My Friend, Amazon Woman!!

I love to travel.  I always have.  Although I am a complete homebody, I love to see the world and experiene new things.  And when my friend Kat told me she was going to spend six months in the Amazon jungle…I was so JEALOUS!

She is keeping a blog of her adventures.  And boy is she creating memories for a lifetime.  She got bit by a bullet ant (one of the top most painful bites you can get).  And guess what??  she was bit TWICE.

Her team rescued a baby monkey, and she has a picture up on her blog of it sitting on her head.  Adorable.

And most recently, she went for a relaxing walk in the jungle…and got lost.  Take a look…

How To: Chop Firewood

A wood stove is such a wonderful thing to have.  I grew up with one, and when I lived in apartments, I really missed it.  There is nothing like having your home warmed by a crackling fire.  Sitting down in front of a fire with a warm cup of tea and a good book is one of the greatest things in life (I think).  But to have this you need wood.  And lots of it.

Not only wood, you need DRY wood.  Last winter my parents did not prepare well and half way through the season they ran out of wood.  They had to go into the woods and buck up fallen trees which were still wet.  It is very difficult (although Not impossible) to start a fire with wet wood.  And once you get it going, you better not let it go out!  Treat those coals like your very own children.

So if you have dry firewood, you need to take care of it.

• It needs to be stored in a dry location. If you can’t put it under a roof, a very good (waterproof) tarp will work fine.

•Stack your firewood. Some people will leave it in a messy pile.  This is a mistake for three reasons.  One: the pieces are unstable and when you remove one, another may fall and injure you.  Two: although in theory your wood is dry, there may still be wet pieces.  Staking them makes it easier for them to dry completely.  And Three: it’s easier to cover and takes up less room.

• Your chopping block should be large, solid and squarely seated on the ground. Place it on flat ground with a minimum of five feet on all sides.  You need plenty of space to swing your axe, and for flying pieces of wood.

• You need an axe and a maul. If your wood doesn’t have too many knots, and isn’t extremely hard, your axe should do all the work.  However, this ideal kind of wood rarely makes up your entire cord or two, so be prepared with a maul for those harder to chop pieces.

• When getting ready to chop a piece of wood, place it in the center of your chopping block.  Be sure it does not wobble. You may need to shift it around, or flip it over until it sits straight.

• Stand an axe length away from your chopping block.

• Clear the ground around your feet so you have a solid place to stand.

• Place your feet shoulder width apart for the best stability.

• Grab your axe with your right hand near the head and your left hand about two inches from the heel of the handle. (If you are lefthanded, reverse the hand positions)

• Bring the axe straight up, DO NOT bring back over your head.

• Focus on a spot on your chosen piece of wood. You should always try to chop the wood with the grain.  If you have a larger piece of wood, aim for one of the corners. Remove the four corners, then chop the center in half.  Aiming for the corners is also a good way to chop smaller pieces for kindling.

• Bend your knees and swing in a smooth arc.  As you swing, let your right hand slide down the handle to meet with your left hand. Do not use your arms for power.  Put all your weight behind your swing.  The let out a loud grunt (I’m serious, this actually helps.)

• Repeat above steps. Before each swing readjust your feet.  Be sure you are always stable.

When chopping wood you must always keep your focus.  If you do it correctly, you will be fine, but if an accident happens it may be serious.  Steve has had a few close calls in his day.  One time he was lucky and the axe stuck in his boot, right between his toes.  Another time he sliced the side of his calf.  I have never hit myself with the axe, but I have had many pieces of wood fly off the chopping block and hit my feet, legs and hands.

Be Careful!!  and have fun…it’s a great way to get out aggression and it’s a good workout!

Bonsai ~ a little wire

It’s not much, but I wanted to mention I wired a few rosemary.  I’m not sure if I did it right, but I was just playing around.  Here’s what they look like.

Winter Update ~ by Steve (Dad)

The new year is rushing along – Spring is only 6 weeks away. Our Pacific Northwest rain is hammering down on us , as it has for the last couple of weeks. Don’t want to complain too loudly, since we need the water. But, even so, MileWide is making progress on our winter projects.

Our biggest project this year is refurbishing the olive orchard water system. We just got a break – three dry days. Yesterday we finished laying 8000 linear feet of ditch and pipe – now we are getting ready to glue and plumb the pipe and cover up all those ditches. Its going faster than I thought.

Our greenhouse and solar panels in the background.

Our website is in need of a revision and we will be working on that for our upcoming Spring sales. Somehow it always seems to turn into a bigger project than I want.

In the nursery, we are starting up our first veggies in a spare greenhouse bed and getting everything ready for action in the Spring. We just started forcing our hydrangeas and potting up our succulents. Both are available on our website. We are expecting our shipment of red Japanese Maple starts around the first of March.

