My wife continually amazes me.  The most recent amazement comes from hatching out 9 chicks from a home made incubator.  I mentioned in a previous post that one of our roosters, Stan, was killed in an attack on our chickens.  Stan was the perfect rooster.  He kept the flock in line, didn’t crow too much or at odd times and was a very handsome fellow.  After his death we wanted to get some chicks that were descendants of Stan so Holly gathered up some Stan fertilized eggs.  Short for cash as usual, we couldn’t afford an incubator so Holly cobbles one together from a styrofoam cooler and a low wattage light bulb.  Viola!  Incubator.  21 days later we have 9 peeping chicks in the garden tub in our bathroom.  Amazing.

Also in the amazing department is the condo she built for our guinea pigs, Fuzzball and Hamham.  They now have a 16 square foot, 2 level condo to be all piggy in.  She built this out of wire storage cubes, chloroplast (material used for making signs) and some perforated drain pipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I won’t even try to describe all the other stuff she does every day to keep us all alive.  If it weren’t for her, the boys and I would probably be swinging from trees and eating berries.

We had a close call with Lenny, our only male goat.  Poor fellow had a bad case of worms and possibly another ailment.  He’s been wormed and treated and seems to be getting back to his old self again.  We wormed the rest of the goats at the same time.  During the course of Lenny’s treatment we had to give him some Pepto-Bismol to help settle his stomach.  He got the stuff all over his “lips” and in the fur around them so that he looked like he was wearing pink lipstick.  It was hilarious and I wish I had the presence of mind at the time to snap a picture.  Lenny’s looking better every day and it’s nice to hear his greeting when I come home.

Holly is growing a great crop of broccoli in the kitchen garden and in the raised beds.  If even half of it makes, we’ll be set for broccoli for a while.  Our elephant garlic is doing well.  This is the elephant garlic that my grandfather grew on his farm for decades.  After his death, my mother dug a few plants and put them in a flowerbed where they grew unattended for another 20 years or so until a couple of years ago when we moved them to our raised beds.  Last year we had 6 plants that gave us 80+ cloves.  I planted about 75 cloves earlier this fall.  The majority of them are up and looking great.  If 6 plants produced 80+ cloves, how many will 75 plants produce?  Elephant garlic anyone?

Quite a bit going on around the homestead the past few weeks.  Holly’s sister and nieces were down from Washington state for a visit.  I think we all had a great time.  We made a trip down to Wakulla Springs and then on to St. George Island to stay for a couple of days at a rental house on the beach.  We had fine weather for the trip and had the beach practically to ourselves. 

Holly, Jase and I also paid a visit to the Sunbelt Ag Expo.  Lot’s of interesting displays and vendors there.  I still haven’t sorted through all the info we picked up and brought back with us.  We did our share of walking.  It’s a huge expo and we maybe only saw half of the whole thing, though we gave seeing it all a good try.  I did a good bit of drooling over the new tractors and implements there.

We’ve started the cool weather crops and they’re doing well.  We have a good cover crop of buckwheat and clover going.  The honey bees are really loving it now that the buckwheat is flowering.  The crimson clover we planted along with the buckwheat is filling out underneath and looks great.  Once the buckwheat dies back it will do better.

We had an attack on the chickens and lost about 6 hens along with Stan the rooster.  From the evidence, Stan really gave the attacker a run for it’s money.  We’re thinking it was either a fox or coyote.  The attack happened due to my idiocy.  I didn’t test the fencing well enough to realize that the section of fencing that protects the chickens wasn’t energized.  Lesson learned though and we test the fencing at least weekly to make sure it’s charged all the way around and reasonably weed free.  As time and money permit, we’ll be building a permanent and more secure coop and rotate the chickens foraging areas around that.

My oldest son Jase is now living with us at least until he goes into the military, probably sometime in February 2010.  We’re definitely glad to have him with us and he’s been a great help in getting things done around the farm.  We have other new additions to the farm as well.  Hamham and Fuzzball are two guinea pigs that we bought a few days ago for Jase and Kellan.  They’ve taken to their new home well and are getting plenty of love.  We also picked up a new rooster.  This one is a yet unnamed.  He’s a big fellow.  He’s a Jersey Giant.  He’ll be a “tractor chicken” meaning we’ll keep him in a chicken tractor along with a couple of hens.  We’ll move them through the garden to fertilize and forage as needed.

My oldest son Jase, who is down for a visit before heading off for Warrant Officer Candidate School, and I harvested the field corn yesterday.  This crop, if you’ve read any previous posts, was planted mainly as a seed crop.  Prior to planting we had our older laying hens move through the planting area in the chicken tractor.  Corn is a heavy feeder so we wanted to make sure there was plenty of nitrogen for it.  I bought about $3 worth of seed and planted in a 14ft x 30ft area.  Most of the stalks grew 8 to 10 feet tall and put on 2 ears per stalk.  The yield was a single wheel barrow full or about 8, 5 gallon buckets full.  We had about a 90% germination rate on the original planting.  After the original planting was up I filled in the bare spots with a second planting about a week after the first.  The harvest was shucked (the shucks spread back over the garden) and the ears too insect damaged to keep were culled.  Then we set up a corn dryer.  The culled ears, about a gallon bucket full, were given to the chickens who thought it was a great treat. 

To build the corn dryer, we took two saw horses and a couple of 6ft lengths of bamboo.  We use a lot of bamboo because we have a large stand of it on one side of the property next to the game reserve.  It’s free, renewable, and good for a number of projects around the farm.  Over the bamboo, we put some chicken wire and zip tied it to the bamboo.  Next we put some row cover fabric on top of the chicken wire to keep bugs out.  Then we put the corn on the chicken wire and it promptly made the chicken wire sag in the middle and pull the bamboo ends toward the center.  We had a short length of 2”x2” lumber and ran that under the chicken wire in the middle to stop the sagging. We piled the rest of the corn ears on and folded the row cover fabric over and pinned it so bugs and birds couldn’t get to the corn.  The corn dryer is next to the south side of the house in full sun so we’ll get some reflected heat off of the house to help with the drying.  In a couple of days when it’s dried enough we’ll remove the kernels.  I’ll separate the best ears for next year’s seed and do some germination tests.

