Greenstorm's Journal

So operation "can I do a vacation I like?" was successful. Turns out I can.

Operation "returning to my normal life" is a bit more tricky, even assuming I had a normal life to return to. This isn't the sort of "vacation drop" I hear from many people. My home is a theme park, perfect for me. Instead it's that I've come back inspired in several directions and I want to actually focus and get things done.

For example, there's a corner of the compound (the central courtyard space I'm working on slowly enclosing with a ring of buildings) that was thistles and young plum trees and haskaps. Mom flattened cardboard and mulched deeply with cardboard and aspen chips. I'd been thinking of putting the bed swing there, which is why I steered her in that direction, but now: I stopped at the dump and they had a big two-person jacuzzi tub which I snagged, and there's a perfect spot there if I build it out as a hot tub. There's also a perfect set of 4 aspens off the edge of that drop that I could set a platform between and I'd have a nice spot for the shower (it could just drain into the swale) and a net bed. Then there's another two trees perfect for a hammock right there. It's a central, secluded space with shade and drainage, so it makes sense as the hub of some outdoor living infrastructure. Looking into hot water on demand devices at the moment.

I had made noises about having pagany folks up this summer and didn't follow through for various reasons. I'm thinking very seriously about claiming Lughnasadh in 2024 and seeing if anyone actually will come up. It's a wildfire risk and there wouldn't be any way to do bonfires, we'd definitely be in burning bans. It would be warm enough, though. The alternative would be earlier. We could do fires, nights would be cool, and the garden would not yet be producing. I think eating from the garden is important? Solstice seems like the logical time to have a Thing up here in the long days and it might even be before fires if we're lucky, but it feels like it's too important for me to host?

I think Threshold would like solstice...

And then I have a bunch of clay inspiration, so I want to be spending my time doing that, and my garden is at one of the most interesting times right now with all the different tomatoes just on the cusp of ripening, and I still haven't got winter grains in, and something about sewing since I'm running out of comfy non-jean pants, and I have an idea for the pigs, and I need to decide on the other 13 orchard trees, and...

Anyhow.

Sherry kept pointing out that she was "retired" (into her second business, doing pottery, after a previous career) and I had both a dayjob and farm animals so it made sense that she had more time than I did to do fun ceramics things. I'm super envious right now. I want to make poetry bowls and mugs for the people I care about, build places that are fun, create homes, spend time with animals.

Oh well.

No elderberry resolution, but I've been thinking:

One of my major fencing issues is that dogs need to be able to pass through all fences to protect livestock and also to access the house with their food etc. I want to keep geese, pigs, and ideally ducks and chickens out of the area around the house though. I'd been thinking I'd need to build a dog door into a piece of plywood in the fence, to let the dogs through, but today I had a new idea. What if I made part of the fence a 2' wide/tall section of roofing tin? The dogs can easily hop over that without it training them to hop over normal fences. Pigs will be unlikely to pass through it unless very motivated since they don't like going through something they can't see (it would be a secondary fence system for the pigs in case they got out of electric; not a primary system where they'd have time to learn to hop it). Geese could fly over it but if there was food and water and grass on their side they'd be unlikely to, and likewise the ducks. The top is sharpish, so they're unlikely to hop onto it and then over. Chickens and muscovies will just fly over but with just them around the house there should be less of a mess and I may end up confining the chickens anyhow.

That said, here are the elderberry considerations:

Fence along the road: this would be a really great place to have them. Those spruce trees are dying and it would be nice to replace them with a screen that's not just aspen. The soil is relatively rich and something with reaching roots could capture ditch water. However, it's pretty grassy and there's a dog trail there so the babies would have lots of competition and not be well protected. They'd also be shaded by the remaining spruce trees. This might be a better place to plant test apples?

South fence by the berries: they'd be just south of three apple trees on antonovka rootstock (very small now), and south of my berries, but there's a big slope here. If they're at the bottom of the slope they'll get good moisture without baking too badly and they won't be shaded by the apples, but they will shade some of my berries over time. The bottom of the slope has pretty dense turf, though the rest of the slope has been well cardboard-and-mulched. This area will always be fighting off grass since the grass will be coming through the fence from the neighbour's pasture. It's certainly not a candidate for more apple trees, and theoretically the elderberries would be able to compete well after a couple years, especially if I cardboard them regularly.

Pig fence south: this is between apple trees on B118. It's pretty sunny, receives a ton of moisture from the slope of the winter pigpen to the north, and will be between my potato bed and the pigpen so would have relatively little grass competition. They would shade the garden after a couple years but it's a good slope, so when the sun goes high in summer it would be fine. There would mostly be shade in fall as the sun got lower. This is a high goose-activity area so they'd need to be well protected; the apple trees here got some nibbly setbacks. This area is a bit shaded by the house, a fold in the ground, and the sinking shed.

South fence by the house: mom cleared this area under the aspens last year. It gets lots of sun and is more open than I'd like. It needs plant screening, though because it's on the slope it could use some tall screening to actually impact the yard. This wouldn't shade any garden space. The ground itself is pretty hard and dry both because it's the south-slopiest and because of all the aspens there. The aspens need to go but maybe putting plants under there before the aspens are gone would damage the plants when the aspens were coming down.

Pig fence north, between pigs and woodfield: this is a little complex. The fence is currently at the top of a short, steep slope; the pigs can access the slope. They're eroding it. They love lying on it in the sun. If I plant on the slope itself it would stabilize the slope, and the elderberries would be down a bit so they wouldn't shade the woodfield garden too much. On the other hand I'd need to move the fence to the bottom of the slope for that since the pigs would just uproot the elderberries. The fence is lots of wood right now and shades the woodfield so that would be good to do. The spot gets near full sun. If moving the fence was easy I'd definitely decide on this spot. As it is I could plant directly on the other side of the fence from the pigs, on the flat, and the roots might still help stabilize. They'd shade the woodfield garden though and that's the sandy flat garden that's my most conventional growing conditions. If I'm ever going to get root crops it'll be up there. OTOH I have been thinking of putting apple trees up there, and elderberries to the south of apples is a perfect shade situation. Also then I couldn't run pigs in this field for a couple years, and after that not for long.

