Eudaimonia Farm

That’s my property taxes for this year: $18.74. And they’re likely to stay that way next year too, which requires a bit of a story…

Last week, I was putting some hay on top of the levee so that grass would grow and so that rain wouldn’t wash away the clay. It was awful hot last week, and hauling hay is a hot job. Put them together, and I was already down to just my skimpy shorts, but still sweating like you wouldn’t believe. I figured I was so far back on the property that nobody would ever see me, and besides, I wasn’t expecting anyone. So I took off what little clothing remained and returned to work. I must have been at it for another half an hour, and then I heard a rumbling from a distance. At first, I thought it was just one of my neighbors, coming home from something or other, but the rumbling kept getting closer. I peered over the levee and saw an unfamiliar red truck coming up the hill. I looked around and my shorts were all the way on the other end of the levee, so I ran over there as fast as I could, but the truck definitely saw me streaking over the hay. I put my shorts on and ran to meet this red truck, and as I got closer, the truck shared it’s side with me: Union County Assessor. Oh shit, my first interaction with the county and it has to start out like this… Well, I tried to make the best of it and offered my hand in greeting; the assessor tried to avoid it, but eventually gripped it, grimacing as he did so and then proceeding to speak very quickly. “Looks like everything’s about the same, so I should be on my way.” No comments about the pond or the root cellar or the solar panels. Relishing awkward situations, I found myself looking for ways to prolong this one: “Well hold on a second, will things be different if I put up a chicken coop?” “Depends, but at most it’ll cost you another 20 cents per year.” And with a quick goodbye he left and my property taxes stayed the same.

Pictures galore! My folks came and helped me install the solar panels. It’s much fancier than I would have done, but also much safer. I’ve also been working on the root cellar. There’s only one picture of it, but I’ve currently got corrugated steel for walls that is held in place by 10′ long 1/2″ rebar posts that are driven 3′ into the ground. Tonight, I’m planning on picking up some cedar boards to frame the top, and I’ll talk about that when I get it done. I’ll also include a diagram of the solar setup, but I’m rather far behind in my blog doings.

We caught about 6 gallons of minnows and a 14 pound Asian carp in 15 minutes early this morning near the Big Muddy River. Chalk that up to some food toward my 25% not from the store. I also found some paw paws (Asimina triloba) in the woods and identified some spicebush (Lintera benzoin). All in all, things are looking sunshiny. The pond is almost done, and the only thing that it needs now is a spillway. That and my root cellar will be dug the next time the weather is nice.

The guy is going to start digging the pond tomorrow, so I’ve been preparing the cabin to get moved and preparing the area where he’s going to dig, which means that I’ve been scything since 7am today (it’s about 2:30pm now), will go for another few hours now, and will have to do some more tomorrow. The scythe is pretty awesome, and I feel like I’ve really got the hang of it now. I’ll be sure to write up some stuff on that in the next few days, but unfortunately, I need to get back out there because there’s only so many hours of daylight.

I woke up at 3 this morning to start working on the grape trellis, and I am finally finished with it. Pictures will be forthcoming after I scythe the area around the grapes, so that you can actually see the vines. I’ll also include a picture of my shower per a request. That means that the only big farm projects that I personally have to do now are the chicken coop and the plans for next year’s trees. I’ve also done a handful of minor projects lately: like making bean trellises out of old fence, but nothing too much. I’ve been housesitting for my friend, so I haven’t been as active on small farm projects as I might otherwise have been, but I’m glad to have the air conditioning. And one more thing to note: another sleeping practice is sleeping on the roof. Apparently, it’s a popular thing to do in some places of Peru where it’s hot and muggy at night.