The kind of life we lead is often referred to as “The Simple Life”.  We live close to the land, grow or raise as much of our own food as we can.  We don’t have a lot of “gadgets” or “toys” like jet-ski’s, fishing boats, golf carts, mp3 players, etc, etc.  Nor do we watch a lot of TV.  I couldn’t tell you what’s going on with Survivor or American Idol.  Half the time if someone asks me if I watch a particular television show, I usually haven’t even heard of the program.  When I hear someone call our way of life “simple” I would like to have a goat kick them in the head.  To me, they lead the simple life.  They get off work in the afternoon, stop by a restaurant or fast food joint and get dinner, come home, eat, maybe do some cleaning, then veg in front of the TV for the rest of the night.  Now that’s the simple life.

Our way of life requires a lot of forethought and a lot of physical labor.  We have to plant months (sometimes years) in advance and know what to plant and where.  How much to plant.  How to care for each crop or tree we plant.  When’s the best time to harvest.  What to do with it once you harvest it.  How to preserve it to last until the next harvest.  That’s just the crops.  Then there’s the livestock.  Where to graze them and for how long?  Do they need anything supplemented to their diet?  Is it time to breed?  Do we want them to breed?  That’s just the short list and I’m not even going to get into the poultry or land and resource management. 

The way we live is a lot of work, but it has so many rewards.  There’s the connection to the land and nature that so many people miss.  I like how you can tell when the seasons are changing by what birds are visiting the bird feeders.  This year I liked seeing a pair of Eastern Bluebirds raise 8 young.  Nothing tastes better than food you’ve grown yourself.  There’s also nothing like needing something for dinner and stepping out your back door to pick it fresh.  The way the chickens and goats come running to the fence for treats when you walk near.  Looking at a pantry filled with food you grew yourself and all the colors of it stacked there in glass jars.  Watching a tiny miniscule seed you planted indoors in a cup in February turn into a 4ft tall, 3ft wide bush by July that provides leaves to sweeten your morning coffee.  Sitting down to a dinner to eat food that only your hands and your family’s hands have touched.  Spending less than $50 a week for groceries.  Knowing you can live through tough times.

If this entry looks “odd” it’s because I’m trying out the Windows Live Writer.

Still very busy around the farm.  We grew some pencil cob corn this year.  It’s field corn and this year’s crop I grew mainly for the seed and to see how it would perform in this area.  To say it was successful would be an understatement.  The stalks are 10ft tall on most plants and 2 to 3 ears to a stalk.  A little bug damage but nothing major.  I pulled 3 ears and got a 1/2 quart of kernels.  Looks like we’ll have plenty for next year’s seed and some to grind for corn meal.  Also a great success this year was the sweet potatoes.  I had planted two plants that I’d grown from last years sweet potatoes just to see if they would do anything.  I really didn’t expect them to perform well since they were planted in the kitchen garden which has a high clay content.  We got some of the biggest sweet potatoes we’ve ever grown.  You can see Kellan holding the two largest of the crop in the pics below.  In all we harvested about 7 1/2 gallons of sweet potatoes from a plot that was 3ft x 10ft.  Not a bad return on free plants.

 

Holly has taken over the kitchen garden to grow some things she’d like grown and to give me more time to concentrate on the big garden where we’ll hopefully be producing the bulk of our staple veggies (beans, corn, tomatoes, etc).  We’re also redoubling our efforts to save seed from one year to the next.  Holly has the kitchen garden off to a great start with cucumbers, beets, peas, carrots, beans and flowers going strong.  I found a nice garden planner online at GrowVeg that tracks what you planted where from year to year and will give you a warning if you’re planning to plant something from the same family of plants there again.  There’s a ton of the most commonly grow plants in their database along with growing info.  You can customize it to your area by putting in your zip code and it will lay out your frost dates for you and indicate if you can plant more than one crop of something.  The planner will also give you a plant list, spacing, number of plants, etc.  Very nice.  Though it does cost $25 / year,  you can trial it free for 30 days.

Tomatoes have been a flop this year.  Many ailments affected them.  Some died from disease, others were overwhelmed by bugs.  We have a second crop going now that was doing fine until I sprayed them with Organocide.  The plants are still living but the Organocide burned and killed some of the leaves and now the plants look miserable although they seem to be making a comeback.  I definitely won’t be buying and using that stuff again.  I’ll stick with Bt and neem oil for spraying.

We also planted some late bell peppers which are doing wonderfully.  Very healthy plants with huge peppers and very yummy.  I’m not the biggest fan of bell peppers but I do like them in egg bakes and a certain cucumber dish that Holly makes.  Another success story for this year is the Stevia.  We almost have a forest of the stuff.  We’ve dried tons and looking at the plants we have out there now you can hardly tell we’ve cut any of the stuff at all.

All the livestock are doing great.  We have 5 goats now; Laverne, Shirley, Lenny, Topsy and Flash.  All of them are related except for Lenny.  I’d like to have a dairy goat or two but we’re getting those eventually.  Chickens are doing great.  Keeping us in eggs with no problem.  We get at least a dozen a day.

Everyone is doing well.

     We've had Holly's parents and her oldest niece down visiting for the past month.  They'll be leaving tomorrow to go back home.  We're certainly going to miss them and the house will seem very empty when they're gone.  I've really enjoyed them staying with us even if the house has been a bit crowded.  They've been a great help to us on the farm.  Holly's Dad refinished an antique I got from my Mom that was my Grandmother's.  It's a hutch that had a flour storage and sifting bin built right in along with a bread drawer.  The whole project turned out quite well and it's sitting in our kitchen now.  Holly's really proud of it and it looks great.

