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.

Farm

When the leaves are off the trees, we can get a pretty good view of the farm and can really have an overall view of what needs to be done. The barn is coming along and the house will get a little attention this year. But our big project is on the horizon and I'll be talking about that in April. And it has nothing to do with construction.

Farm in Winter

2008 - Happy New Year!

I'm really looking forward to this year as we complete some of our projects and move forward with some of the goals we've had from the beginning. So I'm making a little to-do list and we'll review this again at the end of the year. Here goes:

- complete barn #1 - we have a few more doors to put in, the sidiing is almost complete and then we can paint. The exterior should be finished by summer.
- complete fencing - the perimeter is just about finished, so now moving on to partitioning off our fields for our animals.
- purchase animals - we're hoping to have a few cows and goats on the property by summer.
- add to the orchard - we'll be planting more trees and berries this spring in hopes of harvest on the plants from last year.
- improve the fields - we are planning on fertilizing the fields to enrich the grasses for the animals.
- plan for barn #2 - this barn will be used primarily for hay storage and animal maintenance.

So check with me in December and I'll let you know if we met our goals.

2007 - Year in Review

It's been a good year on the farm in 2007. We've worked on the land and finished clearing, were able to plant the orchard and berries, and even got a small pumpkin crop in the ground. The barn is almost finished and we're going to work on the fencing this winter.

I'm looking forward to 2008 and bringing some of the major projects to a close. Once the fencing is finished, we'll finally be able to bring some cattle and maybe a few goats to the farm. With the main barn finished, we'll start talking about the next barn on the front of the property. We also hope to work on the original tobacco barn that the property came with.

Hopefully we'll have some snow this winter, and I'll be posting some photos of the farm in winter. I wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Plants and Trees

5/9/07 Over the past 2 weeks we have planted our garden and established our orchard. Here is a list of the plants, seed or plant and the variety. We'll also keep this up-to-date as to the progress of the plants.

Seeds:
corn - silver queen, golden queen. 5/14/07 good germination
green beans - slenderette. 5/14/07 no sign of plants
lima beans - ford hook. 5/14/07 no sign of plants

Plants:
tomatoes - big boy, whopper. 5/14/07 big boy plants are thriving, but whopper plants seem to be very fragile, and not surviving.

With the seeds and plants, we added fertilizer, peat moss and potting soil. Prior to tilling the garden, we amended the soil with compost from a paper plant. This did add some nitrogen to the soil. I have watered the seeds twice with soaker hoses in the last 2 weeks but am careful not to over-water with the rain that we have had. I'll add photos as the plants germinate.

Trees:
Apple - yellow delicious, red delicious, granny smith
Cherry - monmorency, bing, black tartanian
Peach - elberta
Pear - bartlett, orient
Pecan

Bushes:
Blackberry - apache, arapahoe 6/10/07 4 of 6 plants now have leaves
Blueberry - jersey 6/10/07 all plants now have leaves
Raspberry - reville. 5/14/07 putting out leaves and branches already. 6/10/07 2 of 3 plants with leaves are now flowering and could produce some fruit this season.

The trees and bushes also had peat moss and potting soil added to them. The tall trees have been staked up to prevent breaking during strong winds.

5/24/07 - the blueberry and raspberry plants seem to be doing well. I received them as bare root and soaked them for a few hours before planting. 3 of the 6 blackberry plants seem to be Ok, but are slower. Below are a few photos of growth to-date:

Liquid Fence

A short story here, some friends told me about a spray that I could put on my plants, completely organic, didn't wash off in the rain and really kept the deer away. It's call "Liquid Fence". So I tried it and it worked! However there was one downside that they failed to mention. It stinks to high heaven - and water does NOT remove it from your hands. To give you an idea, the product is made with egg by-product (whatever that is, but imagine raw eggs sitting out in the blazing sun, not cooking, just rotting and you can only begin to think of the aroma/scent/stink). Of course, when I used it for the first time, it was late afternoon before going to a church dinner. I kept smelling my hands to see if they were still stinky, and of course there was staring. The point of this story is wear rubber gloves when applying the Liquid Fence. I have learned my lesson.

