The Luehrman family endured the news of the tragic deaths of Helen and Bob Brotemarkle over the past weekend in a car accident in Arizona. These were two of my very favorite people. I was utterly flattened and heart broken by this news…as were so many others who knew them both. Here they are twelve years ago celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.

Helen, my dear godmother, was my dad’s multi talented younger sister who found her way into the musical world as a young woman. An accomplished and gifted musician, she was the pianist/organist for many organizations, particularly area churches ranging from Kansas City to the retirement community in Surprise, Arizona where she and Bob made their home in recent years.

Bob, retired from Southwestern Bell, was the life of any group he happened to come upon! He happily supported his friends and family alike with his generosity of spirit and tireless energy. He and Dave’s Uncle Bob became buddies and were known as “The Bobs” after meeting in Saint Louis for our anniversary celebration. Kindred spirits!

I’m so glad that Kate, Coulter and I saw them both last summer at the Luehrman family reunion in Lexington, Missouri. They brought all their synergy to the gathering! Here is Helen sitting with her nieces – left to right – me, Peggy, Helen and Janice.

Together Bob and Helen made for an indescribable team. In retirement, they traveled around the country exploring and supporting all family adventures. Helen was a steadfast reader of this blog and commented often but also sent me additional notes describing her years on the Luehrman family farm – conveying details that she knew would spark my interest. She would often end her correspondence saying “bless you”.

None of us can imagine what life will be like without them, let alone their sons David and John and their families. My only saving grace is that the knowledge that as dearest partners in life, they left us as a unit, together forever…Helen and Bob…or Bob and Helen. Our love and peace to you both…Bless you!

We love garlic and use it a lot in our cooking but this is the first year we have grown our own. As you might remember from  Halloween, Garlic Planting, Vampires, etc….we planted two varieties last November and they have been happily growing in the rear terrace bed since then. Knowing that we aren’t supposed to harvest it until July, I have taken it rather for granted as I walk right past it every day without too much thought.

But we just returned from a 3 day trip to New York and I was surprised to suddenly see a curly bud like structure coming out of the top of the stalk as if it were going to flower. Can you spot the two in this photo?

I rushed to look this up and feel embarrassed that I did not know that the hard neck variety of garlic sets out this stalk that is called the garlic ‘scape’ which is much like the flower. This is a sign that the plant is going thru its reproductive stage which we actually don’t want it to do since that would take energy away from the bulbs we are hoping to harvest. So, it is exactly at this time of year, approximately one month prior to harvesting the bulb, that one harvests the scape portion of the plant which can be used in cooking as a mild form of fresh garlic. Most of the stalks were about the diameter of a pencil so I got out a kitchen scissors and snipped them down at the base and collected a little more than 2 pounds of them. They keep fresh in the refrigerator for up to three months.

I wish you could smell the wonderfully fresh scent of garlic that I was surrounded by during this fun bit of harvesting today. What a nice break from weeding! The best part was no muss no fuss…snip and go garlic!  Now I will await the browning of some of the lower leaves on the stalks before starting the bulb harvesting which in itself doesn’t take long but the the bulbs need attention in the drying process so I will continue reading up on that. One of my best sources for this is found here.

I have much to report on the barn, bees and other crops but I thought I’d sneak in a quick, lunch break post for now! Lots to do…back to the fields!

This is one of my favorite times of year because everywhere I look I can identify all types of new life. In our case, it is apparent on all the trees, canes and vines as well as popping out of the ground around every corner. It is interesting that no matter how busy we are at this point in the season I never get tired of admiring the wonders of it all. The morning fog rolled in recently blanketing the fields and giving me an extra moment to reflect.

Although we had a mild winter this year, we also had a rather late spring with frosty nights well past the point when our peaches and nectarines were already blossoming and so they have very few fruits on the trees to prove it. We are not entirely crushed by this since these young trees will put their efforts into their root systems and branching which will serve them well in the future. The peach tree with the most fruit on it is the one we have in the “infirmary” up close to the house. We started the infirmary when we were replacing damaged trees from the orchard but didn’t have the heart to totally discard them so we stuck them in the ground in idle beds. Ironically, we have found that these ‘weaklings’ get much more attention with individual watering, etc. and have fared quite well in the end and in this year’s case, were sheltered from late frosts. Here are peaches and nectarines…

Blueberries and apples.