     This past weekend we butchered roosters for fryers.  It's a wonderful feeling to be able to raise your own food.  Our crop of seed corn has done wonderfully growing to 9ft tall and putting on at least 2 ears on each stalk.  We grew a corn called Pencil Cob which is an old southern corn for making corn meal.  This year's crop is mostly for seed though it's been so prolific that we should have some for making meal.  Our volunteer watermelons have been fruitful.  I pulled one out of the garden yesterday that weighed around 50lbs if it weighed an ounce.  Sweet potatoes and green beans are going well.  We've culled all but two of the roosters from the chicken pen, it's much more calm without the roosters picking on the rest of the flock.  We've left 2 roosters in the pen to protect the rest of the flock.  We also moved the 4 Junglefowl out of the chicken pen and put them in chicken tractor we kept our layers in.  Some of the new chickens have started laying and we're getting about a dozen eggs a day so far.  We've been able to sell a few dozen so far.  Any extra money is great to have.  Now that Holly's folks are leaving and we'll be back on a somewhat normal schedule, we'll be devoting time to getting our gardens in shape for cool weather crops.  I really hate the state that both gardens are in now.  Both are now full of nutgrass.  It's really hard to keep that stuff in check.

     Our glorious county government decided recently to change the ordinances for our zone.  Under the old ordinances you could keep livestock animals as long as you had more than 2 acres of land.  Now under the new ordinance you can't do that no matter how much land you own if you are zoned R-3, which we are.  I checked with our county's planning and zoning folks and since we already had our livestock before the ordinance changed, we're able to keep what we have and not have to give them up.  For us this isn't good enough though as we want to continue to add more livestock.  We're going to pursue having the ordinance changed.  I'm sure that we won't be very popular with our powers that be for this, but this is important to us.  How dumb is it that in rural south georgia and you own land, you can't keep a few chickens on your property?  The funny thing is that their reasoning for making the changes is to "preserve the area's agricultural roots".  Say what?  We're continuing as is with our plans for now and the heck with the local gov't idiots.

     I hate to admit it, but I've been sucked into Facebook.  I signed up with Facebook as a joke.  I put in all my info as though I lived and worked in Mongolia.  I was a political advisor to a local warlord.  I even kept up a running diary of my travels to the outlying villages in our province.  Soon though I discovered an addictive little game on Facebook called FarmTown.  As you might guess from the name, FarmTown is a game where you run a farm planting various crops, hiring folks to harvest them while trying to collect more coins and experience points.  The XP unlocks other crops and items you can buy like houses fences and the various farm items, while the coins you collect enable you to buy those things once unlocked.  Now if only my real farm were as easy to tend as my farm in FarmTown.

     My eldest son is down for a visit.  He's been here a week and is staying one more week before heading out again.  We're really glad to see and it feels wonderful to have both my boys rattling around the house again.  He'll be heading out in another month or so for the Army's Warrant Officer School.  I'm more proud of Jase and the man he's grown into than words can express, so I won't really try at the risk of getting all blubbery and weepy here on LJ.  K's supper excited that Jase is home and unfortunately for Jase is almost glued to his side and pelting Jase with a constant stream of chatter that only K can maintain.

     We've been really busy around the homestead.  Until Sunday's rain we'd been 21 consecutive days with no or only a trace amount of rain.  According to the data I keep for CoCoRaHS, we're about 3.5 inches below average rainfall for June.  We had completely drained 1 of the 300 gallon rainwater irrigation tanks and 2 more were only half full.  At least with the one tank drained I was able to get it cleaned out really well and leveled up again where it had settled.  Despite the lack of rain and thanks to our rainwater harvesting system the crops didn't lack for water and all the crops are doing well.  We've been harvesting tomatoes, squash and cukes almost daily.  Our butterbeans are loaded with beans and are still blooming profusely.  There is a constant buzz in the butterbeans from all the carpenter, bumble and honey bees busy at work.  I'm really happy with the new variety of tomatoes we planted this year called Abraham Lincoln.  This is an heirloom variety that resists cracking and has more "meat" on the inside.  It tastes great on a sandwich too.  The new variety of corn is doing great despite the limited water.  Since Sunday though, it seems it's shot up a foot.  I sprayed it with Bt yesterday evening after to the rain since I noticed some cutworms had made themselves at home in the whorl.  The remaining tent worm nest in one of our pecan trees had a good dousing as well.  The beet crop has been harvested and pickled.  We'll begin the fall plantings of beets in late August.  We have a lady that would like to buy the beet greens so some research is in order for the best variety.  Our crop success story so far this year has been Granddaddy's Garlic.  This is actually elephan garlic (which isn't a garlic but a leek) that my granddaddy planted on his place decades ago.  It was left alone to do it's thing.  When Granddaddy died, my mother dug some of it up and planted it in one of her flower beds where it stayed for a decade or two.  When we moved to the farm, Mom had us dig it all out of her flower bed.  We planted about 6 cloves of it last fall.  A couple of weeks ago we harvested Granddaddy's Garlic and it gave us a little over 60 cloves.  Some of them almost as big as a whole bulb of garlic you buy at the grocery store.  We have the garlic set up to cure for a month or two and we'll recondition the raised bed it was in and replant.  I have a feeling that next year at this time we'll have more garlic than we know what to do with.

     Any vegitarians or vegans might want to skip this next paragraph.

     Butchering time is approaching for the meat chickens.  We have around 65 chickens in all. Currently there are about 10 older chicken who are layers and with the exception of 1 of those chickens they will all be butchered and go into the stew pot.  We have about 20 ( or is it 30?) hens that maturing and will be our new layers.  The rest will be butchered to go into the freezer.  This is our first year for butchering chickens.  We raise them "fence ranged".  We have two portable coops inside a 40ft square of electrified poultry fencing.  The fencing is for their protection since we have bobcat, fox and dogs roaming the area.  They're free to range as they please inside the fencing and we move the fencing to a new area every 2 weeks or so.  We did a test run on one of the larger cockerels.  It all went pretty well though it did take longer to heat water on the wodstove in the outdoor kitchen that we'd expected.  My Mom fried it up and all I can say is that you haven't had chicken until you've had chicken raised outdoors on pasture.  YUMMY!

