Hey EverybodY! Sorry it's been so long. This season's farming has been fiercely tough so I've had to direct all my energy into work. Harvest is well under way with only the tomatoes still holding off in turning ripe. A giant pile of cantaloupe, Ogen melons and Juan De Canary melons have been giving me sore muscles instead.

Here's a great article any of my farming friends might find interesting: "They tell me not to get angry. But if I am honest, sometimes I do. "

On the precipice of planting

Fingers crossed I will be breaking ground tomorrow or Monday. Got the Cub International clucking along like a happy hen so I can jump the gun before the Massey-Ferguson is out of the shop and run the disk across what I hope will be the 1st field of corn.

Greenhouse busy

Tomato plants are nearing 6 inches tall. Ogen melon working on their 2nd true leaf while Crenshaw, Athena, Hannah's Choice and Hale's Best cantaloupe are all starting to emerge. Peppers are also up working on their 1st true leaf. Many more trays of plants to come some different some the same.

Supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so won't be doing any tractor work yet. The Massey-Ferguson is still in the shop but I'm really gonna try to run the cub this week. Can't wait to try the plow, disc and terracer tools that came with it.

We're getting 3-4 calls a week interested in the farm but so far no one terribly sincere. Seems like most people don't understand we are selling a farm not a house. Sure there is a house but it is incidental to the farm. That's why we're figuring on running another year or even two if we must. You don't sell an operation like this to just anybody :)

Plum flower have already started setting fruit, pears and cherries are in full blossom and the 1st apple flowers opened up today. Even got a few peaches and nectarines set on. Various bees, wasps and diptera flies have been crazy busy getting that pollen moved.

Hope spring is filling your senses with delight.

Savage Creek Farm for sale

7.68 acres
1780 square foot residence.
Deep well with new pump.
Remodeled barn & other out buildings.
40+ fruit trees ranging in age from 80+ years to new.
30+ cottonwood trees ready to be cut for mushroom logs.
100s of grape vines of many varieties.
Sales building & big parking lot.
Rich, healthy soil loaded with life.
Plentiful irrigation.

Spectacular view of Mt. Fielder and surrounding area.

For 44 years this little family farm has been a successful business in the Rogue Valley. The last 27 years our family has been lucky to live here. We have raised and sold tremendous quantities of some of the finest tomatoes, corn, peppers, cantaloupe, melons, yams, grapes, apples, pears, plums, cherries and more products too numerous to list.

Sadly we lost dad three years ago and the work load along with navigating the stairs of a 2 story house have just become too much for me and mom. So she has decided to sell and we are hoping to find someone who will not only love the place as we have but also take advantage of the business we will be leaving behind. Many local clients are accustomed to stopping here throughout the spring and summer months.

In the picture the house & barn are located near the bottom & the sales room & parking area are near the top left. North is to the top which is also the bottom of the hill a stones throw away from the lovely & very fishable Rogue River.

For more info contact guy@savagecreekfarm.com or call 541-582-2059 between 9am & 6pm Pacific time.

Metamorphosis

Big news at Savage Creek Farm! After 27 years of fun and frolic we are moving on to other pursuits. Our little family farm has never failed us but this 2 story house and its stairs are getting to be too much for us old folks. We're really hoping we will be able to find someone who wants to continue farming here and running our great little fruit stand.

Winter suspension

Still fighting some virus or other but starting to feel a little better. Moved some furniture around today and realized quickly how out of shape being sick has made me.  Been popping fevers whenever I do even a little bit of activity too.

Had part of a poem come to me in the dark last night:

Barefoot on the cliff of history
toes curled over the edge of the abyss
balanced above the void
the future vast expanse
beyond all visions and thought

Winter head cold.

A runny nose is soooo infuriating. It makes it hard to work, concentrate or be comfortably productive. It's disappointing that 100 years of intense medical advances, scientific breakthroughs and other modern marvels have never yielded anything like a remedy for this tedious suffering. The closest thing I've ever found is a pint of my mom's spicy salsa juice. It works great at reducing discomfort but only for about 40 minutes and I just can't drink it all day long, it's too spicy!

I spent the day moving wood chips and cleaning up around the place between bouts of self-pity and nose-blowing. Ma went to the Needlers in Rogue River for some social crafting.

Gotta go put in the pizza now, y'all take care and stay warm.

Happy 2015, all 7 billion+ of you.

Brought my baby Kiwi plants in before the hard frost settled in. I've got another 100 or so seeds waiting to plant in a week. If this cold doesn't hold, my potting soil is frozen hard.

Wishing everyone a happy 2015. Despite all the worrisome things, it is still a glorious world full of wonder and beauty.

Solstice solicitudes.

Wow! Around three quarters of a year since I posted here. Gonna stick a speed tag in my browser and start trying to write here more. Thoroughly fed up with reddit and Twitter, I would feel better shouting into my own echo-y tin can here. Paul McCartney is on the radio and I'm studying neural networks with Geoff Hinton via Coursera. Good stuff, I've worked with neural nets before, way back in the late 80s but so much has changed since then. Fun to stretch my brain a little but for the first time in my life learning something new is tiring. I've literally fallen asleep during several lectures and that should be hard because Geoff is a hoot. His sense of humor is subtle and deep. It's just a bit past the winter solstice and I'd like to wish you each and all a prosperous winter/summer (depending on your equatorial relationship.) a very Merry Christmas and an especially happy new year.

nothing like some time mixing soil in the greenhouse to restore my inner peace. Kinda feeling a little melancholy as I continue on with this years farming operation, suppose I'm missing Dad. But the melons, peppers, and tomatoes are sprouting good under the fluorescent lights in the plant room. Gonna eat my pork salad wrap for lunch then finish planting another tray of bell peppers and some ogen melons. After that the lawn should be dry enough for me to prune on the apples some more. Y'all have a rockin' great late winter day.

