I say potato...

We decided to use Ruth Stout's method: toss the seed potatoes on the ground and cover with a foot or so of hay. Easy, with the added advantage of being able to just lift up the plant, take few small potatoes and put it back down in the hay to keep growing. No digging now and no digging later.

Does it work? We have no idea, we've never tried it this way. We can't hold Ruth accountable, either, I'm sure she's passed away by now.

We put in two varieties: Yukon Gold and Yellow Finn. The hay was from last fall, and it's good and rotten.

 

Spring

Spring comes late to Hardrock Ranch, but it does come. That's not to say you can leave your warm jacket and mud boots behind.

 

A red flowering currant:

 

Lots-o-daffodils:



The pond is full:

 

Progress report

We got all but 50 or so of the 370 plants in the ground. We'll save the rest for a day when it's not snowing. In the meantime, they'll be fine - we popped them into our ever-expanding nursery.

 

Electric fence installation is already being refined. Improvements include bigger wire, more insulation and more grounding, hopefully resulting in more zap.

 

Another interior project

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Mark immediately begins clever design and construction of shoe and clothing storage.

What a difference (why didn't I take a "before" picture?). Well done, clever husband.

 

Planting Day

Hey, nobody showed up for planting day. Shocking. Well, that's fine. You're still invited to the summer parties...we didn't really need your help anyway. See - all 370 plants are in the back of the pickup, and it didn't even fill it up:

After only an hour of hard labor, we had popped over 130 plants (50 roses, 22 tall oregon grape, 20 red flowering currant, 10 serviceberry, 12 salal, 10 evergreen huckleberry, 10 twinberry and 4 indian plum) into the first bed:

Then it was time for lunch and a nap.

 

 

Living quarters at Hardrock Ranch

We are planning to sell our 2,800+ square foot beautiful house on Bainbridge Island and move into the 1,500 square foot trailer at Hardrock Ranch (which is already plenty full of stuff).

Why? Well, because that's what's here.

How? Good question. We started by building these shelves last weekend. Hopefully, that will help us get organized in the paperwork and book department. Mark will need to come up with a few more clever ideas to solve the next problems: storage space for my clothes, shoes, yarn, fabric and paper.

 

Getting ready for planting day

We'll be picking up 370 plants from the two county conservation native plant sales this weekend. Oh boy, I hope we're ready.

First thing is working on "deer exclusion" (that's what the experts call it). Rather than fencing in a small garden area, we are attempting to keep the deer out of an acre or so around the house. About half of this fenceline is in the forest, with big and small trees and a fair amount of brush. In this area, Mark built an 8-wire fence, about 6 feet high. Deer can jump a 6-foot fence if it's out in the open, but we're hoping that heavy brush makes it impossible for them to get a run at it. We'll continue to add plantings along this fenceline, making it ever more difficult for them, we hope.

The other half of our fenceline is wide open, up nearer the house. This is where we've strung electric wire. We hope to someday replace most of the electric fence with our hedgerows: heavy plantings of mostly shrubs, forming an impenetrable barrier, we hope. In the meantime, we need zapping deterrent. We've tinkered with our electric fence this week and put fresh peanut butter bait on it. Look at these new posts - they are self-insulating, making those ugly yellow plastic insulators are unnecessary. Very nice, right? We may replace our .80 joule energizer for one with 5 joules - does anyone have thoughts on that? We want enough zap to make the deer remember.

The next thing is the weather. As you can see in the photos, it's not spring up here yet. Will we be able to get a shovel through the permafrost?

And then there's the question of soil. Did our sheet mulching turn into dirt? How's that hugelkultur doing?

Lots of questions. Few answers. Trial and error. Stay tuned.

Wire tape attached to the posts with a simple cotter pin:

Yum - peanut butter on foil strips duct-taped to the wire tape: