Spent the week at my dad's doing farm stuff

First ride on the new horses. A little skittish at first but they settled in.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Replying to myself but asking the collective:

I’m considering either relocating this coop (I do love that old weather worn wood) or building one similar, but larger, to back up against the orchard, about twenty yards to the east. Purpose would be for more room—I’d like to keep fifty or so laying hens—and so the birds can free range under the fruit trees, eat the biomass that hits the ground, and keep the weeds down where we can’t mow, and keep them relatively safe from predators. The orchard is presently fenced in with regular cattle fencing, but would need reinforcement with chicken wire to keep them from climbing through the fencing.

Question is, would that be enough to keep them in, or if they eventually start making their way up the trees and hopping over the fence? Last thing I want to do is days worth of construction and retrofitting only to see them escape with relative ease and no good way to pen them in, given the large size of the trees and that several trees have branches extending over the fence into the horse field.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

here is an article about keeping your chickens from your trees.

. https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/...kens-in-the-trees/#:~:text=Chickens%20generally%20fly%20into%20trees,too%20high%20off%20the%20ground.

an article on space.

. https://khpet.com/...e-do-chickens-need#:~:text=Try%20to%20plan%20for%20at,happier%20your%20chickens%20will%20be.

Is it cold enough where you live that you need electricity to keep water from freezing or provide heat? I see the current coup has a light. Could you run electricity out to the orchard?

Took Penny for a run and put some corn out for coming deer season








/r

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Steve

That’s a good girl there. Looks like a sweetheart.

Working on my Lavender Farm &Tonic recipe. Botanist gin, Fever Tree tonic, sprigs of lavender and rosemary. Cheers brother, here’s to Kenny’s first start and victory tomorrow!

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

What started as fixing the fence progressed to a total tear down and replace. Got the most visible part almost done, still need to cut the posts to length. Fence builders earn their money. Built a couple jigs so I could put the boards up by myself. Building 3 new gates took the most time. First 96' done, only around 600' to go. At least there is only one more gate to build.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

to anyone:

if you're planting veggies in the fall, for a harvest anytime between spring and summer, and it's a place that does freeze (moderate freeze, zone 8), what would you plant? the only thing i know for sure i'm planting is garlic. i'm also doing carrots. i don't know that my onions would taste better than store onions, but i might do a few. what else?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

. https://veggieharvest.com/...g-calendar-schedule/

according to this you may be to late for many of these fall cold crops. Perhaps if you wanted to do a cold frame you could extend the season and have some success.

If you like leeks you can do those too.

I have done garlic and leeks as well as had self seeded radishes all winter. These guys talk about some more.
https://www.seedsnow.com/...all-and-winter-crops

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

After hearing excessive "cawing" outside i went out to sit on the patio and drink my morning coffee.

Now there's not a crow to be seen in our pecan trees?? huh





I don't mind sharing my blue berries, or pears, or apples, or pecans with: deer, crows, birds in general. But we need to harvest some too.



/r

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Steve

Well, I don't know if this will work for you. But I find interesting information in the EOS blog. For example, it has an article about how solarization of soil works. In my case, this is an important thing. Thanks to this I got a good harvest this year. There were no pests I need to fight with and I had less couch grass as well. Maybe someone finds information relevant for the gardent or the field.

Bringing this back around.

I moved from suburbs to 5 acres with a few outbuildings. Living in old farmhouse—since August. In process of building new house. Farmhouse not livable long term—minimal power, no cold air returns, nothing level, no garage, small

Animals: Got 16 chickens in Jan. 5 dogs. Thinking about a couple of pet goats.

Starting on garden plan. A little late. Seedings planted today— inside. I’m in MN, it’s snowing now. I think we have some sugar maples lining the property.

Any good apps for garden layout? May have kids try to sell some produce/eggs at the farmers market.

Heading to the nursery tomorrow to pick out some new fruit trees for planting and tomato starters. Scaling down to a more manageable size vegetable garden this year but expanding the fruit and berry components

Morning with the flock. It’s so damn peaceful here on spring mornings.

https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Any seed propagators in the house? I love planting things from seeds and growing them in my little room in the basement with artificial lights and what not. I seem to get a lot of watching them appear.

