Wildlife, and Maintenance, and Planting Prep

This time of year I am often left wondering if our Simple Life tag might be a bit of a misnomer. Just in the last week I have continued my classes for Emergency Medical Responder, got re-certified in CPR and AED, we got the car fixed, finished the repair of the IH 424, got notification that a grant I wrote for the Fire Department was approved (which now means more work to satisfy the requirements of the grant), I was appointed as Training Officer for the Fire Department, I wrote another grant for the Lions Club, Holly has been busy putting together fund raising things for both the Fire Department and the Lions Club and she finished all of the spread sheets and documentation for our 2012 taxes and the books and tracking documents for our corporation. On top of all of that we did the initial plowing for spring planting (with the newly repaired IH 424), we got a load of top soil for the raised beds, prepped for the installation of one of the new greenhouses, used a bunch of old tires from the barn to make potato beds, and did some fencing.

Our days are long and physical this time of year and the weather has been interesting. Warm and sunny one day and the next its rainy and doesn't get out of the 40s but the rain is welcome after we had such a severe drought and we are fast getting back to normal precipitation. One of the things we enjoy is to take a break once a day and go for a walk just to take in the natural beauty of our area and hopefully see some wild life.

Of course our cattle aren't wild life but we certainly enjoy watching their antics and I find it is immensely satisfying watching them. Each one has a distinct personality and they provide a sense of security and well being for us that's hard to explain.

 

On this day in the back pasture, we found a lone wild turkey probably contemplating the upcoming April hunting season. We also saw a couple deer and a bunch of rabbits but the old camera didn't cooperate on getting pictures of them.

 

You can see the standing water in this picture, so far in March we have gotten over 7 inches of much needed rain and the pastures are starting to really perk up.

I am not sure if this is relevant but we live in a very sparsely populated area with a lot of open space interspersed with wood lots and it seems like the wild life is much more accessible. This small squirrel came right up to us in its quest for acorns and didn't seem at all bothered by our presence.

Its so quiet in our little patch of woods other than the sound of the wind and the birds and we like to sit for a while and let nature do its thing. I have found that after a life of constant stress and a career where violence was everywhere that I am in increasing need of the solace that nature gives me.

We have numerous bird feeders, bird houses and suet feeders all over the farm and I never get tired of them. And when we see a group of Starlings (an obnoxious European import), Grackles, or cow birds I still don't mind. We often enjoy the memory of my father who on his only visit to the farm was enjoying a warm afternoon on the back patio when a huge flock of Starlings flew over and I made the mistake of saying "Hey dad, look at that"...he looked up and immediately got nailed by a gooey dropping right on his glasses. He was a great sport about it and we all got a laugh out of that and I cant even look at a flock of Starlings now without that fond memory.

Like a lot of plans, my big project to paint the tractor and do a lot of other stuff was overcome by events (or OBE in military jargon). We ended up foregoing the painting of the front end and other repairs because we had a weather window pop up and we needed to get some plowing done.

I wont say it all went back together easy but in the end everything works great, the tractor is back in full function, and I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

One thing about an old piece of machinery, you just cant go down to the store and buy ready made repair items. When I was scraping the old gasket off the mounting plate I realized the mounting plate to the engine block was a separate piece (not shown in the shop manual) and so I took that off as well and found out where the big leak was coming from. The gasket between the block and the mounting plate was completely gone at the bottom and of course they don't make them anymore so I made a new one.

I also highly recommend Permatex (in this case #2) when mounting your gaskets. Trying to get a gasket to fit properly and adhere to a vertical surface while your holding a 15 pound fan assembly and trying to thread a bolt into the bolt hole without cross threading it is challenge enough. Using the Permatex allowed the gasket to stay on the assembly until it was mounted and it provides an extra insurance against leaking...you don't want to use too much but its a good product and after 8 hours of hard use of the tractor since the repair, no leaks.

This view from the barn shows the extent of the first plowing for the north market garden and Holly's potato planting scheme.

