#and it was minor shit that would be easy to upkeep if we did it every week

[ilguna]

managers really think they know it all, huh?

[inventors-fair]

Recycling day: Commentary on “Unique Artifacts”

This contest went exactly how I was hoping it would go. A variety of artifacts, a whole slew of unique mechanical ideas, experimentation — what more could I ask for? I’m glad that people liked this one. I’ve been stewing with it for a little bit. I think there were a few wording issues that I’ll get around to, but I’m also a stickler for perfection. Y’all should know how pedantic I am at this point. I’m practically a vedalken.

Anyway. Commentary time!

@ajani​ — Devra Chai

I really like your callback to Indian inspiration and the nature of Kaladesh. Mechanically, this card’s got some chops. I also like the abstract use of energy here as it relates to food. There are a few easily fixable issues. Firstly, there should be a comma after “sacrificed.” Secondly, as this is a Food, the second ability should be “2, T, Sacrifice Devra Chai: You gain 3 life.” The “You” is super important. Lastly, and most pedantically, as great as the flavor text is, “it’s” should be “its” because English is certainly a language. Small issues aside, good idea overall. 

@deafeningsandwichpeach​ — Ancient Stone of Greed

The power level here is really hard to judge. The draw on the first ability seems really strong. Did you base this on Coveted Jewel? Overall, I feel that this card is a fine idea but a little busted with any artifact untapping. Filigree Sages makes this an infinite draw combo, but it’s not broken wide open. Let’s fix the wording. The second ability should be “Spend this mana only to cast a Hydra or Dragon spell.” This should be four lines, with “Skip your draw step” and the death trigger being on separate lines. I’m 80% sure that “Skip your draw step” also should be the first line on the card, and with that, you can probably take off the flavor text.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ — Gilded Yarn

This is an interesting one. Personally, adding an activated ability onto the equipment itself that’s not an equip cost seems a little hard to grok for the average player. Flavorfully, I understand the first ability, but not the attack clause at all. I’m not connecting it to anything specific in mythological tropes. It’s not a bad card mechanically, but I’m a little lost. Did you shift+enter for the equip cost? It looks really close to the other line.

@dimestoretajic​ — The Steel Leaf

The one and only! I like the callback. From a cursory look, I don’t think there is an actual “steel leaf” on Dominaria, but the sentiment is appreciated. I’m a little iffy on the fact that it doesn’t exactly do anything if you don’t have the trigger, and it doesn’t really help itself to the trigger, but it’s okay to have cards that you need to build around. The last ability is a little awkward because the way it’s worded now you can return green creatures your opponents control to their owner’s hand and it gets around hexproof, which I’m sure wasn’t intentional. “you control” could fix that easily.

@fractured-infinity​ — Cold-Iron Skillet

This is a fascinating little equipment. I love the creativity here. Honestly, not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s niche, but flavorful enough. Maybe the second ability should somehow be tied into being equipped to a creature? After all, the skillet’s not gonna do anything by itself, right? Major notes: both “foods” and “faeries” should be capitalized.

@gollumni​ — Pontiff’s Coinbox

Now this is unique. I can perfectly imagine the art here, which is majorly cool. I’m not sure why you tied the untapping to each opponent’s upkeep rather than their untap step, which is the way things usually go. And based on the amount of massive counters you can gain fairly early on, “twice the number” might be a little too powerful. The last ability should have “YOU gain 3 life” as well. I’d add a “(1)” to it as well, personally. I’m a little iffy on this kind of white acceleration, but there’s only one way to find out, right? 

@greensunzenith​ — Dust Bunny

It’s a super cute idea, for sure. I kinda like the idea that your opponent keeps having to sweep it away, and that it’ll keep coming back. The difficulty in removing it is a bit of a pain, but that’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. I wouldn’t call the design anything mind-blowing, and frankly, as a one-drop it’s a pain in the butt probably more than it should be, but it’s not bad. Might have to cost 2 or 3 mana, and I would add a little flavor if you can come up with something.

