Garden on Corliss Homestead Journal

Our white spruce has come in, and this weekend was a perfect time to repot it.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, we are going to do our best to get it through the winter season as healthy as possible. The ideal plan with it would be to keep it potted and grow it until it becomes too big and then 'retire' it outside into the earth. We will watch the roots carefully and up-pot as necessary. For the cost of trees, I think this is a fine alternative if we can manage it well enough.

Mad Scientist Time

I plan on reinventing the wheel. Apple seeds can be cool/moist stratified between two paper towels to get them to germinate pretty well. Who wants to do that though? I have a whole bunch of janky raw wool from hand spinning and I decided to give it a try. Wool holds a ton of moisture when it gets wet, and I hear that it decomposes and can be useful to plants. I took a few apple seeds, tucked them in some wool, put them in a peat pot and watered it. Either the seeds will celebrate their moist enclosure and reward me for roots or mold will take hold. That is my theory at least! If I could replace or start to replace a row of hillside box elder with apples I think that would be fun. One day at a time.

I really enjoy Octavio Ocampo's art.

I like how there is the image as presented, then smaller images then within the whole.

Its crazy when my Golden Pothos then in fact starts sharing traits with Ocampo's style of art.

I think of it as the 'socially acceptable' place for spiders to make their camp. If they are in the corners of the rooms, they are obvious and average people remove them. Spiders however hidden in the shade the leaves create don't draw the eye unless you really were looking for them. I found three separate spiders, each in translucent webbing. The only thing I might do is just try and be careful when it is time to water in order to do the least disturbance.

Just an observation.

I have been spending my time prepping and executing various steps of many different BBs.

A lot of the BBs that I am working on require seeds that I have to source. Luckily everything is either here or soon will be here so I can get to planting. The hardest item to source has been nuts to grow. Many of them are heated or non-viable but I did luck out with a few Etsy stores. While I do not have enough land for some of the planting area required to all these trees, a nearby woods had a micro-burst just absolutely wreck a section of trees. If it didn't know them down, it split them in various degrees of severity. A lot of light is now making it into the woods which will be prime time for seedlings. It has been a mixture of maples and box elders in this particular section without much diversity. Introducing a diversity of oaks, mulberries, paw paws and maybe something more will benefit this damaged section.

Another project that has taken some time has been expanding my hillside perennial garden project. I have a lot of logs/branches/twigs from cut trees and storm damage branches. I'm utilizing them as a sort of runoff barrier and delineation berm. I'm going to get all sorts of organic material put inside as well as seed the length of it to create a pollinator haven. Slow and steady but I wish already for spring.

I have decided on a nearby hillside woods to do my perennial planting BB.

Doing some more investigation it seems that a microburst has done more damage than originally anticipated. If the trees were not taken down, some with lifting the rootball out of the ground, they were damaged pretty significantly. I didn't appreciate it, but there was at least three trees that were snapped eight foot or so up the truck.  There are also a few trees with heavy vines growing up them that make it a waiting game for further trees to drop.

Planting List
237 white oak acorns.
21 Black Walnuts
100 Black Mulberry Seeds
500 White Mulberry Seeds
Hundreds of Apple Seeds (I stopped counting at about 150 when it was clear I didn't put a dent in the amount I had)
12 Paw Paw Seeds
35 Black Chokeberry (Aronia Melanocarpa) Seeds
40 Trumpet Gooseberry Seeds
25 Lingonberry Seeds

I figure if I'm going to do it, do it big. Throw a lot and see what sticks! I'm going to keep accumulating until I get the right opportunity.

I have a beautiful... in its own way maple tree in the front of my house.

Thirty years I have been on this Earth and this tree meant so much to me. It still means so much to me! As the homeowner, it however represents a risk of falling onto my covered front porch. I have previously reported this tree to the village because there was a large crack on the far side of the tree on this particular trunk segment. I came home from work one day to some pretty obvious wood chunks laying all around the tree. It has been a week or so and I finally find the culprit. A beautiful male pileated woodpecker! He is adamantly working away at the trunk and has not been discouraged besides when I come outside with the dog.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Merry Christmas Permies,

I hope everyone had a good day. I had a great one where I got to putter around after seeing family in the AM.

