More (Tchi- Cho- Hac- ki) an ancient cultivated land
Posted by Paul Tobin on Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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Week Four: Continued work on Three Sisters garden, sheet mulching paths and beds. Created a bed on the boarder of the fence by broad-forking the earth to aerate, laying manure then covering with cardboard and then laying out a thick layer of manure mixed with soil on top then out lining the soil with hay to keep in the moisture. In the bed we planted sprouted snow peas which we used an inoculant to insure the sprouting. We also have been working on transplanting some hardy kiwi vines, elderberry bushes, and grade vines. We took clippings from healthy plants of each variety and now have the kiwis and grapes in pots and the elderberry clippings in the ground and water them about twice daily to insure they set roots. Lastly we planted our first crop in the garden this week which was onion and leek seedlings.
Week Five: We are still continuing work on the Three Sisters garden which is now almost ready to be planted in having only about 1/3 of the outer bed to be finished. More seedlings arrived and are now happily growing in the garden. Those plants include: beets, kale, cabbage, broccoli, mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, chard, and strawberries. Also we started many seeds in the green house: watermelons, tomatoes, soybeans, peppers, collards, cabbage, and ground cherries.
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Permalink Reply by Sheena Marie Heinitz 11 hours ago - Send Message
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Week Six: The Native garden/three sisters bed is complete and has been planted with the Seneca flint corn, Ho-go-wah. The corn was planted with intention with a blessing from Calvin and all of us who participated in the corn planting. We gave our thanks and planted four kernels each rotating between all of us until we reached the end of the circle. We soaked the corn before planting for two days to begin germination. Other projects from this week include: sheet mulching two apple trees as well as our newly planted peace tree and put fencing up around them, sheet mulched two garlic beds and planted some salad greens in the empty space in one of those beds, we also planted some herbs and medicinal plants in the garden, chervil, a root parsley, Echinacea and spilanthese and lastly we turned some compost and created a new compost pile. On a side note we have a new member on the farm a goat named Bianca that is pregnant and expecting in late June or early July. She is very friendly and a great addition to the land.
Week Seven: To begin the week we relocated our chickens to a happier place on the land for them to forage, play in some fresh soil and fertilize our unused garden beds. The rest of our week went toward maintaining the seedlings in the green house, the new planted seedlings in the garden, and the seeds waiting to sprout. We began aerating the old chicken pen with a broad fork in preparation for some planting of possibly some grains and other plants such as pumpkins and greens for the chickens to forage in the future. Our corn began to sprout as well as our herbs and a few seedlings were added to the garden: brussel sprouts, collards, and lettuce. At the end of this week we discovered a problem with seedlings planted in the compost pockets. The plants were sitting on top of the soil and the roots were drying out and some plants began to bolt. Our solution was to scoop up the plants out of the pockets and dig down deeper and place them back in soil in a position were the roots could reach the cooler earth below the pockets of the sheet mulch and finished by securing them with more soil packed in around them. The plants have already undergone some frost damage on top of that so they are a little stressed as of now, but we have hope they will return after a few days of good watering.
I am ( Arrun Nah ne nay wah ) or ( Shunktochu Ska ) Buddy, Paba or Bopa ,Dad, Uncle Buddy - you know me as Paul. I have lived in the valley of the the river that runs both ways ( Mohkinatuck ). I was born in a place called ( Napitamack ) our peoples' fields by the once great Wegwaseek ,the people of the yellow birch. Across the river was Wehawken and the Palisades that stretch from Hobokan (pipe) to Tapan. They were created by a lava flow 500 million years ago .They were on the west side of the river so I always used them and the river as a directional reference point.To the south was Mahataha, a stony island that still retains a semblance of its ancient name. To the south of that island lies the great ocean and to the east is the long water where the Quenepeack, the long water people lived. In my youth I lived near a place called Tuckahoe ( Indian cradle board or jack-in-the-pulpit). My days were spent roaming the streams, swamps, fields and creeks. I knew where the fish were, where to get worms to catch them, where the blackberries were, and the wild apples, the garlic, mints and clovers, where the springs were to drink from, and all the paths that led to any place of interest. Even going to school, I used these paths instead of using the sidewalks and streets. I knew where the deer were, and the raccoons, muskrats, rabbits, foxes, pheasants, ducks, where the owls slept and where to go where I couldn't be found. We traveled on all of these waterways with makeshift boats and rafts and we were all good swimmers and had no fear of the adventure. My mother introduced me to those things as if they were my relatives and I thank her for that. Years later I would travel as the eagle flies, ninety miles up the river to Poughkeepsie (a safe harbor). With the eyes of an eagle I would look to the west and see the beautiful Shawangunk mountains (the hills that go south). The home of the Wanganarangonks (the good people that live by the mountains that go south). Flying over those mountains and looking to the northwest you would see the place where the earth touches the sky. Nestled between two mountains is a place called Moonhaw (woodchuck) the place where I now make my home. The Maltby creek, which is behind our house, starts up on Friday mountain where it bubbles up from the ground. The water is so sweet that I sometimes lick it off my mustache. The Maltby runs into the Bushkill creek, that runs into the Ashokan, that is fed by the Esopus and runs back into the Esopus to the river that runs both ways and then into the ocean, and returns in the form of rain to begin the cycle all over again. As we hover on the wings of an eagle, looking three hundred sixty degrees, we see the Adirondacks, the Tacconic hills, the Berkshires, the Green mountains, the Ramapo hills, the lakes, rivers and streams sparkling like jewels, and we are in awe of the majestic beauty. This is my home. Ancestral landscape - Thomas O'Leary, born in Cork, Ireland in the late 1840's, comes on a fishing boat with his cousins, the Adams, and with his parents and siblings during the potato famine. They landed in Baltimore. He was a drummer boy in the civil war, after which he moved to Brooklyn, New York and had three children - Gertrude, John and Catherine. My grandmother Catherine, born in the late 1800's, married Fred Webb from Tarrytown. His ancestors had been here pre-revolutionary war. They had three children - one died as an infant, one - my mother Inez, and one - my uncle Fred. My mother has three children - Maryann - named after my grandfather's mother, Paul - named after my father but called Buddy because my sister couldn't pronounce brother and said Budda, which turned into Buddy (I personally think it was easier to not have two people called Paul in the same household), and lastly - my brother Arthur Michael , named after my father's brother. My grandfather's father married an Irish woman and his father also married an Irish woman, and that is how the Webbs became Catholic. The Webbs owned a stage coach inn in Tarrytown, that was the last stop on the way to New York City. The Tobins came from Ireland to Canada to Massachusetts by dogsled and oxen. It was rumored that one married a native woman. Joseph Tobin, my grandfather, married Gertrude Cox (Gra). They had five children - Arthur, Ruth, Paul, Joseph and Raymond. The Coxes were from Roscomen, Ireland. I have four children - Tobi, Sparrow, Sage and Avrom. I also have two step-children - Daisha and Elijah. I have two grandchildren - Melina and Noah and I have six nieces, two nephews, ten grand nieces and nephews. I live with my wife Jodi and our cat, and an occasional mouse that is promptly caught by our cat. This is the abbreviated version. If you are interested, the longer version can be talked about around the fire.