The strawberry patch didn’t mind the frosty weather and has loads of fruit starting to ripen.

We started harvesting our June bearing strawberries on May 6th (which is the earliest ever for us) and have been devouring anything fresh on a daily basis! The good news is that Kim at The Artery now has a waiting list of people ready to buy the jams as soon as I can replace them! The pressure is on as I now have a following!

But new to the scene – for us anyway – is our first pears which are Stark Brother varieties called Moonglow and Starking Delicious!

And our plums which are Stark Brother’s Stanley which will be a bluish purple when ripe and makes for tasty eating as well as dries into prunes if desired.

Last but not least, (okay, maybe least because of their relative size at this point) are our grapes. If you recall we planted two varieties last year – Concord and Marquis – and finally got them staked with a small, two wire arbor set up – aka the Kniffen system – this year…

and discovered some small grape clusters on a few of the plants. Of course we will have to remove these before long to allow the plants to mature for the first 3 years.

This is pretty exciting but what I really love about the grape vines is the way the dew sits so delicately on the leaves in the morning. There is a perfect, single drop at the points of each of the leaves as well as the tips of the tendrils. The blush of pink against the newly tinged green leaves is exquisite.

This little green frog was trying to camouflage it self to the speckled grey metal of the hose reel. Every time I checked on him, he was a bit more grey colored. 

The nearby garlic that I planted last fall is amazing with the larger variety, German Extra Hardy, standing 38″ tall. I can’t wait to harvest which is supposed to be around the Fourth of July but I think I’ll start in June. 

The fields are nearly all planted with the cool season section well underway. Potatoes and onions are doing well with the Yukon Gold showing up much larger than the Pontiac Red. 

Dave has installed his giant tomato staking system again this year in hopes of having a bumper crop that will need the supports. We have planted three tomato varieties as well as eggplants and six varieties of peppers. 

The posts also serve is a sentry spot for our hawks and owls who silently perch a top them at night to be closer to their evening prey. The evidence is often graphic in the mornings as there are white splats along with fur and/or feathers at the bases of the posts. 

But best of all are the pellets that are large, turd like bundles that the owls leave behind for us to admire. I have found two so far this week and am turning them over to Kate for her biology class to dissect. This very fresh one is interesting since it has two large, dead beetles clinging on the the sides. I’ll have to ask Kate what she thinks of this.

Besides all of the fruits and veggies we have a growing selection of flowering perennials now which are wonderful attractions for the bees. Lilac is a big favorite since bees really like the color purple. 

Ditto for salvia…this is the May Night variety which is three times the size it was last year.

You may remember when I had peony envy last year after I saw the lovely ones at Kate and Jason’s house so I planted some and they have been delightful on our table.

I planted irises last fall and will encourage them to spread which I hear they do without much reminding. The white ones are called Marilyn’s Skirt which I planted in memory of my mother.

The barn construction is moving along rapidly despite some rainy days. The day the trusses were lifted into place was exciting for all!

You can see the porch developing here as well as the workshop and chicken coop which is already enclosed with plywood. The latest push was to get tar paper on before the next round of storms arrive.

News on the bees: I have joked with people that we have a ‘girl’ hive and a ‘boy’ hive since one seems to be so obviously more mature than the other. When I did the first inspection of them last Saturday I was amazed to find that one of the hives was progressing at a rapid speed. The bees had drawn new comb on 3 of the previously empty frames and there were lots of newly laid eggs and larvae which showed up in a lovely brood pattern. I was thrilled but then a bit crestfallen when I moved on to inspect the second hive, which was active but discernibly less so than the first one. There was no comb building and very little evidence that they were eating the syrup I had put into place the prior week. A quick search of the existing frames showed that there was some older larvae and brood but I could not spot the queen. Ugh. I re-sprayed the bare frames with sugar water to encourage the bees to get to work. I was worried enough about this ‘boy’ hive that I wondered if the queen had met her demise and decided to re-inspect the following morning. Good news, I found the queen and decided that this hive would be a bit slower to develop than the other one but would do okay in the end. Here is the newly drawn comb in the girl hive! 