The Garden

The thing that I like the most about farming is gardening, watching things grow. There is certainly something romantic about living off the land. So last year, we tilled, planted, watered, put up deer fencing, etc., etc., etc. I think we harvested 2 tomatoes and a very small radish. And the year before that we all enjoyed one very small watermelon. Basically the best thing to gain from clay soil is, well, bricks (which is next on my list if I can't get anything to grow this year).

Each year, I have new optimism. So this year I have gotten off to a good start. We purchased compost from a paper company (very green and clean) and put a thick coat on the garden spot. In the last few days, I tilled the soil 3 times, in 3 different directions. I'm hopeful. In the days and weeks to come, I'll add photos as changes in the garden occur.

4/25/07 The next step is plant selection. I'll purchase some seeds and fertilizer locally and then some fruit trees and bushes by catalog. My plan is to begin planting this weekend. Once the planting begins, I'll install the deer fencing. Ok, don't laugh, but I'm doing my best to live with these woodland creatures. They really are pretty and also destructive.

4/28/07 Today we planted our garden. First we started by measuring between the rows and then tied string along the rows so that they will be straight when planting. This is the best way to optimize your garden space and at the same time spacing plants for optimum growth. Then we hoed each row and planted.

Since we are working with clay soil, we added fertilizer (10-10-10) as well as Miracle Grow potting soil to each row. When we cleared the land, the soil was full of pine trees. While this situation was great for the trees, it has not been good for new plants.

Once the plants and seeds were added, we placed soaker hoses on each row for irrigation. This has proven to be the most efficient form of irrigation for the hobby farmer. I try to only water 1-2 times per week, since we are watering from our home well. And the soaker hose places the water exactly where you need it, without waisting the water.

5/14/07 - update. We now have 3 rows of corn that have germinated well. However the lima beans and string beans are not doing well at all. Any thoughts? I plan to plant more corn this week, staggering my planting to lengthen the season.

5/23/07 I'm really disappointed with the plants that have just not germinated. Corn seems to be doing Ok and the tomato plants that I purchased are robust. I'm going to plant corn again in a different area on the farm, primarily to test the soil in different areas. Below is a photo of the corn growth to-date.


6/2/07 Today I planted the last of the silver queen corn and then planted 3 rows of golden queen corn. These have both been planted in another garden that we tilled near the creek. The soil is darker and has grown grass well in the past, compared to the soil in the first garden which is red clay. The new garden spot is also bottom land and hopefully will be rich in nutrients.


8/7/07 Well, the garden is done for now. We did harvest tomatoes, corn, string beans and watermelons. Although the crop was not large, I did find that corn did the best and the key was the soaker hoses, at least for this year. Below is a photo of my crop and my farm help.

Fencing

We are fencing. This is a massive undertaking that could not have gotten this far without the help of friends and workers. We began our fencing project in December 2006. It's a great winter project because of the hard work and the fact that the leaves are off the trees. In order to clearly define the property line the first step has been to clear the perimeter of the property.

There are two types of fence that we are using, board fence, and netwire. The board fence is more decorative, but will be effective in keeping in large animals, such as cows and possibly horses. Netwire is not very decorative, but very effective in managing small cattle such as goats and sheep. The photo shown here is taken from the front of the property, at the entrance to the farm.

We started with the board fence, using an auger to dig holes and manually tamping each fence post (see photo auger). The auger was an attachment for the Bobcat.

As we progressed with the fence, we switched to the post driver and this helped the process to move quicker. The we switched to the netwire, which does not require as many wooden fence posts, as metal posts are used in between.

4/21/07 - Currently the fencing on the perimeter of the property is completed. However, with a recent windstorm we have some repair to do as about 2 dozen trees either fell on the fence or lifted the fence posts out of the ground. Once the fence is repaired, we will install electric fence to create multiple paddocks. This allows cattle to feed on certain fields while the others have time to recover.