I just finished reading this girl Jackie's blog. She made a commitment to post every single day during the year 2011. I enjoyed reliving 2011 through her eyes, and was inspired by her writing. Plus, she's funny! Why can't I be so funny? Probably because I write about rutabaga. There's only so much humor to be found in a root vegetable. Even knowing I'm unlikely to inspire a giggle, I've just got to show you what was underneath the cloth in the greenhouse. I hadn't even peeked inside since the middle of August, but I could see leaves practically bursting from the cloth. What's going on in there?
Whoa. I folded back the cloth to reveal a mass of green leaves. These guys grew with no help from me. I didn't even water them, so I am impressed with their vigor. Weeds trapped under the cloth grew to the size of hay.
I pulled out all the hay, yellow leaves, and a few dead plants to give them some breathing room. Despite being covered, there were some big striped caterpillars enjoying a free meal, but the damage was minimal.
Look at that - it's a rutabaga! A big one! I should get a small harvest at end of this month.
I carefully tucked them back into their dome and began to dream up ways to expand the rutabaga operation next year, now that I have a system that works. Just imagine - I could grow lots of rutabaga and store them in the root cellar. We would be rich in delicious and healthy tubers!
Yesterday, after months of riced rutabaga being one of our go-to vegetables, Brandon announced that he was officially sick of eating rutabaga. Doh! Of course. Sigh.
Our big silver maple, which was our biggest front yard shade tree, no longer stands. It was partially dead, and loaded with dangerously crumbling limbs, but we resisted cutting it down for a long time. One of the dead limbs was home to a pair of blue birds this year, who raised several clutches. They've been gone for a few weeks, and I watched the tree at dusk several nights to make sure it wasn't a home for bats.
Brandon was brave, and stood beneath the dead limbs to saw away at the trunk. His chain saw was a bit small for such a large tree trunk. The saw also has a leaky gas tank and a dull blade, so the irritation of making the saw function was a nice distraction from the fear. I really wanted to hide from the whole experience, but needed to watch so I would be ready to respond to an emergency.
He managed to saw a big slice out of the trunk on the side it was leaning to, and then he was ready to make the back cut that would fell it. Partially dead trees are dangerous to cut down because the rotten wood inside can make it unpredictable. Also, once the tree begins to move, the dead limbs could fall down. I was so nervous my pounding heart made it hard to hold my phone still so I could capture the fall.
Once we could hear the trunk start to pop and crack, and I thought it was about to fall, I started filming, but it took almost four minutes for it to finally drop. Brandon kept making more cuts and backing off, then making more cuts. I could hardly stand it! The video above it just the last forty seconds, when the last cut finally takes it down. Whew! We both felt exhausted, like we had been for long heart pounding run.
This tree will live on through the many seedlings that we have allowed to grow. We have at least eight nice silver maple saplings that will some day make a shady forest. I'm sure these are all from seeds dropped by the old tree. I will miss the shade, but the cut trunk smells nice, and we will make lots of firewood out of the trunk and limbs, and wood chips from the small branches.
A journal of creating a home in an old blue school bus, as well as a do-it-yourself farm house renovation, living with backyard chickens, learning to farm, gardening, preserving food, and other projects.