Right behind Rose the Farm dog and between where Judy is in the back left is the location for one of the new green houses. We have a load of gravel coming next week that will be used to level and prep the site.

The old Alis Chalmers WC is working its way up the ladder for its rotation in the shop and I hope to get it back into use by the end of summer. It needs new back tires, some seals replaced, fluids changed, etc. and I miss its distinctive sound but since it doesn't have hydraulics, its not as useful and has taken a back seat to other maintenance projects.

We also did the initial plowing of the gourd and pumpkin patch..

And started the plowing for the corn.

The back fencing has been making slow progress because our part time hired hand had to leave for a couple weeks but Holly and I concreted the last two posts (the one in this picture is surrounded by a cattle panel while it dries to keep the cows from rubbing against it). The old gates in the back in this picture will be replaced which will allow movement of livestock and fire brush trucks between our neighbors pasture and ours if the need arises.

And this will be where the big gate into the new pasture will go. If you talk to 5 farmers or ranchers they all will have very strong opinions on how to fence but we set our wooden fence posts in concrete, then we cross brace them, and we use 5 strands of 4 barbed 15.5 gage Gaucho high tensile wire. A lot of old timers think its too thin but it has a 1400 pound breaking strength, it has the highest level of zinc anti corrosion coating available, and it doesn't stretch like conventional wire. Its been around for about 30 years but some still see it as new...but we like it. I will also say that cattle seriously dislike the sharp barbs and they leave it alone.

Gaucho is however dangerous to install and you absolutely need to wear all personal protective equipment including eye protection, a heavy coat and leather gloves. Being high tensile steel it has a wicked coil and if it ever lets go you getter be on the post side of the fence or it will wrap you up in a nice bundle of sharp barbed wire that will require a rescue effort to save you. It also is bad to snap back at you when you cut it and there are plenty of one eyed farmers and ranchers around who lament not using protective eye wear. I highly recommend it but I have a few scars from it and you just have to use some common sense when installing it.

We are in year 3 of trying to build the soil tilth through the addition of compost and other soil amendments so we are still deep plowing and picking rocks. When the weeds die out from this plowing we then go over it with the 3 point tiller and then plow our rows but we plan on eventually switching to just using a sub soiler and a no till method. We are also experimenting with the use of plastic mulch row covers to cut down on weeding (we don't use chemical weed control in the vegetable plots).

Holly had this idea to use the old tires in the barn (and the rear tires from the IH 424 we replaced last year) to anchor the side of the mound we built for the raised beds (we used the excess dirt from the sewer project) and we have started that project.

We set the tires staggered into the side of the hill and they will get filled with top soil and then we will plant potatoes in them. We firmly believe in using and reusing what you have and re purposing things.

And finally for this post, we had a dump truck load of the most rich loamy soil we have found in the area and we are in the process of filling our raised beds with this excellent soil. All of this has been in the last week and next week is even busier...we love spring.

 

 

 

Starting Early and Some Changes

The mild winter and early fitful spring has allowed us to start the spring push a little early this year and we are back to doing maintenance and prep for the upcoming growing season which means lots of manual labor, a full schedule, and the satisfaction of once again being outdoors more than indoors.

I have never been very comfortable working indoors and find that my temperament is much more suited to physically demanding jobs where I can physically see and feel the fruits of my labors.

However, (there is always a however), we are significantly behind our objectives in turning this long neglected small farm into a self sustaining and financially solvent operation (the drought and my back surgery and physical deterioration have significantly impacted us)  and we need focus and a more structured framework in which to operate. So we are in the process of writing a new business plan that builds on our past 3 years of experience, we are filing as a Licensed Limited Corporation (Stonehouse Farm LLC), we are investing in advertising and infrastructure to build up on and off farm sales, we are seeking technical assistance from the University of Missouri and the USDA Regional Office, and we will have a separate budget where it is easier to manage both operational costs and the true cost of the income generated. I have a business background and looking at what I just wrote I almost want to smack my forehead but if your contemplating trying to make your small farm productive we have learned you have to be even more structured than say a more conventional business as margins are closer and there are so many factors out of your control (weather, commodity prices, injury/illness etc). The first three years have been spent building infrastructure, purchasing capital equipment, and learning the market and now its time to put that to practical use.

