(DF) GARDEN DAY RAMBLINGS (part 1) ....... what to do about weeds

Ok, it is actually garden weekend ramblings, but you know what I mean. With my new job, my schedule has been 9am to 6pm, five days a week, which has been leaving me with just enough time before dark to take care of the goats and chickens. This leaves me the weekends to catch up on all the necessary everyday maintenance type stuff that there wasn't time for all week. However, middle of last week that changed. My daily shift became 6am to 3pm, which leaves me some time to get things done of the evening........ sure hope this change lasts. My days off vary week to week but who cares, it is time to work at home.

With my new schedule, I managed to get things caught up a bit in preparation for Sunday and Monday off. The Saturday evening storms threatened to change plans but there was still hope. Sure enough, there wasn't anything one could consider a storm here at dave's farm, just a moderate wind and some relatively gentle rain. At this point, I will shift focus a bit to storms nearby, but please bear with me.

As I was saying, there wasn't a storm here, the closest thing being low thunder in the distance. On the other hand, one of my co-workers who lives less than twenty miles away, had a tornado touch down. It destroyed his barn, commercial chicken house, lots of timber and landscape trees and took the roof off his house. I found out today that while I was being grateful that the storms had missed, he was beginning to sort through the devastation. Just shows how strange and erratic the weather can be and gives pause to reflect. Please remember my co-worker in your thoughts and prayers, he needs all the help he can get.

Now, back to my ramblings. Sunday started calm with intermittent light rain and a trip to town to pick up dog food (which I didn't think I was out of until time to feed the little dog, Poopei). The weather cleared while I was gone and I proceeded to dig up the garden, as soon as I got back, to play catch up on planting. I had already planted tomatoes and peppers a couple of days before (though there are still tomatoes and cabbage that aren't quite big enough to transplant) so now it was time to start on the main garden. Grass and weeds had pretty much taken over already, so I would have to take care of that.

When I am working at something, especially when it is quiet and in nature, I tend to let my mind wander a bit ........ alright, more than a bit, and left without proper supervision, it sometimes goes some unusual places. This time, it only turned to thoughts of weeds, and of course, questions. We all know what weeds are, and where to find them, and hopefully some earth friendly ways to deal with them. But, what are weeds REALLY? Obviously, they are things we don't want in our gardens, right? NOT SO FAST WITH THE WEED KILLER!!!!!!

Looking at the "weeds" in my garden, there were a variety of edible plants that I grew up with, some of which Anna mentioned in today's "Tightwad Tuesday" post. In fact there were at least nine of the dozen or more plants I grew up picking as wild greens. Some of these (and a few others growing among them in my garden) also have some medicinal properties. As Anna said, free food and medicine. Doesn't sound like weeds to me, in fact, I took time to harvest some of them before I got under way.

Now, as for the ones that don't count as food or medicine (at least not that I know of) there was the question of what best to do with them. Before I move forward with this, let me say that I DO NOT advocate the use of herbicides, especially in the garden. In my mind, it is like setting booby traps for home defense without knowing who or what will get killed in the process. They kill types of plants, not individual species and it has, so far, been impossible to convince me that they are safe for the environment. I must be careful with this subject so I don't get on my soap box and over react. Sorry! seems I already got on the soap box.

At any rate, as my thoughts wandered on this subject, it occurred to me that there is no real problem with weeds in the garden and that they actually belong there. The problem is that no body wants them actually GROWING in the garden. If they are not growing, this means they are dead and dead weeds make compost. Compost is a good thing in the garden and since different plants incorporate different nutrients from the soil, what better way to get rid of them than to dig them back into the garden.

Some grasses are not so easy (in my garden, it is Johnson grass). Johnson grass spreads from the roots as well as seed. The roots are segmented and each segment will grow an new plant. Anything that breaks up the roots will spread the grass and soon it can look more like a hay meadow. More tilling means more spreading and this is where many people reach for the poison, and continue with the roto-tiller. I will try not to say too much against garden machines in this post as it deserves a full post of its own (likely a second part of this post so stay tuned). Point being that there are other ways to deal with this nuisance. The best way I have found, is to work the ground with hand tools and pull out every root you find. Each new shoot that sticks its head up can be easily pulled or cut with a hoe (which is the equivalent of grazing, which this grass does not tolerate well). The blades themselves can be dug into the soil or used as mulch with no problem. Soon it is under control.

Bermuda grass is another story, as the grass itself will take root if in contact with moist soil, even after it looks dead. In other words, if you dig it into the soil, you have spread it, so the only way to remove it without poison, is to dig it up and remove it from the garden completely.

I know it sounds like I was doing more thinking than working, but in the midst of it all, on Sunday afternoon and Monday, I did get quite a few onions planted as well as some cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, green beans and carrots (Anna got a bit carried away buying onion sets and plants, but if they do well, we will have plenty of onions this winter).