@grornt​ — Smothering Rug

Well, I didn’t expect a rug for this contest, so kudos there. It changes up combat in a really powerful way, and I’m worried about its power level in a limited format. It’s an anti-trampler, anti-first striker, and man, that makes combat complicated. This is a card that would have to see a significant amount of testing, considering that every deck can play it. Doesn’t blow me away, but it’s good enough. Again, might want to consider flavor text with the amount of rules text that you have here.

@hypexion​ — Spy Satellite

It’s unfortunate that we had two spy-oriented cards submitted here. Surveillance is a great concept, and I’m glad you used the name in a flavorful way. I don’t know how powerful the surveil is here considering that it’s harder to remove than other creatures which have repeatable surveil. It’s a good card, certainly. I don’t know if the second ability needs UU instead of 1U, but I guess I can see the reasoning. Flavor text is pretty good. Overall, it’s a fine enough card. Save it for a custom cube.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ — Press of Magic Knowledge

Ah, batching. I think that you were ambitious in the way that you designed this card, and I’m not sure the payoff is entirely worth it. Seven different creature types is a lot to ask for, and it implies that all these different types would be in a single set. I think that’s entirely too much to ask for. The card itself isn’t...bad? It’s incredibly powerful. The wording might be a little convoluted. Why does it give the ability to the spells, instead of having it just be a trigger? “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may tap an untapped Spellcaster you control. When you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.” A little easier to grok. Name and flavor text could use a little work, too. Doesn’t excite me.

@illharg-the-rave-boar​ — Hunted Windmill

I’m still thinking about this card. The fact that is has menace and that it gives your opponent a single creature is kind of an “eff you” but in limited, it’s certainly a pain in the butt. The two toughness really makes it feel fragile, but maybe the eight power makes up for it? I think this card could be fine. I think it could even be good. It’s still asking a LOT of questions that only playtesting and the right environment could ask for.

Also tfw “Dawn Kijote.” Take your kudos and go.

@kavinika​ — Ace of Spades

This card is... Restrictive. Basically, it says that “for the rest of the game, I decide all coin flips,” and that’s not interactive. It’s not exactly fun. If it was a sacrifice effect with a secret kind of ETB, then I guess it would be okay, but unlike Krark’s Thumb, it’s getting rid of a key part of randomness with no time limit, and that’s not great. I liked the philosophy of your submission, but I don’t feel that this card is adherent to MTG principles.

@koth-of-the-hammerpants — Amphora of Ephara

Kudos for making me look up the word “amphora.” Yet another card I can easily visualize! So, in terms of power level. Man. This card is a pain in the butt. In the right deck, it can grind out aggro decks with even the smallest creatures, and I assume there would be enough artifact/enchantment removal to make it not busted, but holy cow this could be a potential pain. And you know what? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I would call this card annoying, certainly, but not in a “win the game” way. Two things: One, there should be a comma after the blue mana symbol in the activated ability. Two... “a city?” Too vague. Gotta spice it up with worldbuilding and/or specificity, man.

@machine-elf-paladin​ — Headmaster’s Lectern

Another great choice for a unique artifact here. Love it. It’s a simple design, but it’s perfectly functional, and sometimes that’s all we can ask for. It’s a great uncommon. Doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a card that works, and that’s just plain fine. Flavor text 7/10. It’s a little hard to grok exactly what that immortalization looks like and where we are in the timeline. You set up a grand artifact, and then add a funny bit, and the two don’t exactly mesh perfectly. Both parts are fine. Again, good enough to worldbuild.

@mistershinyobject​ — Peace Table

Let’s get the good out of the way: I like how the middle ability gives a “swords to plowshares” kind of feel. That aspect works. That first ability, though, is missing a major wording. As it reads now, you can tap it and tap any number of creatures with different names — that you don’t control. And you can target those same creatures after. So, basically, for four mana your opponent never gets to attack again. I know that wasn’t your intention at all, but that’s the way the submission reads. Minor note: the flavor text should feel funny, but the art and concept is pretty serious, and it’s a little bit of a tonal clash.

