going green and what does it mean? 

        it is nearly impossible to go anywhere or do anything in your life at our present time without being dependent to some extent on non renewable resources like coal and oil. they are at the backbone of our economy, fueling the trucks that bring you food from the fields of mexico to the grocer up the street. mechanical harvesters serve up dinner while consuming diesel fuel in their engines to keep them running. electricity to man the water pumps to cleanse your food of herbicides and pesticides designed to provide you with cleaner bug free vegetables are all based on petrochemicals produced in energy consuming chemical plants.and we do this just to eat , let alone what we use to heat our homes drive our kids to soccer, or to take that long soaking warm bath to ease away the wolds pain. 

       we have reached a new milestone in co2 emissions and it is said that the earth has never experienced a similar event for at least 250000 years. thats a long time and even though  republicans tend to believe we can go on indefinitely utilizing our fossil fuel resources , it makes one wonder what the implications of burning so much fossil fuel is doing to our planet . no resource is inexhaustible and even our sun has a limit on how much it can take before the lights go out. it too can perish as it has set limits on how much fuel is available. best estimates is that it should last another million years or so. we have a lot less fossil fuels than that , which are becoming increasingly more costly to extract and polluting millions of gallons of freshwater to extract these resources or devastating huge swaths of co2 dependant plants to achieve their goals of making us dependent on industry to provide us with our basic needs. it is like the dog chasing his tail, we will never be free of fossil fuels until the profit is drove out of the business, greed will always make that muscle car and monster truck fascinating to some. they are a reflection of what we have become as a race. that is the human race. 

      set aside our consumer mind and look at what it is doing to our environment and realize that humans are the only animal that pays to exist on earth. some people live on pennies a day and some for a lot more, and this has cost us as we enjoy the creature comforts of electricity, running water, and heat to the extent, we have as a human race altered our environment here on earth. we are moving into a gray area where we are melting our ice caps and raising our sea levels , and affecting the habitat of thousands of animals as they seek to adjust to our race. yet we can not take care of own , let alone the animals of the world and still we go on plundering our resources and  feeling the pulse of our planet reacting to environmental disaster after another , rather than preventing it.

      and how do we prevent environmental disasters such as global warming? by taking action and being aware even on a small scale , just how much we do waste of our resources to date. sitting in the mc donalds drive thru line waiting to purchase i thought as nice as this is , it could be better as they could take your order and then let you proceed to the parking lot and wait for your order to be ready , and allow you to turn off your vehicle for even 5 minutes and considering all the mc donalds in the nation and the world with a \drive thru business being a major part of their business this could result in saving a lot of fossil fuel. simple things as they are make a difference. whether it is feasible , doubt it as to many consumers whine about sitting and waiting and doubt they would turn off their vehicle but it is an option as we have many other options as long as we act on something.in retrospect,  in some ways sonic is already doing this and we have done it before with the old root beer stands and the car hops. they used to bring the food to your car as you would wait and listen to the music. 

       solar panels where you can , planning your trips and multi - tasking as much as possible reduces energy dependence  but as an individual it is going to be hard to impact the price of fossil fuels or reduce the acreage of trees to be devastated for coal production, but as a race , the human race, we begin to act as one. as each individual's mindset turns to energy saving and we begin to turn the tide of consumerism in favor of energy independence and when we  take the profit out of energy production  will we see a better environment. greed is based on supply and demand , and the greedy in our society would turn to other vices to satisfy their desire to control. if we were all for energy dependence and clean living then it will probably result in someone taking over our food supply. greedy people and corporations like you to be dependent on them and could care less about our environment as long as profit is king. our goal should be to make corporations be at our bidding and not theirs. 

        we need to start recycling and we need to become more aware of our resources and how fragile something as simple as the air we breathe can be affected by our use of creature comforts we need or think we need to exist.  you are an advocate if you have read what i wrote thus  far. and you need to do more , read more. don't just take my word for anything . there are a lot of people preaching the same thing and for good reason. read, be active. and plant a tree for  this world of ours, and  our other animals we share it with.

           get your trees at my new greenhouse or buy from someone else or grow your own . will show you how. maybe you might be better at it than i am. anyhow my crew made significant progress yesterday as i finalize the look inside the greenhouse for saturday's grand opening. 

the pots are gone. 

