Happy Birthday to Me and Tidbits

The last week and a half has been filled with tidbit types of work, nothing overly transforming in terms of property renewal. So this blog will probably go forward like a train of thought as I look at the calendar with its scrappy Sharpie-ed in reminders.

After the speaking event, there were about two or three days of correspondence coupled with some medium-core seeding and transplanting work. I built a raised bed for carrots at the house. The damn carrots still haven't sprouted yet and likely won't as they were treated to a good hot house solar oven baking when it got really sunny on the 10th and I didn't remove the glass until several hours later. At that point, there were literally voluminous amounts of steam coming off the soil when the glass was lifted. I've heard of mushroom farmers in Africa pasteurizing straw in a similar way.

On Saturday the 10th, I went to a workshop at Cleveland State that instructed us, Re-Imagining Cleveland grantees, on the reimaginingcleveland.org website. I found a level of comfort when I learned that everybody's project is moving slowly, maybe even more so than mine. However later that day, I found a great level of discomfort when I went over to Ryan Kennedy's Crop Mob at his Turning Point Farm on Barber. This dude is getting more done without grant money than the rest of us are getting done with. Hot dogs, snakes, trash, extreme sulfurous odors, big rocks, little rocks, fire, good times.

On Tuesday the 12th, me and about 20 others graduated from the OSU Extension Office's Market Gardener Training Program, but not before we passed a 300 question scantron exam. The picture above is our serious administrator/teacher, Morgan Taggart. To make matters worse, I forgot my pencil! The class itself felt like a true meeting of minds with so many future forward pro-Cleveland farmers. That Lynn Rodemann is doing amazing things at the Pear Street spot, I can't wait 'til she gets her Devil's Backbone Garden up and running (which can be subsequently said for my Old Husher's Farm). Us, OSU Market Gardener Training Program Alumni, need to stay in touch.

Tax day is technically my birthday. So a giant happy birthday to me. I'm actually excited about this one.

And on the 16th, me and my buddy, Mike, shoveled, hauled, carried, and spread a dozen 32 gallon trash cans of leaf humus onto the farm. You can see the birth of rows, as well as why Subarus completely and totally rule, holding two dudes and six Rubbermaid Brute trash cans full of humus. At 158,000 miles, Subee-1 seems to be going strong. The interior is completely beat/gross, but its soul is still there and purring. Old Husher's Farm will probably be the eventual cause of death for Subee-1, but at this point I'm still amazed at how well it has held up to my abuse.