Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Jun 17, 2012, at 8:26 PM, Lisa Kae Van Meter Perry wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 3:52 PM, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
> 
>> Lisa Perry, you still here?
>> 
> 
> Gene!
> 
> I'm here!  :)  We just returned from the Salem Red Sox baseball game to
> celebrate Father's Day with our sons (now 22 & nearly 17). Salem's Sox are
> a farm team for Boston located in Salem, VA which is sort of a sister city
> to Roanoke.
> 
> The timing of your post is a nice coincidence because I thought of you,
> too, just last week and wondered what the heck you are up to.
> 
>> 
>> With substantially-home-produced goodies, we just consumed a fine meal.
>> For accoustical ambience I selected Scott's album, 8 Miles to Perryville.
>> Which of course reminded me of you. Which reminded me of your substantial
>> blueberry experience. I am very close to throwing up my hands and admitting
>> apple and blueberry production failure, due partly to more items on my menu
>> than time to enjoy them--the inevitable time challenges, the environmental
>> conditions here in this part of the Ozarks, and the knowledge that we can
>> buy good, organically grown fruit at somewhat reasonable prices.
>> 
> 
> Funny (and so sweet!) that you mentioned Scott's Cd. Cuts from that Cd were
> played, along with a taped interview of Scott, on an internet radio station
> earlier today that plays originals from lesser known musicians.
> 
>> 
>> As I move through geezerhoodism, I am more and more skeptical of the
>> proclamations of food producers. So, yeah, I ever more prefer to grow my
>> own.
>> 
> 
> I am still struggling with gardening. We do okay, never great. But truth
> is, I'm the main (only) gardener. I get some 'help' occasionally, but
> really it's just me. And I don't feel like doing it all the time, so I
> guess you get what you get. My experiment (growing something new to me)
> this year (thus far) is cabbage. I have 6 heads and hope that at least 3
> make it. ;)  I'd like to make sauerkraut in my paternal grandparents
> earthenware crock (in my possession - along with Grandma's blue canning
> jars!) like they did on their farm in sw IN.
> 
> Bev N. has posted some lovely recent photos of her garden produce on
> Facebook. She and Ron are doing well (Ron gardens now, too).
> 
>> 
>> We have thus far this year gorged on strawberries, cherries, and now
>> boysenberries. The blue fruit did not make it. But before I give up on
>> blueberries, I solicit you advice.
>> 
>> Our blueberries have been mulched with sawdust and/or peat moss. A few new
> bushes we planted to fill in holes in a row were planted in peat moss.
> They've all made it. We still have approx. 45 bushes (+ six new ones that
> don't have much on them yet). We have mostly early and some mid varieties
> (Patriot is one). We started picking this year on June 6--the earliest in
> the dozen years we've lived here and beats last year 'early' date of June
> 15. We pick for a good 3+ weeks. If we mulched regularly, we'd have far
> more berries than we usually get--but figure we can live with the 24 gallon
> freezer bags full we picked last year (new record). This was the first year
> that we did not use all of them before it was time to pick again. Also the
> first year that I was not excited to get started picking. ;)  We are fast
> running out of freezer space and I figure I need to dry them instead. But
> we use easily 75% of the berries for morning smoothies in warm months, so
> dried berries wouldn't work well for that. It will all work out.
> 
> On our homestead shelf we have two books that might be helpful to you.
> *Blueberry
> Science* (Paul Eck) and *Blueberry Culture* (Eck and Norman Childers). We
> 'inherited' these with our farm when we bought the place. The sellers left
> their homestead-related books when they moved. I'd be happy to try to
> answer or find answers to your questions. Even better, I'd be glad to mail
> one or both books to you if you're interested in them. Both are serious
> reads. ;) I've glanced at them just a few times over the years and found
> them helpful, can't even remember now what it was I needed to know at the
> time.
> 
> I'm a big fan of bartering or trading for what you want. Everybody can't
> grow everything. This much, I have learned. Of course, this implies that
> you have 'extra' or 'enough' of your strawberries or cherries, or
> what-have-you. ;)  If you decide that you're done with blueberries or they
> just don't work for you, then trading for them is a great option. If you
> lived nearby Gene, I'd trade blueberries and throw in apples in September
> for cherries as we don't have those and I love to make a couple of cherry
> pies or cobblers in the fall. We have so much fruit and we don't have
> cherries, and figure that we need those, too. I tried to trade for cherries
> just a couple days ago, only the person that had too many also had 60
> blueberry bushes! Oh well. I haven't given up on cherries yet.
> 
> I'd love to catch up futher but need to get going now and wanted to get
> back with you.
> 
> I hope this finds you and Chris well. I bet your grandson is growing up
> fast!
> 
> So great to hear from you. Glad you're still around. :)

Lisa, well, there's the solution: you guys move here and trade me blueberries 
for cherries and the veggies you don't grow.

I made the mistake of buying plants from the guy you warned us about--I plead 
long senior moments. I tried his recommendation to plant in pure peat and 
use, ugh, chemical fertilizer. Maybe it was my negative vibes that caused 
them to do so poorly. One still lives but not vigorously.

I think my issue is I do everything organically and can't figure how to 
fertilize them non-chemically. I also need to buy a soil test kit so I can 
stay on top of soil pH. How do you feed your blueberry plants? How large a 
planting hole do you make for them?

We went to a music festival a couple days ago. The featured group was Robin & 
Linda Williams. Their foursome includes Chris Brashear, a young vet who plays 
fabulous fiddle and apparently anything with strings on it. Most enjoyable.

Our son now has the grandson count up to four: ages two, four, sixteen, 
eighteen. (Two different mothers.) The 18 yo plays guitar, makes videos of 
his songs and covers of others', teaches guitar and has been hired to make 
videos for a business. He has been accepted into Ryerson University in 
Toronto, will be studying in the School of Radio and Television Arts.

We are fully enjoying the retired life. Chris has taken over gardening which 
frees me up to build. I bought a bandsaw sawmill and am now building a shed 
for that. Next on the list is a garden house/greenhouse, then a new front 
porch and attached pit greenhouse, a big carport/porte-cochere, a north shed 
on the shop for the backhoe, and then, if I can still lift tools, a 
woodworking shop. It is said that happiness is something to do, someone to 
love and something to look forward to. I have it covered.

It is very good to hear from you.

Gene