My dream hoe

Corona diamond hoe

I never really expected to fall in love with a hoe.
This bitch knows just what to do and how I like it - a real pro.  Sometimes we think we've seen it all, that we know all there is to know about hoes but this just goes to show, me at least, that you can always learn more, can always be surprised by something new.  My new how may just make me a better man, if not a better farmer...

Slides right below the soil surface, you
push and pull and it slices the weeds
off at the root.  I love this hoe

In other news: I mulched the most heavily weed infested areas with newspaper and 4-6" of straw.  Not only will it hopefully kill off the weeds but it looks good and it's nicer to kneel on and walk on.  Here's some progress photos in case you are too unimaginative to visualize for yourself.

Lay it down thick, the point is to block
the light to the weeds

Wet the newspaper so it doesn't blow
away or slide around on you

Add straw, enjoy

I miss my truck

The weed situation near beds EW4 and EW5 has reached ridiculousness and required drastic measures.  It's tempting to use chemicals which would make quick work of the invaders but I've worked too hard avoiding chemicals to start now.  Decided that a thick layer of newspaper topped with straw would be the best bet to smother and lightstarve the peskiest of the weeds.  Loading straw into the T4R is less than ideal, I miss my truck.

¡Frijoles!

Pulled the straggler carrots (and ate them) from NS1, prepped the bed and planted some provider bush beans, just 6-8 plants and then will succession sow over the next 2-3 weeks.  This is a real experiment as the liquid amber shades this bed significantly, only allowing 4-5 hours of direct sun.

Firing up the compost machine

Once again I've left the compost pile to go cold and generally neglected.  I caught the farm bug again just before Seanna came down and it's stuck so I figured I better get the compost going.  I love my chipper.  I love taking a Vicodin, putting on my ipod and chipping stuff for a couple hours.

I needed greens so I went around and pruned some offending far reaching branches from the Chinese flame (Koelreuteria bipinnata).  This type of material is great for composting as it's just about the right mix of browns-n-greens.

Southbound and Up

Some problems were fixed Today, some issues addressed and as I stand here typing on my Mexican blanket mobile desk I can't help but appreciate what a difference 24 hours can make.  As my good friend Aaron told me on the phone this morning (referring to yesterday's post): "Sounds like you hit a low point" - yeah, I guess I did.

Skipping past my AM routine, cause' really who cares(??) - my real day started with irony, a solid bite from a sort of karma shit-sandwhich, if you will; I bought Whiskey in Washington, in the VERY STORE "Janet" suggest I visit Yesterday. (BTW, side note to Aaron - the name "Janet" is inspired from that trip that I will never forget).  With provisions settled I made way for Bend, Oregon.

Dropping down into a valley somewhere in central Oregon on Hwy 97

Two hours into my drive on Washington state highway 12 I was pulled over by a state trooper (speeding).  I mentioned Karma already, I know how it works and yet I will still tell you that I kick ass at getting out of tickets!  All thanks to my Dad, my getting-out of getting-ticketed mentor.  Turns out the trooper was raised in a town about 30 miles from my home town, couple that with the overall first impression of my trip (dog, 4wd truck, mountain bike, far from home, etc.) and he was cool to me, giving me tips and sending me on my way with a "We won't give you shit for 6-8 miles over so just keep it around there"

47 degrees and raining, but still might be my favorite night

My back became enough of a problem I made finding a Dr. highest priority.  I was coming into Walla walla, Washington and looked up a walk-in clinic and made my way.  Nice little town, even nicer clinic and a GREAT, kind and time-generous Dr.  He asked me many questions and confirmed that what I had been doing to that point was about as good as I could do on my own.  He sympathized with me just enough to make a Dr. patient connection and then wrote the scrip; vicodin and muscle relaxers for nighttime and continued Advil for day time.  The vicodin was the "weak" kind in that it has a low Hydrocode-Ibuproferin (or whatever it is) ratio - Vicoding has a secondary agent that is designed to make you sick (barf) if you take too much, this is designed as a deterrent for recreational use.  I filled my scrip, took a vicodin and hit the road, within 30 minutes the pain was dropped to the point I could again enjoy my drive.

I managed my pain with the pills for the next 6 hours finally blowing through Bend, Oregon (it was pouring rain and I'm short on time) and pulling into the woods to find "La Pine" state park and stup for the night.  It's been raining all day, it's raining now yet I still have a great fire, my dog is bundled up in a blanket warm inside the truck, I have my scotch, 3G access, pills and most importantly I moved past and above that crappy place I was yesterday.

Bad with the Good

Yeah, that's one drink left...

I made it to Lewiston, Idaho and I'm sorry I did.  It could be that my mood is generally very sour, but this town sucks.  I'm out of booze and I drove up and down the length of the town (it's not small) two times and didn't find a SINGLE place to buy groceries, let alone a liquor store.  What do these people eat?  Where do they shop?  I finally stopped at a gas station to pee (and I bought gas, I feel like I need to) and the lady (who was pleasant) answers me with:
"Ohhh... well, you should just head over to Washington"
"OK, Where is that?"
"Well, if you go down the road here about another mile you'll be in Washington"
"You mean the State?!  I need to go to another state to buy whiskey"
"Ohhh..... well, I think that would be best...."

Fuck!

A bit of depression hit me Today, actually more than a bit.  It's because of my back, I'm miserable, constant pain that I can't do anything except ice to numb it.  The ice works for about 20 minutes, but it's so disruptive.  I stop, make an ice pack which seems to always leak and I end up with a wet butt and lower back, I reach behind while driving trying to adjust it and all this for only minor relief.  My back pain has the potential to wreck my lifestyle and at the sake (is that how you spell that?) of being dramatic.... my life -  I HATE IT that I'm 33 years old, full of energy and desire to do everything under the sun and instead of soaking up every moment of this great trip I'm fucking around with home made ice packs and trying to keep track of how many Advil I'm taking so I don't nuke my kidney.  Or liver, whatever!

Despite the heavy whining tone of this post, I'm happy to be off the
road and with ChooDog

Don't even get me started about the McStatePark I'm staying in Tonight.  Tomorrow is a new set of hours and roads and I hope to turn this frown upside down.  Peace.

PS: Do you notice how different this post is?  If you know me it probably seems more, "like me" - that in itself is a bummer to face.

Graduation Day

Pulled off for lunch and a walk in the middle 

Woke up and made the West bound trek to Boise.  nice ag country most of the way then the last 60 miles were godawful ugly and boring.  Arrived at uncle Jeff's house to a yard full of familly, food and cold beer.  Nice to get out of the car and see familiar faces and I forgotten how nice Jeff's house was, perched up on a hill with a full view of the valley.  Good job, Jeff!

Graduation ceremony was.... a graduation ceremony.  Glad I was there to support and celebrate with Ben, but my god was it boring and all around me were screaming teenagers:

• Yeah, Jody! 
• Yeah, Mike! 
• Chris, yeah! 
• Yeah! Dan!!  Danno!!!

Ended up sleeping like a baby at the Tolomeo house, thanks again!

The Night of Camping that Would Not Be...

Woke up, packed up and took off to continue my Northern march.  Descending from the Nebo loop into Southern Payson was interesting, there are some great properties and I could imagine having a ranch in an area like this.  In fact, overall I'd say that I like what I see in Utah.  I had such good luck with the Nebo loop byway I tried another alternate option via the 91/89 combo from Bringham City, UT to Pocatello, ID - bad idea, while it was pretty, the traffic through Logan was terrible!!!!!

The trees in downtown Pocatello have
"twinkle light" and the string is connected
to this box.  I thought it was funny.

I stopped by the BLM and Forest Service office in Pocatello and asked for ideas on where to camp.  Usual criteria:

• No people
• Few rules
• No fees
• Dirt
• Etc.

I got a hot tip on a road up in the forest on the South side of I-86 so I checked it out.  The following video was taken on that road, it was amazing.