     Our friends the Purple Martins have left us.  They're off to their winter home further south.  It's hard to tell but we think they raised 3 or 4 young.  We miss them and hope they'll all come back next year.  Our resident pair of Eastern Bluebirds were busy this year.  They raised two nests of young in the new houses we put up for them.  They're a constant sight around the crops, diving in to snap up a bug or two.

     Holly's folks and neice will be here in two weeks.  They'll be staying for about a month.  It's going to be an even busier two weeks until then getting the place ready for them to stay.  I haven't seen them in over a year and I'm really looking forward to it.

That's it for now.

...pretty much describes the economy at this point.  I'm not in fear of my job for now.  I'm fortunate to work in an industry that despite the sad economic state will be one of the last to go belly up.  Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, swine flu, though not particularly virulent at this point (just wait until fall) is spreading, unrest everywhere, government ignoring the wishes of it's citizens... the list goes on.  It's hard to maintain an optimistic outlook especially for those of us who aren't particularly optimistic to begin with.  Meanwhile the clueless citizens continue to buy designer clothes and save big bucks (at least they think so) at Wal-Mart.  Holly and I had a rare outing this weekend for a good dinner and movie.  Holly's belated Mother's day present.  We had a great time but being out among the masses really drove home how clueless most folks are.  Happily out spending and spending while the economy gasps like an asthmatic without an inhaler.  It will be interesting to see what things are like in 6 months.

     So busy weeks around the farm.  All the Abraham Lincoln tomatoes are in the ground.  Some of the vines even have small fruits on them.  Also got the lima beans, cukes and yellow squash in the ground.  Those are up and looking great.  Everything we've planted is growing wonderfully and looks healthy.  For the past few days we've been getting rain daily ranging from less than a tenth of an inch to almost a half inch.  The rain was much needed because we were down to about 300 gallons in our rainwater tanks.  We've been able to water all the crops including the fruit trees with stored rainwater this years.  The exception is the raised beds which are on drip irrigation and require more pressure than the rainwater tanks provide.  I'm looking at purchasing a booster pump that may let us use water from the tanks on the drip irrigation system.  Weather permiiting I'm hoping to finish up 2 more permanent beds in the big garden and get our corn planted this week.

     Both PVC chicken tractors are finished and have chicks in them.  65 in total though we have lost a few to some predator that was trying to get into the tractors.  We put down chicken wire on the ground around the coops but that was a real pain in the butt to have to move every day when we moved the tractors.  I ordered some temporary fencing like we're now using for the goats and we fence the tractors in then attach the run of fence for the goats to that.  This gives the goats a larger area to graze and we don't have to move them as often.  So far it's working great with no more predator attempts.  We also started leaving our two biggest dogs out at night so that they can roam freely and discourage any predators that my come snooping around.  I still have to build a shade structure for the goats.  I have all the materials to do that except for the tarp to go over the PVC frame.  Hoping to get that finished this week as well.

     4.73 inches of rain.  That's how much rain we rec'd on the farm in 24 hours.  We've had 8.04 inches of rain this month and it's only the 3rd day.  The ground here is beyond saturated.  Last night I heard air bubbling out of the ground.  So we've had some rain and the ground is a bit wet.  I'm happy for the rain, we definitely needed it.  I found some areas around the gardens where I need to do some drainage work and build a berm or two to divert water.  One this is for sure, I've really gotten a good look at drainage patterns on our land and where they could use some help.  The weather forecast calls for more rain this weekend, followed by possibly freezing temps on a couple of nights, then hopefully we'll have some clear skies for a while.

     All the rain has put us behind on our planting schedule.  Once the freezing days are past and the ground dries a bit I'll begin planting.  I hate to plant out of tune with the moon phases but we're behind to the point that we can't wait, though if it takes a while for the ground to dry, we'll be in tune with the phases anyway.  It's really that wet right now.  Our potatoes were just starting to come up when the rains started.  Hopefully they have floated away..or swam away more likely.

     The first PVC chicken tractor is finished and it's really light.  I have some ideas on modifications for the next one.  The completed one is 4ft x 10ft and light enough for one person to move, but 2 are better just because of the size not the weight.  Our 15 pullets will be ready to go outdoors this weekend but we may delay that due to the cold weather or we may just stick the heat lamp in there with them so we can get the next batch of chicks.

     Social networking.  I suppose it's a good idea in theory.  This blog is somewhat an example of social networking.  Other sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are the epitome of social networking sites.  I maintained a Myspace account at one point, but got tired of the constant friend invites from <insert sexy girl name here> that were actually bots trying to sell something (usually pr0n) so I deleted it.  Twitter is the latest rage.  You can follow or be followed by your friends and send updates like "I'm in the crapper" or "I'm eating at Taco Bell" and it will go out to everyone following you.  It seems everyone is Twittering.  I admit it.  I have a Twitter account.  It's @homesteadfarm.  If you follow me, prepare to be under amazed.  I don't update often and when/if I do, it's not great stuff.  When I say everyone seems to be Twittering these days, I really mean almost everyone.  Our weather station can even Twitter.  If you want to follow it's comments, just look for @CNSWeather on Twitter.  It's riveting stuff.  So we all set up Twitter accounts here in the office.  Played around with them for about a half hour sending various good natured insults out to one another.  Not to cause any hard feelings to anyone, but it's my humble opinion that if you can constantly update what your doing on this service, then you have too much time on your hands.  If you're that bored, come by the house.  I have plenty of weeds waiting for you and you can Twitter your status as "Pulling weeds on da farm".  It will make you instantly popular with all your friends.

     We had over an inch of rain yesterday.  Very glad to see it since we're running behind on our rainfall.  It topped off all the rain tanks.  We're expecting more today and through the weekend.  We need all we can get.  I wish I had more storage capacity for it.  The gardens are all doing great.  Now that the moon is waxing I'll start planting the non-root crops.  More sweet peas for a start then other crops as the weather warms.

    We have 15 new additions to the farm.  Last Saturday we picked up 15 pullets from Tractor Supply.  We also bought new galvanized watering can and feeders to replace the plastic ones we have in the current chicken tractor and to go in the new tractors.  The first PVC chicken tractor is almost done.  I have to finish closing in the back where the nest boxes will be and then cover it with a tarp.  I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, weather permitting. 