In the meantime, after attending the monthly Eastern Missouri Beekeeper Association (EMBA) meeting last night, I was prompted to get going on building out the additional frames for the next layers of hive boxes. Not everyone builds their own, but I at least attempted to add the wax foundations myself. It was rather simple to do. First, you pry off the ‘stop’ of an empty frame. This piece comes apart much like splitting a new set of wooden chopsticks but in this case requires a metal lever. 

Once this piece is removed, one inserts the foundation layer; in this case mine is made of wax and has a honeycomb imprint on both sides to give the bees a head-start in drawing out the comb.

You then re-place the wooden ‘stop’ and secure it with small brads, pinching the end wire in the sandwich of wood.

Dave found my old upholstery tool which is ideal for this task since the brads are so tiny they would be difficult to start. One end of the hammer is highly magnetized and holds the brad in place initially and then one flips it over to drive it the rest of the way with the other end. Thank goodness no one was around to witness my hammering skills! Here are ten of the finished frames…only 30 more to make!

As soon as the rain stops, I’ll pop these into the deep boxes so the bees can continue to expand. Little Coulter is enjoying a very active spring as he ventures outside at every opportunity. All vehicles capture his fascination – particularly the wheels – but he has also learned how to get in and out of his new Tiny Tikes car!

Of course riding around on his tractor never gets old!

Ta ta for now!

Happy First Birthday to Coulter…who is so much a part of the daily fabric we are weaving here at the farm!  Indoors or out, hot or cold, he troops along with the farm schedule but today was his day to celebrate! 

Is it innate to figure out how to blow out a candle??? If so, he mastered the technique!

With his beloved tractor in the background…he walked the grounds today!

It is a joy to glimpse the world through his eyes!

What a whirlwind of activity we have had at the farm in the last month! It is a good thing that I take so many photos to remind us of all the adventures we have had. I’ll try to share these chronologically starting with early Spring…

Remember the Brussels sprouts that we were about to harvest? We grabbed them out of the field en mass on March 2nd with our big machete-like knife and got nearly 8 pounds of goodies.  We enjoyed them roasted with our carrots in a hot oven and dressed with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Yummy!

Of course early spring is also the time when we dutifully spray the orchard with dormant oil (organic) to snuff out the eggs of any early laying predatory insects. This year I was so pleased to try out our new backpack sprayer which I found at a garage sale. Interesting to note, it was being sold by our friends, the Ryans, who when they heard we were about to buy it, GAVE it to us instead! Thank you, Lucy and Ron! The tank holds at least three times the volume of my old one, duh! With the increased size of the trees, the orchard required over 10 gallons of spray which translates into nearly 90 lbs of liquid. No wonder my shoulders were sore the following morning!

Our blueberry netting finally arrived along with two nice installers who worked for an entire week getting the netting all put together. They gladly took a break to pose for me!

Here is the finished structure with a ‘doorway’ that is closed with metal belay hooks. 

It feels really cool when you are inside. It is like being in an aviary, only with no birds..haha!…which is the point, right?

The barn is also finally underway after a very long wait for the electric company to come and hook up a temporary power source. (Wouldn’t you know, the old electric line was directly in the way of the digging and had to be re-located!) The concrete crew arrived next and began by saw cutting the existing driveway.

They also made a temporary road out front since our lane is so narrow that cars would not be able to get past the large concrete trucks. The crew kindly put down a sturdy, wide landscape cloth before dumping rock to create a gravel access road. The cloth will help us after the project is finished when it is time to clean up the inevitable damage to the yard.

Then they started digging the footings, using precise, laser measuring tools.

The afternoon after the footings were dug and the re-bar added, we had a torrential downpour which filled their trenches with rain and subsequently had to be re-dug before they could pour concrete.

In the meantime, the barn crew were not the only ones digging! We were also out in the fields getting ready to plant our potatoes and onions. They say potatoes should be planted on St. Patrick’s Day…we were just a couple days late. We planted Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold this year…10 rows that were 22 feet each.

We also planted three rows of onion sets in close proximity to the potatoes as they are ‘good companions’.

All that rigorous planting prep was particularly hard on one of our faithful hoes. I think this might have been one from my dad which was well used by all but finally wore out. Good thing we had a spare so there were no excuses to finish the job! 