OK, so I didn't camp there and I'll tell you why:  I had a lot of office work to do and therefor needed an internet connection - I lost signal about 500 yards before I turned off on that road and it didn't return in the 20 minutes I spent on it.  So I turned around and headed for the next State Park that was close to the interstate as I'd likely have 3G coverage there.

Salvation! was found at Massacre Rock (great name!) state park.  As I pulled in I had full 3G bars.  Campsite was pricey at $26 and a cabin, according to the info board, was $55.  Normally I wouldn't even consider this, but the following flew through my head:

• Power - it would be convenient to plugin the laptop instead of sitting near car with inverter plugged in
• Bed - my back is hosed and a bed sounded nice
• Wind - it was blowing hard and sitting outside in the dark with a headlamp (so I can see the keyboard) didn't sound as good as sitting in a cabin at a table
• Alcohol - while this didn't have a direct connection to the prospect of staying in a cabin I nonetheless had a craving for a drink.  Update: I have not yet had a drink, I'm about to though!

Snake River as seen from my porch

Fresh pot of coffee at 8pm, ready to work late.
This is the view from my cabin-office

My back is screwed.... I really tweaked it when I crashed.  I spent the whole day stopping and applying ice packs and taking Advil.  Fingers crossed that I can ride with the Idaho MTB group on Friday.

Day 2 - part deux

The Nebo pass summit (the road, not the mountains in
the background) at 9,240 ft

As promised, here is the second installment (actually posted on the 30th).  So the day turned out great, I was driving up the 15 through central Utah and I started getting worried that I didn't really know where I was going, I also wanted a more remote experience than I had the previous night.  Long story short I stopped at a state park and talked to the super cute (but too young) Utah DNR park employee.  She seemed nervous (tattoos? - I dunno) but managed to give me some good info.  While looking at a map on the wall I saw an interesting looking route from Nephi to Payson - AKA "The Nebo Loop" (click link for map).  I talked to another DNY employee who knew the route very well and told me I had to check it out.

I found a great campsite - well, not a campsite but a place to camp, in fact I think I was camping illegally but figured I'd please ignorant if a forest service ranger came by.  The site was this grassy meadow with tree coverage on 3 sides and drenched in sunlight when I found it.  It was a no-brainer - I veered off the highway, dropped down a slope and half slid on the grass into my position.  Cracked open my pabst 24oz tall-boy and spent too long stacking rocks under the tires to level my truck.

Once that was done I spent 2 hours cutting and splitting firewood (worked off the beer).  Chui had a blast exploring the surrounding woods and eating junk he found on the ground.  He barfed later, then ate it.  Please note my raging OCD induced stacking of firewood by diameter!

It's almost 9 o'clock and still that light out...

Epic Gnar Slam

I'm sitting in a Starbucks (for WiFi) about 30 miles North of St. George.  It feels like Mammoth or Kennedy Meadows - the Sierras, I guess.  Slept great.  Temperatures dipped to only 50 overnight.  My alarm woke me at 6am (felt like 5 due to time time zone) and I started getting ready for my Ride.  I left Chui in the truck with Windows down and figured I'd be gone for 2-3 hours.

I rode the Bear Claw Poppy trail (link has GPX file too!) and it's one of the most fun trails I've ridden in years, just this great rolling pump-track like trail.  Plenty of jumps and opportunities to float over the crest of mini hills. About 12 miles in it was already hot and I started worrying about Chui in the car so I made my way back prematurely.  That's when I slammed, hard.  I was riding a right side berm on the side of a trail and when I start to come down my tire washed out in sand and 'thud!' - all on my right side, wore off some more tattoo and scratched up my knee.  Also irritated my back so I've been on ice while I drive, Advil, etc.  Still a killer ride though and I'd do it again any time.  Check out this YouTube video of some guys doing the first section (called "Three Fingers of Death")

St. George felt like Prescott or Flagstaff to me, very new and extremely clean and well cared for.  I didn't see any buildings that looked older than 20 years.  It also looked a bit depressed economically, lots of vacant buildings and unrealized housing developments.

