Broad Valley Orchard

Hello,
Sorry I haven’t written lately. but I have been trying to keep this farm going in perhaps the worst summer heat I have ever seen in my 60-plus years.  Luckily, up in our mountain valley, we have been getting just enough rain, but down on the flat lands, it is looking real brown.  We had [...]

Hello,
Well,
After 3 weeks without rain and 100F temperature (sorry metric fans, I am too heat-blasted to make the conversions), we got a lovely 1.3 inches of rain the other night that filled the rain barrels and soaked the garden.  I am trying not to gripe, because I remember the Four Year Drought of 1999-2003.  Although [...]

Hello,
We have been so busy dealing with the grueling winter and damp spring that I have not sat down at this keyboard to write  for too long.  Suffice it to say that Summer Solstice is already behind us, and it is steaming out there!
We just got a brief rain shower that gave us 0.6″ (1.5 [...]

Hello all,
Yes,  life has been “too busy”.  I decided I needed a change of pace, so I took a part-time job with US Census.  I’d really like to share my thoughts of what I have learned working in our northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I’d share my observations with you, but you will [...]

Hello Spring Garden Fans, and Long-Forgotten Genealogy Fans,
For several weeks I have meant to write scribble down a few thoughts and observations, but the last few weeks have been hectic.
First, our last scraps of the winter snow did not melt until late March, which put me weeks behind.  I managed to cut some firewood and [...]

Hello Farm Fans,
I just realized that I haven’t written an entry in this farm journal for a long while.  This has been a very tough winter!  But now, the firewood is drying in piles, the goat herd has multiplied, and their barn awaits a college work crew to help me muck it out, and the [...]

Hello All,
I have not been writing lately, because all of our energy has been poured into the futile activity of constantly digging out of the snow storms that have plagued us for the last 10 weeks.  Many of you may have heard how much of the East Coast Megalopolis was shut down for weeks, but [...]

Hello Winter Garden Fans,
I am sorry I haven’t written for a while but this past six week cold snap has distracted me. But today the sun shines and the air temperature is pushing above the freezing point of water.
It has been tough [...]

Hello Winter-bound Northerners,
Yes, this is one of the roughest winter cold snaps we have seen for many a year. It seems just an eye-blink ago that I was writing and observing that on Dec. 2nd we had not yet had our killing frost.
Well, [...]

Hello Winter Gardeners,
Well, after our protracted “Indian Summer” the meteorological ‘dam’ broke, and frigid Arctic air blew in with vengence. Luckily, we had just harvested cabbages and Brussel sprouts; they sleep in lugs in our cool storage. The only outside garden crop still in the ground [...]