I can't believe the year is almost over

You haven't seen many post because of a hectic work schedule. I finished the year by inoculating some more mushroom logs. Here is the set up with an electric drill, hot plate for wax, and inoculation tool. (If you were following all the rules, the logs should not be laid on the ground. ) I am using the tail gate as a work surface for the logs.

Here is a picture of my high tunnel built earlier this year

I had the conduit bows on hand. I purchased some wood for the lowest purloin to attach the plastic and also purchased the plastic. The gross receipts for the first 10 days of harvest was higher than the amount I spent building it.

High Tunnel harvest

Early season tomatoes from my high tunnel. Note the normal size ink pen for comparison.

Farmers market.

A few shots of produce I raised and sold this summer. (I just picked and sold the blackberries.)

Some kids are harder to raise than other kids

He has totaled 7 cars. He washed 1/4 mile downstream during the first wreck and broke his neck in 3 places after he was thrown 20 feet from the car in his last wreck. He got two skull fractures when he jumped on a gang. (I know it is normally the gang that does the jumping, but this boy is a little different. He stopped his truck to rescue somebody, putting 3 men on the ground after taking the blow to the head.) He has been struck by lightning and knocked unconsious by a live electrical wire (it is possible the fall restarted his heart) and had his nose broke when a guy tried to rob him (he fought him off with a box cutter). So I was happy to see him get married. I hope it will be a turning point. If you have difficult kids, enjoy them while you have them. Sometimes it works out.

Road building 3

This is my driveway. (I think this was a public road as early as 1903, but my neighbor and I hold the deed and the title search company claims its legit.) This area shows proper crowning with adequate ditches on both sides. It has been regraveled about 3 times since 1989 and is due another layer soon. Obviously landscape fabric wasn't invented in 1903, so a good road is possible without it. My preference in the future will be to use landscape fabric when I want a good road. (Sometimes road sort of develop without planning. I can't promise that won't happen.) Also see post Road Building 1 and Road Building 2. For some real information go to this booklet. http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/stewardship/accessroads/accessroads.htm

Road Building 2

These 3 pictures show a situation where in 2003 a person started to build a road without landscape fabric. This can be done. In fact, the majority of rural roads were done this way. It takes several years, additional layers of gravel and ongoing maintenance to make it work. In this case, the individual put in the first load and then changed their mind. The first picture is the way the surface looks today. By now a second and third layer should have been placed on top to give you a good aggregate surface. The second picture shows the gravel that was originally dumped on the ground and the third picture shows the gravel soil interface. If this road was travelled frequently, the gravel would get pushed down and the red soil would mix upward. So option 1 is to use landscape fabric followed by one layer of gravel. (See pictures in Road Building 1 post). This should give you a road with less ongoing maintenance although it isn't carefree. Option 2 is to use large gravel to get a base, followed by several more applications of gravel layers. Also see Roadbuilding 3 post and this http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/stewardship/accessroads/accessroads.htm