Pallet Chair

While roaming the farm a few weeks back I spied a pile of pallets and after asking Jerome, the patriarch farmer about them, I found that they were available to be used!  Sweetness.

Pallets seem to be a popular material for projects these days because there is a constant supply of them.  When Ross and I were traveling in Turkey this past January we had a magical experience working at an organic farm near the Black Sea (I will definitely be posting more about that place, truly magical).  They had all kinds of unique building projects, most likely due to the fact that two of their children are architects.  One that definitely stood out were their pallet loungers.  The picture below is the top of the farm and just in the middle are the loungers.  (If I had something more than satellite internet and I would just upload a whole gambit of photos, buuuuuuut we have limited data...I'm just a little bitter on this and I'm working on it).    

 

I started a google search on how to make a pallet lounger and found this pallet porn site of ideas!  I mean, there are lots of sites with ideas, so I just had to stop after finding this one and it had a link on for making the loungers.  

 

And voilà!  A lounger was made.  I sat there the rest of the day having drinks and imagining what the garden would hold in just a short couple of months.  Ideas were flowing!  My lounger is a bit more rackety, but I needed to simply make it instead of trying to perfect it.  It's good to start and finish a project in a day and this is one you certainly can do!  The website with the instructions painted theirs, but I know that this will be the extent of the chair. Hopefully it will get lots of use this summer!

Even Phil the cat likes it!

Beer time

After letting our beer sit for about 3 weeks too long, we decided it was time to bottle it.  I'm striving to stay positive because it's still raining here, sooooo we will make more beer so we can drink it!  Hope your Memorial Day weekend was less rainy than here.

Rain, rain, rain

Look at all these happy animals!  I'm putting up some pictures of them because it's so dismal outside.  The weather is really testing my mental state.  For instance, whyyy does it have to rain for five days straight?  I HAVE NO IDEA.  And why am I still wearing a sweater?  Woof.  So, I have found myself internet shopping, nothing grandiose, more like garden stuff and pre-ordering the next Kinfolk magazine (if only that could be here right now to take my mind off what I'm not doing on the farm).  Other than that, I'm taking a ton of walks.  I check on the ducks, chickens and bees a good eight times a day.  And in those visits, I talk a lot to them.

"Hey ladies," to the chickens, "what's new in the coop today?"  Lots of sqwaks come my way as they eagerly await my usual delivery of scraps, but I forgot the pail...so they yell at me instead.   

I make the rounds to the ducks in the mud who seem to be the only animals on the farm jazzed about the rain.  It's like their quacking is praising the holy being that is showering them!  So, I wade in their happiness as I watch them stretch and search the yard.  

Usually the cattle are further away in a pasture, so I'll scoot on down to the newcomers...the beeeeees.  I crouch right next to their opening and watch them come and go from the hive.  This can last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes.  I mean, these guys are wacky cool!  The way they just zip out the opening with a mission and return with legwarmers full of pollen?!  Amaze-balls.  Can you imagine just hopping out of bed every single day and knowing exactly what you're doing and why?!  Lord!   

Sometimes the dogs are with me and if so, they're demeanor is always happy...so that's helping.  The word is the sun's face will be shining upon us tomorrow, but I don't really trust meteorologists any more.  Enjoy the happy pictures!

What's all the buzzzz about?

 

Ya like that cheesy title?  Me too.  As you can see, we've acquired bees on the farm!  It started with a hive delivery at midnight from Brent the Bee Man.  We laid down a couple of pallets to make a steady ground and keep the grass from growing up too high.  Then Brent unloaded the bees from his car.  Yup...he drove two plus hours with around 15,000 bees in the back of his moving vehicle!  He had boards screwed in place so that they couldn't come out, but still, the idea of 15,000 bees in my car would keep me white knuckled and sweaty.

Once everything was in place we shuffled off to bed.  Bee deliveries happen at night because all those little buzzheads are back to their honey home after work.  

The next morning we suited up to go unscrew the last board which covered the opening of the hive.  I thought Ross resembled an astronaut:)  I was not able to watch the entire inspection of the hive, but Ross said that by the end of it, bees were already coming back with pollen on their legs!  What magic little creatures!

Ross is going to be the main beekeeper and I'm going to help and learn as much as I can.  This all came about when I worked at a bakery in Minneapolis.  I met Brent and his wife Danielle as they were regulars at the bakery.  When we were going to move to the farm, we began talking bees.  Brent is starting some pretty incredible stuff, involving a bus and educational programs for kids to learn about bees (I will let you know more about that as it happens!).  All in all, Brent is giving a hive to the farm and we will take care of it and at the end...we'll all split the honey!

This method seems to work the best for Ross and I.  We definitely want to have a farm of our own someday, but we're enjoying the ability to get our hands dirty and learn without the initial huge investment.  This way we're also growing our community...which just grew by 15,000.  Welcome bees!
  

They Grow Up So Fast!

This is Philipe the cat, otherwise known as Phil.  He has been known to melt the hearts of cat haters, at least a little melt.  Since I got him in college my junior year he has always been an indoor cat with the occasional escape through my legs.  However, since we've moved to the farm he has been enjoying the great outdoors.  When I first let him out I felt a little sad, my wee kitten has grown up...yup, I'm that in love with him.  I quickly realized that he isn't all wild cat.  Within twenty minutes he was pawing and yelling at the door and quickly went to bed in his spot by the window.  I predict that I will have a lot of pictures of Phil throughout this blog.  You're welcome.

Here we go!

So, here it is.  The reason why we packed up our apartment in Minneapolis to move to Rochester, MN.  The opportunity came to us through a kindred spirit, our downstairs neighbor in the orange duplex in Minneapolis, Monica.  One afternoon her and I spoke about our futures and somewhere in the conversation the idea of gardening on a larger scale came up.  She told me of her family farm where such an opportunity was available!  The farm was changing since her dad just sold the dairy cattle after 30 plus years as a farmer for Organic Valley and he would might just give us some of that fertile good stuff to learn on. 

I walked upstairs to Ross and said, "I think we're moving to Rochester."  Eight months later we were. 

So, now here we are.  Embarking on a crazy adventure.  Already, I'm a month and a half behind my original schedule due to weather.  Rain all of April?  Okay.  A blizzard in May?  Now, that's a little much.  But now it's here.  Within days I will have my hands in that dirty stuff planting our future.  Seed by seed.  Plant by plant.  And this blog will let you in on what we're doing.  The good and the bad.  

Welcome to Wayfarer's Garden, I do hope you stick around.

Looking away from my plot onto the rest of the farm

Looking onto my future garden, our home is behind the trees

The beginning:)