     Finally it appears that freezing weather has gone.  Of course, now that I've made that declaration it will freeze.  I've removed and stored all of our frost protection paraphernalia.  The tomato seedlings and stevia have been moved outside.  Which reminds me I have more tomatoes I need to get started.  I'll be planting our potatoes in a day or so.  The kitchen garden is ready to go.  I've been doing my best to keep it weed free.  I've begun shaping the beds in the big garden and have put a temporary fence up in the area I'm working to keep the chickens from scratching in the hay mulch that I'm putting on the beds.  All the fruit trees seem to be doing fine.  I was a bit worried about one of the blackberry bushes but it finally started leafing out.  The strawberry bed received a severe haircut to allow sun to penetrate down to the flowers.

     I've begun building the first of two new chicken tractors.  The first is almost complete.  I only have to finish putting the chicken wire on it and making the access doors.  The two tractors are made from 1" sch 40 pvc pipe and are 4ft x 10ft.  I over engineered them a bit so they would nice and sturdy.  If I can remember to I'll take some pics and post them.  It's not fancy.  A box with a slanted roof.  We'll cover a section of the back and most of the top with a tarp.  I had the entire frame assembled and glued in 2 days.  That included a good bit of head scratching as I tried to figure out how best to put some parts of the frame together.  The ease of putting the chicken tractor together got me to thinking about other things I could build with pvc.  It's a relatively cheap medium to build with and reasonably durable.  Not the most enviromentally friendly product to use but neither is pressure treated wood.  I also ordered a drip irrigation kit for the raised beds.  I'm going to test it out and if it works well I might design a system for both gardens.

     Everything around is starting to get green and grow.  It's great to see and the goats are really enjoying all the tender green stuff to eat.  It also means I'm going to have to break out the lawn mower soon.  The front yard already looks a bit wild, especially near the house.  This is one of my favorite times of year but it's also one of the busiest.

     Believe it or not, it snowed here yesterday.  The first time it's snowed here in over a decade.  Of course, it only snowed for about 30 seconds.  Just long enough for the 3 of us to rush to the back door and say.. "Ooooo snow".  The snow made a good attempt and then was replaced by rain.

     I've been on weather information overload for the past few weeks.  It started out when shopping at Lowes and I spotted one of these on sale.  Holly talked me into getting it so I gave in.  I set it up and it worked great for a couple of weeks, then the anemometer stopped working.  I took it back to Lowe's and got a refund.  I found this one online and ordered it.  This one is up and running and hasn't given any problems at all.  It's a good unit for the price and best of all I can download the data from the controller onto my laptop.  This lets me keep a record of all the data collected for future review.  Like first / last frost dates, etc.  If I had a dedicated PC, I could upload the data to Weather Underground. 
     About a week after I rec'd my weather station, we got this one at work.  We actually do have this one set up to a dedicated PC and it's uploading data to the Weather Underground.  Click here to see this station data.  It's been really interesting to see all the info from both stations. 
     To keep the weather theme going we had some severe storms move through on Saturday night.  I was able to hook my weather station up to my laptop and monitor the one at work and see the differences in weather within just a few miles.  To add to that we have hand held Motorola 2-way radios that have weather radio on them including a setting so that when an alert is issued the radio will activate so you can hear the alert.  Needlest to say we had a close eye and ear on the weather.

     Severe weather from a couple of weeks ago really made us realize that we weren't prepared as much as we'd like to be and that we'd grown a bit complacent.  We had an EF2 tornado come within about a mile or so of us about 2 weeks ago.  We were fast asleep and hadn't even bothered to turn on the 2-way radios so that we'd get weather alerts.  It was a kick in the butt that we needed.  During threat of severe weather our 2-ways will be on.  If I'm working outside I'll have one with me not just for severe weather but so that Holly can call me if she needs me.  The 2-ways have a 25 mile range so they work great anywhere on the compound.  Holly took time out of her busy schedule to go shopping for all the things we didn't have for our bug out boxes.  She made a medical box, which is really a 10 gallon tote along with 5 gallon buckets packed with food.  She's not finished yet but she's gotten a darn good start and worked really hard at it.

     Moving forward with our plans for the homestead, we took a trip to our favorite nursery and bought a lemon tree, fig tree, 2 pear trees, an apple tree and an orange tree.  We also picked up 2 each of apachee and arapaho thornless blackberries to see how they do.  We may add more later but we only budgeted $200 to start with for fruit trees.  I've already planted the blackberries.  I'm waiting until the last frost to put the others in the ground.  That should be anytime within the next 2 or 3 weeks.  I've also began drawing up the plans for the new PVC chicken coops.  We'll be getting broilers and layers this year.

     I finally finished the permanent beds in the Kitchen Garden.  I finished the last one Saturday before the storms hit and got it mulched in.  Next I start on making the beds in the Big Garden.  The Big Garden is the one we have the most problems with weeds, mostly bahia and nut grass.  These will take a little longer to whip into shape but I'm hoping that as soon as the ground dries out a bit I can get in there and hit 'em hard.

     It's been sunny and warm on the Compound this past week.  We've been enjoying it and so have the plants.  The sweet pea and beet crop is starting to take off.  Holly and K harvested the remaining hybrid carrots leaving only the heirlooms.  The lettuce and spinach are still producing well.  Our heirloom elephant garlic is doing great.  We thought we'd lost this since it didn't come up after we replanted the bulbs.  We're hoping to get a really good seed crop from it since we love the flavour.  We're planning on making a permanent bed for it so it can do it's thing and we'll harvest as needed once it gets well established.  The stevia plants we've been growing indoors got too big to stay indoors under the grow lights.  I potted them up and now they are outside in full sun.  If we get another freeze (I'm betting we will) I'll move them indoors.  I also potted 18 Abraham Lincoln tomato seeds.  Actually it was 36, since I put 2 seeds per pot.  I'll be starting the same number of Cherokee Purple tomatoes. 

