Tag Archives: DIY

Jul9

Filler and Good Times

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Filler and Good Times

We have lost Annie, but gained Jake and Patrick, brothers from Springfield Missouri.   The brothers have been here a week now and are enjoying their time here on the farm.  They have a fun story, sorry guys but I’m going to tell it.  They both worked for Expedia, the travel web site.  They worked in the call center to help you book your trip.  Well, they both got fired on the same day and decided it was time to move on.  They said that their higher-ups did them a favor because they saw how unhappy they were.  So they started to travel themselves , instead of helping all of you book your vacations.  They also drastically changed their lifestyle choices, including their diets.  Jake was over 400 lbs.  Through good old eating right and exercise, he was able to drop over 160 lbs!  Talk about a monkey off your back!  I’m so inspired by their enthusiasm and will power and in turn they are inspired by ours.

Annie D’s last breakfast with the team.  We miss you already, happy trails.

(L-R) Jake, Patrick, since nicknamed the “Missouri Angels”.

The greatest job on the farm.

Picking tomatoes.

Oliver likes to hang out while people are working.  He makes sure this ship sails smoothly.

I’m glad he does, because we can get cute pictures of him doing super-cute things.

Paul put him to work picking green beans.

Jake displaying his tomato harvest.

We are currently selling produce through numerous avenues.  A few local grocery stores are the proud recipients of Ozark Alternatives potatoes, as well as a few local restaurants and of course the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market.  The tomatoes seen here were sold through our CSA, Northwest Arkansas Local Harvest.  We also have sold some through the Farmer’s Market.

Jul1

Hanging Garlic

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After we pulled the garlic out of the ground, the next step was to bunch it together and hang it to let it cure.  Once garlic is pulled, it is not dry like the kind you buy from the grocery store, it’s moist, still usable, but for any kind of storing purposes you must cure it.  In order to cure garlic, you need to hang it in a shady spot, where it won’t be rained on and that gets plenty of air flow.  Proper cure time is two to three weeks.  We had a couple of places to consider, one being a tool storage area in the goat barn, the other being under the front porch of the office.  We chose to hang it under the porch because it would get more airflow.  Mckenna, Marine, Annie and David were the WWOOF team dedicated to getting this task done.

 

Garlic all tied together on the ground, and the team trying to figure out the logistics of it all.

 

 

 

This task looks easy, but it was definitely a learning curve.  Last summer, I hung the garlic by myself up in the attic of my house, near the opening with fresh air hitting it.  It worked, but I think it was too hot up there for it.  Garlic has to be kept somewhat cool…as cool as it can get in the summer heat.

Since these pictures were taken a few days ago, Mckenna has left the farm.  She was needed in Arizona a few days ahead of schedule then she had planned for, so like the wind poof.  It wasn’t a sad goodbye, they can be sometimes, but we seem to have a pretty good “swing back through rate”.  So, like others before, McKenna will be coming back through at the end of July.  She plans on taking David and Marine to her native Kentucky, Louisville, to visit and see the sights.  She’s even going to bring them back that crazy girl…but I’m glad somebody is, they have a two month commitment here.

Shiori and Keyohei have also taken leave of us after six weeks of service.  However, as old friends leave, new friends arrive, to swing a mattock in the heat of the day, all with smiles on their faces.

Jun29

An exciting day of harvest

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On this day, the team harvested potatoes.  Shiori invited two of her friends from Fayetteville to come over and help, their names were L.J. and Hirona.  We also received McKenna, she came to us from Louisville Kentucky on her way west.  I can’t forget our newest recruits, David and Marine, coming all the way from Toulouse, France.

The team found snake eggs

Digging up more eggs.

After I told the boys that they had found snake eggs.

Everybody is interested now.

Roy giving everyone a lesson about snake eggs.

Hirona.

L.J.

McKenna.

David and Marine.

Jun29

How we spent our father’s day

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Father’s Day, does it always fall on a Sunday?  Sundays are our Farmer’s Market day, so we watched all of the daddy’s with their children, young and old.  Channel 5 news was there, a local news outlet here in Northwest Arkansas and they interviewed Paul, Oliver and Isaac about Father’s Day and what they were going to do for their Dad.  I have a link posted.  We were the first to this market with tomatoes.  Lest you forget we sell at the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks, every Sunday, from 9am-2pm.  Also, I take that back about the first with tomatoes, that accomplishment was shared that day.  Another vendor had tomatoes also, they weren’t quite ready, but it’s important to be first.  The people are tomato hungry right now and I don’t blame them.