          

          well i managed to move the flower pots out of the greenhouse to maximize space for plants . cleaned a bunch of pots of weeds and generally just spent time trying to catch up on all the things i couldn't do by myself and give myself a jump start to next weekends grand opening. i have  pots of all sizes up  to mammoth ones for really large trees that would require a tractor or a forklift to move around. anything or size you would like in black pot sizes. have a few hanging baskets available also.

         i would like to thank those who have helped me get this far, and first is james , he was there when we  tore it down and rebuilt and put up with my oh so pleasant attitude. i hope you learned a few things from the experience.my brother Jim also deserves a big thank you as he was there also, when i took the greenhouse down and when we put the plastic back on . my nephew roger was also a big help. next would be lucy who i so hoped would be here on open house day , but may not be for personal reasons. she helped me plant , gave me inspiration to move on with this project and someone i enjoyed spending time with. kathy also provided me with flowers and cuttings and i also enjoyed her enthusiasm about gardening and wish her the best. janet showed up today and helped with weeding of the pots and we had a nice visit. thanks all for being a friend and helping out and hope all can make it to the open house.and of course mom of whom i couldn't forget on mothers day.

       she has been there from the beginning when i purchased it at auction and has backed me all the way. today we were able to get mom to the greenhouse and she planted tomatoes for me. she seemed to enjoy being able to help out . will be looking forward to her being able to be outside on open house day and enjoy the company we will have. expect family and friends and strangers who will be friends soon i hope. 

       i have a variety of plants and if i don't have what you want will try and find it. just let me know what you are looking for. if it i a shrub or a perennial and is just a cutting will grow it out in the quantity you like. i tried to provide a variety of vegetable plants , and will have tomatoes , green peppers , banana peppers, cabbages , Brussel sprouts, broccoli, egg plant , lettuce in head variety, and plenty of cabbages. i also have arbor vitae and , a variety of hardwood an pine varieties. will be trying sequoia trees as i have one ordered and have seen them growing at oardc with success. if you are interested in any let me know and i can order most trees and grow them from bare root size to a size that should guarantee success. if not just bring the tree back. like to see you lug in that sequoia after a couple hundred years. i digress , but come and look and just enjoy the day . take a walk , check out the pond and my carvings. but mostly just enjoy life. 

        again thanks to all my help and hope to see you there as you were part of this also. thanks for sharing. 

        finally found a place to rest these pots. moved them 3-4 times. 

well the hired help has been busy. 

      preparations for the first yockey greenhouse open house are well under way. i have kept my crew busy trying to finish grading the retention pond area, and planting bulbs as well as sunflowers on the dike and wild flowers will adorn the dike later this summer . we have cleaned out the office building and have been moving pots to their new storage area and in general trying to pull everything together.still have to weed pots and deadhead as blooms are at their peak in the greenhouse now. 

      new water retention pond will allow me to utilize runoff water to water plants during drought conditions. we will use a storage tank at upper end of complex  to store water and meter it out in drip lines to pots out side. or to use as a waterfall feature. was going to use a layer of plastic to seal thew bottom but the clay soil in this area seems to be ideal for a pond as i had very little leaching away. i can always go in when water is used up and seal then. eventually i would like to power the sump pump with a solar panel and storage battery. i intend to use solar as much as i can with new led grow lights which offer full spectrum light to encourage plant growth. this should allow me to manipulate growing times and eventually blooming cycles. this will only happen with solar . the heat will change to outside wood fired boiler and we will install the pipes in the floor to radiate the heat up. this will heat the beds in the wintertime and encourage early plant growth. something i had problems with early this spring. i had also lost a lot of starts to inadequate heat source and persistent cold winter that would give me no mercy. should have some tomatoes by next weekend , but some i replanted are still small and will be closer to june 1st. before ready to plant.

