25 Acre Woods Digest (2021-10-19): Improvements At The Homestead

We love to hear from you. And we heard your request last week. 

A few of you could not attend the Inaugural Piazza Rock Talk in person. So, naturally, you wanted the transcript.

So shall you have it. See here, with extra commentary from The Professor. 

Special Note: TASER, the Twenty-Five Acres Special Events Resource team, will provide transcripts for future talks as well.

As farmers in Maine’s rocky soil are known to say, the week may be short but the garden seems long.

We’ve almost completed the foundation. 

Meaning Zach has.

As you may remember from last week, 25 Acres’ own veggie garden consultant has told us that we should add topsoil.

And who wouldn’t listen to  Nora Cleary, MPH, BS, and APHL/CDC Infectious Disease Fellow?

Given Nora’s input, we’re pleased to introduce Surus, our new-used trailer. Here’s Surus on it’s first mission: picking up compost from the Farmington Compost Cooperative’s semi-annual sale. (Yes, this is a thing, run by a prof at the University of Maine at Farmington).

That there’s a cubic yard of compost. For you Home Depot shoppers roughly 27 bags’ worth. Somewhere between 1000-1500 pounds. Yet do Surus’ leaf springs bottom out? Not even close!

Surus, as you’ll of course recognize, was the name of Hannibal’s personal elephant. Amazing what you can get with $200 and a careful reading of Uncle Henry’s.

Building upon Nora’s advice, we consulted our local soil coaches (the two guys barely visible over top of Surus in the photo above).

They tell us we’ll want a foot of soil to cover our 90 square feet of garden. 

That’ll require:

• 1 cu yd compost

• 3 cu yd loam

• 0.5 cu yd sand

Gently mixed.

Surus will get a workout this coming week. As will we.

In other news, it’s been a great month for mushrooms up here in Maine. No, not Timothy-Leary-style ‘shrooms. 

Rather, all kinds of fungus, happily converting all that has fallen in the forest into nutritious inputs for the next generation.

Want more? The 25 Acres Editorial Team recommends Michelle Navarre’s instagram.

Wait, there’s more? 

Yep, the 25 Acres is proud to introduce our new stove. 

SPENT, the 25 Acres Special ProcurEmeNt Team, has brought us a convection oven with a selection of flamethrower-level burners.

SPENT has also now run 25 Acres’ first Craigslist ad. Which, 48 hours later, led to some guy named Kenny picking up our old stove. Nice guy, will use it in his camp 10 miles down the road.

The Editorial Team regrets to announce that we’ve put this favorite feature on hold.

70-degree temps. Yes, in October. 

The Wood-O-Meter will resume when the fires do.