Woodfield fence north: northernmost edge of my property. Always nice to have screening around this sort of area. If I plant apple trees in the woodfield they will shade the elderberries but not for a couple years at least. Right now it's in full sun and if I retain it as a field it will remain that way. Again the grass creeps through from the (other) neighbour's pasture but depending on how close to the fence I plant it's clear right now and I can cardboard around it. I'd like a mixed-species hedgerow to end up here eventually and I will certainly plant other things in here so the elderberry seems like a good start. Any perennials here will require me to mostly exclude the pigs from this area.

Between woodfield and back field: this is a bit messy right now, that fence is falling down. Because it's a north-south line rather than an east-west one it creates less shade, and is itself in the shade of two spruce trees for a bit of each day. I'd have to redo the fence but I guess if I put them here I wouldn't be letting the pigs in much so they could replace the fence in some ways. There's a bit of grass, sod, and aspen in one corner of this space, preserved as a bit of a refugia for critters in the middle of the long garden. Not sure how much competition it would be for the babies.

Between the back field and the back pasture: at the base of the slope back field garden, to the south, there's a ridge of soil pushed down by pigs. It's a foot or two in from the fence, where the electric fence was, and it's a long, great planting site. Shortish woody perennials here would give nice shade to the bottom of the garden and they could be planted on that berm. However, they will shade the garden. This is a spot I've been considering a mixed hedge just because it's so easy to plant into. I don't want too much visual screening because I want to be able to see into the field from the house. Again grass will come through the fence but less so since my pasture is grazed. A row of sour cherries and plums would be stunning here. Elderberries would be a bit taller but could be cut back?

Because anything good I've done has been built on the back of a veiled "fuck you" to what it seems like the world is forcing me to do:

Year -1: What I've done: Page wire fence around the home couple acres. 5 fields plus main yard fencing mostly completed: orchard field, winter field, wood field, back field, main field plus fencing tacked onto the next field. 3 fairly permanent pig houses built in winter field. Raised beds removed and replaced with lasagna-bedded rich soil ~2000 sqft then ~3000 sqft (that last thousand is super competing with aspens though). Added one pop-up 20x12 greenhouse, one lean-to animal space/greenhouse 10x20. Taken down a couple aspens.

Refinance mortgage. Fence driveway "airlock" and two new fields in the back. Remove lean-to greenhouse. Get a quote for fixing the workshop foundation, if it can be done. Take down extra aspens and cut to season. Potentially run pigs in the small corral by the neighbours' house to prepare for orchard if they can be convinced. Re-side fabric pop-up greenhouse? Convert 2021 grain trial area to berries & grapes. Look into walk-in coolers. Wire in generator panel. Plant oaks in the back. Try making a small log cabin in field orchard. Plant woodfield in tomato, squash, and corn trial. Design main garden maze. Figure out the mud part of driveway. Exclude geese from main lawn/figure out guardian dog solution. Build postal box for driveway. Build pig houses in additional fields, ideally that can be used as greenhouses off-season (2-6). Replace deck and south roof. Egg stand out front?

Acquire tractor. Fix workshop. Quote for pole barn. Plant field orchard. Convert wood field to veggie trials. Front landscaping/trimming. Deal with workshop: either disassemble or fix foundation. If disassemble, quote for pole barn. Build on two more fields, extending back at least to the pond. Figure out guest house. Cut gate in north front fence. Financing for high tunnel greenhouse?

Refloor chicken coop. Build walk-in cooler, guesthouse, and root cellar maybe as a unit, if workshop isn't fixable. High tunnel greenhouse along north edge of property. Standpipe in by greenhouse and animal wintering pen. Culvert and fill back and side swales with earthmover.

Things I should do this summer:

A few more sheds/animal houses (pig wintering home in back, move front A-frame to the side, and put a shed in front?)
AT LEAST fence off the front yard, the plums, the apple strip, and a piece of the far-back
Front gate?
Buck the wood in the woodfield
Build gates between pig field and wood field, pig field and back field
Reinforce existing fields with pig-proof wire

So, infrastructure. It's important. I have the pig sheds, the woodshed/goose shed, some internal fencing, some trees. What do I still want, in order of priority? These are pretty much the expenses over a thousand dollars I want/can expect in the next ten to twenty years.

And even if I don't really care about the roof, letting my house rot is likely a bad idea.

Tractor with attachments, $8-20k wildly variable cost since it'll be very used and I need to get it close by, I need a 3pt, a pto, and 4wd). Attachments don't need to be got all at once but are:
-post pounder (if I get this before doing the perimeter fence it'll save me ~$1-2k in getting someone in)
-hay forks
-snow blade
-tiller
-backhoe (if I get this before doing the standpipes it'll save me $2k in getting someone in to dig)
-plough/discer
Perimeter fence$6.5k (materials, renting a post pounder would be more, plus labour would be more)
New roof$20-30k, my roof was new a couple years ago but apparently those people were scammed by a terrible job and shingles are blowing off already
Greenhouse$10k
Stand pipes$4k without a tractor, $2k with one)
Buy next door lot $35k for well security, pastureland, and avoidance of neighbours building & complaining. Also it has that church on it for guests to stay in.
New well pump $1.5k will likely be needed in the next 5-10 years too.

~100k over 20 years. Farming, not a cheap hobby. Guess I need to get the pigs paying for themselves and then some.