OK, continuing North bound to SLC and then will look for a camping spot.  I want to be on a lake or river if I can find a place.  Hopefully it's hot as hell and I can find a river camping site.  I will post again Tonight once I get settled.

Off to a good start

In a way, my trip started yesterday.  Monday has been my departure date from the onset, but I needed to pick up guns and ammo from the house in Arrowhead.  My sister's family was up at the cabin so I decided to make the run up there Sunday night - sort of get a jump on gettin outta dodge.

12 PB&J sandwiches, 3 apples, 3 bananas, 4 carrots, an orange and a
bottle of scotch

I slept in my car last night while it was parked on the driveway, just 30 feet from 5 beds, a fireplace, large TV, full kitchen and all the blankets you could ask for.  It's OK though, I thought it wise to test the new sleeping platform in my truck at the house rather than 300 miles away from home and tools.  I went to bed a bit drunk and didn't realize the car was parked about as unlevel (word??) as it could be which resulted in a restless night fighting gravity pulling me into the door panel.  I was warm though.  And nothing broke and Chui and I, overall, were fine.

Shot over my shoulder while driving

It was all I-15 North today - through Vegas, Mesquite Arizona and finally into St. George Utah.  I left at the end of everyone else' vacation, while they were heading home with hangovers, empty bank accounts and dread for Tuesday I was just getting started - the best part is that I had NO traffic!  I made the 336 miles to St. George in about 5 hours with several stops to give Chui (and me) a chance to pee.  Speaking of Chui, I've never seen a dog travel as comfortably as he is with the new sleeping platform.  I was worried that he'd be freaked out but it's quite the opposite, he's totally comfy and slept the whole day.

Yes, those are houses in the background :(

When I got into St. George my plan was to stop by the BL:M field office to get some guidance on where I could camp - on BLM land, not a campsite.  See, there are different classifications of BLM land (Open, Wilderness, etc.) - Open is the one I want, that's the type where you can do what you want, how you want and when you want - within reason.  Anyway, it was a holiday and hte BLM office was closed.  I started calling hiking and "outdoors" shops and asking for advice.  A nice guy said "Check out Green Valley Gap.  I did, and while it's not nearly as remote as I'm accustomed to it was beautiful and I have 3G service which means I can type this story and get the jump on some work emails and other tasks.

As I type this with a headlamp on so I can see the keyboard, a (too large) glass of scotch and a fire warming my shins I can't help but realize that this is a pretty good start.  My technology works, my scheduled end point was reached, I had a 1 hour hike through a gulch and watch guys rock climb and I just realized I'm sleeping 300 yards from the trail head I had planned to mountain bike in the morning.  Time for dinner.

Diatomaceous Earth - Enough is Enough

Like a weed - arugula from last year, I'm going to eat it all!

I finally broke down and bought some diatomaceous earth to fight the pill bugs.  This stuff sounds terrible, it basically dries them out, sucks all the moisture right out of them.  I read that humans should seriously limit the amount that is inhaled so I wrapped a wet rag around my nose and mouth when I spread it.  I already realize that I need a tool to properly apply this stuff, I'm thinking a turkey baster may work well.

Yesterday's storm gave me another ~30 gallons of water.  Second sowing of carrots have emerged and I just realized that what I thought was a weed growing all over the South end of NS1 is arugula!  I let my arugula bolt last year and I'm paying the price, although on the other hand it's nice to have it in salads.

Meteorologists are Retarded

• Rain coming
• No rain coming
• Gonna rain Tomorrow
• No it's not
• 60%, 40%, 20% 5% chance of rain
• Ugh!

So I've been in Chicago on work, came back late Saturday and was excited to check on things Sunday morning.  Peas in EW3 look great, carrots were almost all eaten.  Spinach too.  Neighbors cat shit all over EW4 (or is it EW5?).  Peas in back wall planter haven't emerged.  All in all a very disappointing set of developments.  I walked back inside.