@misterstingyjack​ — Unwanted Gift

Surprise! It’s horrible. Not the card, though, because I love this card. I can see it going into a set with Morph, and that works perfectly well. It might have to be mythic, because holy shit a reverse Immortal Sun is still awful to deal with. And I take a LOT of issue with that last ability. Just have it punish for every card draw! It’s totally functional without that weird restriction.

@nine-effing-hells​ — Beldam’s Mortar

This is my favorite artifact in terms of uniqueness. You added mythological aspects that are little-known but easy to grok, it feels magical, it seems cool, and it’s so unusual that you can’t help but to just plain love it. Now, the card. Using Bladed Bracers as a template, there should be one line for the equip buff, and another that says “As long as equipped creature is a Druid, Hag, Shaman or Warlock, it can’t be blocked.” I might take out either Druid or Shaman from that list, personally? Three might be the limit for batching. The flavor text could also talk a little bit more about the importance of the mortal itself as a means of transportation.

@nvijork​ — Scrying Dish

I have a soft spot for tutors. They are my absolute favorite cards. I love combo, control, unique synergy, all that crazy stuff. Additionally, I love randomness. So, there are two changes I would make to this card, one mechanical and two syntactically. The syntax one is that “3″ should be “three.” That’s just how Magic works. There should also be a comma after “(4).” Mechanically, I would also add that after you shuffle and put the cards on top, you draw a card. It’s the payoff to the scry, it bumps the power level up, and it justifies the cost. Overall, I really liked this card.

@real-aspen-hours​ — Nutrient slurry

I guess this card would be an uncommon? You gotta add rarity to text submissions. I think that for next week I’ll add an example post. Anyway, besides the name capitalization, I think that this card actually works really well. It feels green, it’s powerful enough, it’s synergistic with the game, and could see some pretty cool +1/+1 counter interaction. Not bad at all. The flavor text might need to be in quotes, because, well, it’s first-person. The card is pretty great, but the submission needs polish.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ — Resincase Relic

I really would have added imprint here. Although, would that imply that the card never comes back? It’s honestly not the worst price to pay. This is a perfectly functional mana rock, a theoretically budget version of Chrome Mox, and I’m okay with that. It should be “one mana” instead of “a mana,” looking at the Thriving lands and Chrome Mox itself. And two lines of flavor text wouldn’t have gone amiss here.

@scavenger98​ — Storm Jar

I really want to like this card. For the first ability, I would absolutely make it a may ability — “you may have target creature gain or lose flying until end of turn.” Gotta simplify it. The second ability needs the “s” in “sacrifice” to be capitalized. This is a fun card mechanically, and very potentially powerful in limited! What’s with the flavor text, though? I don’t get it.

@shandylamb​ — Cursed Compass

So, major mechanical issue: You, as the player, don’t explore — the equipped creature explores. It would read: Equipped creature has “T, Pay 1 life: Scry 1, then this creature explores.” Easy enough fix, but needs to happen. Additionally, good lord, this should be at least an uncommon. Potential scrying and exploring each turn? Very powerful, moreso than I think you’re giving credit for. A great idea for sure, but NOT common, no sir. I like it, don’t get me wrong. Also, I assume this is from one of the Pirates movies. In the future, please clarify the specific piece of media. 

@starch255​ — Orb of Petrification

This is a card that I really spent a lot of time thinking about. I still don’t know what to feel about it. It’s evident that you spend a lot of time thinking about this card and putting it together, and I want to give you credit for that first and foremost. The second ability is really weird to me, because it prevents the orb itself from activating its abilities, and it shuts down all artifacts on board? I’m not positive how that works flavorfully. It’s not bad. It’s probably super powerful in commander, not gonna lie. Control magic out the wazoo. I’m still on the fence about this one. Fine in standard, fine in limited, probably part of a frustrating combo in eternal formats. Still gotta congratulate you for the design process.