The heat index was 105 yesterday and is supposed to get to 106 today, and it was over 90 by 9 am this morning. In short, it’s too hot to do anything. I wake up as early as the sun does and do what work I can, usually watering plants and other small tasks like scything. Yep, scything. I’m almost as awesome as a Russian peasant, except that my technique is subpar: I swing up too much at the end and so the grass isn’t cut evenly. In any case, a lot of plans I had for these days have melted under the heat. The grape trellis still isn’t done, but that has more to do with missing a part than the heat. I also haven’t finished digging my foundation for the chicken coop, but that’ll come soon enough. The real hope is that I’ll have my cabin moved soon, especially if I miss the expected thunderstorms tonight. Other than that, the garden is looking much better this time around (I replanted wherever my weeding didn’t lead to discoveries of past plantings) and I’ve been eating a lot of sugar snap peas, mulberries, and I’ve even tried sassafras leaves. I think that the leaves are mildly carcinogenic, but one forager down here told me that he often eats a bunch of them for lunch whenever he forgets to bring a sandwich.

Here I thought I’d write more, but it looks like that’s not happening yet. I’ve just been pretty tired when I get back and not much in the mood for writing for an audience larger than one. So it looks like there will just have to be a bit of a recap. My old roommates John Hunt (Fox), Owen, and Michael came to visit for the weekend. Owen put up some pictures here, and while they were here, we dug a deep freeze (basically a big freezer) into the ground. Pretty simple: dig a hole and the plop the freezer in there. I also put a little tarp tent-style over the freezer to keep the direct sun off of it (I should note that there’s enough airflow through it so that it doesn’t heat up underneath it much either). The deep freeze is keeping food pretty cold now, and I’ve got some cheese in there as well as water and beer. Along those same lines, my beer is ready and it was alright. I think it got too much oxygen as it turned a little acidic (alcohol + oxygen = vinegar by way of bacteria), but my old roommate Stu said that it was a refreshing summer beer because of the acid, which made it seem citrusy. I think that’s a pretty generous assessment of it, but another person said that I should never change the recipe, so… I don’t know, maybe I’m too tough on the beer, which you wouldn’t expect given my affinity for Icehouse.

Anyways, I’m living up on the property and it’s been downright delightful. I weeded the entire garden and found things that I thought I’d completely lost. One of my friends down here gave me a bunch of turnip seed, and that’s coming up like gangbusters now. I’ve also spent a lot more time reading books instead of dinking around on the internet trying to keep up with the latest movements in news. As Anne Finch said in her Petition for an Absolute Retreat:

News, that charm to listening ears;
That common theme for every fop,
From the statesman to the shop,
In these coverts ne’er be spread,
Of who’s deceased and who’s to wed[.]

I’ve also made a shower, which consists of the bottom part of a regular shower up on 2×4’s with a 5 gallon bucket dug into the ground to catch the water. There’s a camp shower up about 8.5 feet with a black 5 gallon shower bag that’ll catch enough sun to heat up real hot if you like, but I’ve been taking more showers than usual just to cool down.

I went on a farm tour to a few local farms this weekend through the neighborhood co-op. Nothing too special to report from there, except that we went to the local bison farm and someone mentioned that the scientific name is Bison bison, which gave me the opportunity to bring up “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”

And today I get my first WWOOFer. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping you all posted, but this will be a busy week. I’ll also try to include some fresh pictures, but as always, no promises.

I received a butter crock from amazon.com today. It’s used to keep butter cool and spreadable without refrigeration. You put the butter in the teacup-looking part and put water in the other part. Then you tip the teacup part upside down and plop it in the water, which protects it from spoilage. It’ll effectively refrigerate a stick of butter for a month like that, the only trouble being that you have to change the water every three days or so.

The reason for getting this in the first place is that I’m more or less moving up to the farm. So with that in mind, I should note that my posts will most likely become more infrequent, since I won’t have internet up on the property (consequently, if you want to contact me, the phone is the best–and I don’t even hate using that ‘cellular telephone’ anymore). But on the plus side (or maybe the negative side, depending on your tastes), I’m going to be writing a bit more about what I’m thinking about at the suggestion of some friends. I read a lot, so I might as well make it of some use. I’ll spend time writing on my little laptop and then post farm and eudaimonia-related doings in batches.