Future Farmers do Exist!

One of my favorite plant/tree nurseries tried to retire on us this past year.  St. Lawrence Nurseries has been a favorite for fruit trees and berry bushes for as long as I can remember – my dad ordered from them on an annual basis I think for years before I even moved out of his house.  When the owners announced it we  put our heads together and decided what we would need in case we weren’t able to order from St Lawrence ever again!  We better get while the getting was good!  We got a number of apple trees that we were interested in having (I got 10 for the farm and 2 for the school) and dad got a number as well – I don’t remember what he got since they weren’t going in my yard!  We were so disheartened by the possible closing of the nursery but – we are Northerners and they are East Coasties – far far apart! So we did the only thing we could do and made our orders.

One of the trees I got was a Westland apple.  We have been ordering from St Lawrence because it seems to be the closest mimic of the agriculture zone for us as far as length of winter and cold/wind chill, etc.  Most of the apple and a few of the Cherry trees have surpassed our expectations for hardiness.  We have had very few duds! The Westland apple I got went out in the area near Reeds garden.  We are trying the permaculture system for fruit trees here in which you don’t really “orchard” your trees as build more of a food forest out of them.  In that way you have a separation and diversity among them so that if one group of apple or cherry should get a disease or blight it might not wipe out your whole orchard.  Although I have not perfected the system or placement of the trees we have fruit trees spread out over a large area on the farm so as to take advantage of the system the best we can.   

It seems to be working as long as we keep all the critters out of the yard – moose, rabbits, and my sons dog!  He has a delightful pit bull mix dog named – aptly – Brix.  Brix is a bit of a blockhead.  He is the nicest, loving and fun dog – loves people and to play all day!  He will wear the kids out and still have energy!  One of the problems with Brix however is that he apparently cannot tell the difference between a fetch stick and an entire apple tree!  The Westland apple was happily living at the end of the section of fruit trees near Reeds garden and we agreed to dog sit the Brix-head.  One day a few days into the sitting job as we were out doing yard work and prepping the garden areas for planting, and of course before I got any fencing up around the fruit trees (witnessed in an earlier blog) Brix ran by the Westland grabbed it about halfway up (it was a 4’ tree) and took off at a dead run with it in his mouth!  He pulled the whole tree up by the roots and was off like a shot!  What did I do?  Tried to chase him down and get the tree back – what else!  And of course he thought this was just so much fun that his grandma was chasing him that he ran all the way to the lake (full length of the property) and deposited it there for me to find.

The tree was badly broken at the top from about half way up where he had grabbed it it was just in splinters and there was no saving any of that part of the poor tree.  The bottom of the tree was still in one piece and but for a few broken roots where it have been ripped out of the ground it appeared in good condition.  I was heartsick about it.  I thought “there is no way this will ever live”  but also not wanting a hole with no apple tree in it in the yard I carefully placed it back in its spot and left it at that.

When the time came to start doing the fencing around the apple and other fruit trees, I didn’t even bother to go inspect that poor tree – I just didn’t even want to look at it and become disheartened all over again.  I had been making sure the water would get to it but other than that I hadnt been taking any care of it at all, and didn’t bother to fence it or moose cover it.

When the guys got back from moose hunting a few weeks later, Reed came in and said – “Hey – why arent you fencing the tree that Brix ripped up?”  And of course I said “Seriously?” to which he replied “Its coming back out!”  I ran down to the garden and sure enough – it was coming back out – not from the bottom but from about 4” below where Brix had chewed it off!  It looked great and will make a fine apple tree when it grows up a little more!  It must be hardy – which brought me back to my sadness at St. Lawrence closing down – how would I get some Westland for the school?  We need the super hardy trees there too – and my dad had not ordered it before so he didn’t have any either!

An then a Fruiting Miracle!  A young farmer who had been working at the nursery came back from college and learned that no one had stepped forward to take over the farm, so he did!  They sent out the order form and let us know what they will be carrying (we had to order early) and it is with great excitement that I will order some more of the great and mighty Westland!  Thank you Conner for helping usher in a new generation of farmers and letting us oldsters know  that it will be OK!  We all wish you great success and more customers than you want but as many as you need!

Ill keep you posted on how the Westland does over this winter – its first full winter with its top ripped off!  I did go out and mooseproof and hopefully Brix proof it too before the snow came as well as add a little mulch around the bottom!  Stay tuned – spring has not quite sprung!

For more information you an go to http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/  and check out St Lawrence Nurseries for yourself!  Have fun!

A Legacy of Love

In a family the size of ours there is almost always a new baby coming along and we are spread out over a pretty large space sometimes so the baby wont always be able to meet his or her relatives right away or even ever sometimes!  So we have a family tradition among some of our people that helps the new arrival to have a connection to the family and to their ancestry.  We make family quilts.

We start with squares of white or off white material and use iron ons or we trace pictures out of coloring books to get the picture on the fabric.  We have done all sorts of themes - animals, equipment, flowers, mickey mouse, Pooh, even race cars or Mater!

We send out a block to anyone who tells us they would like one.  Sometimes we have to limit it to say 20 blocks because we have had 40 people say they want to do one.  We give everyone a due date to have them back by and they go from there with embroidery.  We did have one quilt where none of the folks were  able to embroider and they did paints and wax crayons that they set with ironing.  It was also beautiful! We have also at times used pieced blocks between the embroidered ones so that more people could participate (that made a twin sized quilt instead of a baby quilt).