In the meantime, the barn project continued on with lots of entertainment for little Coulter who is fascinated by all the machinery. Concrete trucks rolled in and were on site for days since after the footings were poured, the foundation walls went in.

Here are the foundation forms being lifted by crane in front to be transported around to the project site in back.

Foundation forms in place.

Concrete was ferried from front to back in bobcats and poured this way to protect the existing driveway.

After the foundation was poured, the forms were removed revealing walls for the base of the barn.

Which was then filled with rock…

And subsequently prepped with wire mesh and re-bar…

Before the concrete slab was finally poured…

Et violà, a barn floor!

The backside of the barn has a lower level with steps that lead to the workroom and chicken coop as well as chicken run. Here you can see the steps are formed and ready for concrete and the plumbing for a sink, toilet and floor drains are roughed in.

One of the most exciting moments for me was the slab that the guys so kindly poured for our new bee hives which will be installed in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the orchard trees have been blooming like crazy. Although the peach trees were challenged by some very cold nights recently, Coulter doesn’t seem to mind!

I’m pleased to report to my cousins Peggy and Janice – who visited the day after our damaging wind storm last June – that all of the staked apple trees (which were on the ground at the time of their visit) are now vibrantly alive and blooming like crazy!

We have just planted the cool season vegetable seeds which include: Turnips, Crocodile spinach, broccoli, cabbage, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, Bibb lettuce, peas x 2, radishes, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, Salad Fresh spinach, Swiss chard, carrots x 2 and leeks.

Our biggest cheer leader is little Coulter who is about to turn one year old next week and can’t get enough of the outdoors. 

He celebrated St. Pat’s in style thanks to a Kathy B. who provided his dapper attire…

And his first Easter!

More to come as Seven Oaks Farm & Orchard gears up for prime time Spring!

It has been nearly two years since I last took the reins as the ‘Rover-ing’ reporter for this blog (found here) but it is time for me to report again, this time from Doggie Heaven. Nope, no tears or weeping  – please! My people, Nancy and Dave, have done enough of that for all of you!

They have been looking at my baby pictures which has helped to bring back fond memories of the day I joined the family nearly 14 years ago. Wasn’t I a cute little thing? This is before I grew into my nose! I even tried to chew on the tip of my tiny collar.

And here I am with my boy, Peter, who was just a freshman in high school when he successfully begged his mom for a dog…in part to fill the large void that was left when Kate went away to college that fall. Kate doesn’t like to think of herself as being replaced by a puppy, but I think it all turned out well in the end, don’t you agree?

I may look well behaved but I managed to chew my way thru that first bed pretty quickly. And of course I took many naps even then!

I really liked to play ball but for a while the ball was practically bigger than me and way too large to fit in my mouth which made retrieving it quite a challenge.

I melted Dave’s heart and in later years was his constant companion…especially at meal time when he fed me “scraps”. Actually, it was usually Boar’s Head deli turkey which we both loved to eat! Yummy…I hope they serve that up here in the heaven chow line!!!

They said I had nine lives since I had some health issues along the way. Sometimes I had ouchies…

and when I did, I always got extra treats like scrambled eggs…and couch privileges!

When we all moved to the farm I thought I was in heaven already since I could lounge in the shade of the golf cart while my people did all of the work.

I would roll in anything stinky I could find and then camouflage myself to hide from the inevitable bath time. 

But life got even more exciting when Coulter came along last spring and I became his old grey guardian and managed to photo bomb most of his photos.

I followed him everywhere and when we weren’t outdoors on walks, we took rides in his wagon around the house.

You have to realize that I am still lurking around every fruit tree and watching all of the non-stop activities from my comfy bed up here in doggie heaven. My aches and pains are now gone. After peacefully closing my eyes one last time, cradled in Nancy’s arms, I’m at rest after a very wonderful life spent with all my adoring family and friends. 

Rest in Peace, our Dear, Dear, Farley!

So, as promised, the new blueberry structure is underway, yeah!  But in the midst of all of this excitement we have had some additional nocturnal visitors. A family (or so it seems) of brown bats are now hanging around at our front side door under the eaves during the day and who knows where at night. At the first sighting, we spotted a small brown bat clinging to the bricks after a very warm weekend.

