A Visit to Bowen Creek Farm for Some Inspiration

We visited our friends Susan and Blenna at their farm not too far from us a couple weeks ago and  had a very enjoyable day looking at their operation, having a great lunch, and getting advice. Bowen Creek Farm (www.bowencreekfarm.com) is a 97 acre mixed beef and sheep operation with a large 300 tree orchard and Susan and Blenna are kindred spirits in their pursuit of a simple sustainable life.

As we progress in our own farm operations its really helpful to see how others are doing things which not only gives us inspiration it gives peace of mind that we aren't totally out in left field. We found plenty of inspiration and ideas at Bowen Creek and now if the weather would cooperate we are anxious to get going this spring. They are both a little older than us but they work around their challenges and Susan is even a published author so it kind of makes my frustration with my own physical limitations seem kind of selfish and there is no doubt about it I need to get back to writing. My writing in the past has centered mostly around grant writing, technical writing and the occasional magazine article but there is really no reason I am not more prolific other than I get lazy.

We are looking at getting some goats this year but seeing the sheep has made us rethink a little bit. Goats I know a little about and sheep not a bit but they sure were appealing. As you can see they weren't far removed from lambing and the lambs were just enjoyable to watch as they played and suckled their mothers.

This little guy had to be bottle fed as his mother doesn't produce enough milk and he followed Susan and Blenna around like a little puppy all the while his mother would bleat her dismay.

But this is a working farm and they do sell lamb and from what I remember the wool.

Their farm is similar to ours in that they build things themselves and reuse what might otherwise have been thrown away but its laid out nice and its a great little farm. You show up to their place and the dogs bark, the sheep are bleating and the cattle and horses (and donkeys) make their own distinctive sounds which all just feels right. One of the things we enjoy about our own farm is having the dogs come running and barking when we come home, the sounds of the chickens and our rooster Carmine, and the cows letting us know its time to feed. Its all part of what makes the place seem alive.

It was a cold blustery day when we were there...until we entered their 30'x80' Farm Tek green house. They were just beginning to prep the beds while we were there but with the cold winter wind whipping outside it was about 70 inside the greenhouse and the grass was already green. We helped plant some ginger root (and learned how to do it in the process which will be the subject of a future post) and got some good ideas for our own operation. One of the things we have already realized and confirmed with this visit is that we need more greenhouse capacity. Their operation is a lot larger than ours and we wont be getting such a large greenhouse but we have already figured out what we want based on this visit and will be ordering ours this week.

One of the things we enjoy seeing when we visit other farms is the unique structures people make out of what is available. This greenhouse was constructed with old windows and pieces of lumber that were laying around the farm from other projects and its full of Blenna's tropical plants. It was warm inside, very tropical and we plan on doing something similar with all of the windows we have from replacing our farmhouse windows.

Not content with making me jealous over the greenhouses Blenna had to take me into her shop to show me the 1972 Harley Davidson 175 dirt bike she is restoring. These are pretty rare and very rare in this condition. Everything was original and it had virtually no rust and it would just be a kick in the pants to ride on the farm....kind of gives me some ideas ...now just to figure out how to get these ideas past Holly.

I just thought this was a pleasing picture and I took it to help me design our own road that we need to define access to our own various pastures. They have nicely sectioned paddocks and to the right here is a nice pasture and wood lot, directly ahead is a large pasture where they are running cattle and to the left are a couple of other pastures where they hay and keep horses and a couple donkeys. You have to have access to feed and water your animals, you need to ensure you have good fences and gates, and it need to accommodate moving livestock between pastures for rotational grazing. It sounds easy but if you put the work into something and it isn't ideal you will regret it and can waste a lot of energy and money.

 

 

And finally, this time of year is the mud season. Snow, then rain, then periods of sunny weather, more snow, more rain and no matter what you do it gets muddy. It also doesn't help that our sewer project last fall left large patches of soil where we used to have grass and that wont be corrected until spring (the contractors will come back in a month or so and smooth out the dirt work and hydro seed).

 

We have been busy, we continue to progress and spring it just around the corner.

 

 

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.