     With the weather warming up we've been able to get some good outside time.  K and I have made regular trips to the back of the compound and into the game reserve.  We took a long walk down the old firebreaks this past weekend and K got to see a train from about 20 feet away.  The game reserve near our property is a long leaf pine and wire grass ecosystem.  The reserve is owned by my uncle, well ex-uncle since my aunt divorced him.  Yesterday my cousin Daniel did a controlled burn of the property and we would all walk up to the property line and watch the burn.  It's fire and that's better than TV.  K enjoyed watching it since it was something new.  Daniel came by on the tractor a few times and spoke wanting to make sure we knew he had it under control.  We weren't worried, just enjoying watching the fire.  Holly and I discussed that it was very unfair that you couldn't play in fire like you do water.  I mean you swim when it's hot to cool off.  Why not be able to play in fire when it's cold to warm up?  The Universe is harsh and unfair.

    

     A few days ago Holly and Kellan went shopping.  Kellan returned with a bag of Sweethearts Candy in hand.  Nothing too odd about this since Valentine's Day was at the time about a week away.  We're all sitting on the back of the truck, watching the chickens do their thing and I snag a candy or two out of K's bag.  One of the hearts spelled out "URA" and the other was smudged beyond reading.  I picked up the bag of candy (Kellan having departed to harass the dogs with a length of bamboo) and beheld that most of the candy in the bag was illegible.  I was looking for one to give to Holly that said "Love you" or "Kiss me" but all I could find was one that proclaimed "KI(smudge)".  Very disappointing since I could neither express to Holly my burning love for her or let her know I wanted a kiss.  I won't expose you to the inner workings of my brain but I made the connection between poor quality control by Necco and the decline of civilization.  I believe a major ill in the world today is that people don't care how well something is done.  They just want to make their money with the least amount of effort.  A moderately bigger than small part of my childhood was centered around getting hearts with messages on them at Valentine's Day.  I despair that Kellan will not get to share in the same joy that I had since the hearts are illegible.  What of our civilization?  As this madness spreads we'll see quality control falter on so many more life threatening areas.  Planes will fall from the skies, cars will spontaneously explode, and zombies will roam the earth.  Oh well.. more room for my garden with less people around.

     Truthfully our winters aren't that long or cold but it made for a nice title.  Despite the shortness of our winters and the fact that they're relatively mild, I'm tired of winter.  I'm ready to be able to work outside without a jacket or long sleeved shirt.  I'm tired of almost freezing temps at night that force me to cover tender crops.  I'm sure Holly's tired of having to uncover them in the morning so that they don't get baked.

     Not much to report from The Compound.  Saturday was spent just doing a few chores.  Saturday night we left Kellan at my sister's house and went to a birthday party for our friends Angela and John.  We had a great time.  It was nice to spend time with other adults that have the same views and goals that we do.  It felt good to talk to folks and not have to explain why we do what we do.  Sunday morning was our trip to New Leaf Market and Costco.  We're big on buying bulk and storing it. Gotta be prepared.  The rest of the day was spent doing chores.  The self-sufficient lifestyle thing sure is a lot work.

     I don't have much planned for the week ahead.  I'll be working late at my day job (Yay for overtime!) and won't get home in time to do much other than cover everything up if the temps drop to freezing at night.  I did get a good idea from John.  He's taking some of this old seeds that are soon to expire, mixing them all together then broadcasting them into an area to grow.  It seems like a good idea to me and I think I'll do it with some of our older seeds.

    

     I'm not in any shape, form or fashion a news junkie.  I scan the headlines on-line once occasionally, mostly to make sure that aliens haven't landed or zombies aren't on the rampage.  Today when I was taking a quick look at the headlines I saw this story on CNN.  I find it disturbing that this should be a headline on CNN.  The manager of the band said, "It is unfortunate that an internal band issue has raised so much discussion and ire from the general public".  Indeed it is unfortunate.  Unfortunate in the sense that apparently we are so bored that we make a giant issue out of some guy in a band waving at the President of the United States.  I admit that I'm somewhat at a loss for words here.  Are Americans so.. I don't know the word I'm looking for.  Stupid just doesn't seem to cover it.  I suppose most folks just have too much time on their hands.  If I think about it, it's what I would expect from a society who's lives revolve around TV shows like "Biggest Loser" (I think that means the people watching the show, not the over weight people on it), "Survivor" and "America's Next Top Model".  Maybe bubble-headed is the description I'm looking for here.  Bubble-headed.  I'll go with that one for now.  Americans are bubble-headed.  According to Merriam Webster a bubble-head is a foolish or stupid person.  I think that's an apt description.  Now don't get me wrong, when I describe watchers of TV shows like those above I'm talking about folks who's entire life revolves around it.  Folks who can't stop talking about so-and-so on "Loser" and what they did.  I watch the occasional idiotic TV show or movie to relax.  Nothing wrong with it.  But back to our criminal drum major.  I understand completely why the guy wasn't supposed to wave at the big "O".  Military parade protocols and all that.  His transgression is one that should be matter only to his fellow band members.  Am I making too much of this?  I suppose I am.  I don't care if he waved with both hands and no one else outside of his band should either.  I'm going to get a life now and so should the rest of the bubble-heads who took issue with a portly presidential parade participant waving to his president.

     In other news... 

     I have almost half of the permanent growing beds in the kitchen garden done.  The beds are mulched with goat litter.  I used a pine straw and leaf mixture on the paths so I could tell where the paths were.  It looks good and as soon as the ground dries a bit from the 2 straight days of drizzle we had over the weekend, I'll work on them some more.  I have four of the nine beds completed that will be in the kitchen garden.  Saturday morning I gave the lettuce a good picking.  I bagged 3 gallon size zip-locks of lettuce mix.  We kept one for ourselves and gave the other two to my sister and parents.  I also thinned the carrots and distributed those.  Our stevia is outgrowing the indoor grow station.  I'll be moving it outdoors soon.  If I get time this weekend I'll start our tomatoes indoors.  We're growing Cherokee Purple and Abraham Lincoln this year.  We'll be saving many more seeds from our crops too.  This is so we can reduce costs, be more self-sufficient, and acclimate the plants to our area.  While we hope it doesn't happen, we see a possibility of seed shortages next year due to the economy declining and more people needing to grow their own food just to get by.  We even ordered our seeds early this year for that reason.

