Diary 2/27/15

Well, our two weeks with the five star wwoofers comes to a close tomorrow.

We have had a productive two weeks; gathering firewood, cleaning greenhouses, cleaning and composting around the red raspberries, sightseeing, and enjoying each others cultures( making empenadas). All in all, a wonderful visit for us!

Random egg facts: Diary 2/21/15

Some egg facts: When putting eggs into a carton for storage, always put then point down. This way, the bubble on the inside of the shell will be open to air and the egg will stay fresh longer. If trying to pick eggs to put under a broody hen, the more pointy ones will be roosters 8 times out of 10. So if you want hens, pick the roundest eggs to put under your mother hen. Want to know if your eggs are fresh? Float them in a glass of water. Fresh eggs will drop to the bottom. Older eggs that are building up gas will bob up and down.

Diary 2/19/15

Though I took it easy today, yesterday we had quite the busy day. Between cleaning up branches from the wind storm from last summer and working on the second greenhouse, we also cleared an area of raspberries where the posts had fallen over and blackberries had moved in. Then the visitors took on another row of raspberries before even being asked. I am a lucky farmer...Bravo the wwoofers!

Diary 2/16/15

It was an excellent idea to take in these latest WWOOFers, and that they consented to coming. They worked their butts off today cleaning half a greenhouse of weeds, collecting bark from the "big tree", unloading the truck load, cleaning the asparagus bed, and now they are making dinner. Although I worked along with them, I totally couldn't keep up! My shoulder is feeling great and I haven't taken any meds other than the 4000 mgs of Vit. D today. I love the WWOOF program!

Diary 2/15/15

I have been in the doldrums as far as the garden goes. Just was hard to get myself motivated to work out there. Then a couple asked to WWOOF at the farm last Tuesday. I thought about it...good weather...frozen shoulder...stress about what I need to get done...and voila! I said "yes". They arrived this afternoon, and I think I have made a wise decision. They are interesting people with genuine interest, intelligent conversation, and a willingness to participate in whatever we are doing. I feel better already!

This morning we got six cords of wood off the "big tree". I really didn't help much with my weird shoulder, but I babysat so another much younger lady could help, and I was there to cheerlead and offer a loaf of banana bread.

Diary 2/9/15

Garden Girl found my camera. It was soaked. I could remember putting it on a wood surface, but that was all. Well, it was on the corner of a wooden flower box. Drying it out and we will see if it takes pictures at all or if they are masked with droplets of precipitation inside the lens. The big storm missed us yesterday. I guess the mountains form a rain shadow on this side. I know they do on the east side.

Now wind is in the weather story, and it is breezy out here, but again, not so bad yet. Our friends have trees down all over in their yard, but they are on a hill just outside of Ashland. Wind is often bad on that southern entrance into the Rogue Valley. What is not occurring is cold temperatures. They did get some snow at 6000 feet yesterday, but it will be in the 60's by the end of this sunny week.

Diary 2/5/15

Still no camera. If it is sitting outside somewhere it is a gonner because we have had 2.5 inches of rain over the last few days. I headed out to the garden to look around some more yesterday, but when I arrived I heard the well working hard, so shut it off, walked a circle to check for broken faucets. I found none, so I went to get the "well expert". We found the valves to our storage tanks for a gravity flow system were all open and the tanks were overflowing, so shut the valves and went back to turn on well. That did the trick, so glad it wasn't something more complicated. All that and then forgot to look for camera...We have an older camera that actually takes really good pictures, but it is not a point and shoot kind; bulky with aview finder, etc. So, as time goes by I may start using it. Otherwise, I will purchase a new camera and then my old one is sure to show up! It is raining hard right now and supposed to continue through the weekend, slowly washing all the snow pack that was scant anyway off the mountain tops. The weather remains war and the snow levels above the ski resorts for the most part. Kinda scary for summer moisture. Picture in honor of snow that we don't have~

Diary 2/2/15

I have misplaced my camera! As you all know this blog is ALL about the pictures. I have a vague recollection of setting it down on the corner of a wood surface. There are so many wood surfaces around here, that is not a great clue. So, in the meantime, I will post a photo from last week, and hope like me, you cross your fingers that I find it soon~