Roof Painting

So I haven't posted any photos of our house, because after 3 1/2 years we are still working on it. This week we are painting the tin roof.

Tin has to age for a little while before being painted (probably not 3 1/2 years), but it was time. We rented a lift for the steep parts and to get us to the top roof. Most of the primer and paint have been sprayed on. Some of the smaller roof areas have been hand painted. I'll post more photos as we complete this project, another one checked off the list.

Before and After

Well, we've been on the farm almost 5 years. And even though we've done a lot of work in those 5 years, there is still more to do. But it's time to start getting rid of equipment that we have finished using.

The caterpiller 955 has been restored and is ready for a new home. Above is the before picture. and below is the after.

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.

Barn Contruction - Framing

Barn construction began this week with framing. The tip-up construction process uses 6x6 beams with brackets. Before the cement floor was poured, 36" holes were dug for cement piers that would later have brackets attached to them. The brackets were set in the wet cement for later attachment to the 6x6 beams.

The frames are constructed on the ground. Using the Extenda Boom attachment for the Bobcat, the frames were lifted in place and set into brackets.

Once the frames were set in place, 2x4's were nailed to the beams as temporary braces, until the side wall construction begins. The entire process occurs relatively quickly, and with the work of 3 men.

The Orchard

Once the garden has been planted and everything in place, we are ready to move to the orchard. We have just purchased about a dozen fruit and nut trees for planting. Although we have used soaker hoses in the garden, irrigation is going to be our greatest hurdle in the orchard. Trees will be spaced about 20 feet apart with rows spaced wide enough for a tracktor to pass for spraying and grass mowing.

First we measured each row 30 feet apart. We used string and stakes to insure straight rows when we began digging holes. Next we used an auger attachment for our Bobcat and dug the initial hole for each tree.

Then using a post digger, we made each hole at least twice the diameter of the root ball. While planting the trees, we added peat moss and top soil.

Following is a photo of the orchard, week 1.

5/14/07 update. The trees seem to be doing Ok, although some have a few dried leaves on them, even though we have watered and had a good amount of rainfall in the last week. Also, since we have planted the berries, the raspberries have started putting out stems already, so I am hopefull.

Land Clearing

We have been clearing our land since we bought the farm. The trees on the land were so thick, that from the road, we didn't even realize that there was a trailer on the property. We actually picked our house site without really being able to visualize the layout of the land.

Our goal is to have pasture land for cattle. So the first step was logging. We hired a logging company to come in and cut down the trees on some of the property. The worked for about 4 months and cleared at least 20 acres. Most of the wood that they cut was pine, some oak and poplar. They used heavy equipment to cut down the trees, skidders to drag the trees out of the woods, a large saw to cut the trees to a consistent size and then log trucks to transport the wood to the wood yard for sale. The sale of lumber and fire wood have been the primary revenue source for the farm to date.

Once the logging was finished, the next step was to clear the land. When loggers cut trees, the stumps are left. So we purchased a heavy piece of equipment to dig the stumps out of the ground. Here is a photo of our caterpillar 955. The C955 was also used for grading the land, smoothing out areas where the stump and roots made a hole the size of a small swimming pool.


After the stumps were removed, we used our Bobcat skid-steer to move the stumps, sticks, limbs, etc. into a large pile for burning. (Burning brush is legal in our county during certain times of the day, and safe during certain times of the year. On another project we burned an acre of bamboo in the middle of town, but that's a story for another blog). The best investment we made was a grapple attachment for the Bobcat (see photo). The grapple allowed us to lift stumps that we as large as the Bobcat and slowly move them to the pile. It also turned out to be a great tool for raking sticks and other small debris into rows.

The final tool that we used for the farm was another attachment for the Bobcat, a rock-picker. This tool picks up very small pieces of debris, without dropping it on the way to it's destination.