After Church, there was a moose in the garden near the raspberry arbors, eating some of the willow tree. This one was not very big. I suspect this is its first winter on its own. In the winter, moose come into town from the surrounding areas to look for food. We often find moose tracks […]
First Moose of the Winter Read More »
Between yesterday and last night we received over a foot of snow. The trash cans in the picture already had snow on them, so the height of the piles is more than a foot. Fortunately, this snow was fine-grained and not difficult to shovel. After I cleared the necessary paths, I got out the snow
Currently, we do not produce produce for sale, but we have dreams of doing so. To that end, I signed up to take the class. In Alaska, the Office of the State Veterinarian and the Department of Environmental Conservation work with the Food and Drug Administration to manage the sale of food products. We
Produce Safety Class Read More »
The forecast was for snow and we still had not taken down the mesh tent at the farm site. So, I drove out in the morning to take care of it before a heavy snow fall collapsed it. It wasn’t too difficult except that some water had frozen in the connections of a few pieces.
Today, we had our first significant frost. There may have been a little in the last few days, but today’s frost was undeniable. Chokecherries get noticeably sweeter as the days get cooler. The trees convert starch into sugar to use in cellular respiration. So, it is best to harvest the chokecherries after the first frost.
Harvesting Chokecherries Read More »
We use wood shavings from a local sawmill to cover the floor in the chicken coop. Our trailer has a 4’x8’ bed with 3.5’ walls and rear gate. The sawmill sells the shavings by volume. So, to make things easy, I marked the walls with stripes at 1’ and 2’ heights. Now, when I fill
Last summer, our electric fence charger malfunctioned. While the smoke prevents progress on the driveway, I decided to cross a different item off my to-do list, and began the repair process. I perused some how-to videos and found the information that seemed necessary. Opening the case was, indeed, as easy as was indicated in the
Shipping to Alaska Read More »
In our back yard we have a lilac which was given to us as a wedding present. It has taken a long time to mature but has produced a nice number of blossoms for the past few years. At first, we thought that we had a weak plant, because it took forever to show any
Today was the first lawn mowing of the year. Fortunately, the grass grows slowly here. I can usually get away with mowing the lawn four or five times in the summer. The iris are now in bloom. I look forward to this happening. Iris grow wild here and I have been spreading them along the
The Iris Are in Bloom Read More »
Today, there were enough roses in bloom that Melissa decided to begin harvesting petals. She makes an excellent rose petal jelly from them. It is wonderful stuff, which tastes very much like the roses smell. Around here, Arctic Roses and Sitka Roses grow wild. They can reach 6’ tall and the stems can be almost
The Roses Are In Bloom Read More »