@teaxch​ — Semaphore Flag

Another really cool choice for a unique artifact. Functionally fun as a build-around. The card needs some kind of basic flavor text, because man it’s looking blank as heck right now. But older cards do that sometimes. Maybe I’m just a stickler for these sorts of things. Overall: probably fine. Probably not gonna see play except for in that deck made by That Guy that copies a buttload of artifacts.

~

Thank you all for your submissions! New contest tomorrow. Get the creative juices flowing.

[andrewysanders]

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Truthfully, things are really good on the farm this year. A lot of the work I’ve done in previous years to build new spaces (like the pergola, the bonfire pit, and the veggie garden) is paying off in that I have beautiful spots on the farm to enjoy with just a little maintenance and upkeep (and upgrades of course, but minor ones this year.)

And I’ve established the things like the orchard and vineyard (with tons of help from my mom) that now just need a few years of maintenance and care so they can flourish. Which, if we’re being honest, is still a ton of work (and a pain in the ass) but it’s not let’s-build-200-ft-of-grapevine-trellis-and-plant-30-vines-in-one-spring kind of work.

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

First, I still have not re-built the greenhouse since it blew over last spring (sigh), but I did spent some time last year putting in a really good foundation for it , so a lot of the heavy lifting is done. Now I just have to resign myself to repairing and re-assembling all of the pieces. (I hate doing re-work, so I’ve been avoiding it, but I’m committing to have it done before fall of this year.)

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

Originally I wanted to have border gardens around the inside perimeter of the fence, but after 4 years I’ve finally given up and realized that anything that isn’t in a raised bed will be impossible to maintain around here. People often ask me about the benefit of the raised beds, and all I can say is that in my case they are far easier to keep weed-free and maintain the soil composition of. (It may just be because we’re starting from scratch and have been keeping them up fairly well, but whatever it is, it works.)

I’ve added 5 new half-sized beds to one side of the garden and will add 5 more on the other side, plus a few more full-sized beds in the area I’d been trying to grow “row crops” like corn. For now, though, there are 19 beds (and 5 half beds) planted and growing some awesome things, including these native flowers my mom picked up at a native-plant sale recently…

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

In 15 years of home-ownership (and 3 houses) I’ve never had a full-sun garden where I could plant pretty perennials and watch them come back year-after-year, so these two little garden beds are oddly exciting for me. The peonies and “front” clematis were the first to bloom this year…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

Due to some epically rainy weather (only on the weekends, of course) I was a couple of weeks behind in orchard maintenance this spring.  I finally gave up on doing this during the weekends and promised myself I’d handle three trees a night for a week until all 15 were un-caged, weed-whacked, pruned, fertilized, mulched, sprayed, and re-caged.

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

For the most part the trees are doing well, although only a few of my apple trees are bearing fruit and none of the peach trees are bearing any (and for the last few years they’ve produced more fruit than any others.)

I’m honestly not sure if this has to do with weather (was there a hard frost after they budded?) or lack of pollination? (I lost my second bee hive in late winter this year so I didn’t have any honeybees in the immediate area this year, but there are so many native pollinators it hasn’t been an issue for the pears or apples.) I’m really not sure, but the good news is that even if I’ll sorely miss my usual peach harvest this summer, the trees look great and they can focus their energies on growing bigger and stronger this year, instead of producing fruit.

I can’t wait to get a few more years of growth on these trees so that I can really start harvesting some fruit. In the meantime, other than the heavy maintenance in spring, they don’t take much work other than another dose of fruit-tree spray in another month or so.

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

The weather, as per usual this spring, was beautiful and perfect all week, and then started raining bright and early Saturday morning. Which means my mom and I opened a bottle of wine bright and early Saturday morning and started working in the rain…

I can only mow so close to the trellises, so there’s a lot of weed-whacking needed just to get things under control. We also un-caged the vines, fertilized them, weeded, mulched, and re-caged. (Those cages are my deer protection.)