And, as is usual in the Winter, we end up spending plenty of time on our infrastructure – repairing water worn roads and replacing frost shattered pipes (don’t I wish I had buried those). Our well petered out last Fall and we plan to revisit our entire water system. We will be looking for ways to just squeeze every last drop out of what we have. No water, no farm.

Well, that’s pretty much about all you probably want to know about Winter here at MileWide Nursery. If I think of more I just have to tell you, I’ll post again.

Cooking: Basil-Coconut Tomato Soup

Although I was a picky eater as a child (thankfully I’ve mostly grown out of that) I’ve always loved food.  But until recently I never considered myself a cook. And then I started cooking and guess what??  I LOVE IT!  I used to think cooking was an exact science, and sometimes (like baking cookies) it is, but most of the time a little variation can only make it better.

I had this realization when I made my first soup.  I was always scared to stray from the recipe but soup is very forgiving.  So if you are a new cook, making a few soups is a safe way to experiment (in my opinion).  And after I had success with soups, I turned to stir-fry and casseroles.  Also very forgiving choices for new cooks.  And since I am all about people improving their skills, here is a recipe for a quick, easy and Delicious tomato soup.

Basil-Coconut Tomato Soup
serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbls. butter
32 oz. can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
2 tbls. tomato paste
1 can coconut milk
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
bunch of fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, add the butter, onions and garlic.  Saute until the onions have softened and turned translucent (about 5 minutes).  Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil.   Blend.  Add the coconut milk and basil.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Your done.  Really, that’s it.  Easy.

Enjoy.

Don’t forget you can double or triple this recipe for more people.  You can take out the coconut milk and replace it with heavy whipping cream.  Or remove the cream entirely and just use more broth.  Experiment, be inventive and always enjoy your time in the kitchen.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Apple Seed

Bonsai!!

My father has been tossing around the idea of creating Bonsai as one of our items for sale, but he has never taken any real steps to begin the process.  The first time he mentioned it I thought it sounded like a very cool idea.

It’s the time of year we begin planning for Spring Sales.  We’ve been discussing what products we want to focus on and make available to our customers by March.  And I got interested in taking the first steps to begin our Bonsai product.

Steve gave me two books on Bonsai.  The big one is a little daunting so I started flipping through the smaller of the two books.  I read the first few pages then flipped to the section about different types of plants which are ideal for making Bonsai.  And we already have a few.  I pulled three Wysteria, three Magnolia and three Oregon White Oaks to begin experimenting on.

Although the book lays the process out step by step, I am a little nervous to begin.  The first step is to basically butcher the tree.  You cut off the branches to increase branch formation closer to the trunk.  You trim off a large section of the roots to increase new root production and incourage the tree to grow without gaining much in height.  Once I have this step done I can begin wiring the branches into place.  It seems easy enough on paper, but I think it’s going to be harder then it looks.

The nine Bonsai candidates.

Unfortunately we won’t have any Bonsai ready by this March.  But within two years, if all goes well, we should be able to put them up for sale!  And I believe our long awaited efforts will be well worth it.

Big Storm

We just had a huge storm here.  It was estimated we would get 20 inches of rain in 5 days.  That’s 4 INCHES A DAY!!  And I think we got it.  The rain poured from the sky constantly.  Thankfully my power did not go out (miracle).  A lot of branches are on the roads, and the river is huge (finally).  The tops of the mountains got snow.

The mountains beyond this one will have feet of snow! Sledding anyone??

Right now it seems to have let up…but the weatherman predicts another storm as big as this one!!  Gulp…cross your fingers for us.

“Creek” fencing project begins!

I think I may have mentioned I recently moved into my childhood home.  It has two small fruit tree orchards and a large vegetable garden.  Only problem is, I can’t plant anything without the deer having a field day!  There are multiple places the fence has fallen down and the deer can get in.   A few were caused by trees falling, one huge hole was created by PG&E and Davey Tree, when they had to fix a downed power line.  And a couple are just simple wear on the fencing itself.

So yesterday my Dad and one of our employees (who is also a great friend of mine) came over to walk the fence line.  We cleared a path along the entire thing so it can be accessed when we actually do the fencing itself.  We made a parts list aswell.  We need over 100 new posts.  Almost the entire length of fence needs to have an extension added to the top, bottom or both, and a good portion needs to be replaced entirely.

It sounds like my fence is a complete disaster.  But it only took three hours to walk and clear the entire thing.  And although a big portion needs to be worked on, a good length of it is just fine.

We are ordering the necessary parts today and hopefully the project will be finished in the next two weeks.  I’m going to ask a bunch of my friends to come over and help.  Some good food, a little beer, hopefully a day without rain, and the whole fence will come together in a snap.

(BTW, “Creek” is what we call my homestead because of where it is located.)

More Foggy Morning

Like a place lost in time...

Almost resembles a river flowing through the valley.