 

Harbor Freight

Like many people I have shopped Harbor Freight to buy small things like tie downs, rags, or other things where I didn't expect much and didn't need longevity. I appreciate their low prices but always considered them a low end store with cheap and not very good tools. But increasingly there are some nuggets there and I think we stumbled upon a very good one.

If you like to wrench or have a shop you have probably at one time or another wished for a rolling tool chest. Ever since I was a teen I have coveted a Snap-On chest but could never justify the 3K and up price tag and for the last few decades I have been making do with a cheap Stack-On unit that is under sized and frankly not very useful. So when I heard about the rave reviews of the Harbor Freight 44" roller I was interested if skeptical. I can now confirm that I am very impressed and purchased a US General (Pro) 44" rolling tool chest and couldn't be happier with the quality of this product.

I was aware of a coupon for these out there for $359.00 but couldn't find one so I got this for $389.00 on sale. Two days later I of course found the $359.00 coupon in the magazine "Classic Trucks"....such is my luck but I am pleased none the less.

This thing is heavy, about 265 lbs, and its well built and has a really nice red powder coat paint job that to me looks great.

The larger drawers have double ball bearing slides and they operate smoothly and with no side to side movement or flex. The unit came with drawer liners and a heavy rubber mat for the top.

It has 14 ball bearings top and bottom on each slide and as you can see in the background, it has full double wall construction of heavy steel. No pushing on the outside and being able to dimple it on this thing.

It came with 4 ball bearing casters with two of them that swivel and have locking arms on them. They seem to be functional and have Zerk grease fittings on the bearing swivels and the axles but I may replace them with more robust casters...just because.

 

The weight load chart shows how heavy duty this thing is and it should more than meet my needs.

Each side of the roller has built in bolt pockets to attach side cabinets or lockers and I will probably but a 7 drawer side cabinet or two in the future. I am not claiming this is the quality of a Snap-On or Mac but its a high quality unit that is a lifetime legacy purchase and its well worth the price. I don't see how they sell these things so cheap but if your interested in a roller I found the Harbor Freight unit far exceeds what you can get with Craftsman, Kobalt, and lesser brands. Just call me a satisfied customer.

Another company I have been pleased with is Stockinteriors.com who make molded carpet, vinyl flooring, headliners, dash pads, etc for a wide variety of older vehicles. I sent for some vinyl flooring and a headliner sample for the 1990 Dodge D-150 project and the top piece in this picture will be what I install for the headliner (its foam backed) and the bottom three pieces are heavy vinyl flooring in blue, grey, and black respectively. The flooring comes moulded to the contours of your particular vehicle and completely covers the interior floor in one piece. I am leaning towards doing the truck in black but Holly likes blue so we shall see. It also has sound deadening properties so I may not have to put Dynamat under it but that still remains to be seen.

The winter continues to be mild but we had an ice storm the other day and everything was covered in a coat of solid ice. No damage was done but it was literally covering everything outside.

And finally on a very sad note from us, our beloved Arctic cat Boo Boo had to be put down. He came into our lives in the winter of 1998 when he appeared on our doorstep in Alaska half frozen and we took him in. He had peculiar clipped ears that we later found out meant he was a feral cat who had been captured and neutered (the clipped ears help identify those already neutered) and he was fierce. He growled like a tiger and at first wouldn't let us anywhere near him but over the years he became a much loved member of the family.

Boo Boo had a rich personality and he followed us around the farm like a dog, he ruled over the other animals (dogs and cats) but was extremely gentle towards kittens and children. He could be a pill at times and he liked to scratch at the furniture and when you yelled at him he had this particular look he would give you, then he would run around the house and come back to you for a petting. He was also prone to getting on the headboard and jumping on your stomach in the morning when he wanted let out but he was an extremely affectionate cat who left a great big hole in our hearts.

He declined physically over the last few months to the point where he was just skin and bones and he was in constant pain so we know the choice to have him put to sleep was the humane thing (he had cancer) but it was very hard. We buried him wrapped in a hand knitted baby blanket in the oak grove behind the barn where he liked to hang out. There are bird feeders there and we pass by him and say hi daily on our way to get hay for the cattle and somehow I think he would be pleased.

He will never be forgotten.