Trees, Trees, Trees

So last fall we decided that we needed to invest in some trees here at Wild Roots. Trees are the ultimate perennial, bringing up nutrition from deep down in the earth and providing an edible crop. We made a large order of fruit trees and received a few trees from friends in the area. Best of all, some lovely friends back home pooled together some money and gave me a gift certificate for the Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara-On-The-Lake.

Then Dan moved back to Hamilton and now I'm the tree planter. I love planting trees, don't get me wrong. I think it's a very important thing that we should all be doing (since our ancestors cut down all the trees and we just keep the old train rolling along). But it can get tedious crumbling soil into a hole all day. Honestly I think the thing that bothers me is that based on my planting, this tree may live or die. Maybe I should just stick to carrots. Then again, most factors are out of my control.

Hmm, I also think that planting trees AND taking care of them, meaning regular watering for at least the first year, challenges an unrealistic yet central attitude inside me. The idea that you can do something once and then forget about it, take it for granted. Similarly if I built something then it was built and I could move on and do the next thing. But really you need to keep an eye on it and make repairs. I think we have this attitude in our culture. The "no maintenance" attitude. Maybe it's got something to do with our consumer culture. Because we usually buy something and then forget about it and then it breaks because it was cheap or we didn't take care of it and we buy another. But that gets expensive.

Back to the trees, I would really just love some company planting. Someone to just be next to when I'm digging and crumbling and encouraging the young tree. We wouldn't even need to talk. I think I never appreciated Dan's presence enough. But I know some special people are going to find their ways here soon enough. So I'm holding on.

Miso Making

So I had a go making miso tonight. It's actually quite a simple process. Cook beans, mash them, add a brine with a little live miso mixed in and something called koji. I'm still not sure if I got the koji process right. Basically koji is rice infused with a beneficial fungus. I just threw it in because my recipe didn't call for me to do anything else. Though I have this feeling that I should have mixed it with some warm cooked, fresh rice.

But if it doesn't work out then I won't sweat it. Though I'm going to have to wait a year to try this miso. Yup, that's how long it takes to mature, maybe even longer. It's in the cool basement starting its long journey right now.

Drought?

So everyone is saying that we might be headed for a dry summer. These are people who have lived here for a long time and haven't seen a winter and spring like we've been experiencing before. This could be bad news for our plans to plant well over a hundred fruit and nut trees in the coming weeks. Bad news because it means I'm going to be hauling water from the brook to water trees all over the land. Ugh.

We have implemented a new low-tech grey water system in response to the potential drought. If there's no drought then we can go back to business as usual and if there is a drought then we'll look quite wise. Our grey water system just means that we save all our grey water and take it out and pour it in a 45 gallon barrel outside the mudroom door. Pretty simple but again another easy way to be water conscious in a changing climate.

I took a shower this evening (after a hair cut, the cut hair then being stuffed into old stockings to hang on our new fence and deter curious deer; they don't like the smell of old hair apparently). I left the plug in and the water filled up the tub and I filled a bucket and took it downstairs and out to the barrel. My shower used 3 gallons of water. Frances' baths use 6 gallons of water. So that's 9 gallons plus maybe 2 gallons of dish water. That saves me a couple hundred feet walking up hill carrying two buckets with 6 gallons in each.

Not that you probably care about all this. But if reducing the expenditure of energy is what life is all about (I know strange coming from a pig North American) then developing these new systems saves on caloric and fossil fuel energy (ultimately most of our calories come from fossil fuels anyway).

I just checked the weather and what was a sunny week ahead has suddenly turned into a week of rain. Wild weather, changes all the time. Time to get some seeds sowed.

Scenes From Early April

Our friends Paul and Anne gave us some little rose shoots which we are trusting will grow into a fragrant wind break near the house. They also dug us up three white ash trees which we trust will take, though they are coming from really nice sandy soil up near Inverness to our more clay soil down here.

We spent the morning moving some shaded raspberries to the top of the hill where they will get full sun and ideally produce lots of yummy berries. Go perennials!


Frances moved some rhubarb plants up the hill too. The top of the garden from west to east is raspberries, jerusalem artichokes and then rhubarb. The rhubarb is thriving in its new home, though how much freaking rhubarb can one family eat?

Dan's gift to the farm has been garlic. So much garlic is up (already). And there are two other beds. Thanks so much for everything Dano.

Last but not least, here's some evidence of the crazy weather we had over Easter Weekend. It was actually 26 degrees. And this thermometre is in the shade on the north side of the house.

What a Weekend!

It was 26 degrees this weekend. A farmer who grew up in the valley and has followed the weather for approximately 60 years told me that he had never seen a year like this one before. Despite the joy of t-shirts and sun hats and planting peas, this is scary stuff. But maybe I should chill out with the global warming/climate change rhetoric. There are strange years like this one once in a while. So I won't waste any breath on lamenting the trajectory of climate change.

This was the weekend I came back from the city. I'm very glad to be back. And what a welcome! I'm looking forward to doing some cleaning and organizing. And then there are the weeds. The warm weather has another effect besides sunstroke and dehydration. So it's going to be a long spring of digging up dandelions and various grasses.

But the reward will be great. I promise some photos soon.