Yurt Update pt. 2 (building the wheel)

Last month I finally got the long awaited yurt wheel built! It was the final piece of the frame, and by far the most complicated to construct. It took 2 and 1/2 days of work with some generous guidance from Alex Cole (www.lfy.ca) and lots of help from Rabanus (who was wwoofing with Alex) to turn our initial ash log into the beautiful and structurally crucial crown of my yurt-to-be.

After selecting a knot-free ash tree that was about 5" across and as staight grained as possible (there's always some variability) I cut an eight foot length to be cleaved. Cleaving with a froe is definitely a valueable skill, and a process that's inspiringly easy. You secure your log in a brake, pound the froe blade into the end of the log (as close to centre as possible), and then use the levering effect of the froe to almost effortlessly split the log. The going is so easy you really have to keep a careful eye on the split, and to guide it back towards centre if it begins to go off. Having multiple people on hand was really helpful at this stage, the log wasn't quite as straight grained as it could have been but Alex was able to guide the split towards centre by pulling down on the log, against the direction of the split. The split wants to go in the direction of the pulling force, so it can guided either up or down this way. Even with all this shuffling around of people the cleaving only took a few minutes to accomplish.

Much more time consuming (and harder on the arms!) was the step of shaving down these two halves into flat planks. Because we essentially ended up with two semi-circles I had to shave the bottom sides flat with a drawknife. A pretty intense upper body workout!

Next was the process of steaming the plank and bending it into the wheel. After a couple hours in the steambox (quite a simple contraption of plywood and plastic liner, with a pipe attached to a boiler) the planks were taken out and while still flexible were quickly clamped around a metal cartwheel (although any other similar frame would work). Time was of the essence here, we had about 30 seconds to get them in place and clamped before the wood cooled too much to bend and risks cracking. So out of the steambox they came and with almost military precision we wrestled them around the frame one by one. Between the three of us and our prerehersed roles it went fairly smoothly. We now had a wheel!

We let it set for a few days before attempting the last major step; drilling and burning the holes for the roof poles. This is where quite a bit of math and geometry came into play, we had to decide the angles and to mark and drill each hole. Although a round hole (and therefore a round roof pole) could work, there would be no way of keeping the roof poles from sliding around once in place. It's way better to have square holes and to square off the poles to fit, that way you can select the "top" side of the pole (the straightest side and the side that just feels right being the top) and have it stay there. Chiseling is possible here but burning the hole with a red-hot steel rod is far easier and produces a much nicer edge. We heated the rod in the forge (seen below next to Rabanus there) before driving it steadily into the round (soon to be square) hole. As this work went on it developed an almost intoxicating rythme... The fire, the glowing hot steel, the dense smoke from the wheel, and then back to the fire again... there was some pretty intense energy involved.

Update, Jan. 21:

It's finished! I just added the dome made from whippy ash sticks, the purpose of which is to support the canvas (otherwise there would be an indent at the top of the yurt, quickly becoming a birdbath in our climate!). The next step now is finishing the roof poles by draw knifing the top ends into tapered squares, and afterwards drilling and attaching a twine bridle to the lower ends (to connect to the wall). To be continued...

2010 Catalogue!

Just a quick post to announce that I've released the 2010 Annapolis Seeds catalogue! I have more than double last year's listings, check it out: www.annapolisseeds.com

I'm pretty excited to finally start sending these seeds out to people! I've been filling packets and printing catalogues and writing seed profiles like crazy lately, it's all coming together now.

Seed Packing and the New Name

The harvest is in, the seeds are dried and sorted and tallied, now it's just a matter of filling as many packets as I can before the 2010 catalogue is released! For the last week my main activity has been filling packets, as boring as that might sound it's actually very exciting work (for me) thinking about the huge potential of these seeds and the many gardens they will sow all over the world. This is the debut of my 2010 packet design, I was working with a local printer (Integrity Printing of Bridgetown) to design a slightly snazzier packet, I'm pretty pleased with the result:

I should also announce that I've decided to shorten the name slightly from Annapolis Valley Heritage Seeds to simply Annapolis Seeds, it's less of a mouthful and just seems...better. I'm in the process of completing the 2010 catalogue, and the plan is to update the website later this month. So far I have 140 varieties lined up for the online catalogue, with more coming soon from my only other seed grower Windhorse Farm. That's about double the selection over last year's catalogue, with way more in stock. Overall I have at least six or seven times last year's seed stock, I hope there's enough of the popular varieties to go around this year.

Also check out the Nov.-Dec. issue of Small Farm Canada (the seed issue), Emily McGiffin did a great write-up of what I'm doing that has already generated a lot of buzz.

So keep an eye on the website for updates!

Three Hundred and Fifty!

As the International Day of Climate Action (350 day) swept over the globe in a wave of demonstrations (and hopefully longer-lasting shared sentiments), I made my small contribution to the cause. Despite the driving rain, Colin and I headed out to mow our "official" 350 in the clover of the upper field. It's actually a bit smaller than the old one, the small clover patch was the only good display medium left on the farm, not like the bountiful bouquet of grasses covering many acres that I could pick from in the Summer.