The weather has been up and down but overall nice enough that we have all been out working on spring projects and we are starting to shake off the winter blues.

Our fencing of the new property has progressed all the way to the back now where we have set corner posts and will be fencing across the back this next week.

If you own land one of the things that is a constant maintenance issue is the need to keep your roads in good repair. During winter and spring the mud season starts and the roads take a beating with mud pits, ruts and erosion being the primary focus since we don't really get enough snow to worry about plowing.

We just try and stay on top of it before it gets overwhelming and later this spring we will be dropping more gravel.

This is looking at the back southeastern corner of our new property addition and the three corner posts have all been set in concrete and await bracing and barbed wire. The posts were so close to a big Oak and some Cedars that I thought it would be a bear to dig the post holes but it was surprisingly easy back here.

There never was much of a fence back here so we pretty much have a clean slate to work with and didn't have to dismantle an existing fence.

The shot looks north towards our old property line and we will fence across the back here to meet up with our existing pasture fence. Clearing the old brush from the property line so we could fence was the most difficult part of this fencing job.

Looking East and to the back of our new property all you can see is pasture, then woods, and on the other side of the woods way in the back is another couple hundred acres of pasture and then more woods. There is tons of wild life back here and its just peaceful and quiet.

Part of the new property we bought last year was a small wooded area that had been used as a dump site by the previous owners about 15 - 20 years ago and we hauled out this pile of junk to take to the dump yesterday. It was completely screened by trees so you couldn't see it but it really bugged us so it was a priority to get it cleaned up.

I don't know why I didn't take a before picture but imagine this little wood copse being covered with rusted metal, old tires, broken glass and lots of bits of plastic and plastic containers. We plan on mostly fencing it off so the cattle don't start rooting around in there and cut themselves on something buried in the soil but its now a nice and enjoyable place where we will let the rabbits, squirrels and birds have free reign.

We have some seed starts already going in the greenhouse and Holly and Judy have been prepping the raised beds but we will be greatly expanding them this year. The new dirt work in the back of Holly (we did last fall with the left over dirt from the sewer line extension) will support a doubling or more of our existing raised beds and we will be also expanding our market garden area.

This picture was about 2 days ago, its still early February but it was about 63 degrees and sunny....yes! We ere also well supervised by the animals who all like to hang out wherever we are on the farm and in this case Rose the Farm Dog and her buddy Jake kept a close eye on us.

Bandit will chase birds now and again but he never catches anything and mostly just lays around and sleeps. He just wants to be close to the action, not particularly participate in anything strenuous anymore.

 

This week we work on finishing the business plan, we will be fixing the IH 424 Tractor (replace the water pump), more fencing, and build the new raised beds. Spring is good.

 

 

 

 

Feb 2 Update

Four days ago it got to 72F degrees here, two days ago the high was 26F and the low was 9F and we got about an inch of snow so things are a bit confused. Some of the grass is greening, the forsythia has buds on it and the Daffodils are peeking their light green shoots out of the snow. Tomorrow starts another warming trend and it will get up into the 50s and low 60s all through next week and I know that sounds great to our Alaskan friends but its almost torture because you get a feeling of spring and then "BAM" another blast of cold will descend out of the Canadian plains.

This is also the time of year when everything is muddy and we are anxious to start living outside like we usually do. On top of that, my shoulder surgery has been delayed and now it will be delayed further because of some medical courses I am scheduled to enroll in which pushes the possible surgery date into late spring early summer which wont work, and then we have fall when we need to be prepping for winter so......AHHHHHHH.

But we have been busy.

Our hired hand Travis and I finished up pounding the T-Posts for the new pasture, to be exact, because of my back he pounded and I held the post, but we got it done and took advantage of the soft ground from all the rain and snow we have had lately.

