, Alfalfa, Amaranth, and Millet.

As usual the grow room/seed starter room is going to be pretty full. Along with the new greenhouse tables at the farm. Several thousand plants by the looks of things.

Time to order the black plastic mulch….

And so, once again, it begins……

 

 

Hydroponics is cool M’Kay!

2 weeks and the lettuce in the grow tables have made the farm house green!  From sprouted seed to edible is about a month.  Am going to have to plant more to fill in behind the salad harvest!  Yay!

I also have Basil, Cilantro, Parsley and Spinach that are coming along and need to get into the big cubes and into a grow table.  Growing is fun!  Even if it is below zero here!

Hydrolettuce 2014

Freeking BRRRRRRR!!!!!

So now that we have destroyed the Jet Stream and wild weather is the new normal, winter has been exciting to say the least.  Wednesday night was 14 below with a 25 below wind chill.  This cold blast wasn’t quite as worrisome as we had a trial run with the chickens during the last one.  I woke up and drove out to check on the birds Thursday.  The pickup wouldn’t start because we didn’t have the block heater plugged in (didn’t know it had one – I hate salespeople!)  The little car read minus 15 on my way out there.  Unbelievably cold and dry.  Nose bleed weather.

I got out to the farm and the chickens greeted me clucking and crowing.  All was well.  Unfortunately, as is common, the eggs were all frozen and cracked.  Sorry folks.  Gotta wait to restock before there are more tasty eggs!  The farmer and his family get first dibs!  LOL!

I also fired up the tractor and plowed out the drifts.  Ready now to settle in for the weekend and continue to plan the planting schedule.

I just talked to DripWorks in California and am ordering the drip irrigation system.  Happily it all looks like it is going to work according to plan!  Now if we can warm up and get to spring!  Kind of getting cabin fever!!

photo 3-2 photo 1 photo 5-2

Cummon Spring!

The chickens are laying, the hydroponic grow tables are growing greens, the meal worms are multiplying, the seed catalogs have come and the orders have been placed.  Now its time to get this ridiculous winter behind us and start planting!!!

I have both the city and the farm gardens entered into the planning software.  I use the gardening software that Mother Earth News published.  It lets you design beds and enter the plants you want to use.  It will tell you when to plant them based on your estimated last frost dates.  Also, because of the opportunities to add plants in succession after others have been harvested, it will clue you when to start those seedlings as well.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx

I will start the seeds for the Broccoli and Cauliflower in the next week or two.  They will go out in the hoop houses in the city around the 1st of April.  At the end of February, the mass seedling planting gets started.  The seedling room at the farm and the grow room in the city will be chock full O’ baby plants.

Dripworks is going to love me this year.  I have identified the drip tape irrigation system I’m going to use.  It looks like I will be able to get water to the farm garden without too much trouble.

The itch for spring has started.  The seed orders have arrived.  About 2/3ds of them are pictured below.  The potatoes, Asparagus, some of the onions, and the Strawberries all will arrive in the spring.  The Garlic is already in the ground waiting for the spring thaw.  Can’t wait to get it all going.  Time to grow things again!

seeds 2 seeds1