Later that night I walked out to see what was eating my plants.  My old nemesis the "rollie pollie" and her bastard children were swarming on everything green and sacred!  I hate them, I smashed 50-60 in between my fingers, their little isopod liquid guts squirting out.  I went to bed, unsatisfied.

Flipped compost Saturday, added the stuff from the tumbler as well as a bucket of chicken manure.

Looks like a Miss

Maybe .000056" of rain fell. maybe!.
They were drops, not drizzle but not even enough to get the road wet.  Major disappointment.

Rain Tonight

Forecast is for rain moving in Tonight and sticking around most of Tomorrow.  I put my tools away, covered the compost with a tarp, set out all my buckets to catch rain and cultivated the beds a little so more water would soak in instead of running off. 

I'm leaving for Chicago Wed. morning and I didn't want to worry about my peas in the 50 cell tray, so I transplanted the few that actually emerged into their new home.  No real work Today, that all took about 10 minutes.

Like Fire

sunrise

Sunday Morning Mystery

Special Sunday Sock Supplement

And I searched for it's brother...

(?)

Plumbing Time-Kill

I had a good list Today, lots of different things but the pipe fix ended up taking 3-4 times longer than expected.  First I had to head out to the store to buy more glue.  Once I got back I made quick work of the broken pipe.  Turned on the irrigation zone to test and what do you know, the hole filled up with water!  I know how to assemble and repair PVC, so I was confident that my repair was solid.  I baled out the water and had Vinessa turn the valve on so I could watch what happened: Another, big break in a branch line that I didn't see before due to low pressure.

All my previous work down the toilet, I cut out the repair and began digging away to access the newly discovered breach.  Of course it was right up against a Tee so I had to really cut things back and clear a larger area.  I'm getting low on 3/4" couplers now and dreading another trip to the store.

Real ugly, but it doesn't leak

After laying everything out I was short about 1/2" on the lateral patch line so I had to sort of push everything out of plane to close up the joints.  I drove a stake down to ensure that things stay put, once the dirt is backfilled it'll be fine.  And like I said, I'm bad ass on PVC repairs and those joints aren't going to slip.

Vinessa came over to "work" and by work she sat on her butt and read.  It's cool though, always nice to have the company and she DID help with the sprinkler valve and DID make a food run.  I put up the 6' chicken wire in the new bed for the peas, dumped the compost out of the compost tumbler (that thing doesn't work) and shredded Pam's giant sunflower.  Oh, and I planted about 50 snow peas in the new bed as well.

Oh, HELL Yeah!

Blueberries just around the corner

That's a solid 158°F

I'm back on top!  Hot compost makes me real happy, real happy- especially after my admission last week that I'd lost my touch.

No work Today, too much office work.

More Sowing, Buying and Maintenance

Although I haven't written in a few days I have been putting in my customary ~1 hour a day of farm work.  Today I sowed my third succession planting of Red Cardinal, this completes the NS2 bed and already has me thinking about where I can plant more.  Red Cardinal spinach is by far my favorite crop I've grown and I can't wait to stop buying baby spinach at the store and instead go back to harvesting my home grown stuff.

Snap pea seedlings. Nice straight rows, yep!

 My snap peas that I direct sowed into EW3 look absolutely incredible, probably ended up with 95% germination!  My rows are crooked as all hell though and now that the seedlings are peeking up it's actually quite embarrassing.  All 3 of my corn crops have emerged and look pretty good, the weed screen mulch trick works great.  I also sowed another round of the same carrots Yesterday.

Finally I fired up irrigation zone #7 which has spur lines running to several large pots in the yard and saw a stream of water shoot up about 10' in the air.  Shit, another broken pipe.  This won't be easy to get to, it's deep and the soil near it is clay and a real PITA to work in.  Gotta fix though, not really worth complaining or thinking too much about.  My compost pile is cooking right around 154°F and has been there for 3-4 days, that's a good sign, this pile should finish quickly.  I've started to stockpile browns and greens to be used as browns in the future.  See, in winter you don't have enough greens, but with all the leaves on the ground you have plenty of browns, in summer the problem is the opposite.