This is one side of the gate posts we set earlier last fall and we finished bracing them to take the gate and to allow us to stretch five courses of Gaucho barbed wire. Everyone has a favorite way to brace corner and gate posts and I prefer to set them in concrete that I have mixed (some like a dry set) and then use an H brace about chest level and a diagonal wire bracing under tension.

This is an acre long and narrow pasture with trees for the cattle to take shelter at one end, and a good bit of nicely established mixed grass. The 8 foot gate opening by the truck will be used in case any of the animals get out and to allow movement of steers we will be running on the neighbors pasture to the right of the truck. This is a further movement towards our eventual rotational grazing scheme.

Our cattle in the mid pasture have been fascinated with what we are doing and follow us down the fence line as we work.

Looking in the other direction, we still need to run wire from down the hill but that's the easy part. If your wondering, we are using 6.5 foot T-Posts for the perimeter fence with five strands of barbed wire and the 6.5 foot T-Posts are now almost 5 dollars each. We have a stash of used posts for some cross fencing but we feel more comfortable with putting in new and taller posts for our perimeter fencing.

The drought left our winter pasture a bit thin so we have been feeding about a bale and a half of  hay every day and we are getting to the point where we will have to buy more hay soon at current prices of $7.50 a square bale. We just didn't get the hay harvest this last year we have had in previous years because of the drought and normally we haven't had to purchase hay. I am posting costs because we have had some people ask and they seem shocked by what it costs to even run a small operation like ours. The romantic notion of having a few cows, some chickens, and a small family farm like ours is appealing and can lead some people astray and its easy to get into trouble if your not careful. Since we bought this farm and moved here numerous others have done the same in our area and most of them are no longer here, either losing their farm to foreclosure or taking a big financial loss when they sell. I am not trying to be negative but you have to go into a life like this with a realistic view of what it really costs to live the "Simple Life" in the manner we do. Not to say it cant be done a lot cheaper than we are doing but we have zero desire to feel like we are barely scraping by at our age.

Speaking of drought, our main pond has been really low since last summers drought but with the recent heavy rain and some snow its coming back up. Holly is standing where the water level usually is so we still have a couple of feet to go but its improving and we are thankful for that.

This is looking at the new pasture we just enclosed from the other end and you can see the new gate posts in the far distance on the left.

We run the fence lines daily in the 4 wheeler and if it looks cold here it was. Our mid and back pasture is on top of a hill and really gets the wind.

Can you say pregnant? Louise is really showing.

Thelma isn't showing as much but we think she is pregnant too.

You can really see how big Louise is getting compared to the others in this picture. If all goes okay, we should be calving in July.

Chores don't stop when the weather gets cold or nasty and besides the cold and mud, we have to break up the ice in the water troughs, feed the hay, feed the chickens and change their water, mend the fences etc.

I included this picture of Rose the Farm Dog because you can see just how much the grass is greening. Its Feb 2, we just hope we don't get a bitter March but according to Puxatawny Phil we are supposed to get an early spring and ...we are ready.

And finally, last week we made more progress on the Blue Dodge D-150 project. New upper and lower ball joints..

New brake rotors and pads (the calipers were fine)..

and a new exhaust system from the catalytic converter on back.

A local shop fabricated the exhaust system for us and I am really happy with their work. Its stock as I didn't want a noisy shop truck but it has a good sound and sure beats the pfft pfft of the old leaky exhaust.

 

 

And last but not least we replaced the O2 sensor which solved the rich idle when cold. The truck would start easy but it would idle kind of rough when it was cold and it was really putting out the soot from the tail pipe when it was first started. Turns out just as I suspected the catalytic converter was shot and clogged which sooted up the O2 sensor which in turn told the ECM the truck needed to be run rich. All that is now history, the truck runs even better than before, no soot, and it has a lot more power. Next up, new tires and an alignment. On the alignment, some people say you don't need an alignment after doing ball joints but the ball joints on this truck were so worn that to me it just makes sense.