     I'm getting spring fever.  At least in our climate I can grow something year 'round.  Our last frost date is usually around March 15th.  I wait until April 1 to put tender plants in the ground just to be sure.  Corn gets planted in these parts in the middle to end of April.  Our forecast is calling for rain, followed by temps in the low 30s and upper 20s over the next few days.  I don't mind the cooler weather, but I don't like the temps at night below 32°F.  Mostly it's because I'm lazy and I really hate having to cover everything to keep it from freezing.

     I e-filed our taxes this past Friday and we've already gotten our state refund back.  That's 5 days.  We have any refund we get direct deposited so that speeds things up but I was really surprised that we had it already.  We'll be using some of the money from our tax refund to purchase fruit trees and for a couple small items we need.  We'll keep some in savings and the rest will go to pay bills.  We're really glad that we started prepping for hard times years ago.  In the 4 or 5 years we've been doing preparing and simplifying our lives we've learned so much.  I can't imagine living any other type of lifestyle.  We used to live on a 1/2 acre lot in a depressing little subdivision called Sunnybelle Acres.  We began our journey there, planting a small garden and putting in fruit trees.  In December 2007 (2 days before Christmas) we said goodbye to our house in Sunnybelle for the last time and began putting down roots and spreading our branches here on what we call The Compound.  I stood in the drizzle, on the far hill this weekend looking over the land.  The goats were munching grass and scolding us because they were out in the rain.  The chickens were huddled in the portable coop staying dry.  I looked at our gardens, unplanted except for a small bed in the kitchen garden, waiting for spring.  The raised beds clustered together are full of green and growing herbs and veggies.  I took in the long row of leaves and pine straw sitting there composting into next year's fertilizer.  My eyes traveled over our tool shed and fell on the clothes line and onto our house.  A custom built house all our own and brought in on the backs of two tractor trailers.  I can see my sister's house and the roof of my parents house and the half-dilapidated barn.  Even though I was wet and chilled (my son and I were waiting on the hill for a train to come by on the tracks about a quarter mile through the woods) I couldn't have been happier.  In one short year we'd done so much.  Much, much more than we did at the 1/2 acre in Sunnybelle.  The Sunnybelle house always seemed temporary to me.  It was a place on the way to somewhere else.  While I still wish for 100 acres of land with my house right in the middle of it and completely off-grid, The Compound will do nicely and it feels like home.  Even our dogs are happier here.

     I had a three day weekend from work due to MLKJ day. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped but was able to get my major project completed. Here's the pics of it finished:



     This is a thread rack that Holly's been wanting. After seeing how much the ones in stores cost I figured I could build one for the same price. Turns out I could build in cheaper and with more capacity. This one will hold 154 total spools of thread total. There are pegs for 112 regular size spools and 42 pegs for the 3,000 yard serger spools. You'll notice there's quite a bit of spacing between the spools. I was going off some measurements I obtained on the Internet instead of measuring the spools. I could have staggered the holes and fit a lot more thread on there too. I finished this in about 3 days despite having to do regular chores and an afternoon of rain. The thread rack is 3' x 3' with holes spaced at 2.5". I used maple plywood we had left over from building soap molds and 11, 1/4" x 4' poplar dowels (made in the USA) @ $.64 each. The holes for the pegs are drilled at 15 degree angles using a brace and electric drill. This was an easy project if time consuming since there were 154 holes to drill and 154 pegs that had to be cut. Even though it was time consuming I enjoyed doing it and think the whole project came out well.

      All the veggies and herbs made it through the hard freeze from Friday night. We've had a few more really cold nights and expect a few more. We've laid down old bed sheets to cover the more tender plants. Our stevia plants grown from seed are about 6 inches tall even after being trimmed back a couple of times to promote sturdier trunk and to keep them from being leggy. Time and weather permitting I'll start the tomatoes for spring indoors as well as shaping the permanent beds in the kitchen garden.

Two updates in one week? I must be bored.

We're having our yearly few days of cold weather. Tonight's low is expected to be in the upper teens or low 20's. We only get this type of cold weather once or twice a year. I'm hoping our precautions are enough. The raised beds are covered with plastic. The sensitive stevia in the raised beds are also covered with cloth sheets. The sweet peas and beets are under 6 inches of hay with sheets on top of them. After tonight temps will start climbing back toward the lower to mid-thirties for the low.

This weekend's project is to make a thread rack for Holly to store her thread on. It will be mounted on a wall and hopefully will accommodate most if not all of her thread. The spools range in size from small to large. Also on the agenda for the weekend is to get the permanent beds in the Kitchen Garden marked off, mounded and the paths created. Holly pointed out that with the fencing, it looks like a private graveyard. With the addition of the growing beds it will look more like one since the beds will be raised and measure 3ft x 10ft. So we were thinking of making plant markers to go with each bed in the shape of crosses. You know...just the added touch to freak out the neighbors. We'd considered headstones but the crosses would be easier to build.

     Our farm is now a member of CoCoRaHS.  We're part of a nationwide network of precipitation and weather observers.  I've been recording our rainfall for some time now so that we can get a better handle on when we need to water.  Since we use captured rainwater almost exclusively on our crops, anything we can do to be more efficient and not waste that water is better.  I had to buy a CoCoRaHS official rain gauge to the tune of $30 with shipping.  I thought it was a bit pricey until I got the gauge in the mail.  It's huge.  Measures up to 11" of rain/snow/hail.  With our membership we record our observations each day which anyone can view on the national map.  I'm also keeping a written log of observations to have when there is no longer an Internet available.  Kellan and I spent some quality guy time together mounting the gauge to a 4 x 4 post and getting the post set.  We only had to take one break after Kellan whacked himself in the face with a trowel and we had to retreat indoors for a some cuddle time with a cup of soy milk and his stuffed frog named "Froggie".  After that we were good to go and had the gauge up in no time.  Digging the hole for the post also gave me a location for future growing beds.  I dug a hole a foot deep and had rich black soil the whole way down.