        but this will; be a green- greenhouse with renewable source of fuel for heat and solar for light and ventilation. it only makes sense to be efficient as possible .

         the topsoil i used on the dike area over the old clay soil  is a 50 percent blend of organic compost from my own composting process. and 30 percent topsoil from  farm and sand to improve he tilth of the soil. it is unscreened and in short supply but next year i intend to offer it for sale. 

    this is a picture f the inside of the potting shed office. the above picture is looking down the lane and what a view. below is inside the shed.

       and of course when i want babe to do something she gives me that your crazy look . somewhat like she has now as i wanted to take her picture. any other time she would be nosing into the picture on her own. just another day oin the old hacienda.

a long haul down an uncertain path

         as winter suddenly becomes summer and we experience drier than average conditions as this will  signal the beginning of more modified weather. we need our rain to maintain our springs and the wildlife that depends on small streams prone to drying up as well as springs. this in turn forces more wildlife  into new feeding areas around a suitable water source. the increased population then creates  more competition for areas already populated with their own kind or a predator . 

        increasing all exposed land we now commercialize including pasture land and existing parks and trying to increase the organic content of all soils modified from their original condition by at least 3 x , on all future excavations or cultivation's. this will result in a greater  retention of water on the whole in our ground. the water will be retained in the organic material and will be released slowly. organic materials tend to be darker and will absorb heat more quickly warming soils to assist in planting. 

     this water will also permeate to lower depths increasing the water flow in our springs .streams and rivers. also by increasing the organic matter in the soils we will see less drought affected plants. and at same time we are sequestering  carbon. not all bad,  plants thrive in organic soils and yield better resulting in a win win situation.though not economically feasible as of yet. or at least we don't think so. reversing the effects of greenhouse gases tends to be economically based allowing power companies and other major sources of greenhouse gases more time to make modifications to their existing array of outdated equipment. yet we all pay the price irregardless of where we are from. or if we even have access to electricity. we all share the same planet and like it or not we have to go on. that is mankind has to . so we need to set aside the profits and make a substantial effort to prevent global warming. i borrowed  this poster as it illustrates in simple form how dangerous us humans can be. 

      

        blossoms are springing forth with or with out rain as the plants  need to get on with their job and try to undo some of the harm we as humans have done to our environment. to propagate , multiply and move on as this earth is never ending as it should be.  

        of course while i was babbling on about global warming babe sat patiently waiting on me to catch up. she has added on about good 20 lbs of fur that  she promises to shed in the house all summer long. by winter she will be slim again and i will be still be cleaning up the mess from this last winter . she is ever so patient of me and at times i don't fully appreciate what she gives me.  i need to make a mental note to spend more time with my best friend and not take her for granted. 

           i have changed the style of writing to italics as i find it more aesthetically pleasing. or i just like it better. sorry still not into capitalization. 

                                           

bloom where you are planted-part 2 

        well the title really isn't mine but a saying i remember seeing real well. in fact every day for awhile and then on more or less frequent times as it was on a sign in a yard along rt. 30. on the west side of canton , there was a cabin and it was owned by don sterling . the sign was in his yard and i believe honestly he intended to do that in his lifetime. leaving behind a legacy of public donation and and successful businesses , all of which  he was responsible for.

        from the time i was a young child all i could remember was beaver excavating was doing this and that and don sterling wanted this done.dad was a loader operator for beaver for 28 years when he retired . dad and don had quite a history of working together . don's business was in its infancy and equipment was not as it should have been , dad was required to haul his own equipment to the site. today shiny lowboys crisscross the state shuffling equipment around. 