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but if my camera will work (if the batteries are strong enough and I can remember to use it, that is) I will try to post a few with part 2, where I will be talking about machine age farming and such. Hope to see you there.

(DF) HAMMER REPAIR IN THE BLACKSMITH SHOP

Throughout the past week, a week frantically filled with ranch work, car repair, warm weather prep for a strong cold front and numerous other frantic activities, thoughts of working at my recently set up blacksmith shop remained simmering on the back burner. There was also a nagging in my mind in terms of the rough texture of the small item I produced while testing my new forge parts. The problem was not with my technique, but with my tools.

It has been a few years since I have done any smithing, and in that time, my hammers have continued to be used for other things. Some of my hammers are wonderful antiques I have picked up at flea markets or that have been passed down through my family, while others are somewhat newer. They all have one thing in common, ABUSE. The amount of damage to a hammer face is not all that noticeable when hammering stubborn parts into place, straightening shafts or striking a chisel, but every stroke on properly heated steel will show every imperfection. With these things in mind, I decided to set aside a portion of the weekend to address these issues.

Needles to say, there were a lot of imperfections, making the work at hand also imperfect. The answer to this consideration is simple, fix or replace the hammers. If you will notice at this point, I said SIMPLE, not EASY.

Replacing sounds like the easiest of the choices, at least on the surface, but there are two major drawbacks. One of the big drawbacks is price. Of course, the value of good tools cannot be overstated, but when you consider the variety of hammers used in the blacksmith shop, the combined price would be quite high. Another drawback is quality and availability. Most hammers made these days are not used in the blacksmith shop, so the quality of material and workmanship is geared for other purposes. The finish on the face of many new hammers is another issue. In short, if you can see grind marks on the hammer face, you can also see them on your work, so you have to work on them before use. Add to these considerations the fact that many of the more specialized hammers are no longer produced and those passed down through the family are not replaceable. The option of replacing suddenly becomes not so easy after all. Besides, repairing the old ones gives a much better appreciation of what you have.

With the decision made to repair instead of replacing, I was truly appreciative of a good bench grinder. Yes, I know that is a departure from the handcrafting way but with serious time constraints, it came in pretty handy. The bench grinder, used carefully so not to overheat the metal, was quite effective for re-shaping the faces and getting past the chips and dings, but the grinder marks were another issue. One by one, the hammers were placed in the vice and gently attacked with a good flat file to remove the marks left by the grinder. When the filing was done, you may have already guessed it, there were plenty of file marks left behind. This had to be remedied with the use of very fine emery cloth and lots of elbow grease.

By the end of the weekend, all of the hammers I currently have in my shop for working metal, now have brand new shiny faces that I can see my own face in, and no dings or grinder marks. It was a lot of work, but though it took most of the weekend (leaving barely enough time to plant a few potatoes), the time spent was certainly no more than would have been spent making money to buy new ones. The satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that bringing these old tools back to life gives, simply cannot be measured.

Needless to say, there won't be a great deal of tolerance for people using my hammers incorrectly and the handles of those used for shaping metal and those used for chisels and such will be color coded for easy identification. A sign is in the works which will read, "Ding my tools, I'll ding your head". Of course I won't likely ding heads, but I may well hand the culprit a file and some emery cloth and make them fix the dings.

Though my antique anvil, passed down from my great grandfather, has a few imperfections that can't be addressed at this time, it isn't too bad. At first hint of an opportunity, I will have the neighbors wondering where all the noise and coal smoke is coming from. And I will smile while I am doing it.

(D♥A) FORAGING FOR FOOD

With grocery prices soaring, each trip to the supermarket is a greater hardship than the last time, the most obvious solution is to grow more of our own.  It only makes sense; but what about foraging?  Foraging for food comes in many forms ranging from gathering wild mushrooms, greens and other edible wild plants, to hunting and fishing, and yes, even finding unused fruit on trees in backyards in town.

Friday, as Anna and I were driving down a street in her hometown, I pointed out a large, beautiful pear tree I spied in a back yard.  It was absolutely loaded with luscious pears, which was striking if only for the fact that it has not been a particularly good fruit year in this area.  The look on Anna's face and her excited exclamation encouraged me to do the first thing that had come to mind, go back and ask about the pears in hopes of obtaining a good quantity of fruit cheaply, (or better yet, free).

All the way back to the residence, we were talking excitedly about ways to preserve any pears we might get and types of recipes they could be used in.  We discussed several, but are certainly open to suggestions and recipes, any suggestions, ideas and comments being welcome.
 
Unfortunately, there was nobody at home.  Yes, we did leave a note on the door with contact information and are still hoping to hear from the owners.  It would be such a horrible waste for all those delicious pears to sit ignored and rotting. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for the surplus or unwanted fruits and nuts in your neighborhood.  In many cases, to remove them from a property is a mutual good, disposing of an unwanted mess on the owner's property and putting high quality food on your table.  Everybody wins.