Inner City Farmer

Like many owner-contracted remodels, the Man Cave Project is taking forever and a day to complete. I am not entirely to blame however. The bulk of the time lost in the past several months has been spent waiting around for plumbers and electricians. In fact, at one point I contemplated starting an electrical apprenticeship so I might get the work done faster.

Really, I should be blaming myself as I tend to choose workmen who are as non-corporate as possible. The way the electrician I had been using scheduled his visits was to tell me that he would “holler” at me on a certain day at which point he would either give me an approximate time he might be coming over or he would declare his intention to holler at me another day. Frustrated by this procedure, I finally called in a crew of four who rewired the Man Cave and installed a new circuit for my dryer in a single afternoon.

And now, finally, I am back to doing the fun work, the stuff I can do myself with natural materials. Yesterday I started insulating my walls with light clay straw, which is simply straw with a light coating of clay slip. When you pack it into the spaces between the studs on a conventionally framed structure, it makes incredible insulation and creates an environment that’s nearly soundproof. It will also provide a great surface for adding earthen plaster, which, when completed, will make the framed walls and the cob wall (where the old garage door used to be) look like one.

While light clay straw is becoming increasingly popular around the world, it’s new to me so I am learning on the fly. My initial reaction is that I am going to end up using a lot of straw, far more than I have making cob walls. So it’s a good thing I found a guy on craigslist selling wheat straw bales. I had him drop off ten yesterday, which should be more than enough to finish this project. At least, I hope it is. You just never know for sure until you actually starting doing the work.

I may be poor in cash money, but when it comes to creating a sustainable food supply on my property I am as rich as Bill Gates. Ever since I ousted the rooster, my four hens have been producing, on average, three eggs a day, and I am still eating the pecans that dropped last fall from the two trees in my front yard. This past weekend I added to my future kitchen stores when I loaded up on fruit trees at the annual tree sale put on by the good people at Tree Folks. I bought one Red Baron peach tree, which I knew from driving through the orchards just west of here, does well in this climate, and two pear trees, one an Ayres variety, the other an Orient. I thought that was enough until Katie Brown pointed out a nice-looking Meyer lemon tree, a variety I had been coveting for a while due to its cold hardiness, so I bought that one too.

The woman who sold me the lemon tree, Rasmey Raymond, shocked me when she told me I could send her a check for the tree later on. You just don’t see that kind of trust very often in today’s world. She and her husband knew just about everything there is to know about fruit trees and they were as nice as could be so I made a mental note to stop by their place in San Marcos (Rasmey’s Garden) the next time I’m down that way.

Having these new fruit trees along with the ones I recently put in the ground, a pomegranate and a loquat, makes me feel like I have put money in the bank for a future generation. One day this lot is going to be a little fruitful oasis in the midst of a large city, and that day really isn’t too far off. Rasmey told me that the lemon tree has already produced fruit, and I feel good about the loquat producing next summer. Perhaps the year after that I’ll get some peaches, and the year after that some pears, and at that point I might just be able to avoid going to the grocery store altogether.

In an effort to add some nutrients to my poor soil I’ve started planting buckwheat all around my back yard. It’s a perfect crop for such a purpose because it grows well in poor soil and it’s fairly hardly, at least until the first frost comes along and kills it. I’ve been letting it grow for about a month now, and I’m about to get out there with a hoe and turn it under. Doing this will provide a ton of nutrients in the soil, especially nitrogen, for whatever I choose to plant later on.