There were demonstrations in Wolfville, Halifax, Ottawa (where protesters disrupted the House of Commons) and all over the world, now lets turn this sentiment into positive action to actually change things! We need to demand that the world's powers that be place our life-giving planet at the top of their priorities, where it should be. At the same time we can't continue taking, taking, taking while wanting government to do things for us, this is a problem created by 6,000,000,000+ people, or more accurately a small percentage of those taking far more than their share. The government is (or should be) a reflection of the people and if the people are complacent consumers, or worse yet, actively wallowing in the vast (and very temporary) material wealth created by exploiting millions of years of fossil sunlight, we're going to have similarly minded leaders in charge pushing for more of the same and denying that there's even a problem (look no further than our current government). Sure, the government has the power to regulate industry (and it will have to if there's going to be change) but we forget that we as individuals are largely responsible for that industry and many of the Earth's problems as whole by buying their products and amassing far more "stuff" than we really need. WE are the ones most responsible and we also hold the most power to produce positive change!

A big update on a wet 350 Day

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, although there isn't much exciting news coming from the garden this time of year there are still lots of projects on the go. Now that the harvest is all in I've been tallying the crop and writing the 2010 seed catalogue, I hope to have it up on the website in November. I have about 5 times last year's quantities and twice the number of varieties available (with many more grown in small amounts on track for the 2011 catalogue).

Aside from the seed work I'm beginning to focus once again on the forest, I'm working to remove the conifer seedlings from a two acre logged area so to encourage the growth of mixed hardwoods in this patch. The plan is to manage the hardwoods as a coppice, that is cut on a regular and continueous cycle of harvesting and regrowth. The trees send out many new shoots from the stump and when cut as 10 or 15 year old poles they aren't injured. Indeed they can have their life spans greatly increased, basically by being kept in a state of continueous youth. What's most appealing to me is that it's a style of forestry totally human scaled, the trees are cut at a size where they're managable without any machinery, all that's needed for harvesting and working are a few basic hand tools (billhook, machete, axe, bow saw, froe...). This regular cutting creates an interesting symbiosis between the coppice ecosystem and humans. I sometimes think of it as similar to mowing a wild meadow of grasses and wildflowers, both the coppice and the meadow can be cut in a human scaled and sensitive way to provide for us without damaging the ecology of the site.

I also want to mention the new community garden being set up in Middleton. There's been talk going on for a little while but the town council is now on board and we're in the process of selecting and clearing a site. I've been informally appointed the lead garden consultant for the project, the other day I checked out the four proposed sites with the others involved and we all agreed on the old field next to the ice rink (you need to be from Middleton!). It's a central location in town with fertile clay-loam soil and there's a path along side that connects to Main Street. I can invision a sign and an arbour directing people to the bountiful eden behind the trees. That's still a ways away though, we're hoping to get it cleared and plowed before the ground freezes so we can get everyone planting next spring.

Today was the International Day of Climate Action (www.350.org) and in observance I mowed a second "350" in the wet, soggy clover. The rain was too heavy to get photos so I'll post a photo and a better write-up in a day or two...

Peanuts and Sweetpotatoes

A few nights ago we had our first touch of light frost in the low lying parts of the garden. Although most of the garden made it through without much harm, the peanuts and sweetpotatoes were both damaged by it. I dug them up yesterday afternoon where I took these photos.

Georgia Jet Sweetpotatoes (originally from Mapple Farm):

Valencia Peanuts:

Notice the rhizobium nodules on the roots:

We averaged two large sweetpotatoes per plant this year. That's definitely an improvement over last year's crop, last year I planted them in overly heavy soil that didn't warm up like the rest of the garden, I scarcely had enough to plant again for this year's crop. We should get a few to eat this year though.

The peanuts were the big surprise for me, I hadn't ever grown them before this year and I had my doubts that they would be worth their garden space. They ended up producing an average of 14 pods per plant, a lot less than Carolina peanuts would produce but still decent. I hope to have a few peanut seeds for sale this year, they're hard seeds to track down.

Both these plants were grown in the garden along with everything else, no plastic mulch or special treatment. They've both proven themselves worthwhile crops, performing well in this cool, wet summer. I'm excited to see what they can do in a hot year. It will be very interesting to continue experimenting with new crops like these as their ranges creep north with a changing climate. Part of adapting will have to be adopting new crops if new ones prove well suited and our old ones can no longer cope.

Maritime Hand Mowing Competition, Aug. 22 at Ross Farm Museum

A pre-competition peening demonstration:

At seven, Colin was the youngest mower competing:

Contemplating my row...

Despite a slightly lumpy surface and a run-in with a sizable block of wood I cut a 7'2" swath with close stubble. Good for a ninth place finish.

Colin diversifying his skill-set into hay lifting:

Colin poses with David Miller, whom at over 90 years his senior was the most experienced mower at the event.