The 4 concord vines I have are definitely doing the best, and there are few other that are holding their own, but I tend to lose a lot of the growth every year, and the shoots start over from the ground rather than last-years growth.

I’m not sure if this is weather related, or due to the fact that I’ve been battling Japanese beetles for the last two years, and they’ve managed to strip the leaves off some of the vines before I get them.

Either way, it’s slow going. This year I need to get a better grass/weed management plan in place for the rows, finish the 3rd trellis, and spend all of my free time walking around picking beetles of the vines like a crazy person.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

This thing was so handy to have, even after I discovered the chicken-killing culprit that was wreaking havoc on my flock last year (dog down the street was sneaking out to come “play” with the chickens when the owner was napping…) and was able to let the flock free-range again, I still used the coop to acclimate my new chicks to the outdoors…

And to get the new guineas acclimated to the farm. The only problem is that I originally built it to be an extension of the indoor coop (where there is plenty of shade) but when I was using it as it’s own coop to keep the birds separate, I needed more sun and rain coverage. So I did what any reasonable person who owns every tool know to man would do…

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

I was planning to use metal (or plastic) roofing panels from the local lumber yard, but then I saw these Ondura corrugated asphalt panels at Lowe’s and thought… why the hell not. (I don’t love buying building materials I haven’t used before or researched, but this is a low-risk project.)

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

So, the roofing panels are fairly light and easy to cut (you can cut them with a utility knife vertically, or a circular saw with the blade on backwards horizontally) but the downside is that there’s a lot of hammering that needs to be done to secure them and if you miss the nail you’re going to put a solid dent if not an outright hole through this stuff. I’m pretty accurate with a hammer, but out of 250 nails I did still put two sizable dents in the roof.

I also don’t really care because I’m not really trying to keep every drop of water out of the coop, but I wouldn’t use this roofing on any kind of barn or house that I actually want to keep dry. And pretty.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

It looks and feels a lot more substantial now. I still have a few clean-up details, but it’s nice to have a usable space if I need to introduce new birds to the flock, or so the chickens have an outdoor space when I’m traveling for work (which is fairly often these days.)

So, overall spring has been pretty manageable on the farm this year, and I’m looking forward to a little rest before starting a big summer project… (I’m looking at you rotted wood siding on the back of the house.)

from Home http://diydiva.net/2018/06/spring-on-the-farm-2018/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[prouxvaire]

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Truthfully, things are really good on the farm this year. A lot of the work I’ve done in previous years to build new spaces (like the pergola, the bonfire pit, and the veggie garden) is paying off in that I have beautiful spots on the farm to enjoy with just a little maintenance and upkeep (and upgrades of course, but minor ones this year.)

And I’ve established the things like the orchard and vineyard (with tons of help from my mom) that now just need a few years of maintenance and care so they can flourish. Which, if we’re being honest, is still a ton of work (and a pain in the ass) but it’s not let’s-build-200-ft-of-grapevine-trellis-and-plant-30-vines-in-one-spring kind of work.

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

First, I still have not re-built the greenhouse since it blew over last spring (sigh), but I did spent some time last year putting in a really good foundation for it , so a lot of the heavy lifting is done. Now I just have to resign myself to repairing and re-assembling all of the pieces. (I hate doing re-work, so I’ve been avoiding it, but I’m committing to have it done before fall of this year.)

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

Originally I wanted to have border gardens around the inside perimeter of the fence, but after 4 years I’ve finally given up and realized that anything that isn’t in a raised bed will be impossible to maintain around here. People often ask me about the benefit of the raised beds, and all I can say is that in my case they are far easier to keep weed-free and maintain the soil composition of. (It may just be because we’re starting from scratch and have been keeping them up fairly well, but whatever it is, it works.)

