One Year of Blogging - Many Years of Projects!
Dear Friends and Family,
It's been one year since we started construction of our wooden yurt, and posted our first ever blog. What a difference a year makes!
In that time, we have built two homes (the yurt, and our barn apartment), have organized and hosted a wedding (and got married in the process), have fenced in and planted a beautiful home veggie garden, have started about a hundred other projects, and oh yeah- we have a kid too!
We want to remind everyone that Wildwood Yurt is going to be available for nightly and weekly rental throughout the fall and winter.
In honor of our one year of blogging anniversary, we want to share with y'all our vision for our farm, and lay out some of the projects we've begun (or plan to) working on.
Lets start in front of the barn, where we hope to transform our 'wedding field' into a public that will include all the best elements of a Sacred Earth landscape, such as herbal medicine wheel, sacred geometry plantings, fire pit, etc... This will be the area that folks can walk around in when they come to our organic u-pick berry patch and farm store. Oh, and did we mention wood-fired brick bread oven...pizza night anyone?
These next three photos are the site of our u-pick organic berry patch. We're going to start with raspberries, thornless blackberries, currants, gooseberries, and Saskatoon. Hopefully this will complement our neighbor Loy's u-pick Blueberry patch that already draws people to Raymond rd each summer.
As you can see, we have some clearing to do... but it's not too bad really. :)
Possible continuation of berry patch... plus, as any of you who attended our wedding know, we already have our public restrooms!
This is our greenhouse/hoophouse site. Yes, more clearing... But with any luck, we will find the time to apply for some grants that will supplement (if not pay for) our hoophouse.
This will be essential not only for season extension for our veggie garden, but especially for establishing our perennial edible and medicinal plant nursery. Eventually we will probably need more than one greenhouse...
The area to the right of the driveway leading up to the yurt will be transformed into a native forbs prairie garden!
That puddle of water is the site of our future pond. The slope in front of the yurt will be terraced with flower gardens most likely... at least until we figure out funding to build a deck, finish the basement, and attach a lean-to greenhouse.
One of our near-term projects involves a pathway from the parking landing up to the yurt. As Uncle Phil would say, it's going to have a 'fair curve', and be quite aesthetic. Both sides of the path will be landscaped.
The next four photos show areas around the yurt that have been ruffled by the construction/excavation process. All these areas are going to be restored and landscaped, using native, edible, and medicinal perennials - of course!
This year we just used a fraction of our fenced in area for the veggie garden. Next season we hope to expand and fill the whole space with garden beds so that we can grow enough produce that we no longer need to rely on the grocery. Also, as Steph reminds me daily, we need proper gates!
As those who camped out during our wedding week can attest to, it's a pretty sweet spot for camping. So, as an experiment we hope to open up this area of our land as campsites next season. We certainly have plenty of space...
Here is our orchard site! We plan on planting trees beginning next spring. We will plant ALL fruit that can possibly grow in our climate.
Like most areas on our land, this site is partially open, but will require serious clearing, mostly of blue spruce trees, and autumn olives. Big shout out of gratitude to our amazing autumn olive crop that is providing us with abundant fruit, and will add nitrogen to the soil once it is cut.
Our Black walnut orchard needs some thinning, but overall is looking pretty good. We hope to expand it up the hill with other nut trees, especially hazelnuts, chestnuts, pecans, hickories, and almonds if they survive.
Our 'far field' is ready for our sheep! We will definitely incorporate silvopasture into this field, planting large fruit and nut trees such as mulberries, hackberries, american persimmons, and oaks!
Our barn- the events hall. We are SO excited to renovate our amazing barn as a place that can host all sorts of events... concerts, yoga, workshops, weddings, etc. It is an incredible space that is currently under utilized. But of course, it needs some work first. Good thing we got Linden to help!
Last but not least, while bush-wacking through 15 foot autumn olives I discovered a long lost row of redwood trees! I cleared the brush all around, and no sooner had I done so and the bark got totally stripped off our tallest redwood, exposing the beautiful red inner bark. Hopefully it will survive!
That's all for now.
Happy autumn. And don't forget to come visit!!!!
Peace and love,
The Rhodzells
