Monday, April 14, 2008

Asparagus In Our Future

Just before we left for our annual pilgrimage to the land of maple syrup, we received our order from Fedco. Asparagus, raspberries, strawberries, and two hazelnut trees. We managed to get the hazelnuts in the ground before we left, but the rest had to sit in cold storage. We have a few days to till, fertilize and plant before we leave again for a longer trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island. Although getting these things in the ground at this point is not exactly a priority, they take two or three years to be productive so we thought we'd make the time to do it now.

The weather for the week looks fabulous. Sunny and in the 50's. By the time we get back roughly two weeks from now, the roads should be unposted and the ground should be sufficiently dry to start the rest of the site work.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Chipper?

I am less than chipper after a day of chipping. We rented the same chipper we used seven years ago, and this time it's power did not impress. I though it would suck down the little fir trees without much effort. The teeth that grab the end couldn't get a good enough hold to overcome the branches. I had to trim a couple feet of branches up from the butt end to get the trees to feed through whole. This added work took about 2 hours. We had wanted to share the rental with our neighbors, but I ended up using all but one of the allotted hours. Even if I had finished in time, moving the chipper would have been all but impossible in the soft spring conditions. By the end of the day I was dragging, but it's done.

The delay in construction has given us the opportunity to do more redesigning. This time it was the placement of the bread oven. By giving it more of its own space, one change followed another, and in the end the house was considerably different. The screened in area is now on the south west side, and the shed roof no longer wraps around. This change will give the kitchen side of the house a lot more light and solar gain. I will be making a trip to Block Island and spending a few days with Richard in a few weeks. I'll get to swing a hammer and talk over the plans.