I’ve added 5 new half-sized beds to one side of the garden and will add 5 more on the other side, plus a few more full-sized beds in the area I’d been trying to grow “row crops” like corn. For now, though, there are 19 beds (and 5 half beds) planted and growing some awesome things, including these native flowers my mom picked up at a native-plant sale recently…

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

In 15 years of home-ownership (and 3 houses) I’ve never had a full-sun garden where I could plant pretty perennials and watch them come back year-after-year, so these two little garden beds are oddly exciting for me. The peonies and “front” clematis were the first to bloom this year…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

Due to some epically rainy weather (only on the weekends, of course) I was a couple of weeks behind in orchard maintenance this spring.  I finally gave up on doing this during the weekends and promised myself I’d handle three trees a night for a week until all 15 were un-caged, weed-whacked, pruned, fertilized, mulched, sprayed, and re-caged.

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

For the most part the trees are doing well, although only a few of my apple trees are bearing fruit and none of the peach trees are bearing any (and for the last few years they’ve produced more fruit than any others.)

I’m honestly not sure if this has to do with weather (was there a hard frost after they budded?) or lack of pollination? (I lost my second bee hive in late winter this year so I didn’t have any honeybees in the immediate area this year, but there are so many native pollinators it hasn’t been an issue for the pears or apples.) I’m really not sure, but the good news is that even if I’ll sorely miss my usual peach harvest this summer, the trees look great and they can focus their energies on growing bigger and stronger this year, instead of producing fruit.

I can’t wait to get a few more years of growth on these trees so that I can really start harvesting some fruit. In the meantime, other than the heavy maintenance in spring, they don’t take much work other than another dose of fruit-tree spray in another month or so.

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

The weather, as per usual this spring, was beautiful and perfect all week, and then started raining bright and early Saturday morning. Which means my mom and I opened a bottle of wine bright and early Saturday morning and started working in the rain…

I can only mow so close to the trellises, so there’s a lot of weed-whacking needed just to get things under control. We also un-caged the vines, fertilized them, weeded, mulched, and re-caged. (Those cages are my deer protection.)

The 4 concord vines I have are definitely doing the best, and there are few other that are holding their own, but I tend to lose a lot of the growth every year, and the shoots start over from the ground rather than last-years growth.

I’m not sure if this is weather related, or due to the fact that I’ve been battling Japanese beetles for the last two years, and they’ve managed to strip the leaves off some of the vines before I get them.

Either way, it’s slow going. This year I need to get a better grass/weed management plan in place for the rows, finish the 3rd trellis, and spend all of my free time walking around picking beetles of the vines like a crazy person.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

This thing was so handy to have, even after I discovered the chicken-killing culprit that was wreaking havoc on my flock last year (dog down the street was sneaking out to come “play” with the chickens when the owner was napping…) and was able to let the flock free-range again, I still used the coop to acclimate my new chicks to the outdoors…

And to get the new guineas acclimated to the farm. The only problem is that I originally built it to be an extension of the indoor coop (where there is plenty of shade) but when I was using it as it’s own coop to keep the birds separate, I needed more sun and rain coverage. So I did what any reasonable person who owns every tool know to man would do…

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

I was planning to use metal (or plastic) roofing panels from the local lumber yard, but then I saw these Ondura corrugated asphalt panels at Lowe’s and thought… why the hell not. (I don’t love buying building materials I haven’t used before or researched, but this is a low-risk project.)

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

So, the roofing panels are fairly light and easy to cut (you can cut them with a utility knife vertically, or a circular saw with the blade on backwards horizontally) but the downside is that there’s a lot of hammering that needs to be done to secure them and if you miss the nail you’re going to put a solid dent if not an outright hole through this stuff. I’m pretty accurate with a hammer, but out of 250 nails I did still put two sizable dents in the roof.