Of course bats get a lot of bad press, mostly because they are kind of creepy when we spot them like this one, hanging upside down in a very compressed mode. Can you see one of his little ears on the lower left? I had heard that when bats are visible during the day they may be sick and to stay clear of them. So I went directly to the Missouri Department of Conservation for advice. Their website has a page devoted to bats and clearly states: All bats are protected by the provisions of the Wildlife Code of Missouri. Although the Code allows landowners to take action when wildlife is damaging property, nine bat species are listed as species of conservation concern, and three are classified as state endangered. The bat wiki page had this additional information:

“Little brown bats are now at a higher threat due to white nose syndrome in eastern North America. White nose syndrome is caused by the fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which affects bats during hibernation. ” WNS is estimated to have killed more than 5.5 million bats in the Northeast and Canada. In some sites, 90 to 100 percent of bats have died (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2015).” Many states have made special considerations with respect to the disease, including listing them as a sensitive or protected species. Canada has listed them as an endangered species. It is estimated that 94% of the population in the eastern half of the country has died over the last few years from WNS, and the disease is moving westward at a rate that may see them extirpated within as little as 12 years. It is expected that the tri-colored bat will also be listed in a few years due to WNS, and the northern long-eared bat was recently federally listed as threatened due to WNS.”   Good grief! With mosquito borne diseases such as the Zika virus on the rise, I would think that we need to focus on protecting our bats!

I ended up calling the Missouri Department of Conservation office to discuss our concerns and was told that our area does not have a rabies problem when it comes to bats. Whew!  Our bat was indeed most likely a Little Brown Bat, as opposed to a Large Brown Bat which are two different varieties. In season, these tiny mammals eat their weight in mosquitoes and moths on their nightly forays which was good to know but they also contribute to our environment as pollinators which was new information for me. We still want to avoid direct contact with them so we will take precautions when we see them ‘hanging’ around. The bat pictured above was gone after our recent snow arrived but was replaced by a smaller sized little brother yesterday. As soon as the weather warms up we will do a house inspection to make sure they are not congregating in the attic since we do want to protect them but just not house them!

Excitement abounds with the blueberry netting construction as the poles arrived on a large truck Monday – Leap Day morning. The driver told us the shipment of eight 15 foot long poles weighed 3,600 lbs or approximately 450 pounds each ! Little Coulter was a good measure of scale.

Not long after the poles were delivered, the bobcat and crew arrived to off load them and begin digging the holes with two different sized giant augers.

Here are Glen and Mario are off loading the poles…

And then delivering to the field in groups of four.

Once they set them near their future locations, we double checked our measurements so that the poles would all be squarely aligned before they switched the bobcat implements from the forklift back to an auger and began to dig 7 foot deep holes that are 2 feet in diameter.

We had them work on the most questionable, precarious hole first since we knew that our sewer line was in that vicinity and we certainly didn’t want to hit it!  As luck would have it, with more than five acres to dig a two foot wide hole, of course we found the pipe about 4 feet down. This was the purpose of digging this hole first…so that we could inch our way to one side or another and adjust all the other holes for poles as necessary which is what we did.

By the end of the day, all the holes were begun and the bobcat quieted for the evening.

The next morning brought some early rain and a bitter, cold wind but the project continued with an additional auger that would complete the holes to the 7 foot depth. This accomplished, the bobcat switched back to a forklift and lifted each pole and placed it into position using a large woven strap. The concrete truck arrived and waited at the street while the bobcat switched implements again to use it’s loader to take bucketful after bucketful of concrete out to the field to set the poles permanently in place. 

The crew then had to shovel the cement into each hole. Despite the cold, they managed to be in good humor all day.

At the end of two long days of hard, heavy work, we were left with our own little Stonehenge-like structure which will await a custom netting that is now being fabricated to fit and be cabled into place.

No one was more enthusiastic than 10 month old Coulter who watched wide-eyed as the work progressed. He is eager to drive the big tractor someday!

And is just now starting to enthusiastically walk the fields with Nana and Gramps.

The fields are soon to be plowed under but not before we capture the last of the cold hardy plants…the Brussels sprouts are among the final bit of green in the fields and are begging to be relieved of their post and enjoyed. They will be a yumbo treat when roasted in our oven!

We look forward to sharing more news when the netting arrives but in the meantime, our barn project is about to start! Stay tuned!