      dad was involved in a lot of projects over the years as beaver was responsible for doing earthwork on a variety of construction jobs over the years. from the faircrest plant of timkens to the pro footbal hall of fame, to interstate highways to slide repair at wintersville on rt.7 dad was on most projects. coming home one night from  cleveland , and the next morning would find him in the furnaces at republic cleaning up a mess. 

      beaver excavating was everywhere around me my whole life and still is as i look out my window. i see areas where dad would borrow a loader or a dozer and he would use it here on the farm. quite a few projects around here are due to beaver or don sterling allowing us to use heavy equipment to make our farming easier . briars and brambles hangin over the driveway as i remember the first time coming home to our home s we know it now. dad cleared and  changed the grade around the old house here on the property removing trees when necessary and finally getting a swale cut in around the house. as kids we would ride on the side of the loader as he would operate the machine. dad was great at what he did and it was evidenced by dad being the one to be called on by beaver excavating  to get the job done. 

       as you can see my whole life revolved around beaver when i was young. i remember meeting don one time in a Quonset building beaver had  beside their office on southway street in canton. us boys when visiting their shop would get busy grabbing a broom and doing what we could to help the grownups. don came in as we were sweeping and mentioned about how hard we were sweeping warning us not to sweep the concrete to hard or all we will end up with is dirt. that was the only time i ever met him . he was an iconic figure in our life as we would follow his and beavers doings around our area . 

     i had always wanted to work for beaver and it seemed it would never happen but a construction firm i was working with was forced to go union to do work with a union company and it required everyone \in our crew to go union. i received my card to work union as a journey man operator. at first i just ran dozer and then learned the excavator. and eventually through a multitude of jobs became proficient at operating any type of equipment. then one day i was called to work for beaver.
     this lasted for a period of 3 years. again i was like dad being shipped across the state , never knowing what job site i would be at in the morning. most of the good old boys were gone by the time i worked for braver and a new crowd had taken over. i was able to work for a couple of dads old bosses and was glad to have met them and worked for them. i also actually spent time working with one of don sterling's sons greg who has now passed away. and found him a great person to know and lots of fun. it was nice to work for them finally as it was a culmination of a dream i had held since i was a young kid. but politics in construction being what it is , and me having no desire to end up falling asleep at the wheel as i relentlessly cross the state to make some one else more rich, i decided to leave the construction business as it too was taking a toll on my health. beaver wasn't the company anymore that my dad had worked for . it had lost its charm to me, and i felt i needed to take my life in a different direction so i went back to farming.
    there is something that can be said for stepping out your door and going to work. in fact when i look out my door now i am looking at a cabin that don had built in his later years after he to retired from the business at beaver to bloom as puts it. he constructed heritage village outside of magnolia and then dedicated it to a church , of which i was able to purchase one of the cabins slated for removal. don has passed away , but a portion of his legacy will still touch us with the erection of the cabin later this summer. it isn't much , just a small 14x14 cabin but i intend to place it close to our pond where i hope it will remain for quite a few more years. it is now sitting on this wagon to be re erected.

     now the ironic part to this cabin is that don was had salvaged a lot  of old barns and lumber from numerous work sites and one of the work sites he was at was next door on the city farm which had a massive old barn and huge house of which both were tore down by beaver and i assume moved to magnolia at the time as it was about the time that don had started to build his cabins there and he was known to use beams from old barns to build them with. this cabin i have was actually built with old barn beams and could easily have been part of the old barn next door. it is nice to know that although it was a tragedy to see another of ohio's old bank barns fall to disrepair , that thanks to don , a little bit of the old barn will grace the opposite bank of the valley in which it stood. and maybe it can finally bloom where it is planted.
     finally beaver excavating was again in the news with the accidental deaths of two of the workers who were killed when a crane toppled. my heart goes out to the families and only serves as a reminder that construction safety has improved over the years , but it is still a very dangerous business to be in. i am glad i no longer have the desire to be involved in it. but like all jobs someone has to do it. and bless those that do and lose their lives as these 2 men did.