I managed to go out and with the help of my fiancé tackled taming an overgrown blackberry bush that our dog has taken a fondness of getting caught up in. While we did that, we also tended to some old apple trees with remnants of bittersweet in its limbs and some of it somehow was still alive.  It has been a labor of love after one of three apple trees was killed off by the bittersweet so we will see if we can save the other two before they are choked out.

After playing in the unseasonably good weather, I had time to sit down and putter even more. I got some BBs accomplished for sharpening a chainsaw and some loppers, I also have a pair of hand pruners I need to pay some attention to. This might be a tomorrow project depending on how the workday goes. I can now see how while winter is not an active growing season, it is important time that should not be wasted. Annual tool cleaning/sharpening/care will make the next year's requirements that much easier to achieve. I have a machete and tomahawk style hatchet coming in the mail to round out my growth-control too set, I'll get them sharp before they are even needed and have them ready.

The only small crisis of the day was when I was cutting potatoes up for mashed; I managed to crack my thumbnail on my right hand with the very edge of my knife. I knew it was about to happen before it did, I was foolish with my offhand placement but I lucked out it wasn't worse than it was. A little gauze and tape, nobody knows the difference! No pain so I'll count my blessings. So as I lie in bed tonight, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays folks

I'm an introvert at heart, but I can wine/dine/entertain with the best of them. I just have to get over the initial bump in the road of just DOING something.

"Hey, do you want to go to X town and go to XYZ stores?"

"Ehh, I don't know. It might be busy!"

"Come on let's go"

Next thing I know, I'm having a great time. I just get in my head.

Well, I have been doing that with contacting a local arborist who I went to school with. I've been meaning to source wood chips for expanding my garden this upcoming year and I really wasn't sure how I wanted to go about doing it. I finally made the phone call to see if I can buy some from him whenever he had a job in the nearby area and wouldn't you know he had one coming up at the end of the week! I tried to get an amount to pay him because I want 10-20 yards worth but he is refusing to take anything. He is a good guy, a really good guy. I gave him some business last year and now I know that I'll be having him back for a few more trees I need to get rid of. I try to pass his business on as a recommendation as he is new to the area. I guess when you go into it expecting the worst answer and getting what could be the best area really jogs one's perception.

I am hoping by the end of the week I am sitting on a pile of arborist chips, so much for not having a pile of chips sitting in the yard during winter! It has been so warm, I might luck out and be able to start spreading them around before true winter sets in.

Tim,
  One of the best mulches for your chicken run is leaves.  The chooks will scratch through them looking for crickets and other edibles.  As they rot down, along with kitchen scraps, they eat a lot of it and turn it into beautiful compost.  Add your crushed eggshells to that and then use it the compost.  The chooks will eat the eggshells and never recognize they are made from eggs if they are crushed.   Win/win for all.   It also keeps the mud off their feet for the most part.  You can pile them up a foot or so high if you have enough.  

 Great job you and your fiancé are doing!  Congratulations on following your dreams.  Good pics too.  

I really could get used to this three day weekend thing. It really gives times to get projects done and just generally piddle around.

I have the parts and pieces to mount up some holders for all my power tools. They have currently been migrating around several sites on the homestead and never in the place that you needed them. That isn't even including the quest to find a charged battery. All of that should be improved by the end of the weekend! I use the Ryobi brand tools and found a 3d printed battery/tool attachment point that can be screwed into wood and then hold the tool up. A couple 2x4x3 boards and a stud finder and we are in business.

The realization is setting in that I might want the chicken run to be roofed, it would give an opportunity to put together a gutter system to harvest rainwater for both the chickens and the garden that is located right there. It won't be a cheap project, but I'd rather it be done 'right' which means semi-over built. I'm getting that big project itch but this isn't something I want to work on in the winter while I have no place to store all the parts and pieces I will need. At least I will have time to do a few revisions and improve the design before spring hits.

Its almost the new year, I hope everyone stays safe this weekend

Nov21: tiny raptors 😆