Hardly recognize simple things anymore
I don’t want to be defeated

What else is there to do
But go outside and look around*

*Lyrics taken from Bed for the Scraping – Fugazi

First frost can be a hassle for season extension.  Rows have to be covered with fabric or plastic or buried in mulch.  Our first frost was last Sunday, and not much got covered.  The struggling cucumbers were easily killed as were the sweet potato vines.  Basil seemed to hold up; straw covered tomatoes also stood through the cold air.

Noel read up on how frost can affect sweet potatoes and determined that it would be best if we dug them up promptly.  Another frost was coming, we had the hands needed to get the job done and it seemed like a fun project for a Monday evening.

We had planted quite a few varieties to see how they would come out.  The sizes and yields varied with the only constant being that the roots may have been held back by the thick clay soil.  Sweet potatoes really prefer a light soil and a long frost-free growing season.  Our area is great for the frost-free part but not so much on the for the light soil.

Kristin, Gray, Noel and myself tore up the dying vines, feeding them to the waiting pigs.  Pigs love sweet potato vines. They are great nutrition for people as well.  Next year I plan to try to ferment a few and see how they taste.

With the dying vines pulled up we had to race a dropping sun.  We dug as much as we could in the fading light, but ended up resorting to head lamps for the last hour of harvesting.  I’m not sure if we missed any in the surrounding darkness.  I guess we’ll find out in the Spring when volunteers start shooting up from the soil.

The potatoes spent the night in our room cuddling with the wood stove.  Noel and Gray moved them into the greenhouse to cure for a while.  Curing is a whole other scene…

A small wood stove is our heat source for our horribly cold room.  There are drafts, holes and absolutely no insulation.  It is drywall, studs and then exterior brick.  Nothing to hold the heat in or keep the cold out.  One of the windows is broken with plastic taped over the holes.  Oh, and the ceiling is open to the rafters…

Last Winter was our first season in the room and our first time using wood heat.  We learned a lot in the process:

• We cut wood as we needed it instead of stockpiling.  This led to some shortages and some work in the dark as we scrambled for a night’s worth of wood.
• We didn’t have a damper in the stove pipe.  This led to most of the heat going up and out the chimney.  It also meant that we had to feed the fire every three hours.  I guess it was like having a newborn baby but with way more cussing and shivering.
• We didn’t have electricity run, so we didn’t have an overhead fan.  Heat went up and up and out.

So we fixed some things, and we are in a little different place this year.  First, we have a ceiling fan wired up.  It keeps the hot air down at our level and helps with heat distribution.

Second, I put a damper in the stove pipe.  This closes off the stove from the chimney, allowing the wood to burn longer  in the stove.  Since the stove is pretty old, it is not airtight.  Without the damper air is sucked through the openings in the stove, making the fire burn hotter and shorter.

Third, we started cutting and splitting wood when it warmer outside and not needed for burning.

Last night we fired up the stove for the first time this season.  We went through eight pieces of wood from six in the evening until morning, much less than our average last year and with no need to load it after we went to bed.  The fire kept the room very toasty all night long.  It was so warm that I slept on top of my sleeping bag.  Kristin felt is was uncomfortably hot under her covers.  This tells me that we might have figured out the formula to keep warm this year.

Now going into our second year with our land project, we have decided to start accepting volunteers on short or seasonal terms. From our Grow Food profile:

CircleAcres is a collective land project seeking to create a self sustaining ecosystem that provides its inhabitants and community with food, fuel, and medicine while moving away from mechanization, resource extraction and consumerism. Utilizing biological processes to meet our needs while making use of the unending stream of “waste” produced by the current system. We are nestled in Chatham County, NC a small community with a strong sustainable agriculture presence.

It is our first year on the land so there are lots of projects underway and lots of learning opportunities to jump headfirst into.Some of the things you can potentially learn about while here include:

Permaculture, wildcrafting, rainwater catchment, human scale food production, sheet mulching, establishing a food forest, small scale animal husbandry, goat milking, growing medicinal herbs, making tinctures, vermicomposting, charcoal production, hugelkultur, growing mushrooms, graywater systems, grafting, seed saving, scything, dumpster diving, homemade potting soil from local materials, and cob construction.

We ask that work traders help out 20 hrs. a week with farm activities, and help on a rotational schedule with dish duties and cooking. Food will be provided along with tent accommodation.We are all omnivores but can accommodate vegetarians and vegans though there may be occasions you will have to take responsibility for your own meal needs. Circle Acres is still in its infancy so accommodations are rustic. We shower outdoors and get about 2 gallons of hot water at a time. So if you are in need of more traditional living quarters we may not be the best match, but if you have an adventurous heart and yearn to be a part of creating a Truly sustainable system you’ve found the right place.

No pets please.

Contact us: circleacres at gmail