I usually start all my own seeds. Not having a good sunny spot in the house makes it hard. Grow lights don't seem to cut it. I probably just need to rig up a more robust setting. I have onions and leeks going. Got to get the tomatoes, peppers and such going soon.

i'm doubling down on tomatoes an strawberries. planted garlic last fall and that's doing nicely. and then herbs. parsley, basil, dill, etc.

that's the garden. the orchard is 15 apple trees and that's always been the focus. i just planted 4 more: peach, nectarine, pear, plum. and, surrounding the orchard are about 18 or so berry and grape bushes (and vines). i planted those last year, and i figure it'll take 2 or 3 years for them to get their feet under them.

i decided against melons again because they just take over. as do zucchinis, but i must say the zukes really cranked last year. i made a lot of zucchini bread.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

 

You bet.
I scaled back my seed starting this year, as it was getting a bit out of hand. I have three trays of about 2 sq feet each, three grow lights. Last year was 8 trays and 150-200 plants....too much.
Tomatoes, cukes and flowers. Several marigold varieties, zinnias, petunias (double, ruffled edges - NOT boring Wave ones) and 6 or so each of a 5 different interesting plants. Dahlias sprouting on the dining room table.

Still about a month before anything should be planted, though the forecast looks good so I might push that with some potatoes, kale, etc.

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"I keep hoping for you to use your superior intellect to be less insufferable. Sadly, you continue to disappoint." - gofigure

I have done this a few years with peppers and tomatoes. Both germinate well. I had 60 tomato plants and about 40 peppers. I germinated mine near a window so they did not get enough light and the tomatoes were leggy. I transferred to solo cups and then put them outside in a small 4x6 ft green house. Being leggy for tomatoes is not a problem, you just make a furrow and plant them on their side with just a cluster of leaves at the top above ground. the stem creates roots and then the tomatoes shoot up. They were 5 foot tall in my tomato cages and crawling across the top.

The blueberries have gone nuts. Picked 8.5 pounds Monday, for a total of 30.5 pounds for the year. There will probably be just as many tomorrow with another week or more left. Looking to break my record of 47 pounds total from 2 years ago.

This is nice after a complete failure of the strawberry crop due to no rain at all from May 15th to June 15th.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Applefest 2023 has started. This is looking to be my best crop ever. Started eating the Honeycrisp. First time I have gotten a lot of pretty Honeycrisp. They are more susceptible to various fungi so they tend to come out blotchy.

I will probably be selling a lot more this year than I usually do. Just checked the pricing from a local fruit farm, they are charging around $80/bushel for pick your own. Which sounds nuts to me. I originally was thinking $20 :)

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Nice haul. We've got three fruiting blueberry bushes and the deer got to one of them so, pretty much ornamental shrubs for all practical purposes.

Our apples are exploding as well but sadly the orchard is so far overgrown it's going to require culling at least 1/3 to make space for the select trees to grow and protect. So this year we let the horses in to graze on whatever falls and is within reach on the branches.

That price is insane for Honeycrisp, but having read about the love/hate relationship apple farmers have with the variety, I guess I'm not surprised?

Strike that. I'm still surprised. That's a king's ransom for a bushel of apples. I might need to plant a row of those money trees.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Also worth noting in this thread, we *finally* found a reliable deer repellent after a half dozen or so attempts.

Irish Spring soap bars hung in a mesh bag from the branches of the plant reliably keeps our deer at bay. Smells nice, too.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Honeycrisp are a PITA. They almost always have a blemish and seem to be very susceptible to things like sooty blotch, as is my golden delicious. While the McIntosh and Red Delicious sitting right next to them look great. That doesn't change the taste at all but makes them look not pretty. And not really sellable. For whatever reason I get almost no cider out of Honeycrisp when I squeeze it so if you can't sell them you are kind of stuck.

But we had no rain from May 15 - June 15. The dry streak seems to have really kept the fungus away. The vast majority of them look great this year.

There is a new variety that commercial growers have, Cosmic Crisp, that is supposed to have the same properties but more resistant to disease. That one hasn't been released to regular nurseries yet.

After I looked more they aren't charging extra for the Honeycrisp. That is just their standard pricing. Kroger charges $2 - $2.50/lbs depending on the variety, which equals $96 - $120/ bushel. Lynd Fruit Farm charges $25/10lbs bag or $35/20lbs bag for pick your own which is $120/bushel for a small bag or $84/bushel for a large bag.

I was originally thinking I would charge $20/bushel. I still might since I am more interested in people enjoying the apples instead of just tossing them out than me making a lot of profit.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.