Turns Out The World Is Round

That’s right it’s round and we didn’t fall off of it or anything we’ve just had a really weird and exciting winter.  Never fear though, we are back and in top form.  We will be ramping up the posts because we are going to be ramping up the projects here on Off Kilter Acres.

Late last fall our internet started acting wonky for lack of a better word.  One minute it would run fine the next it was slower than dial up.  Back and forth like this around the clock.  We live about five miles out from town so there isn’t cable or DSL or Uverse or any of that other good stuff, ours is transmitted using radio signals bounced from water towers and antennas on cell towers and other high places.  When they installed mine about 6 years ago but there were no towers in our town.  In fact the closest one was 13 miles away, so far that they told me when they installed it that it was the longest successful shot they had ever made.

Anyhow, in early November, I don’t remember the date, Stacy called me at work because she had been startled by what she thought was a shotgun blast in the front yard.  Turns out it was our dish and radio for our internet connection.  The 20 mph winds that blew in early November took us out.

Quick! Somebody get IT on the horn.

As it turns out the only real option we had was to have a tower installed so that we can hit one of the newer upgraded local towers.  That is an unexpected expense but aren’t they always? As it would eventually turn out we would be basically without internet for two and a half months.  They stood the tower up around the middle of January but it was it was another couple weeks before they could get out here to get it all hooked up.  During that time it was up to me to do the trenching and get the conduit all hooked up and ready for the install.  Speaking of that trench, my middle buster plow works great for shallow trench work.

Trench is cut.

Install day.

And that my friends is the main reason you haven’t seen any posts out of us for the last few months.

In October I got to meet my first grandson. Lester is his name, I can feel it in my bones that this boy is going to be a permaculturist one day.  I can’t wait to teach him things and hopefully one day he will teach me a thing or two. In December we got to meet our second grandson. Brayden is his name and I’m sure he will be a permie as well.  Both of these boys have plenty of time on the farm ahead of them.  I had the run of a farm when I was a kid and those are some of the best memories that I have.  These boys will have the advantage or being on a true working permaculture farm by the time they are old enough to make those same memories.  Who doesn’t want that for their grand kids.

Pa and Lester.

Ma and Brayden.

The rentals came to visit over thanksgiving.  Pops and Fewok helped me to get electricity in the pavilliano so no more stringing out extension cords plus there is light so we can work after dark.  This is gonna be huge.  I look forward to some late nights in the shop getting things done.

Pa, Ma, Mom and Pops.

On the permaculture front I had a go at heating the greenhouse.  Just enough to keep some things alive over the coldest parts of the winter.  So far I expect I have been successful in that the limbs on my figs aren’t shriveled and dead.  The tomatoes I had planned to keep around were not so fortunate but the fact that these fig trees will be able to go right into production should be really great.  I hope to have a real greenhouse with a nice rocket mass heater for a much more earth friendly heat source in the near future.  It’ll just have to be another mission added to the list around here.  First and foremost this spring is going to be our rain gutter’s and catchment system.  I hope to have that up and going in the next month or two.   There are also fencing projects, trees the plant, compost to make and mulch to spread, just to name a few.

Greenhouse heat.

A week or two ago when I went out and fed and mulched my asparagus patch I remembered the sunchokes were most likely ready to sample and I got a few out.  Left the rest for seed but I just had to sample a few and boy are they good!  We’ll have to plant a bigger patch of these this year.

Sunchokes.

One more thing of note has been going on.  Ma has been working on her Permaethos PDC certification and she passed the final exam, she’s still gotta get that design out of the way and then we will be a certified permaculture team for sure.  I couldn’t be more proud to call her my girlfriend.

Well, that’s about all I got, take it easy.

Pa

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