The Magic Skagit

It's been a busy week at Finney Farm!  Following are some photos of projects I've been working on.

Setting up twine suspension in the greenhouse.  

I tied twine around the base of each tomato plant, loosely wrapped it around the main stalk, and tightly secured it to the top rope.  This stands the tomato upright and encourages vertical growth more so than traditional tomato cages, which simply provide side support for plants.  Jennie compared the technique like this - crutches will give a person some upright support, while being hung by ropes on your wrists from a ceiling will really stretch you out.  

Twine-wrapped stalk

Last week I also made soil blocks for plant starts.

 Final product

First I had to mix potting soil.  It's a top-secret Finney Farm recipe which calls for dirt, sand, Perlite, coco fiber, and bat guano. 

 High nitrogen content!

Once that's done I wet the mixture, pack it into a soil block maker, push down on the handle and get four perfectly-shaped soil blocks! 

Super high-tech tool

For some reason I really enjoyed making soil blocks, as monotonous as it seems.  It was quiet and quick and I found it meditative.  It reminded me a lot of making mud pies as a kid

I spent the rest of the week weeding, transplanting, fertilizing, watering, and helping level ground for a new small greenhouse.

Weeding the blueberry orchard.  Far from ripe.

135 squash starts planted in squash mounds

 Hand-painted shed organization signs

 Harshly-worded road signs

Skagit County sprays pesticide on weeds along South Skagit Highway, where Finney Farm is located.  Being an organic farm, Finney Farm isn't interested in chemicals being sprayed on the property.  Hopefully my signs will be visible through the pesticide haze and sprayers will skip over Finney.

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Yesterday it was gloriously sunny again and almost seventy degrees out.  I took a break mid-afternoon between preparing beds and transplanting lettuce to head down to Finney Creek, the namesake of the farm.  In the sun the snow-melt creek's temperature was tolerable for longer than thirty seconds and I sat in the ankle-deep water until I felt sun drunk.

Washington Sunshine

Everyone keeps cracking the "Washington Sunshine" joke to me ("Washington Sunshine" = rain).  For some reason, I laugh every time.  As of now I like the rain up here -- even if they get more in one day than San Diego can get in an entire season.

The other day I took a walk in the woods with Bella, a farm dog, in the pouring rain.  The forests here are so ridiculously thick.  I feel like if I were to step off the trail more than two feet (or loose Bella) I would be totally lost.  Trees are so densely packed that it's hard to get any sense of direction in the woods near Finney Farm.

Cloudy skies soon turned into a monsoon

 "Lung Wart", a local, edible lichen.  What a sick description for lichen.  Totally the name of my new band.

In person, the texture fits the name perfectly

Yesterday we had some real Washington sunshine.  It was glorious.  I didn't realize how much I missed blue sky.

It exists!

New Digs

On Friday after Cat and Jason left I moved into the bus -- the typical living accommodations for WWOOFers at Finney Farm.  It's surprisngly warm and cozy.  Shelves, cabinets, carpet, lights, and a small wood stove were installed over time, too, making it look like an above-average travel trailer inside.  It can be hooked up to electricity, but I'm doing without for the next week.

 Last registered in 2001, according to the license plate

 Functional tail lights

 Bedroom

 Couch with a view

 "You can do it if you want to"

Art piece left by a former WWOOFer

Sorry for the short post!  I'll update later this week on current greenhouse work.

Finney Farm

I made it to my second farm on Monday: Finney Farm in Concrete, WA!  Everyone is super welcoming and nice.  This week I've worked with two other WWOOFers from Washington who have been at Finney for a month (They both leave today - bye Cat and Jason!).

Finney!

The ever-welcoming 100 foot tall ex-concrete mill in Concrete

Main street with the Cascades behind

Skagit River

Herb garden with the barn behind

While here I've done various odd projects like transplanting vegetable starts, weeding, and scattering hay on top of grain beds for a mulch layer.  Additionally, I've worked on the brand, spankin' new Finney Farm greenhouse.  When I first arrived all it consisted of was a metal and wood frame atop non-level ground.  Since I've started working we've put the plastic covering on, leveled the ground, built up beds, covered them in plastic, and began transplanting tomatoes.

Though the greenhouse project isn't entirely cohesive with the Finney Farm goal of sustainability (Jennie, the WWOOF coordinator, described it as a "plastic altar"), growing tomatoes does offset other purchases on the farm.  By growing a crop of vegetables unaccustomed to Washington weather in a greenhouse, the farm can eliminate future purchases of ketchup, salsa, canned tomatoes, and fresh tomatoes.  By making and canning their own tomato products, the farm owners reduce the carbon footprint of their meals by eliminating transportation from farm to store to home.

Hay-covered grain bed and greenhouse

Shaping beds

Black, plastic covering on the beds to further raise the soil temperature in the steamy greenhouse

Tomatoes ready to be transplanted!

This weekend I'm heading to Bellingham, WA to check out the town and work on schedule planning for fall.