Ashes, Weeding, Peas, Radishes, More Transplants, Fire, Pizza Facto...

Another busy day yesterday around the farm. The okay weather has allowed me to be outside again trying to catch up on the litany of chores that need to be done.

After the larger fire I had in the pit I was able to shovel all the ashes out since the majority of it was nice fine ashes. There was a bit of charcoal left but fairly minimal.

The wheelbarrow full got dumped into the ashes sled where I took a piece of metal that I had removed from the studio roof in the remodel and covered it all to keep the rains from soaking them. If it would ever dry out this year I will open the metal to let the sun dry them out so I can eventually put them all in a barrel to store for next spring.

Weeding is the story of my life now. I got through all the squash rows which only leaves the beans in the main rows to work on. I found another volunteer tomato which was quite a ways from where any tomato was last year.

The peas have grown above the fencing so I used 4 sticks of 1/2" conduit for the ends and then strung wires up for support. The peas should have enough to keep them from falling over on themselves and they are flowering now so we are not far from starting the pea harvests.

I have been rather surprised to find that the celery has actually germinated. They are tiny and fairly fragile but they are there.

I was able to find them amongst the masses of weeds. I'm feeling a bit proud that I managed to excavate them and that they are growing. I have had shit luck with celery over the years so I'm hoping the super wet year will help them do well.

The German giant radishes have started to bolt so I went through and culled a bunch of them from the row.

I then went to the 18 day radishes (which are taking much more than 18 days) and picked a nice bunch of them. They got washed off before I took them to the deck and cut all the tops which got tossed to the sheep.

Next was the pole garden where I weeded the bean row and found a horrible germination rate. The sunflowers are all doing well and I got the one row weeded. I still need to get to the row of the giant sunflowers.

I ended up finding a total of 5 volunteer tomatoes for which I have no more room in the gardens. Having old pots with soil still in them from indoor plants that died I rolled and lugged the biggest one onto the deck. After adding more soil to it I planted the 5 volunteers and put a wire cage around them for their support.

Hive account@stryeyz and J headed to town for the afternoon/evening as J had a classmates birthday party to go to at the trampoline park in the mall. Shortly before they left I got the fire going in the pit for the day even though I wasn't going to be grilling. R kept trying to learn how to split wood which is a bit hard for him given the weight of the maul.

Since they were eating in town I had the serious desire for the Pizza Factory. The chain is as old as I am and started in the towns I was born in and I grew up in. It was THE place for the high school students to work and my dad knew Danny Wheeler. It started out as Danny's Pizza Factory and got shortened to Pizza Factory as some point. The flavor of the pizza crust is one of my all time favorites so I put in our order for a calzone with no cheese and a large bread sticks. Since I don't eat dairy it has been hard not eating pizza so this was a super welcome meal.

We went to pick it up in Deer Park and once home I put Jackass forever on for R and I to watch. Once it was over we were back out by the fire and he was right back at work trying to split the piece of wood.

They got home from town and the party where J had a ton of fun and soon the boys were out in their tent playing on their devices. Went out to soak for a while, until it was dark and I had to go put the birds in.

The turkeys have their perch atop the brooder hut and last night I was not going to fight them by hauling them one by one to the pallet hut. I left them there for the night as they are under the cover of the tree so less likely to have an owl come swooping in and attack them.

The boys have had the tent on the porch and thankfully the pergola has covered them since it seems to want to rain forever. I went back out to soak after getting the birds to bed.

This morning it has rained AGAIN but only a few tenths. I am going to be grilling today and may do hamburgers for lunch and steak for dinner. The other rows need to get weeded, I should probably harvest some more spinach, the sheep need a new bale, and we have tons of cleaning in the house to work on.