 The above photos show one of the quilts that have both embroidery and pieced blocks.  Everyone signs their blocks either with permanent pen or with embroidery stitching.  Sometimes, when the child doesn't get to meet the person who made and signed the block, for whatever reason, it gives a point of reference for the family to get out the pictures, show the child who that was and how they are connected to that person and let them feel the love!  It is a great way for the child to have a memory of someone they didn't get to meet!

Above left shows a single block that has had the borders sewn on already.  Above right shows the quilt blocks being staged - it took some time to figure out where each block needed to go to balance in this quilt as we had a lot of different styles of embroidery.  This quilt is for a little guy who will be from a hunting family so he gets a wild game quilt.

Above shows the quilt after the blocks have been sewn together and I am now working on putting the binding on so it can be delivered to the mom by the time the baby gets here.  There is a soft flannel on the back and it will be a warm comfort both from the flannel and from all the love that was put into it by his family!

Its that time of the year!

You can probably tell by the sporadic nature of my posts that it is THAT time of the year!  Yes folks it is Hockey Season!  My youngest still plays hockey both league and high school levels - at the same time!  So - as most farmers slow down in the winter - my pace sometimes picks up!

I love hockey - I love the work ethic and skill that is required to play a sport with 3 inch pucks, hockey sticks and boots with blades on them.  The amount of work that is required to stay in shape and "keep the hands" so that they can "put the biscuit in the basket" and "dangle the goalie" is nothing short of super human!  I get tired just watching them!



Some people say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year - and sometimes I agree, but sometimes I think that hockey season is the most wonderful time of the year!

So cold and crisp inside the rink and the camaraderie of all the parents who are hoping for the win but never begrudge it to another team - especially its players who are working (almost) every bit as hard as mine!

We have more than one team at any given time and so the kids all have friends that are on a team with them that during high school they have to play against and try to win - it is hard sometimes to score a goal on your cousin or to have your goal denied by that same cousin!

Tournament time is wonderful - hard hard work but wonderful all the same - eight groups coming together for the love of the game!

That doesn't mean I dont dream of summer!  Stay tuned - I am looking at seed catalogs in my spare few minutes that arent taken up working or on the road - we will be trying ghost and fish peppers this year here on the farm.  Ill (try) to keep you posted!

Mad is a Momma Moose!

The moose here at Wicked Raven are sometimes out of control and I am pretty sure they are trying to make me quit farming completely at times!  You have all seen in prior blogs and probably on Facebook that the moose eat just about everything - and they love the fruit trees!  I told you last year about using the mattress deconstruction to protect a few of the apple trees - as I started to deconstruct a few more mattresses that I had this summer - the neighbors came over and commented that they hardly "redneckednized" the place what with all the crap everywhere and why didnt we just put up some real fence?

This is one of the momma moose that have been trolling for trees in my yard - the two calves are just outside the picture - I couldnt get them all in!

We can't afford to fence the whole 5 acres, and it would be really hard to have that many gates - we would have to have about 8 gates to make it be useful and semi easy to navigate through the fences so.... enter the hubby with a brilliant idea!

We got two rolls of this fencing - 50 yards each - it cost about $1.00 per foot.  Total cost to do all of my trees (15 total so far) was less than $200.00.

We used the survey stakes mixed with some regular pound in fence posts (I think they are called "t" posts)

We made a circle around each tree large enough that the branched didnt stick out and locked the circle together by bending the cut edges of the fencing around itself - sort of looks like a hook and eye when complete.

We also used some of the broken hockey sticks that are composite fiberglass - those things are tough!

Above left is a shot of the winter fence covering.  We also had to put a fence lid on the rounds as the moose are tall enough to stick their necks into the rounds and eat the tree anyway if the lid isnt on!  Above right is the moose creeping up thinking she will get a bite of a cherry tree!

Notice in the above picture how her hackles are all raised up on her neck!  She is not happy to not be able to get to the cherry tree!  She dented the heck out of the fencing around the tree trying to get at it though!  I had to go out and pull it all back into a round shape!  Everything held up though!  yay!

Below you can see the "lid" on the round.  We also put the blue and orange newspaper bags (our newspaper comes in a plastic bag that is sized for it depending on what day it is - Sunday is a bigger baggie - they are plastic tubes basically) and they flap in the breeze and sometimes scare things away!  Sometimes they are necessary so a snowmachine, go kart or four wheeler doesnt run over anything!

Another winter view!  

Word of advice from the voice of experience here - don't try to do fencing by yourself in s stiff wind!  Luckily I had my glasses on or I probably would have lost an eye here!  As it is I have a nice fencing "war wound" on my nose to remember it by!   Hubby had gone hunting and I was just gonna finish the last two rounds that we didnt get done before he had to leave!  I would probably do it again though - Ill never give up!  No matter how mad those moose get!

The fencing works well and it looks nice as well.  Way better than the mattress coils - I am still using them - just not where you can see them from the road!  It was too great an upcycle to not use again! 

Blessed be and I hope your winter is going well!  Keep the farming faith alive - there is a way where there is a will - even with moose around!