Today was lawn mowing day. The only good part about it is that I get to be outside. OK, I grudgingly admit that a fresh trimmed lawn does have a nice look to it. The main problem for me with mowing is that I should be having livestock doing it for me. This will come eventually but I need to get moving! Almost all of my focus goes getting the house done and trying to not let it drive me crazy. The real idea of this farm is working toward sustainable farming and self reliance. Buying gallons of gas just so things look good may be the antithesis of permaculture. There is one other good thing; mowing only requires enough attention to follow the lines and 0 turn around obstacles so it give me time to think. I don't think I can even recall all the things that goes through my mind in a mowing session. One thought was that I really need to procure a trailer with which to get the mower in for maintenance. Sometimes my mind turns over political, economical, and social issues. Always I am thinking of things that need doing and what would be the best way going about doing it. Today I was thinking about my mom. She is amazing. I sent her a picture message of the shelving in the kitchen and she left me a message about a shelving catalog she has if I was not happy with what I used. Bless my mom, she really means well but but I can find any shelf I could ever think of online. Mine came from Shelving.com by Shelving, Inc. She is old school and catalogs are not entirely outdated. One of the problems with finding things online is that there are SO MANY OPTIONS. A catalog has what I consider to be a curated collections of items and when you find one that fits a certain style that you like it can be a good thing. A catalog has a finite beginning and end; go try finding the end of Pinterest!
When I was mowing, I used the Bowie knife I mentioned the other day as a small machete on some encroaching Goldenrod and an errant Blackberry briar. Parts of the farm are just mowed to paths. Much of the field behind the house is basically a prairie. I need to go through and identify what is out there. The Goldenrod is pretty much done blooming and the Thistle has gone to seed. Some of the Milkweed has seeded as well but I do not know if there is enough time for some that were cut down earlier in the season. I did pause to watch the bees work some flowers but I forget what plant it is. It has clusters of white and yellow daisy like flowers, It may be a false Aster or a Fleabane. This is one that I should know and most likely learned but I've got nothing. I always like watching bees, butterflies, and other pollinators doing their thing. Other plants I have seen this season are Foxtail grass, Pokeweed, Jimson weed, Queen Anne's Lace, Mullein and Bergamot. There are many more grasses that I need to identify. I used to have more memorized but data is always going in and out of my head. Some information stays up there but it get buried by new stuff. Some day I will be able to say that I forgot more that you ever learned to some young know-it-all!
In the house, I cleaned up the spackling job on the kitchen window and put another build up coat. The trim casing to both doors is cut and has the first coat of paint. It takes 5 hours according to the directions but in real life it takes much longer. I plan on getting a second coat tomorrow as well as painting the caulk/spackling mess around the window. It will all come together some day. There is no cat news worth reporting and. alas, no dog living here yet.
I have decide that I wish to build cold frames on top of the leach field. I can talk about that more when I get around to building them.
Today I learned that when one dies on Mount Everest the odds are in favor of the corpse staying there. It is far too risky to recover them so there they stay. Some get hidden or pushed down a crack; this is intended as a gesture of respect. On the other hand, some remains are used as landmarks. A mountain of that magnitude has its own rules. I have no idea why anyone would want to take that kind of risk but I'll be the last one who tries to ban it.
We are a small farm in Northwest Ohio, Fulton County. The house was a toss up between demolition and remodel. Remodeling won. As time goes on it will be more about farming. The barn and much of the land is in bad shape too. There is garbage everywhere! The blog follows what I get done at the end of the day along with my observations about the world. I am a lunatic viking farmer with so much to do here. Join me on my journey.
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