Hay Bale Gardening Year Two

These are potatoes and cabbage that we started in the old hay bales from last year.  They have decomposed to only a few inches thick. Compare them to the tomatoes in new bales on the left of the picture. 

Again we are using the decomposed bales of hay for our onion bed.

We built three six foot long boxes and placed them on saw horses. This is where we are growing several varieties of lettuce, spinach, and romaine.

Rabies Scare

Several weeks ago as we were eating dinner a neighbor, who had permission to hunt deer on our property, came into the house scared and shaken. He had been hunting about less than a quarter of mile from the house on our pasture hillside. Much to his dismay, on this day, he had an unfortunate encounter with a raccoon.

He proceeded to tell us of his encounter. About dusk a raccoon crossed the field and came straight to his tree. He tried to "shoo" it off and for a moment it did walk about twenty feet away. He said it then reared up on its' hind legs, looked at him, and proceeded to run directly toward the tree in which he had his tree stand. He yelled at it, but it just kept coming. It climbed the tree, began to bite his boots He then tried to kick it away, but it was determined to get in the tree stand with him. He lowered the barrel of the gun tried to knock it away. When that didn't work he flicked off the safety of his gun and shot it at point blank range in the chest with a 30-06. Fur, dust, and blood went everywhere. As he definitely knew, this just was not normal raccoon behavior.

He immediately came to the house and shared his story. We decided to call the 1-800 number of the state conservative department. They suggested he take the dead coon to be tested for rabies. Within two days he had the report- it was not good. The raccoon had tested positive for rabies.

Not knowing the amount of exposure, doctors recommended he take a series of rabies shots. Believe it or not you can not find rabies vaccine in your local doctors office. Fortunately, he was able to find  what he needed in the ER at Erlanger in Chattanooga, TN. He received a series of 6 vaccinations the first day followed by 3 more over an extended period. He did this just to be safe because as he told us that first night, "No one has ever survived rabies".

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. This young man completed his series of shots and just this past week became the father of a beautiful baby boy. He really had a great deal to live for. And as the old saying goes, "when you wake up in the morning, you just never know what the day will bring" That's a good thing.

Fall Gardening

If you look closely at theses pictures, you will see that our hay bales have almost totally decomposed after just one growing season. There was just enough hay to plant fall cabbage and broccoli. One of the cabbages are ready to cut, and it won't be long before we can pick our broccoli. The great thing about fall gardening is the produce has great flavor, and the cooler weather makes pests less of a problem meaning no need for pesticides. Once the plants are gone, we will plow under the remaining hay to add organic material to the soil.

Pioneer Days at Loachapoka

The Pioneer Days at Loachapoka, AL, sponsored by the Lee County Historical Society, was fantastic. In fact, we had more interest there for a one day show than other art shows we attended for three days.

The weather was outstanding and lots of people out enjoying the fall day.

The cedar wooden spoons were very popular as well as the 100 year old shingle signs. We took two birdhouse trees to gauge the interest in them. Both were sold and interest high, so the old cedar tops in the woods will not be safe. We also pleased with the response to the prints, also. Best of all, we were able to spend time with Daniel and Laura, pictured above.

Custom Ordered Signs

Our signs have been a big seller at arts and crafts shows. We are now offering you the opportunity to order customized signs painted on 100 year old split oak shingles. The shingles range in size from 2 feet to over 3 1/2 feet and are from 4-6 inches wide. Choose you text and and color scheme. If you are interested in order contact us by email at mccoyfolkart@gmail.com

Wooden Wheelbarrow

I recently acquired several old iron wheelbarrow wheels. I used old designs to make two wheelbarrows. The first one I made was from red cedar. However, the one in this picture was made from red oak boards sawed from trees on the farm and hand planed. The handles on this particular one are made from oak plow handles. This design usually has side boards and was called a garden or yard barrow useful for hauling dirt and vegetation. This one does not have side boards making it more useful for hauling firewood or stones. Around the farm we find wheelbarrows very useful in making our work easier.

The earliest wheelbarrows date back to 118 AD and are attributed to the Chinese. In Europe the first wheelbarrows appeared around 1170 AD. This wheelbarrow is more typical of the European design rather than the Chinese.

More Bird House Trees

Here are three more samples of my bird house trees. Found these cedar trees in the woods and decided to recycle them. The signs are painted on old oak roofing shingles. I am trying to get a few things ready for some arts and craft shows.