Barn Doors Completed

The barn is really coming together. Structurally the barn is complete and we can now begin the cosmetic work. Last weekend my husband installed the final door, center of the barn. The birds that nested in the barn have now left. And now we can safely store our trash without fear of the bear. Unless the thing about his opposable thumbs is true. I guess my favorite part is the cuppola and the weather vane.

The next step on the barn will be painting. We are planning to paint the barn the same color as our house, a greyish green and ultimately paint our house roof to match the barn red. Now if we could only get the grass to grow.

We Have Fruit

It's not much, but after one year of working the little orchard, we do have fruit. I took these photos and then immediately picked what fruit we had. Our goal is to strengthen the trees this year in hopes of a good fruit crop in the next few years. These photos are apples and one peach.

Scare Tape

I bought this tape in the hopes of managing the deer. They have damaged at least 50% of our chestnut crop, so we are implementing a collection of techniques to keep them away from the new foliage. To test the tape, we installed fence posts around the garden so that I can tie the tape to each and watch the effectiveness. I was hoping this would help keep the birds from eating all of my berries this year, but my husband saw a bird actually sitting on the fence post while the tape tapped it on its' head. Oh well. Maybe it'll scare off the bear.

Garden 2008

The garden is in, finally. We've been delayed by rain and equipment and time, but we finished up the last part last night. The garden is twice the size it was last year. With grocery costs on the rise, we're planting as much as we can, and will continue to plant until every last inch is growing something this season. I'll post a few pictures as soon as something germinates.

More Bears...

The Nelson County Times yesterday had an article about the increase in the bear population in Central Virginia. So now what? There was no mention of how the bear population would be controlled, only advice about what to do in the event that you see a bear. Here are a few tips:

- do not make any sudden moves
- do not appear as if you are going to eat or take away the bear's food
- do not corner the bear
- do not approach any bear cubs

Personally I'm just going to play dead. Hopefully the bear will just pick up his picnic basket and walk away.

Bear Crazy

So I'm not losing my mind. An article in our local paper this morning tells about the increase in the bear population in Central Virginia. Here's the story. I still prefer to live in a "bear free" zone. I wonder if there's a sign for that.

Preventing Erosion

Since we cleared almost 30 acres of our land, erosion has been a major concern. In the last 3 years, although the fields are not in great condition, they are much better this year with more growth. The areas that we are concentrating on are around the driveway, which are mostly winding and steep areas, prone to soil erosion. This spring I have been planting grass (contractor's mix), granulated lime (for slow release) and then either mulch or straw on top. Straw has been very difficult to find, since the drought last summer caused a short growing season. Cattle operations had to begin feeding hay early fall and this lead to a shortage.

Grass that I planted in the last three is weeks is coming up sparingly. If we can encourage some growth this spring, it will give us something to build on in the fall. At that time I will add fertilizer designed to boost root growth during the winter. This photo is taken close to our house at the flatest spot on the driveway.

Chestnuts - Week 3

The chestnuts seem to be coming along. We have had a good amount of rain in the last few weeks, but the trees seem to have pretty good folliage. However, we're really having a problem with deer. They like the tender foliage and to that end, have eaten between 15%-20% of the trees. The stems are still in place, we'll watch to see if those affected will survive.



Today I ordered "scare tape" from an orchard supply store. I've spoken with farmers that have used this in apple orchards with good success. Basically the tape is about 3" wide and then I'll cut it in 8' lengths. When one end of the tape is attached to a pole, something like a tomato stake, it flaps in the wind, acting as a deterrent to deer and birds. I'll let you know how this works out.

More Barn Doors

The final doors are getting installed. Three roll-up doors were ordered and custom made for the openings. They took about 8 weeks to receive, from the order date, but finally arrived. The doors that lead into the central barn area are insulated. The one on the front and to the right is not insulated. We're hoping to finish the installation of the final door this weekend. It'll be great to get the birds out of the barn and also to protect us from the bear (see previous article).

The Bear

It's true that when you get up in the morning, you really have no idea how your day is going to end up. And yesterday was no exception.

When I went to bed last night, I heard the dogs barking and figured that it must have been the oppossum or the raccoon that likes our cat food. I listened for a while, but when I heard the trashcan overturn, I angrilly went to the porch to see what was going on and shoo away whatever was causing this chaos. I flicked on the light and didn't see anything on the back porch. But when I leaned over the railing, the bear and I saw eye-to-eye, and I'm not sure who was more surprised. I called my husband.

After closing (and locking) all the doors (although not sure why locking was going to help), my husband and I spent the next few hours watching the bear take full bags of trash out of the can. He (still not sure about bear gender) took some of the full bags to the woods and then returned. The next bag he broke open, ate a few things and then looked as if he was taking a little nap. Did I mention that this is all outside of our bedroom window, about 8 feet down and about 24 inches from the house? You would think that the bear would have been afraid of us, with all of the talking, lights, TV going and the photo taking (although no photos are available because apparently they cannot be taken through a screen).

I admit, I really do not know how to deal with bears. The only ones I've ever seen were at the zoo. And that got me thinking, could the bear get in the house, do they have opposable thumbs like humans, could he open the door, etc. I should have learned more about wild animals, I should have watched more Animal Planet, what would the Crocodile Hunter do? After I spoke with the game warden (who thinks that a bear eating trash is amusing, not threatening) I felt a little better. Evidently bears are not really preditors, and at this time of the year they are just looking for a good meal.

So tonight the trash can goes inside, the cat food no longer stays on the porch and I'll try to remove the screen to get a better photo. I'm sure that he'll be back for seconds.

Fruit Orchard

The fruit trees planted last year have done pretty well. Out of 12 trees, we only lost one, a cherry tree. Here is a photo of one of the apple trees. Although we did not see many flowers on the trees this year, they are full of leaves. I did spray them with Liquid Fence to keep the deer away. We also removed the stakes and strings used to keep the trees upright during strong winds.

Back to the Garden

It's that time of the year again, time to plant the garden. The clay soil is so hard and poor that we are always looking for new ways to improve it. This year we decided to plow the soil before tilling. Seen above, we used a plow that digs down into the soil about 16 inches. We only go through the garden once with the plow, but we will till the garden multiple times in order to achieve the proper soil texture. This year we are also doubling the size of the garden in order to accommodate for succession planting.

In order to improve the soil, I am adding lime, peat moss and some topsoil. The lime is pelleted which allows for slow release. The peat moss and topsoil will break down to help improve the condition of the soil. When seeds are planted, I will add 10-10-10 to increase the nitrogen content. This year I have also begun composting and hoping to have it ready in order to add to the garden this year.

Water Management

A few months ago, I had a question on the blog about water management. Since our farm is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, we have very hilly land. I never realized how important water management would be, especially since there is a creek running through our property that is shared with other farmers.

When our driveway was designed, my husband knew that water management would be key to managing erosion. It was also necessary for preventing our driveway from washing away (which has almost happened on several occasions). Our driveway is 4/10 of a mile long and is not flat in any one place. This has made it necessary for us to install pipes. The pipe in this photo is metal and 16" wide. We have tried plastic pipes, but they tend to collapse easier than the metal. When the trenches were dug on the side of the road, we added different types and sizes of rock. The rock in this photo is called 'rip rap', a rather large rock that generally does not wash away during those severe thunderstorms.

Occasionally the rocks cannot hold back the water and maintenance on pipe cleaning takes place. In the 3 years since we've been in our house, this will be the first year that pipe maintenance is necessary.