I also don’t really care because I’m not really trying to keep every drop of water out of the coop, but I wouldn’t use this roofing on any kind of barn or house that I actually want to keep dry. And pretty.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

It looks and feels a lot more substantial now. I still have a few clean-up details, but it’s nice to have a usable space if I need to introduce new birds to the flock, or so the chickens have an outdoor space when I’m traveling for work (which is fairly often these days.)

So, overall spring has been pretty manageable on the farm this year, and I’m looking forward to a little rest before starting a big summer project… (I’m looking at you rotted wood siding on the back of the house.)

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[darensmurray]

Spring on the Farm: 2018

It only took six years, but I think I’ve finally figured out how to manage spring on the farm without completely losing my shit, and it only requires two things:

Do not get new animals.

Do not get new plants.

(For all of my friends and family who keep sending me pictures of baby goats… TAKE NOTE.)

Truthfully, things are really good on the farm this year. A lot of the work I’ve done in previous years to build new spaces (like the pergola, the bonfire pit, and the veggie garden) is paying off in that I have beautiful spots on the farm to enjoy with just a little maintenance and upkeep (and upgrades of course, but minor ones this year.)

And I’ve established the things like the orchard and vineyard (with tons of help from my mom) that now just need a few years of maintenance and care so they can flourish. Which, if we’re being honest, is still a ton of work (and a pain in the ass) but it’s not let’s-build-200-ft-of-grapevine-trellis-and-plant-30-vines-in-one-spring kind of work.

Here’s what things look like these days…

In The Garden

First, I still have not re-built the greenhouse since it blew over last spring (sigh), but I did spent some time last year putting in a really good foundation for it , so a lot of the heavy lifting is done. Now I just have to resign myself to repairing and re-assembling all of the pieces. (I hate doing re-work, so I’ve been avoiding it, but I’m committing to have it done before fall of this year.)

In an effort to give myself plenty of excuses not to start re-building the greenhouse, I have been adding more raised beds to the garden this year.

Originally I wanted to have border gardens around the inside perimeter of the fence, but after 4 years I’ve finally given up and realized that anything that isn’t in a raised bed will be impossible to maintain around here. People often ask me about the benefit of the raised beds, and all I can say is that in my case they are far easier to keep weed-free and maintain the soil composition of. (It may just be because we’re starting from scratch and have been keeping them up fairly well, but whatever it is, it works.)

I’ve added 5 new half-sized beds to one side of the garden and will add 5 more on the other side, plus a few more full-sized beds in the area I’d been trying to grow “row crops” like corn. For now, though, there are 19 beds (and 5 half beds) planted and growing some awesome things, including these native flowers my mom picked up at a native-plant sale recently…

The other fun thing about the garden area are these two full-sun flower beds that my mom and I created a year ago, at which time they looked like this…

In 15 years of home-ownership (and 3 houses) I’ve never had a full-sun garden where I could plant pretty perennials and watch them come back year-after-year, so these two little garden beds are oddly exciting for me. The peonies and “front” clematis were the first to bloom this year…

Still waiting on the butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers (thanks mom!) and the fall blooming clematis that we moved off the pergola and is doing amazing on the garden trellis this year…

In The Orchard

Every spring there’s a moment where no matter how big the trees get, I’m convinced that the grass and weeds will grow tall enough to swallow them whole. This was that moment…

Due to some epically rainy weather (only on the weekends, of course) I was a couple of weeks behind in orchard maintenance this spring.  I finally gave up on doing this during the weekends and promised myself I’d handle three trees a night for a week until all 15 were un-caged, weed-whacked, pruned, fertilized, mulched, sprayed, and re-caged.

I’m just saying, last week was a long week.

But we got there…

For the most part the trees are doing well, although only a few of my apple trees are bearing fruit and none of the peach trees are bearing any (and for the last few years they’ve produced more fruit than any others.)

