House Update

The house construction is moving along.  The basement and crawl space walls have been repaired, tuck pointed and/or re-poured and all have been sprayed with structural foam.  The basement floor has also been repoured - after Bill and some helpers dug down an additional 10" in the basement and hauled it up and out.  Tomorrow brings a crew of carpenters to help Bill pull off the old roof, reframe and prepare for the new roof.  This week also brings the excavator to dig the foundation for the addition (a/k/a the new house where we will live) - we hope the foundation will be poured early next week.

 The gray is the exterior foam which is structural.  The yellow are interior foundation walls which only need insulating

Interior shot.  The space where the ladder is going down will be the commercial kitchen (at grade) and a basement underneath

Labor Day found us seeding cover crops.  Bill cultivated with the tractor on Fields 1, 2, 4, 9 and 11.  I followed behind with the hand seeder.  1 and 2 got white clover while 4, 9, and 11 got a mixture of peas, oats, vetch, winter rye, and crimson clover; which will be tilled in next spring.  Fields 1 and 2 will be replanted with garlic in - yikes - 6 weeks.

The drought has claimed a fair number of our orchard trees, planted this spring.  We anticipate a 50% survival rate.

The barn cats are settling in nicely. 

All 4 sleeping

(Left to right:  Sylvia, Mr. White, Oscar, Thomas)



Organic pest control

This post is for Susan.  :)

National Organic Program (NOP) standards state that producers must use management practices for pest control.

When our inspector asked us how we plan to control pests, Bill and I asked, "are barn cats allowed?"  She said absolutely.

We don't have an issue with an overload of barn pests - although we don't have any feed supplied in our barn to draw them yet - when our neighbor's cat (who is a skilled mouser) had a litter we thought it would be a good time to get some kittens.  We took the whole litter:  3 males, 1 female.  We had them neutered/spayed and vaccinated under the "barn cat sterilization program" at the local animal hospital.

 Clockwise from upper left hand corner

Sylvia

Mr. White (we are watching Breaking Bad right now. 

This cat has professor-like patches on his elbows.)

Thomas

Oscar

Sylvia and Oscar both see a barn swallow swooping by

Mr. White - paws crossed, doesn't care

Thomas - well (can you tell ?) he's the alpha

They are 7 months old, friendly, and enjoyable to have around.  3 Flat Acres first official animals!

Harvest is curing

The garlic harvest is in and curing. The 100 degree heat and the rock hard soil slowed us down but we got it in.

We anticipate having our sales page activated by mid-August.

Hanging in bunches of 10 bulbs

The drying racks are 12' tall and each have six 5' bars

5000 bulbs m/l

New website is up!

Soon our garlic varieties will be for sale!

www.3flatacres.com

Harvesting

The garlic harvest has begun. The soil is rock hard due to Wisconsin's drought situation so the digging is challenging. We've gotten the Asiastics and one of the Porcelain varieties hanging to cure. We are curing this year in the shop due to the barn still being under construction.

Bill devised a drying/curing system with untreated wood and conduit. The bundles are hung with hemp twine.

A visit to Mecca

We visited the Twin Cities last weekend. In planning out our route, I discovered we could drive through Decorah, Iowa. Lovers of heirloom plants will know what is in Decorah. Mecca!!! a/k/a Seed Savers Exchange!

Our visit was short - less than 1 hour, but it was so inspiring.

We are planning another visit - it's only 2 hours away from SW Wisc to spend the day hiking the trails, viewing the heritage breeds and perhaps fishing the trout streams.

Scapes!

We are inundated with scapes - and it is great!!

Freshly harvested scapes

Getting ready to pickle

Done! And we have already given them all away...