2014 underway

Tomato plants are a couple inches tall in the sprout room and the small greenhouse is prepared to receive them tho I still have some clean-up to do in there. Gotta get the seed order out this week, it's getting late with less than a month of winter left. There's been some snow in the hills but we're short of water. Nothing like the catastrophe faced by southern California and still a lot of rainy season left so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be enough.

So, so busy

It's still above 95 out there so I've taken a little time after dinner to flop down in the dark, cool basement. The season is finally starting to shape up. All the crops are dialed in so we'll have at least a little of all of our mainline products with at least 2 plantings of each variety. A few weeks ago I was on the verge of despair that we'd ever catch up but in the last week a lot of plants just sort of exploded. Now I'm in a panic to get my tomatoes staked and wired up before they sprawl beyond saving. With all the planting done my schedule has gotten simpler but every hour is still used up with things that should've been done yesterday. Stay cool!

Playing with the 21st century!

Donate Bitcoins Setting up my accounts and stuff to accept bitcoins. If I can talk mom into it we might be accepting these at the stand this year.

Minty wintery delight

Every few years I like to try a new endeavor on the farm. Last year it was beneficial herbs and teas. I even managed to get a tea Camilla which is still doing well. But last year was a pretty tough solo mission for the Guyman and I just barely managed to end up harvesting some miserly little piles and bags of leaf and flower. (nothing federally disapproved of, so don't ask) I was a little disappointed but I know these things aren't one-shots and settled my mind on other things while giving the tea thing a rest.

Just now as I came back from the greenhouse on a whim I stopped at the shelf where I dried my herbs. I gathered a nice bag's worth to half-fill a tea ball. Agastache, small leaf Japanese green tea [leaf and flower], Manuka, and Wintergreen berries. Agastache is sorta like minty catnip and Manuka has a sagey taste tho it's no sage.

YEAH! It's really good. Much of my disappointment has been washed away by this single cup of tea.

I hope your winter day has been surprised with some undisappointing delight too or will be soon. Rock on!

Sun, sun, sun!

Having such a great day. Started out kinda down but once the fog blew off and the sun warmed things up I really started going. Pruned a bunch on the apple trees and worked on cleaning out the pond. If the rain doesn't come too soon I might just get it lined in time to have some water put away for the dry part of spring. Hoping to get the tiller going tomorrow and put in our first row of spring onions, peas and maybe some spinach.

It so bright and warm for a late winter day, it really make me want to roast some hot dogs and marshmallows!

Ice, ice, ice

We've had a bit over a week of hard frost now. Great for killing garden insects but not great for outdoor activity. Our highest daytime temps have been around 36°F. Low nighttime temps have been 20-26.

Sadly I've also hit a patch of 'writers block' with my software design work. So turning my mind to work in the greenhouse and what field work I can get done when the sky melts for a little while.

Winter is always tough but my electric blanket is waiting for me at the end of each day. Keep out of the wind!

Rain, rain, rain

Gotta love it! Been inside so much I've finally had time to write something on here.

Fall cleanup is still majorly under way. Turning to the dusty confines of the basement and the winter greenhouse for places to put stuff as revamping the house for Xmas continues. Will post some pics when we're done decorating the tree.

Hope to get out this week and do some mushroom hunting. Getting a little late for some things like chanterelles but the more exotic characters like bluets might start showing up soon. Seen a lot of boletes and various agaricus in my recent wanderings.

Autumn auguries

teetering on the top of the orchard ladder as the last rays of twilight silhouette branches of the yellow delicious apple tree. Picking apples by feel from the spindly, gnarly, gnobby branches. Yes, autumn is upon us. 

We'll be out of sweet corn for about a week, until the weekend or the 8th or so at the latest. The last field is taking its time getting ripe as the days shorten and the nights cool. 

To fill in the gap we'll have plenty of large, ripe, red tomatoes some beautiful red and yellow delicious apples, sweet green grapes with a golden autumn blush and finally our usual unusual assortment of culinary and beneficial herbs.

Labor Day dalliance

We'll be laboring on this fine Labor Day.

Corn, melon, tomatoes, squash, cukes, grapes, apples, plums, peaches, potatoes, onions and maybe even some green beans in stock today.

I should be out picking corn already but the puppy sleeping on my lap is slowing me down.

Y'all take care and have fun.

Summer grind

My poor, sad, ol' blog has all but withered under Ra's Blazing Eye. Like one of my pumpkins being sucked dry by Coreidae.

Well, your loss has been the cantaloupe's gain. We've begun to harvest some really great melons and this evening I [finally!!] was able to pull in a whole bucket of tomatoes.

So you can understand why I've been so taciturn.

As we switch gears going into the height of summer I'm really hoping I'll have time and tech to take up my old hobby again soon.