I’m honestly not sure if this has to do with weather (was there a hard frost after they budded?) or lack of pollination? (I lost my second bee hive in late winter this year so I didn’t have any honeybees in the immediate area this year, but there are so many native pollinators it hasn’t been an issue for the pears or apples.) I’m really not sure, but the good news is that even if I’ll sorely miss my usual peach harvest this summer, the trees look great and they can focus their energies on growing bigger and stronger this year, instead of producing fruit.

I can’t wait to get a few more years of growth on these trees so that I can really start harvesting some fruit. In the meantime, other than the heavy maintenance in spring, they don’t take much work other than another dose of fruit-tree spray in another month or so.

In The Vineyard

The vineyard continues to be difficult to establish and keep under control. (As my mom said last weekend, “We’re just trying to grow a damn grape!”)

Here’s what it looked like a week ago…

Good luck finding a grape in that mess.

The weather, as per usual this spring, was beautiful and perfect all week, and then started raining bright and early Saturday morning. Which means my mom and I opened a bottle of wine bright and early Saturday morning and started working in the rain…

I can only mow so close to the trellises, so there’s a lot of weed-whacking needed just to get things under control. We also un-caged the vines, fertilized them, weeded, mulched, and re-caged. (Those cages are my deer protection.)

The 4 concord vines I have are definitely doing the best, and there are few other that are holding their own, but I tend to lose a lot of the growth every year, and the shoots start over from the ground rather than last-years growth.

I’m not sure if this is weather related, or due to the fact that I’ve been battling Japanese beetles for the last two years, and they’ve managed to strip the leaves off some of the vines before I get them.

Either way, it’s slow going. This year I need to get a better grass/weed management plan in place for the rows, finish the 3rd trellis, and spend all of my free time walking around picking beetles of the vines like a crazy person.

Around The Farm

No new animals means no new fences, or pens, or coops need to be build this spring, but I did make a few much-needed upgrades to the chicken run that Mom and I built last year.

This thing was so handy to have, even after I discovered the chicken-killing culprit that was wreaking havoc on my flock last year (dog down the street was sneaking out to come “play” with the chickens when the owner was napping…) and was able to let the flock free-range again, I still used the coop to acclimate my new chicks to the outdoors…

And to get the new guineas acclimated to the farm. The only problem is that I originally built it to be an extension of the indoor coop (where there is plenty of shade) but when I was using it as it’s own coop to keep the birds separate, I needed more sun and rain coverage. So I did what any reasonable person who owns every tool know to man would do…

Stretched a tarp over it?

Yeah. I’m a disgrace.

In an effort to redeem myself this year, I put an actual roof on the thing.

I was planning to use metal (or plastic) roofing panels from the local lumber yard, but then I saw these Ondura corrugated asphalt panels at Lowe’s and thought… why the hell not. (I don’t love buying building materials I haven’t used before or researched, but this is a low-risk project.)

So, I added some bracing to the roof…

And then spent a lot of time hammering nails into this stuff in the rain.

So, the roofing panels are fairly light and easy to cut (you can cut them with a utility knife vertically, or a circular saw with the blade on backwards horizontally) but the downside is that there’s a lot of hammering that needs to be done to secure them and if you miss the nail you’re going to put a solid dent if not an outright hole through this stuff. I’m pretty accurate with a hammer, but out of 250 nails I did still put two sizable dents in the roof.

I also don’t really care because I’m not really trying to keep every drop of water out of the coop, but I wouldn’t use this roofing on any kind of barn or house that I actually want to keep dry. And pretty.

Still, it did the job for the coop.

I also added some wood around the bottom of the walls to discourage any predators from pushing at the wire mesh (similar to what I did with the actual coop.)

It looks and feels a lot more substantial now. I still have a few clean-up details, but it’s nice to have a usable space if I need to introduce new birds to the flock, or so the chickens have an outdoor space when I’m traveling for work (which is fairly often these days.)

So, overall spring has been pretty manageable on the farm this year, and I’m looking forward to a little rest before starting a big summer project… (I’m looking at you rotted wood siding on the back of the house.)