A sampling of past work

Under a grant from Frontline World, we produced the above video for KNME, Albuquerque's PBS affiliate. I was the principal photographer, I also did the original music and audio.

A film I made under a Frontline grant. For this one I did the original music, all of the photography, writing, editing, audio, and production. 

And, again, a film I did all of the production for--photography, audio, music, writing, and editing.

This story (link) was listed under Notable Sportswriting of 2001 in the book, The Best American Sports Writing 2002.

And, a couple of other stories from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Ballroom Dance, Boxing.

updates

looked at Seed Drill in Oregon City, junk. dropped off seed garlic in Longview. very hot, high 90s by the  meter. Seems hotter. No rain for weeks. Nine laying hens, getting four to five eggs a day...

overrun with grass and weeds.

Some starts showing in rows including sweet corn, potatoes, kentucky provider beans, red okra, sesame plants and more.

Updates

Been putting bark strips on trees over six layers of cardboard to see if it will keep the grass at bay.

Found our first blackberries in late may. First whole bush of blackberries that were ripe found on the trail behind the Falcon house today.

We had three ripe cherries but it seems like the birds got them. Sporadic blueberries. Temps in the high 90s and no rain for weeks.

Put in the temp electric and a small watering system in May and early June.

Planted Broccoli, okra, dorinni sweet corn, wades giant indian corn, kentucky provider beans, onions, lots of stuff last week.

Farm updates

Lost two more chickens, marek's or coccydiosis. Interesting that it was the pretty birds that died and the older breeds, the leghorns and the rhode island reds, that survived. Lost a Gold Laced Wyandotte and two Blue Andalusians.

Planted Buckwheat on about 4000 sf outside of the protected area. I had limed it already.

I limed and added some peat moss, not much, to the 2000 or so sf in the protected area. Today I planted spinach, mustard, collards and swiss chard in that area.

We got the okay for the road permit, so I'm going ahead with installing temporary electric service. I'll be trenching, hopefully, tomorrow.

Farm Update April 13, 2015

Bought an old Howard Rotavator tiller. Having the driveline fitted. Will till soon.

Picked up three Broad Breasted turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Transplanted a few black locusts.

Farm updates

bought an old Howard Rotavator tiller for the Kubota, $425; fixed the driveline for it, $112; new starter for tractor, $330; purchased five foot harrow and 3-point implement piece, $150; Old useable trailer, $295.

Yeesh, it adds up, even when you're buying old, used stuff. $1,312 total.

Tilled the large area inside the fencing, added lime and peat moss, tilled it again. Going to harrow it but the hydraulic system is making noise. I'm hoping I can simply add fluid and keep working. A new pump for the old Kubota will probably be $400. Still, that's a lot cheaper than a new tractor.

Lost a chicken today. Not sure why. It was just keeled over dead when I got to the farm. All other chickens seem healthy. No poisonous snakes up here, so I have no idea why it died.

Farm updates

Wester Tent Caterpillars

Today we found these voracious beasts, above, on one of our Satsuma Plum trees. They're Western Tent Caterpillars. They will eat every leaf on a tree, every tree. They especially love Choke Berry. I'll have to find their natural predator and plant some habitat for the good guys.

Megan, Kahena, Henry and I were busy planting hops rhizomes (for glorious beer). Hopefully, in a few months we'll have some Chinook, Willamette, Tettnang, Centennial and Nugget nuggets to make glorious beer (which is glorious).

We intend to build trellises for the vines so they create a natural pergola to dine under--while drinking glorious beer, of course.

Juana's Orange Amaranth. It's a grain
plant and good fodder for animals.

I also transplanted about 50 Juana's Orange Amaranth from the hoop house to the farm. I didn't have water for the sprouts as I was relying on the predictions of Weather Underground that we'd have rain tonight. But by the time I'd dug the trenches, filled with dirt, and lovingly placed each sprout, the weather predictions had changed to clear skies and, ominously, 'may freeze'. 

Water helps plants survive freezes so I bucketed some from a full swale and, well, we'll see who is alive tomorrow.

The boss and her crew

Speaking of untimely demises.., the big gal in the photo above is a Bourbon Red turkey we got about three weeks ago. She (or he, I'm not good at sexing) is the only survivor of a cadre of four. I was warned that turkeys are extra hard to start so I kept the first batch warm, really warm, too warm, apparently. It is enough to say that there are going to be three more little creature souls waiting for me, along with a host of ants and bugs, to explain myself on the other side of the great divide.

Royal Palm turkeys

Here are a couple of the replacements. They're Royal Palms. Some of the problems with heirloom turkeys (heirloom pretty much means not big breasted, not modern industrial breeds) are that they're a lot smaller, take longer to mature and they can fly. But the advantages are that they're smarter, hardier, and some, like Royal Palms and Bourbon Reds, are great foragers.

These turkeys will all be housed under netting, so flying won't be a problem. And they're going on bug patrol so they'll earn their keep.

A mature Royal Palm Tom

The surprise was when we put the new chicks in with the older Bourbon Red and she immediately took to protecting them. I was expecting to have to concoct another enclosure to keep them separated until they were old enough to defend themselves, but I got lucky. I think the Bourbon Red was really lonely.

Heirloom Hulless Oats

A couple of weeks ago I planted some hulless oats from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I can't figure out how to rotate the image. Aargh. But the oats have already sprouted. There weren't many in the pack, frankly, but that's what you get when you go boutique heirloom. I'm hoping I can save seed this year, maybe next, and start to build up a stock for the Zombie Apocalypse. 

I'm trying hulless oats because they are supposedly easier to process and are also high in protein, thus covering two necessities: enabling laziness and providing veggie protein.