Time for a Bobcat

To view the latest from Ridge Berry Farm visit our new blog and site!

As indicated in earlier posts, one part of our land was a serious "eye sore" with a major drainage issue. It was really bothering us since it was so close to our home and the barn. A few months ago, we reported on our cleaning efforts and since then we've taken the time to assess the situation.

Our land is primarily sand. The reason for this sand is that we are located on what would have been the north eastern shores of  glacial lake Whittlesey some 12,500 years ago. This has resulted in a rather special sandy loam; a very fine sand which seems to hold water very well. When properly exposed to major run off, we face erosion and a very wet and soft top soil. It is a sad state of affairs when just a few decades ago this land would have been a productive part of a cherry orchard.

In the end, we decided that the only way to reclaim this agricultural land would be to install weeping tiles. This is something I was dreading to do since it is a major project. However, with a bit of expert consultation, we decided to forge ahead this week.

The drainage of this small piece of land basically requires us to "ring fence" the area from the water run off it is currently exposed to. In order to do this, we had to dig a rather elaborate trench....and to do this effectively required an excavator, something neither Tristan or I had experience in operating. Nevertheless, we rented a Bobcat  and after a few trials on tree stumps (which needed to be removed anyways), we found it quite easy to operate. Tristan (video game addict that he is) quickly became quite adept in the operation of this machine.

Within 3 days, we had our trench dug up and now it was a matter of time to see if the water flowed the way we expected or intended to.

After letting things settle for a couple of days, the results proved promising.

The next phase of the project (scheduled for next week) now involves installing the drain tiles.

On the home front, we also made an important decision regarding our cellars. Our old home has two very old cellars a good portion of which seem to predate the Victorian structure itself. Some of the walls of these cellars form part of our foundation and they are made of gorgeous old stone.

As our contractor has been working to clean one of the cellars, we started to get a good clear view between the crawl space of the house and the cellars.

The foundations and some brick walls suggested that we might actually be able to join the two along the foundation walls. Since this is a project we would have difficulty completing in the future (once the house is completely renovated), we decided we might as well do this now.

So work has started and of course from our basement we are now digging up more fine sand.

Once this excavation work is completed, we expect to fix, clean and seal the old stone walls. The hope is that we will be able to create a great wine cellar with access to the glass gallery and to our garden.

Finally this week I have to add that the Maple sap has started to run quite well. Our containers are literally bulging and as such we have continued to process more Maple syrup.

This has given me an idea which I hope to address next week: the making of Acerglyn!

Elsewhere on the farm, the garlic bulbs we planted last fall are sprouting.

Garlic shoots from our fall planting

Also, the asparagus whose cycle we have followed since arriving here are now seeding. I've been extracting some of the black seeds from the now dried grey berries. I am hoping to perhaps grow some of these Asparagus in our vegetable garden or in a more controlled area (right now they are growing wild next to a tractor trail).

Asparagus berries with seeds ready to plant 

All in all, Spring has definitely arrived.

We close this week with a quick update on our "mini nursery". Everything is growing!

We're even at the point where, given their size, we have had to transplant the Zucchinis into some potting soil.