We had three beautiful days.
April 8, 2022
I have always been fascinated by the Jewish religion, not because they do not believe that Christ has not come yet, but because of their rituals and steadfastness in living their religion. We have good friends who converted from Judaism 15 years ago to our religion. However, every year they celebrate the Passover with their cousins who also converted. This year we were invited to go down to Arkansas to their cousin’s home and participate in a Passover dinner, a seder. There were 36 people there and it was an evening of order which is what seder stands for. Symbolism shared the connection to Easter and the Sacrament. It was such a wonderful experience.
April 9, 2022
Some days we get to own, and this was one of those days. We got to be on farm from morning until night. These are some of the projects we did.
Moved the meat chickens on grass in the chicken tractor, but moved them back into their brooder in the evening because it was too chilly without a lamp for them.
Jim worked on the perimeter fence and ran into several problems with it not working. Finally, he found that the electric charger was no longer working. They are guaranteed for 3 years and it was old when we bought the home 4 years ago. So, he put on another one we had and it was too small to charge the fence for the distance and strands it had to go. Therefore, we had to buy a new one. He put it on and we held our breath. It worked. Then we had to make a decision. We still needed to do paddocks for the cows and we needed to use the BCS tractor on the slipper garden. We knew it was going to start raining this week. We can make paddocks in the rain, but cannot form beds in the rain so we worked on the garden. The cows will wait for the lower pasture a little longer.
While Jim was preparing the fence, I was planting potatoes. It is possible I ordered too many. I filled a trough with compost soil, peat moss and pearlite and then prepared 20 cloth-10-gallon-containers placing three potato seeds in each. See below in the Nutritional Education to find out the method I used. I still have many to prepare but will find a place on the farm to plant them in the ground.
We had a pile of compost covered with a tarp underneath our kitchen window all winter. It was left over from last year and we put it there to give the water pipe going into the home extra insulation as it froze the previous year. I used all that soil and moved the ground cover to go clear to the house. The idea is this. The first eight feet next to the house will be a deck covered as a large porch. Going out from the deck will be a herb bed made from cinder type blocks. This allows herbs right out my front door and allows the blocks to protect the house from water coming in as we have had before. In front of the herb bed will be a French drain to protect the house completely. Then in front of the French drain will be the area that was the slipper garden. This year, however we are not using black ground cover. We are going to plant densely to block out weeks and put wood chips heavy in the isle. It will look better and we should get more vegetables.
As Jim used the BCS on the front yard to smooth it out and make new beds, the chickens when nuts. They would get right in front of the tractor and I was shooing them out of the way. They were voracious about finding new treats in the soil. The day of work ended at 8:15 PM and we felt so happy and satisfied.
April 10, 2022
Sundays are Sundays. We go to church, drive people home, visit other people and lead our addiction recovery groups. It is fulfilling and filled with love and we are tired at the end of the day.
Nutritional Education
Use 30 meters containers is best. 10 gal. The larger the size you go, the less potatoes you get.
Determinate potatoes grow on a single level – Grow 4 potatoes in each container. Can have 2 layers and smaller potatoes
Indeterminate potatoes grow on multiple levels – Grow larger potatoes, use 2 chits only on the potato’s seeds. We have not figured out how to tell if they are determinate or indeterminate yet.
Smaller potatoes allow all chits to grow
Larger potatoes brake off the chits leaving only a couple.
Plant seeds on 6 inches of soil and cover to the top
Add blood, bone or fish meal and ad potash (potassium) Do not use chicken manure. It will give great foliage and few potatoes
8 – 10 hours of sun and bury the container down in a little soil and surround with a layer of mulch
Experiment planning seeds on 6 inches and cover with 4 inches adding soil as you go.
Or
Cover to the top of the container and
Cover top with hay or pine shavings on the soil
Add support system of hog panel 15 inches above the containers for the leaves to grow up in as support
Have a good water source
Harvest potatoes when 50 % of leaves turn yellow. Cut off all the foliage and allow them to set for two weeks in the pot to harden their skin.
When the plant flowers stop the foliage before they make pods because that will take the energy from the potato and give it to the flower.