Paul and Isaac at the farmer’s market on Father’s Day.

 

Later in the day we sat and prepared garlic to cure.  Here is Shiori doing an amazing job.

 

Jun29

Action Packed Father’s Day in Washington County

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Action Packed Father’s Day in Washington County.  Here’s the link to our Father’s Day news spot.  The clip at 10pm was much better, they gave a shout out to Ozark Alternatives.  This must be the 5pm clip.

Jun23

For Mr. Dale

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I was really pleased to know that a neighbor of a friend of mine reads my blog.  When I saw him recently the first thing to come out of his mouth was how I had a “buy local” sticker on my foreign automobile.  The second thing was “You need to update your blog, and with close-ups of all of your hot volunteers!”  I’ll try my best Dale, and for the record I think he meant hot, as in it’s hot outside and therefore they are hot…it’s just a guess.  Like I had said before, on day one of the CSA we received Nora and Will from Brooklyn.  Shiori and Keyohei were here as well.  A few days after Will and Nora’s arrival, Hayley also arrived from Albuquerque.

 

Kyohei and Nora in the hoop harvesting potatoes.

 

 

Part of the “Take” before being washed.

 

Everybody, this is Will.  He’s planting cucumber seeds.

 

Rose kicking butt as always.

 

A picture courtesy of Isaac.

 

sweatshirts?  Yes, remember I’m behind in posting all of these lovely pictures.  Nora ate as many peas as she picked, if not more.  You would too, they were AWESOME!

Crew cleaning onions while Oliver just watches.

 

Kyohei and Isaac cleaning radishes.

 

You want to know what I love about Jonathan?  He’s a thumbs-upper.  Those are my kinds of people.

 

Hayley keeping it real…and forgive me girl if I misspelled your name.

These were some great people and great volunteers.  Thank you Will and Nora for bringing Brooklyn to the farm, and to any future Brooklynites who are interested, BRING IT!

Apr30

Flood, Flooding, Floodish

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Last week a series of thunderstorms rolled through these parts of Arkansas and beyond.  Tornadoes touched down further south across several states, the hardest hit being Mississippi and Alabama.  Up here, it rained 10″ in 24 hours.  The next day more rain fell, causing flash floods in NWA.  On the farm, the rain washed down our footpath to our house, which is its natural draining pattern, and washed over my bed which was planted with carrots.  It washed over it so much, that eventually cut channels through the bed, washing the soil into the onion bed.  We tried to alleviate some of the damage by putting straw bales into the path of the water, but when thousands of gallons are running off of a large roof over a matter of hours, you just can’t compete.  We tried, but it did no good.  It was interesting talking to some of the farmer’s at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market today, listening to their stories of what the rain washed away.  One farmer said it washed his topsoil away.  Another mentioned, how his topsoil didn’t leave his property, but that it had washed to the bottom of the hill.  That’s something to think about, right.  Your dirt.  And how important it is.  Treat it well.

Paul and I were standing at the windows watching the lightning

Lightning just struck and lit up the sky. You can kind of see how hard it's raining, or maybe it's just blurry

A result of the rain, 2"+ of water inside

This is the rain, day 1

The rain creating a little creek

Flooding the onions

Here is a link to the American Red Cross, to see ways you can help those who were affected by the tornadoes in the south this week.

Apr15

Arkansas DIY

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Yesterday the gang was busy doing farm work and such, but broke for siesta to build a rain catch for the storm that was gong to hit in the evening.  Now it isn’t a permanent system, but with the amount of rain forecasted, it was hard to pass up throwing something together to harvest rainwater.

The scene in the yard.

Alex, from York Pennsylvania.

Johnathan and Eric talking logistics.

Working out kinks.

The problem was how to keep it from falling over in the high winds.

E-town surveying the situation.

This is Shannon, also from York PA.

A side note, here are Alex and Shannon together.  They left really early this morning.  It rained cats and dogs last night, and they stayed in a tent…Hope yous guys (some Penn. speak) stayed dry.  Happy trails, thanks for your help!

Today.  I was out taking pictures of the “Take” and Rose B. volunteer extraordinaire was sticking her tounge out at me, I missed that but caught her laughing smile.

The “Take”.  A little more than 200 gallons of rainwater!!!

A look at the finished project.  Cinder blocks helped with weight and stability.

Rose B. and Eric (E-Town) pouring out rainwater out of another barrel to water some seeds just planted.

This is some Arkansas DIY in action!