         
      again finally i have this pic from 1963 where dad had borrowed a machine from beaver and we all took a photo shot from the lowboy beaver owned . sherry my sister , brenda my cousin , darryl my cousin and i fill the first row. back row is faw, my older brother, jeanie my sister , jim my brother , and jr or denzil jr. . dont ask me why we were all screaming. guess it was for ice cream. in 63 i would have been 8 in this photograph. 

blooms where you are planted 

       yockey farms and kevscarvings(me), will be having an open house on may 18th, 2013 from 10 -5 . at which time i will be carving a bear for some lucky person to win at raffle. all names will be entered in a bowl and my mom will pull a name. in the event i am not able to finish the bear that day i will deliver to your house if possible. i would like to stain and seal the bear before delivering to you. 

      yockey farms has hanging baskets available to purchase now. they are in full bloom and we also have a limited supply of vegetable plants available also. the baskets are 8 for smallest gallon size to 15 for a medium basket and we have a few large kettle baskets for sale for 20 dollars without stand . with the 3 legged stand it will be 40 dollars. i will have more pics available in coming days of what we have to offer. more information is available at www.kevscarvings.com. 

      i plan on calling on all my facebook friends to show up and have a good time . relax , take a hike here on the farm and just enjoy the scenery for a few hours. this invite includes abu khiana from guinea to buck rogers from why not, nebraska, (can i help it i am a facebook whore only adding friends i don't know on for a big day like this, terrorist or not lay down your guns and have a good time). and of course buy some flowers and veggie plants and small potted trees.  

      we would like to make this a annual occurrence and hope to see you if not this year but next .a free tray of veggies or flowers will be available to each family or group that shows up.  water and juice will be provided. i am not a drinking person but if you like then bring your own and enjoy. just please dont leave your bottles or cans anywhere but in trash please. drink responsibly and be safe with a designated driver . a fire will be provided . please no burning embers poked in someones eye. we have a pond and fish are biting. bring a pole and see if you can catch. if it is small please return to pond . the koi are to be returned also. please watch your kids. but most of all have a good time. we may have a hay ride depending on how things go. 

     mothers day is this coming weekend and if you need a basket of flowers contact me at 234 521 3984 and we can make arrangements to come and view and get an early pick of baskets especially for mothers day. i would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and hope that i might finally really get to know all my facebook friends and hope that family and friends who are not on facebook or refuse to add me also show up. . have a good one. 

well i am back and so are the blooms

       

        bloom where you are planted and that is exactly what i intend to do. show you the blooms where i am planted. and maybe a few more also. the first  pic is reflective of the flowering crab in the back yard . the next picture is taken at the oardc(ohio agricultural and research institute at wooster, ohio). the trees are in full bloom and would have yu seriously consider making a trip to eye candy land aand experience for yourself what my camera can only try to do to capture the true essewnce of the look and smell of nature at its finest. i will expand all these pics as large as i can to let you appreciate the full beauty. . 

  

         and finally below is mudder and trouble a male and female pair of calves i have added to my herd this year. the reason mudder is called mudder is because she was born in a mudhole and her mom dragged her around for 2 days in the rain before finally going to the barn. mudder was at times covered with mud, and trouble got his name because of his tendency to be a little like his dad, trouble at times. more specifically after placing some arbor vitae in a new area and then noticing that all my trees had been knocked down , i was muttering out loud about who had done that . i thought maybe the wind had blew in and caused it but instead i looked up the hill and noticed trouble heading for his mom and looking back at me as if he knew what i was looking at. i asked him at that point whether he in fact had done the knocking down of my shrubs and he quickened his pace toward his mom to seek her safety for his indiscretion i mentioned he was nothing but trouble and he glares at me like you haven't seen nothing yet. i imagine i haven't but trouble stuck to him since then.