     Dad made a couple of really great bluebird houses for us last year that have been sitting in the shed waiting to be put up.  I was finally able to get around to doing the research on location, orientation and time of year to put them up.  It turns out bluebirds aren't that picky.  Pretty much anywhere, any direction and any time of year is ok by them.  So the bluebird houses are up on bamboo poles that made up the tomato trellis in the large garden.  They look pretty good and we've had bluebirds giving them a good once over every day.  Any additions to the insect control front are welcome.  Maybe I can talk Dad into making a few more. 

     We have tons of leaves and pinestraw piled up waiting to be turned into compost.  We have a pile of it that's about 100 ft long, 4ft wide at the base and about 3ft tall.  I'll be running some of it through a little leaf vaccuum/shredder I have to use it for mulch in the garden.  The compost from last year is finished and will be applied to new plantings.

     I've begun marking off the permanent growing beds in the kitchen garden.  Each bed will be about 3ft x 10ft, with a 2ft wide path between them.  There will be a central path that's 3ft wide for getting the wheel barrow in and out easily.  I'm also fencing around the whole area to keep the chickens out and keep the dogs from running through it.  I already have the first bed marked off.  I spent a good bit of time bent over planting out some pre-soaked beet and sweet pea seeds.  Later that evening while I had my back turned for 2 seconds, 2 of the chickens invaded the bed and scratched up all the beets.  So our Christmas bonus from my day job has gone toward fencing for the kitchen garden.

     We're still pulling carrots and picking lettuce out of the raised beds.  This has been the best tasting and most prolific lettuce we've planted.  We've cutting it as we need it and letting the plants regenerate.  We've certainly got our money back from what we spent on the seeds and have been giving lettuce away to our other family on the farm.  The elephant garlic we thought we'd lost is doing great.  I've never seen such big stalks.  Even the ones we transplanted last year weren't as big.  I'm hoping to dedicate one of the permanent beds in the kitchen garden to propagating this garlic.  I'm hoping we can save most if not all of the seeds we'll need for planting next year.  We've been successful in propagating the stevia plants that we grew from seed last year.  We have about a dozen 4" plants under grow lights in the house.  No clue what I'm going to do with them once I need to start tomatoes indoors.  Most likely I'll let them grow outside as long as the weather is good and bring them in if it threatens to freeze.  If only I could afford a heated greenhouse.

     As our economy tanks I'd like to urge anyone who reads this to be more self-reliant.  If you do nothing else, buy extra food that will store well without electricity.  I'm not a doomsayer but I do believe in being prepared and self-sufficient.  While no one can do everything themselves, you can make contacts in your community to help one another get through difficult times.  We have some work to do getting to know our neighbors better having recently moved here to the farm, but we also have 2 families besides ours here and have a few good friends around the community.  I hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

  Finally I'm going to try harder to get back to weekly updates.  Not that anyone really cares but mostly because writing this all out helps me to sort out what I've been doing and what I need to do.  That reminds me....thread storage for Holly.

2008 overall was a good year for us.    Dec 23rd of 2008 marked 1 year of being at the new place.  A quick list and by no means all inclusive of things accomplished:

• Established 625 square foot kitchen garden.
• Established 3,024 square foot big garden.
• Established 4, 4 foot by 12 foot raised beds.
• Installed 1,100 gallon rain collection system.
• Built chicken tractor.
• Put 11 chickens in the chicken tractor for eggs.
• Were given 2 female goats.
• Put up bat house (now hosting a small population of bats).
• Put up clothesline.
• Grew many wonderful veggies and herbs in our gardens and raised beds.

We've done so much more than this list shows, including enjoying being on the land and connecting with family who also live here on the land.  The end of 2008 wasn't so great.  Holly had to have emergency surgery for a ruptured tubal pregnancy.  Dad had a kidney stone that he finally passed after almost a week.  Mom over worked herself Christmas morning and was nausueous.  I had to have an infected finger cut open and drained.  All this happened in the last 2 weeks of 2008.  Even so I count us lucky because we all survived.

I'm looking forward to 2009.  Quick list of projects for 2009:

• Build chicken tractors out of PVC for layers and broilers.
• Drip irrigation system.
• Plant fruit trees.
• Plant grape vines from wild vine cuttings.
• Save more crop seeds.
• Grow grains.
• Build a back deck.
• Solar water heater.

The kitchen garden has lain under a blanket of cardboard, chicken litter, grass clippings and goat litter for a few months in an effort to improve the soil.  I'll soon begin marking off the growing beds and getting them into shape for spring which is only 2 months away.  The chicken tractor is being moved through the big garden now and I'll begin marking off and shaping the beds there as well.  The big garden won't be fully planted this coming year because I want to work the chicken tractor over it all the way.  I'll mark and shape the new beds as space is available after the chicken tractor moves.  I may even plant them if there is something that needs planting at the time.  The compost pile we started last year has completely matured and is ready to go into the gardens as needed.

I already have seeds for the coming spring.  Each and everyone an heirloom variety.  We scaled down the number of different things we're planting this year.  Instead we opted to concentrate on what we use most through the year and grow a lot of it.  Especially things that lend themselves well to canning, dehydrating, freezing and seed saving. 

2009 will also see us making a concerted effort to get rid of the debt we have.  While we're no where near as in debt as most people in America, any debt is too much for us.  We have no credit card debt, nor do we have a vehicle payment.  Most of our debt is in our house and that's not much compared to most.  With the economy steadily tanking it worries me to owe money on our house.  While I don't think we're prime targets for a foreclosure (mobile home, owe less than $50,000, always paid on time, have a secure job) there's always the chance.  It's one of the things that would keep me awake nights if stuff could actually keep me awake nights.  About the only thing that made it hard for me to sleep was Holly almost dying.

Our ongoing project of self-sufficiency will continue in 2009.  We're doing tons of research and doing everything we can.  I'd love to be able to install solar panels for power but it's out of our price range for now.

Happy New Year!