What We Have Learned

We learned last year that rabbits do not eat basil. What we learned this year is that rabbits will eat basil if there is nothing else to eat.

We learned that our corner of the world likes to grow tomatoes of these varieties: Sungold, Super Sweet, Black Cherry, and Stupice. It is not kind to many of the larger varieties and hates Romas. Their performance could be ameliorated by experience and education on our part. Growing a new vegetable is like learning a second or third instrument.

We learned that rabbits will run ahead of your car at night in the headlights not because they are too dumb to go left or right, but because they can watch for predators when they do that. You are acting like a bus for them.

We learned that making solar panels is easy, even if they come out heavy as furniture.

We learned that “Pop – smoke” does not appear in the troubleshooting guide for the brand new solar regulator. Neither does the number for Customer Service. Fortunately the third party vendor is very helpful and likes to geek on solar stuff too.

We learned that finishing the inside stucco in the 105 degree heat is better than hauling manure in the same.
We learned that if we had the same biological makeup of yellow starthistle we would never, ever die.

We learned that building an outdoor shower with a tankless water heater (we get dirty in the winter too) will cost about $460.

We learned that building a composting toilet outhouse will cost about $415.

We learned that we are way too excited about the prospect of having a shower and potty on the farm.

We have learned that bigger tanks mean more system pressure and checking the tank before you leave is a good idea in case, oh, I don’t know, the main line popped off and blows 2500 gallons of water down the hill and you now have no water for your tomatoes and trees, but since you checked you can fix the problem and not kill your crop. Yep. Learned that.