unicornduke | (no subject)

Progress, much progress. We are in the middle of cutting the corn maze, which is done with a walk behind rock rake. Very cool machine, works very well, extremely hard to get to turn or handle when there's actual rocks. My hands are taking a beating but it was better once I remembered gloves help. I've got one more shape to cut before tomorrow's rain, then we'll finish laying out the other three shapes and cut before more rain sunday. probably. we can't leave the shape layouts when it rains because it's just spray paint on dirt and the rain washes it away.

I have written a list of perennials to plant next year after some "market research" and evaluation of what we've got and what I want to put in. a lot of this list is replacement plants or expanding already existing plantings, so it's not as wild as it might seem. we're running out of room on the main farm, so we're thinking of putting the first three down at west in a rocky section that we just mow and don't really use. our customer are pretty good and trustworthy. also debating planting more blueberries. a lot of demand for blueberries.

currants - 50ft red, 50 ft black, 20 ft white - talked to some of our eastern european customers and most seemed thrilled that we might plant them
haskaps - 50 ft - I want these and want other people to try them, come in very early in the season. definitely on the tart end but good timing for strawberry season overlap
juneberries - 50 ft - experiment, I ate some frozen fruit and they were tasty
replacement kiwiberries - 7 plants - need cages for deer protection
replacement blueberries - 62 plus Bonus row (62) - not too bad, mostly in the most recent planting. Bonus is a variety my parents put in that is not thriving, the plants are significantly smaller than the other varieties planted at the same time and the berries are very meh, so we think we'll put out that whole row and replace it
Black raspberries - 1.5 rows - needs trellis and deer fence - the thornless variety survived the winter decent but the deer love the brambles for eating and mowed off the tops
blackberries - our blackberry planting has orange rust and also hasn't consistently survived the winters to get a crop for more than 2 out of 5 years. need a new variety selection and location, looking at cold hardy varieties and also maybe thorned ones (rip customers)
elderberries - American - replace all dead (20) + additional 2 rows - the european elderberries are dying of diseases and also neglect so I gave them a good sorting out and we'll try american elderberries like the one that is growing really happily next to the barn at west. plus the area we're expending into is so hilariously rocky. it's pretty much all rock, no dirt, so perennials are good for that sort of place.
raspberries - fill in last half row in new planting - 2027 will be expanding the planting up into the next field because we have so much demand for raspberries and not enough to pick. So that will get us another 6 rows 220 feet long. but there's a lingering half row to fill in first

we're kinda dry again, so I spent most of today alternating between corn maze work and changing irrigation stuff out plus fertigating. keeping things watered is hard. plus I had to spend time cleaning the filters since the storms clogged them up and the water pressure was bad.

I have started plying the purple yarn, hoping to get it done by the end of the month because that would be satisfying. Fine yarns take forever to ply though and I'll need to skein off yarn after I finish it up. All the bobbins for the Eel Wheel are full up, so I either need to fix my skein reel or do it all with my niddy noddy. I'll need to find my wood glue to fix the reel, so I'm contemplating that. I have made a ton of progress on my loom project, I got it wound, and beamed onto the loom! Next up is figuring out the pattern and heddles and start threading heddles. I think I actually need to rotate the loom 180 degrees so the back is against the wall of the shed but that is going to be a big pain to do. I'll have to remove everything around it and put it outside, then turn the loom and put it all back. And I'll need to find a chair to use for the loom...

I'm tentatively scheduled to go away for a weekend August 23rd. I haven't decided where I'm going or what I'm doing but probably going somewhere where I can mostly lay around and idek read books and knit is what I'm thinking about. probably not camping. maybe a cabin or visiting B or going to an SCA thing although that's in the wrong direction.

also thinking about purchasing a crossbow to shoot deer. those little bastards are so annoying eating everything we don't want them to eat. and the fencing only helps sometimes.

I have purchased a replacement atom L from unihertz. a replacement screen for the tank mini costs $80 and no guarantee that it won't break again. two screens borked in six months due to hardware failures, not actual screen shatters is unacceptable. hilariously, I can still listen to all the podcasts I had downloaded on my phone before the screen broke. Bluetooth still works fine and I can hit play on the headphones. kinda hilarious.